Thrive (Addicted, #4)(79)

I don’t see how.

His attention and voice drifts across the room. I follow his gaze with everyone else, and all oxygen is suddenly caged in my lungs.

Scott stands by the staircase with his hands in his khaki, tailored pockets, like he didn’t just screw over a bunch of people over. Like he’s never done a wrong thing in his life. Like he can’t feel remorse or regret or guilt.

I envy him on that account. How goddamn easy life would be if I wasn’t saddled with all of that.

“Did I miss something?” Scott asks with a sleazy grin.

With an unreadable expression, Connor walks towards Scott, the only person even moving or breathing at this point. I’ve been waiting for him to do something more to the guy that’s just hosed him during the show. If anything, these past six months have taught me that Connor Cobalt and I fight different battles in different ways.

Connor stops right in front of Scott and holds out his hand to shake the producer’s. “Congratulations,” Connor says. “You outsmarted me. Not many people ever do. And I admit…I never saw this coming.” His voice is humorless, emotionless—frighteningly dead.

Scott glances between Connor’s hand and his face. Then he clutches Connor’s palm.

What a fucking weird way to end—

And then Connor punches Scott in the jaw with his free fist. His body hits the wall hard. My lips rise.

“Thank you,” Ryke says with an exhale, near me. We’ve all been waiting for that to happen.

“That’s from me,” Connor sneers at Scott, brutal anger flashing in his eyes, something that I’ve never seen before—something he has been keeping to himself.

Scott tries to swing back, but Connor dodges the attack with ease. And then he knees Scott in the dick, the contact audible. Scott groans, his hands instinctively reaching for his crotch. I cringe at how painful that must’ve been. And Rose is practically celebrating like a fan in a football stadium. I’m shocked she hasn’t raised her fists in the air and twirled in a circle.

“That’s from Rose,” Connor says lowly, venom in his voice.

Scott crouches, almost close to a fetal position. His eyes water, and it takes him a moment to slowly stand back up, bracing the wall so he doesn’t tip over.

Connor never backs up, confident and pissed. This isn’t a guy I’d want to fight, I realize. Not like this.

Scott coughs into his fist and then he says, “…I’d love to see your face when you realize what you’ve signed.”

Something bursts in my chest, and I open my mouth to scream at him. But Ryke covers my lips with his hand, blocking all noise and future regrets from escaping.

“You’re seeing it now,” Connor tells him calmly. How can he not be more upset? Even the thought of Lily being swept up into the rabid media, with sex tapes of our own, is killing me inside. I can’t see any light among that darkness for us. It’s one brick too many, one push too hard—it feels catastrophic.

“I’m positive you have full rights to anything we ever film,” Connor continues, “which gave you permission to sell the sex tape to a porn site without our signed consent. I don’t have the contract in front of me, but I’m sure there’s something misleading about the part where you weren’t allowed to film us in the bedrooms.”

“I read that line correctly. I know it,” Rose says, pointing at the ground.

Scott is still partially doubled-over from Connor’s two hits. “It said that we couldn’t air anything from the bedrooms on television. We never did. The contract said nothing about filming. And any of the footage from the bedrooms and the bathroom can be used for movies and web content. Just not network TV.”

The bathroom. I glance at Lily while she stares at her knees, pale and cold to the touch. I rub her back and rest my chin on her head, holding her closer to my chest. She wore a bathing suit in the shower for six months. She was that uncomfortable. One silver lining.

Scott adds, “Lily was almost always in her room.” He pauses. “We weren’t able to install any cameras to catch anything.”

I shut my eyes, both of our shoulders dropping with the release of this immeasurable weight. Thank God. I suck down the sadness that wells with a rough inhale and kiss Lily outside her lips. She holds my face quickly and kisses me for real, a deep one that grips me.

“It’s illegal to film minors in pornographic situations,” Connor says.

Both Lily and I break apart at that. Connor is talking about Daisy. Did she…did she really screw someone in her bedroom? A series of emotions pulls my face in a grimace. The most lasting one is shock.

Daisy blanches, and she actually meets my eyes, over everyone else. Maybe too mortified to look at Ryke. I nod at her like it’s okay.

She shakes her head like it’s not.

Lily crawls over my lap to sit beside her sister again, and she wraps her thin arms around Daisy’s neck.

“We didn’t,” Scott replies. “All that footage was destroyed.”

There was actual footage of Daisy…in her bedroom with another guy? She must have been doing things with Julian, but not it. I can’t even say the word in context with her. I rub the back of my neck.

“You’re disgusting!” Rose shouts with another scream attached.

I glance over my shoulder to see Ryke on his feet, restraining Rose from the other two guys by grabbing her shoulders.