Page 22 of My Prince

I shook my head and scoffed. “That is a negative, Fade. Last I checked, I am not a part of the Iron Fiends. I’m just a boring production assistant that no one cares about.”

“That’s bullshit,” he said, his tone leaving no room for argument.

I laughed and reached over to turn on the camera again. “That is show business, Fade.” I turned on the camera and looked down at my notes. “Why don’t you tell me about Faye and Anthony? Was he a part of the club?”

“Fuck no,” he said, his voice full of disdain.

I reached over and turned off the camera. “Uh, maybe try not to cuss. I mean, you can, but it’s going to be bleeped out.”

“Bleep it out, cupcake. I’m not going to change the way I speak.”

“Okay,” I drawled, knowing they were going to have to do a lot of editing with this footage. Don might regret insisting on getting Fade on camera. I was probably going to have to edit it before I even sent it to him.

I turned back on the camera. “Why don’t you just describe to me what happened with Faye and Anthony? What did you see?”

Fade took a deep breath, his jaw tightening. “Faye came into the picture when Olive did. They both were cleaning the gym for us. The gym exploded and knocked Olive on her ass. Come to find out, it was Faye’s ex, Anthony, who had it out for her. He was trying to take Faye out but accidentally got Olive instead. He was on the run for a while, and the cops tried to find him.”

I nodded, scribbling down notes. “What happened then?”

“Faye was hiding out with us until we got a handle on the Anthony situation, but for some reason, she took off when the garage blew up. Olive thinks that Faye might have thought it was Anthony who had done it.”

“Was it?” I asked.

“Turns out it was a ruptured gas line. It had nothing to do with Anthony.”

“Did Faye ever find that out?” I questioned.

Fade shrugged. “No clue if Faye figured it was just an accident. We were looking for her when they both showed up at the clubhouse. He pulled a gun, shot Faye, and then started waving it around. We had no choice but to take him down.”

My heart pounded as I listened to Fade’s account. It was intense and raw, exactly what we needed for the show. “Did you think he was going to shoot anyone else?” I asked.

“I didn’t even give him a chance to think about shooting anyone else. I wish I would have taken him out before he shot Faye.”

I could hear the regret and guilt in his voice.

“Olive planned her funeral. Faye didn’t have any family.”

Lord have mercy. I didn’t really know much about Faye. She had been around the clubhouse, but she kept to herself for the most part.

Fade looked off to the side, and I let the silence hang for a bit. I needed to change the subject and give him something easier to talk about.

“So, let’s talk about Sloane and Aero getting married,” I suggested, trying to lighten the mood. “And the puppies becoming part of the club.”

Fade’s expression softened, and he started to talk. He was a natural in front of the camera, speaking as if he were having a conversation with another person rather than being recorded. It was refreshing. With past shows, it had been murder trying to get people to be as natural as Fade was.

He told stories about Aero and Sloane, even the book signing they had met at, and the chaos of having a bunch of puppies around. His eyes lit up, and for a moment, the heavy weight of Faye’s death seemed to lift. I could see why the producers wanted him on camera; he had a charisma that drew people in.

After his retelling of the puppies coming home, I turned off the camera.

“How did I do?” Fade asked.

I scribbled down a note to edit out a few things before I sent the footage to Don. “I think you did amazing. This is exactly what the producers were looking for.”

“Thank fuck,” Fade sighed, visibly relaxing.

I set aside my notes and looked at Fade. The thing was, I knew everything he had just said was a complete lie. He told the same story all the other guys had, and I knew it was complete bullshit. At first, I fell for it, but after the shooting yesterday, I knew none of it was true. I knew that Anthony and Faye dated, but there had to be more to the story.

“What is it, cupcake?” he asked, noticing my silence.

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