Page 78 of Keep Me

I should’ve known my brother would assign him to me. Idris was the top of our security at the palace. In his late fifties now, he looked out for us more times than I can count growing up. He’d been more of a father to us than our own, often taking us to our trainings, helping with homework, and even playing games with us when he could.

He left the palace when Quentin did, claiming he wanted to spend more time with family. The knowledge now that he meant Quentin makes me want to sob.

“We need to go,” I tell him, worried Travis will come after me and cause a scene. “I’ll tell you in the car.”

Idris follows me to my car, his eyes alert as we do. I wait for him to check the car out, ensuring nothing’s been tampered with before we get in. Once we’re settled with Idris in the driver’s seat as we drive back to my place, I tell him everything that occurred.

He pinches the bridge of his nose once I finish. “Camille.”

“What? I defended myself, and I’m fine, okay? I didn’t need someone to save me for once and that felt good. Really freaking good.” I smile to myself as tears pool in my eyes. For so long, I’ve feared not being able to handle myself, and proving that I can protect myself makes me feel lighter than before.

It’s healing a part of me that hadn’t felt settled ever since the night of my graduation party. I’m not magically healed or anything, but it’s reassuring to know that not only do I have people to look out for me, I have myself too.

Something I feared I’d never get back.

“That’s good. I’m glad you were able to defend yourself, but I’m talking about the bigger issue here.”

Oh right. The sex tape. Realizing I told this to a man I look up to as a father figure makes me want to crawl in a hole and hide.

“Can’t we have your team hack into his electronics to delete it?”

“We can, but we don’t know if he has a copy stored on a hard drive.”

Fuck, I didn’t think of that.

Nerves creep back in, eating at my fleeting proud moment. “So what do we do?” I ask.

“I’m going to call the team, get them started on hacking him immediately. Then we’re going to have to go to his house, search the whole place to ensure there are no copies.”

I nod along, hoping Travis isn’t smart enough to have stored multiple copies. Although unlikely, it’s not impossible. He’s proving to be worse than I thought.

Then there’s Ryker.

My chest aches when I think about telling him what happened tonight. He’s going to be livid about the fact that Travis touched me, let alone the blackmail he’s threatening us with. I want to call him, but Idris prevents me from doing so as he wants the video gone before Ryker does anything to set Travis off even more.

And knowing Ryker like I do, he’ll want to destroy Travis.

Hours later, Idris and I sigh in unison on my couch once his team confirms that all traces of the video are gone. They were even able to see from the original video how many times it was copied, which told us we were in the clear once they deleted the evidence on his phone and the two copies he had on his laptop. After that, they did a sweep of his dorm for any other traces, coming up empty, which was a relief.

“Thank you so much,” I tell Idris, grateful he’s here. Had I known it was him this whole time, I’d have been a lot less negative about it.

“No problem. It’s my job.” He stands from the couch and heads to my fridge, where he grabs a beer. “Don’t ever do something like that again. It’s too risky. You’re smarter than that. I know it to be true, because I raised you.”

I sigh as embarrassment floods my body, knowing he knows I had sex in a locker room. “I know.”

Wanting to change the topic, I ask, “What should we do about Ryker’s secret, though?”

Idris shrugs, unsure for once. “Hard to say. I looked into it, and it is true. He was never charged, and it’s not on public records since he was so young, but for a guy going into the major leagues, it could affect him.”

My heart sinks because baseball is everything to Ryker. He’d be devastated if he didn’t make it over something so trivial that shouldn’t matter.

“Can’t the PI team get rid of anything Travis says that makes it online?” I throw out an idea, trying to find anything that would help Ryker.

“We can, but if he goes directly to the agency and speaks with the manager, there’s nothing we can do there. I don’t think he has any contacts to do that, but you can never be sure.” He sighs, running a hand through his graying hair. I’m sure I’m more than responsible for a majority of those growing up.

I blow out a frustrated breath.

“What I would suggest is that Ryker comes clean to whoever he signs with. Tell them it was a misunderstanding, an accident, as the report itself states. If he tries to hide it, it’ll make it seem worse than it is.”

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