Hollywood & Vine (50 page)

Madison set down her fork. When she looked Levi in the eye, he shifted in his seat. “You know what? I might regret telling you this, but I’d rather know now if you’ve changed or if your interest in Holden and Josie is about Anders after all. Josie didn’t go after Anders. She avoided him at every turn. He pursued her.”

“She turned him down? Well that explains it.”

“It explains why it started, but not why it continued.” Madison propped her elbows on the table. “Let me tell you what I think. Anders Ellis is the biggest jerk in Hollywood. He’s selfish and egotistical. I’m fairly certain he will always be those things to an extent, but Josie saw something good in him. She wanted to be with him in spite of his fame and all the bullshit that goes with it. And because of the way Josie affects people, she got to him as well. There are so many things people don’t know. If I’m being honest, I think they could’ve had a real shot. But after everything with Aubrey?” Madison shook her head and blew out a heavy breath.

“How can you say he cares about Josie? He slept with Aubrey.” He knew it was a lie.

“He did. Before they met. Did he do it again? I have my doubts. I’ve talked to Anders. I’ve seen the way he looks at Josie. He was wrong not to tell Josie, but I don’t believe he slept with Aubrey while they were together.”

“Then why isn’t Josie with him?” Levi didn’t like the direction of their conversation, but a sick part of him needed to know. He needed to hear that it was something other than his involvement that had caused their split.

Madison shrugged. “Because he’s an asshole? Because something happened to him years ago that made him closed off and ruined his ability to trust people? Those are possibilities.”

Levi didn’t miss Madison’s pointed glare that accompanied her last statement. “Then Aubrey didn’t have anything to do with their breakup. They wouldn’t have worked out anyway.”

“No. I said those were possibilities. I think he was changing. If they’d been left alone, been able to remain hidden…” Madison twisted her hands in her hair and sighed. “But Aubrey ruined it. As confident as Josie is, every girl has her limit. Josie’s limit was seeing pictures of Anders doing the walk of shame from Aubrey’s.”

Guilt twisted inside of Levi. Those pictures had been a set up. Just like every other picture taken of Anders and Aubrey. The entire thing had been done with careful planning and malicious intent. “If you’re so sure about him, why hasn’t he tried to fix things?”

Madison tore her eyes away from Levi and smiled at Holden as he approached their table. Not taking her eyes off Holden, she said the words Levi dreaded. “Do you think it was the milkman texting her tonight? He’s been in contact with her for months. He hasn’t given up.”

After exchanging hellos, Levi stayed as long as he could stand. He tried to follow the conversation, but all he could think about was Josie and the possibility that his interference had done more damage than he’d realized. It didn’t change the fact he still wanted to keep his mouth shut, but at some point Levi had grown a conscience.

I
n the weeks that followed, Levi insinuated himself into Josie’s life. He hung out with Holden and showed up to any gathering where Josie was sure to be. To an outsider it would seem almost as if he were stalking her. In reality, he wanted proof that Madison was wrong. Instead, what he saw was Josie shoot down every guy who approached her and that was only when she tore herself away from her phone. The look on her face when the screen lit up was all the proof he needed. He felt like shit at how easy it was to see, and even sicker when he realized he had to right his wrongs.

While Levi sat in his dimly lit office gathering negatives from his camera, notes from conversations with Aubrey, and check copies, Josie relaxed on her sofa. She planned on losing herself in trashy TV and letting her mind go blank. That idea went to hell when Anders’ face appeared on the television. Her hand hovered over the arrow key for a moment before she dropped the remote in defeat. It seemed no matter how hard she tried, he refused to be forgotten.

After Anders’ text about missing her, she’d been a mess of conflicted emotions. She missed him too. It still didn’t change anything. In all his texts, not once had he asked to see her. He never mentioned anything that happened with Aubrey or the last time they’d seen each other. She wondered if he was just lonely. Maybe he wanted a connection to someone familiar but wasn’t willing to deal with the hard stuff.

With a sigh, she turned off the television and stood from the couch. He’d texted her a few days ago about a convention he had to attend for the movie they’d worked on. She knew he was leaving in the morning, but when he came back, she had to talk to him, no matter how much the idea terrified her.

The next morning she woke tired and groggy. She stumbled through her morning routine, wanting nothing more than a strong cup of coffee. She’d just pulled onto the freeway when her phone rang. Digging it out of her bag, her brows pulled together when Levi’s number flashed across the screen.

“Hello?”

“Josie, hey. I’m sorry to call so early, but I need to talk to you about something.”

“Okay,” she answered, her voice full of hesitation.

“Can you meet today?”

“You can’t talk to me about it now?”

“It’s…it’s not a conversation to have over the phone.”

She wanted to say no. She had a bad feeling that whatever he wanted to talk about wasn’t going to be good. “Are you free for lunch?”

Levi blew out a heavy breath. When he spoke, he sounded both relieved and resigned. “Does one o’clock work for you? I’ll text you the place.”

“One is fine. I’ll see you then.”

The rest of the morning, Josie tried to concentrate on work. She met with Craig to discuss designs and budgets for their next project, but nothing could hold her attention. She was too distracted. It also didn’t help that Aubrey was expected in the studio at some point for a meeting.

