Page 52 of No Holds Barred

“I fired you.” Angelica played her fingers along the edge of the desk trying to distract herself. Why the hell would Kayla be calling her? She’d been so drunk while they were filmingthat Angelica had been sure that she wouldn’t even remember anything that had happened that week.

“You did. And… I deserved it.” Kayla groaned. “I should have been fired long before.”

“You should have. But that’s why mixing family and business is so difficult sometimes.” Angelica rested back in the chair and settled herself in for this conversation. It didn’t seem like Kayla was trying to ask her for anything, so that was a bonus. “Was there something I could help you with?”

“I was just calling to thank you for firing me, actually.” Kayla sighed. “It gave me the kick in the ass to get sober that I needed. I’ve been sober for ninety days now.”

It’d been almost a year since they’d been in Tucson filming.

“It took me a while to make it longer than two weeks.”

“Ah,” Angelica said, understanding now. “Ninety days is amazing.”

“It really is. And it feels good. I didn’t think it would, but it does.” Kayla chuckled nervously.

“Keep riding that high then. You deserve it. Getting sober isn’t easy.”

“Right, that was the other thing I wanted to talk to you about. I saw the accident in Maine on social media?” Kayla said that like it was a question even though it clearly wasn’t.

Angelica licked her lips and bided her time. She wasn’t entirely sure what to say at that point. Had she been in an accident? Yes. But that’s all it was.

“The news said you’d been arrested for a DUI.”

“The news said I’d been arrested?” Angelica’s eyebrows rose into her hairline. She hadn’t seen that one. She’d seen where it’d implied that she had, but when people actually read the article, it’d rightfully said who had been arrested. “I wasn’t arrested, Kayla.”

“Oh, well, I just wanted to say that if you needed support to get sober that you should do it. It’s really good for you, and it helps with all of your relationships.”

Angelica’s lips parted in shock. Did Kayla honestly think that she’d been drunk driving and had caused the accident herself? It was sweet of her to call and offer the encouragement, but holy fuck, was that what everyone thought about her now? Angelica pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Kayla… I didn’t get arrested because I wasn’t driving drunk.” She was drunk though, but she wasn’t going to mention that. It really wouldn’t help her case with Kayla in the end. “I was in the car, parked, and a drunk driver ran into my car.”

“Oh.” Kayla’s voice dropped in disappointment. “You weren’t drinking?”

Fuck.

“I was drinking that night, Kayla. But I wasn’t driving a vehicle.”

“Oh! Well, if you need help getting sober, I think you should do it.”

“Thank you,” Angelica said, nodding, not quite sure what else to say to that. “I’m, uh… filming this week, so I need to get back. But thank you for your call. I appreciate it.”

“Okay. Bye!” Kayla hung up, that same nervous energy left in her wake that she’d entered with.

Angelica stared around the lobby with wide eyes, her mind completely boggled by that conversation. She took another minute to herself before she pulled herself up out of the chair and made her way down toward the kitchens, dragging her knee scooter with her. She couldn’t wait until she got rid of that thing. Though she knew she’d have to go through an entire week of a new kind of soreness when she did.

Stepping into the kitchen, Angelica caught Hope’s eye and crooked a finger at her. There had been an awkward tensionbetween them the last day while they’d been shooting, and Angelica hated it. She wanted it to be gone, but she hadn’t figured out the cause of it yet. Hope had been stiff with her, pushing her away like she hadn’t done before.

When Hope stepped close to her, Angelica lowered her voice. “You’ll never guess who just called me.”

Hope kept her lips closed and said nothing. Another sign that the tension was still strong between them. But Angelica wanted to share this with her because no one else would understand what she’d gone through to save Desert Paradise from Kayla and her alcoholism.

“Kayla. Remember her? From Tucson?”

“Yeah. You fired her in front of the entire staff in the main lobby.”

Cold washed through Angelica. She had done that, and it’d been brutal and harsh, but she hadn’t managed to get Kayla into a room where no one else could watch. She’d tried and failed. Not to mention, the rest of the staff needed to know that someone was going to take a stand against the bullshit that Kayla had been getting away with. They needed to see justice served.

“I did,” Angelica agreed. All the wind had been taken out of her sails, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to continue. She paused, looking directly into Hope’s crystalline eyes, the way her full lips pulled tighter than they normally would, the tension in her gaze, her guardedness.