Game (Gentry Boys, #3)(70)

Incredibly, he was someone I knew. He was someone I could find.





CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE


Stephanie



Chase was gone when I finally emerged from the bathroom.

This thing had broken his heart, no matter how he tried to hide it from me. As I stood there inhaling the steam in the shower and trying to feel normal again I was haunted by his devastation.

By the time I towel dried my hair and dressed in clean clothes all I wanted to do was let him hold me. The only safe place in the world was in his arms.

I was confused when I couldn’t find him. He wouldn’t have left without a good reason. My phone was blinking and there were scores of messages? filthy awful messages from people who had seen the video and assumed they knew the story behind it. Chase’s message was among them.

“I love you, Steph.”

I texted him back. “Where are you?”

I waited. I paced restlessly and kept staring at the clock. Ten minutes went by and he didn’t answer. The vaguely uneasy feeling in my stomach grew stronger every second.

Why didn’t he answer?

Chase didn’t blame me. I knew that much. His face had been full of grief and he’d quickly wiped away a tear he didn’t want me to see. But he had asked me, again and again, to tell him who had done this.

I stopped pacing. He couldn’t have been able to tell a thing from watching the video. I was the only one who was on full display. The men stayed carefully in the background. But Chase was smart. If he was hell bent on finding Xavier and Dustin and every man who’d cheered my degradation then he would figure it out. His impulsive nature and a desire for vengeance would lead him to run recklessly into the orbit of extremely dangerous men. Dammit. I wasn’t going to let that happen.

Five minutes later I was beating on the door of the apartment Chase shared with his brothers and Saylor. Of course it wasn’t Saylor who answered. It wasn’t Cord either. It was Creed. His shirt was off and he was all sweaty, like he’d just been working out.

He raised his eyebrows and stayed in the doorway. “Yeah?”

I matched him glare for glare. “Saylor around?”

“No.”

“Oh. How about Cord?”

He let out a hiss. “No. And Truly isn’t here. And neither is Chase but I’m guessing you knew that. I’m here.”

Nothing could come of this. I started to walk away, figuring I’d head to the tattoo place where Cord worked.

“Stephanie.”

I turned around. Creedence Gentry was peering at me with a mix of suspicion and irritation. He sighed.

“What do you want?” he asked and his tone had softened. I figured it must have been an effort for him.

I kicked at the gravel lining the sidewalk. “You need to call Chase. He won’t answer me.”

I could feel Creed’s sudden tension from ten feet away. “Why? What’s going on?”

I took a deep breath and looked him in the eye. He wasn’t hostile any longer. He was worried. I opened my mouth to tell him why but I couldn’t say the words. I took my phone out of my pocket and clicked on the video. I’d have to let it do my talking for me. After all, what the hell did it matter if Creed saw it? Everyone had f*cking seen it.

He grabbed the phone away from me and began playing it. He became immediately confused. “I don’t get it.”

“That’s me-“ I started to say but he interrupted.

“Shit, I can see that much. So what, you’re a stripper? Wouldn’t have guessed it, that’s all. What the hell does this have to do with my brother?”

“I’m not a stripper!” I shouted.

He glanced down at the phone. The video was still playing. Creed clucked his tongue. “Survey says otherwise.”

“Creed, I f*cking swear to god I am NOT a stripper!” Now I’d done it. I’d gotten hysterical again. I stood there in the doorway sobbing like a five year old.

To his credit, Creed decided to stop being a dickhead. “Hey,” he said softly. “Come on, Stephanie. Come inside.”

I blindly stumbled into the apartment. Creed handed me the phone back, closed the door and led me to the couch. He stood close by for a moment, watching as I tried to control myself. He disappeared for a few seconds and returned with a box of tissues. I used them.

Creed sat next to me on the couch and waited. Haltingly, I told him everything, pausing only to wipe my eyes and breathe deeply. Without mentioning names I told him about Xavier and what happened the night the video was made. I told him about how I’d sobbed in Chase’s arms this afternoon and what he’d said to me before he left.

“I’m gonna fix this, baby.”

As I finished talking, Creed took my phone back. I knew who he was calling.

“He’s not answering,” I said flatly.

Creed shook his head and took the phone away from his ear, staring at it as if he could force Chase to respond. He made another call.

“It’s me, man. You need to get home, Cordero. Something’s up.”

As Creed and I waited for Cord to show up it would be tough to say which of us felt more uncomfortable. Wordlessly he went to the kitchen and brought me a glass of water.

“Thanks,” I muttered as he sighed and sat down again. I drank water and tried to calm down. “I’m sorry about all of this.”