Page 151 of No Holds Barred

The color drained from Hope’s face. “He just sent this?”

“Yeah,” Angelica answered.

“It’s been months since filming wrapped.” Hope continued to stare at the phone, like the text was going to vanish. And when Angelica saw her take a screenshot of it, she was damn sure that had been what she was thinking.

“He’s typing,” Hope whispered.

“What?” Angelica took the phone back and stared at it as a new message popped up.

Josef: I know about you and Hope.

“He doesn’t actually have proof,” Hope said, but her voice wobbled. “Does he?”

“I never thought he did.” Angelica took another screenshot, needing to make sure she kept records of everything Josef did or said. Her heart rate ramped up, and it nearly suffocated her. “He would have said something if he did, I’m sure of it.”

“We were so careful,” Hope whispered.

Except they weren’t. Cadence had seen them in the hallway. Josef could very well have been there during one of those incidents as well. Or perhaps he had someone spy on them. Someone like Cadence. But that didn’t seem like her at all. Angelica closed her eyes and tried to take deep breaths to calm herself down, but it was damn near impossible.

This couldn’t be happening.

Everything was going so well. She and Hope had found a new rhythm with dates and spending time with each other. They’d even started talking about a reasonable plan to go public and talk to the crew about it and how to lay the groundwork for that conversation.

“You don’t think Rex—” Angelica stopped short. “No, he wouldn’t.” Not after what he’d said during the inquiry after they’d wrapped for the season.

Hope shook her head too. “He wouldn’t do that to Eva.”

“True.” Angelica bit her lip as another message popped through. This one was a video. The still didn’t look familiar, and Angelica wasn’t sure that she wanted to hit play on it.

“Just do it,” Hope encouraged.

Hovering her thumb over it, she downloaded it first and then hit play from her saved video files. It was security camera footage. She and Hope were standing in a hallway, dressed as if they’d been filming.

“Do you recognize which hotel that is?” Angelica asked.

Hope shook her head. “We’ve been to so many.”

“I—” Angelica stopped talking.

On the screen, Hope moved forward swiftly, pressing her lips to Angelica’s and Angelica dropped the iPad onto the ground by her feet. It took her to the count of three to press her palms against Hope’s shoulders and push her back. And then she ran.

“New Orleans,” Angelica murmured. “It’s New Orleans.”

“How the hell did he get this?” Hope asked, taking the phone from Angelica’s hand and watching the video again. “That was years ago.”

“Not long enough, and they hated us, remember?” Angelica’s stomach twisted hard. She was so near to crying, tears of anger and frustration and hurt. Why couldn’t anything ever go right?

“Yeah, but they shut down like twelve months ago. Sold out in foreclosure, I think.”

Angelica whipped her head around. “What?”

“Yeah, just something I heard in the rumor mill.” Hope ran her fingers through her hair, mussing it.

“If that’s true, then how long has he had this footage?” Angelica stared at the phone like it was her worst enemy.

Then those three little dots popped back up again. She froze in fear.

“Hope…” her voice trembled. “He’s writing something again.”

Hope leaned over her shoulder, a hand on her side as they waited for whatever Josef was going to throw at them next. Angelica held her breath as the text appeared. Her entire world crumbled.

Josef: I’m taking you down with me