Page 34 of The Publicity Stunt
Flipping my hand over, I lace our fingers tightly. “If it makes you feel any better, my hand hurts like shit.”
She laughs, weak and small. “You’re a true superhero, Hayden Parker.”
I smile and rest my head against her shoulder. “Nah, I’m just your sidekick, April Moore.”
ChapterNine
Present Day
APRIL
In a city of millions, Parker and I have managed to run into each other for the second time in less than a day.
He’s wearing a white T-shirt and a pair of jeans. His black leather jacket lies draped over his shoulder.
God, he looks good.
No, April. Focus.
“What are you doing here?” he asks.
My eyes bulge out. “What am I doing here? What are you doing here?”
We go on staring at each other, an unspoken silence hanging between us, sharp and heavy, like a guillotine waiting to drop. How is he here? Why is he here? The silence grows.
“Wait, are you … are you following me?”
An expression of sheer horror flits across his face. “What? No! Why would you even say that?”
“Yo, Parker!”
I turn around. A short blonde with a pixie cut walks in our direction, balancing a Starbucks tray in her hand. “They need you for shot rehearsal.” Her eyes dart between the two of us.
Shot rehearsal? My brows squish together. What shot rehearsal—oh, no.
Oh, no, no, no, no. This can’t be happening. Nausea rolls up my stomach. “You’re the stunt double?”
Parker purses his lips and there’s a pained expression on his face. It almost looks like he wants to say no but can’t.
“Parker,” Pixie Blonde chimes in. “Now. Tony’s going to be here in ten.”
Tony.
I tear my gaze away. “Right, um, I’d better get going too.”
Parker takes a step forward. “What? No, wait—”
“I’ll see you around,” I say, cutting him off. I sprint to the wardrobe trailer, and as soon as I get inside, I start sifting through a rack of jackets.
What the fuck? Hayden Parker is a stunt double?
A stunt double?
I kneel to level with the lower rack. Black leather jacket, black leather jacket, black leather jacket.
Maybe someone’s blackmailing him. Holding his mom hostage in a gross moss-covered basement, and being a stunt double is the only way to get her back.
Jacket with medallions, jacket with fringe, jacket with rhinestones.
