Page 104 of Blood Stone

Kate moaned. She knew she was going to throw up. It was building up in her stomach, swirling in her head. “You fucking asshole, it’s not enough you cheated me of every last cent of my first movie? Now you’re going to gouge me for this, too? You’re a fucking leech! A bloodsucker.”

His fist hit her stomach and buried deep, throwing her across four feet of sand, to sprawl face down across the dirt.

As she tried to breath and not cough up vomit, she heard the sound of camera shutters and wanted to weep.

Billy’s hand gripped her hair.

“No….” she whispered, trying to warn him, to explain about the cameras, to give him a fast, self-preservation lesson about PR and the media, but she couldn’t lift her voice higher than the croak that emerged.

“Hey, asshole!” It was Adrian’s voice. He sounded angry.

Kate gingerly rolled over to look.

AdrianandGarrett were facing Billy. Garrett’s face was thunderous, but his arms hung loosely by his sides, non-threatening. Adrian advanced toward the man. Kate wanted to warn him. Billy was sneaky. And freaky strong.

Billy swung at Adrian, who ducked out of the way easily. It was as if Garrett had been waiting for that exact moment, for he leaned in, his arm swinging up, the fingers still spread, bending backward.

The heel of Garrett’s hand connected with Billy’s jaw and the full power of Garrett’s arm pistoning upwards drove Billy’s head snapping back. It was a wonder it didn’t break his neck in two. As it was, Billy was lifted clean off his feet. He landed flat on his back with an impact that sounded like a tree falling. He lay still.

Neither Garrett nor Adrian stayed to check the man. As one, they both turned and walked toward her.

Kate wondered if they had done that sort of thing together before. It had been almost…rehearsed.

Behind them, David, Patrick’s babysitter, and Terry, the computer guy, plus Patrick himself, were bundling up Billy, hauling him to his feet and marching him away.

All of it in front of probably sixty cameras, video phones, photographers and journalists.

Oh shit.

Garrett picked her up off the ground. “Come on.”

“Cameras,” she croaked.

“We know,” Adrian told her.

She could only take a few more steps of the jostling, before she clutched at Garrett’s shoulder. “Sick,” she muttered and slapped her hand over her mouth.

Adrian pointed to the server trailer. “Behind that.”

Garrett strode around the server trailer and put her on her knees. Kate bent over and vomited onto the dirt, holding onto her abused stomach as the muscles protested. Tears of pain collected in her eyes and as she sat back, they rolled down her cheeks.

Garrett kicked sand over the mess she had made, while Adrian wiped her cheeks with the hem of his shirt.

“It’ll be all over the news,” she said and covered her face.

She was picked up and she knew from the way she was held that it was Adrian. He tucked her into one arm and stroked her cheek and throat. “They got everything, Kate. Not just us. They got him hitting you, too. We’re going to look like good guys in comparison.”

Garrett sat on the sand next to them, his arms on his knees. “You called him Billy. Putting the dots together, I’m guessing he’s William H. Donnelly. You were married to him briefly, about ten years ago.”

She nodded.

Garrett’s blue eyes were direct and uncompromising. “He swindled you out of the profits for your first movie. Then you left him. Or it might have been the other way around.”

“How doyouknow that?” Adrian asked.

“I read Kate’s biographies. But neither of them said he was an abuser.” Garrett was still watching her closely. “Something you chose not to reveal to anyone, I suppose.”

“I had a restraining order against him. I thought it was enough.”

“Why did he come back, Kate?” Adrian asked.

She closed her eyes and told the rest. She had lost all her dignity now, so revealing Billy’s new demands cost her nothing.

Adrian wiped her cheeks again. “That’s got to be a cake walk for you, Garrett.”

Kate looked at Garrett, puzzled.

Garrett shrugged. “MacDonald deals with fleas like Donnelly every day. I can make Donnelly disappear from Kate’s life in thirty seconds. That is…if Kate wants me to.”

She couldn’t – wouldn’t – kiss him. So she burst into ragged, exhausted tears instead. Adrian chuckled. “That’s a yes.” He pulled her into his chest and held her tight.