Page 49 of Rebel Romeo

She slips her phone back into her purse and folds her arms. “My point is that you slept your way into this role. The world may not know it yet, but they will.”

“And what exactly are you doing now with Holden? If you take over my part now, everyone will suspect?—”

Her laugh rings out into the night and a few passersby going to get pizza glance at us over their shoulders. “I’m already a star. Everyone knows I don’t have to sleep with anyone to get a leading role. I can have any role I want.”

A smirk twitches at the corner of my mouth as I whisper, “Well, not any role, isn’t that right?”

Her jaw tenses, anger flashing in her violet eyes. “Maybe I don’t want the role of Skyler anymore.”

Then why did you have my sheet music? I ache to ask her.

I don’t believe her. Not for a second.

Instead, I ask her,“Then why are you here? Because if you trekked all the way out to Brooklyn to show me an article from my freshman year of undergrad to try to rattle me? Then you wasted a trip. Trust me, Missy. Holden and I haven’t slept together in years. Before that audition, we hadn’t even seen each other. But if that’s what you need to tell yourself so you can feel better about not being cast… fine.”

I don’t wait for her response before I begin walking the remaining six blocks toward my apartment.

Behind me, the click of her stilettos against the cement sidewalk gets louder as she follows my steps. “Come back here!” she snaps, but I don’t stop walking. Clearly, Missy Howl is not used to people walking away from her mid-conversation. “I have a producer credit and I have Holden. I won.”

I reach the corner of the sidewalk, tapping my foot impatiently as I wait for the walk sign to turn. I can’t help but drift my gaze to Holden’s spinner ring, resting on her thumb. It looks even more garish and hideous on her delicate long fingers than it did on his. “Great, then you won! You got what you wanted. What does it matter that I have this part, then? Why can’t we just find a way to coexist and work peacefully together so this show is a success for everyone involved.”

Her cackle slams into my spine, reverberating down my body. “Because everyone knows I auditioned for your part,” she hisses. “And I won’t rest until the world sees that Holden made a terrible, terrible mistake in casting you over me.”

“Tell me something, Missy. Is it the fact that I got cast that has you so pissed? Is it these pictures that have gone public of me and Nolan? Or is what’s truly bothering you the fact that Holden can’t seem to take his eyes off of me even when you two are supposedly together?”

Every muscle in her face goes eerily taut, but she smiles at me just the same. A terrifying smile that I don’t trust for a second. “He took you to the Empire State building tonight after rehearsal.”

Shit. How does she know about that? I literally left midtown forty minutes ago. Every cell in my body goes ice cold at the realization. “Are you following me?” And more importantly, how long has she been following me?

She shakes her head and holds up a video on social media from about an hour ago of me singing up there. “I don’t have to follow you to know he would do that eventually. Because he took me there when we were in our first show together. We sang our duet at the top and then ate dinner up there on our first ever date.”

I can’t breathe. That can’t be true.

“The problem is,” she continues, “he’s not supposed to use show funds to supplement your apartment. Not without producer approval. And after perusing the paperwork, I can guarantee he didn’t get his daddy or me to grant that. Which means one or both of you will probably be fired.”

I can’t breathe. The pressure mounting in my chest could pop a blood vessel. I spin to face her, which was a bad choice. She towers several inches over me.

“Holden won’t get fired. He’s a kingmaker on Broadway.”

Missy nods slowly. “That’s right. Holden’s the king. I’m the queen. And you? You’re nothing but a deuce. A lowly two that no one wants, but they sometimes get stuck with. Which is why your understudy is starting this week.”

An understudy.

I have an understudy.

That could explain the sheet music if she’d been auditioning understudies behind my back.

It should console me, but it doesn’t.

And Missy’s menacing tone isn’t a comforting one.

“I’m going to make sure she’s show-ready for when the time comes that you’re booted from this production. So if you need to take that trip to go visit Mommy and Daddy Dearest, be my guest. Your understudy is waiting in the wings.”

“Missy.” The tenor voice booms behind her and I whip my gaze to where Nolan stands behind her. Missy watches him with fire in her eyes as he slowly crosses to me, closing the gap between us and wraps his arm around me. “That sounds an awful lot like a threat being made from a producer to her leading lady. I’m pretty sure our union would like to hear about how the equity members of our cast have been treated?—”

“Nolan,” her voice drips with sugar as she sways her body against his, moving closer. “This has nothing to do with you.”

“It has to do with Katie… and Katie and I are a team. If you lose her, then you lose me, too.”

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