She hated that Aubrey would be at the convention with Anders. Josie was certain Aubrey would find a way to be around him as much as possible. She feared what would happen once they were seen together. Her life had finally gone back to normal. She hadn’t been forced to deal with the paparazzi in over a month. The thought of having them come around again because Anders and Aubrey were back in the spotlight made her anxious.

At half past noon, Josie dropped her pen on the desktop and headed to her car. When she walked into the diner twenty minutes later, she found Levi seated in a booth toward the back. “Hey,” she greeted, sliding into the seat across from him.

“Hey.” Levi wiped his palms over his jeans as he tried to work up the nerve to tell her everything. “Look,” he began before pausing to clear his throat. “Fuck.”

“What’s going on?” Josie didn’t like how nervous his behavior made her.

Levi gripped the manila envelope by his thigh and pulled it onto his lap. “When I took those pictures of Holden’s restaurant, I truly had no idea he was your brother. It was a chance at a job doing something I love without intruding in people’s lives. I never expected to see you again. But there you were, the owner’s sister.” The memory still blew his mind.

“I don’t have many friends in LA. The ones I did have, well… It turned out they weren’t very good friends after all. I thought for sure you’d tell Holden I was a bad guy, but you didn’t. Hell, you were even nice to me. Even though we’re not what you’d call friends, I’d like to think we’re more than acquaintances. Your brother is a great guy, and his friendship is the first real one I’ve had in years.”

“Levi,” Josie sighed. “I’m not trying to push, but what’s this all about?”

“What I’m trying to say is that your family
―
you, Holden, and Madison
―
are important to me. You gave me a chance when you didn’t have to, and I’d never do anything to intentionally hurt you.”

“You haven’t
―
”

“I have,” Levi interrupted, his hands shaking. “Fuck it.” Sucking in a deep breath, he lifted the envelope from his lap and pushed it across the table. “Just know that none of this was ever intended to hurt you.”

Josie stared down at the envelope like she expected it to explode. “What is this?”

“Just open it. Please.” Levi looked at his lap, unable to meet her questioning gaze.

Tapping her finger on top of the table, her eyes bounced between Levi and the envelope. Sighing, she unfastened the top and pulled out the contents. Her brows drew together as she thumbed through the papers. Checks written to Levi from Aubrey covered page after page. The amounts varied but all of them were substantial. She paused when she saw Anders’ name written across the page in Levi’s messy scrawl.

“What is all this?” she whispered, her eyes darting across the pages. Notes about vehicle descriptions and gate codes jumped off the page and sunk like boulders in her stomach. It was when she reached the last page that time came to a screeching halt. At the bottom, in bold print were the words that had changed Josie’s life.

Ivy=Josie Bane

mystery solved

“You know what it is.”

“Why…?” she choked, her throat tight. “You were working for Aubrey? You helped her?” Josie blinked back tears, her grip tightening around the pages. “Why would you do that?”

Levi lifted his gaze. Guilt and regret swelled inside his chest as he took in her bright red cheeks and shimmering eyes. “Because I was broke. Desperate. No one would hire me, and I had this huge debt thanks to Anders. I was going to lose everything.” Levi grunted in frustration and gripped the back of his neck. “When Anders rejected Aubrey, she became obsessed. That’s why she pushed for the fake relationship. She was certain she could win him over. When that didn’t happen, she became suspicious. She was convinced the only reason he wouldn’t date her was because he was seeing someone else. She would tell me where they were going to be and set up pictures for me to snap.”

“The morning he left her house…,” she trailed off.

Levi nodded. “And the kiss at her house. Everything. She set it all up.”

“And me? How did she find out about me?”

“She went through Anders’ phone while he was passed out and saw the texts from someone named Ivy. She flipped. That’s when she called me to take the pics. She wanted it to look like they’d slept together.”

Josie’s hands shook as she lost the tenuous grip on her emotions. Tears brimmed her eyes. “He didn’t sleep with her that night.” It wasn’t a question.

“No. She wouldn’t have kept pushing if she’d had her way. When she overheard you and some girls at the studio and realized that you were Ivy, she told me to run the story. I tried to talk her out of it, I swear, but she would have found someone else to do it. She wasn’t going to stop until she’d exposed you and Anders.”

“She overheard?” Suddenly all of Josie’s conflicting emotions merged. They twisted and turned until the only thing she felt was white-hot, boiling rage. “She wrecked my life, and you helped her! You lied to me. You said you weren’t a pap anymore.”

“When I told you that, I was telling the truth. I just didn’t tell you how recently I’d quit. It was a shitty thing to do.”

“Why are you telling me this now? What do you have to gain?” she spat.

Levi shook his head, a humorless chuckle parting his lips. “Nothing. I’m telling you this because I care about you, because what I did hurt you. I’m trying to make it right.”

“Make it right? You want to clear your conscience?”

“No. I want to clear yours. Anders didn’t do the things you were led to believe. At least not where Aubrey was concerned.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? You want me to believe you’re telling me this because you want to clear Anders’ name? Don’t bullshit me.”

“I don’t give a shit about Anders, but I do care about you. You’re unhappy, and I had a hand in that. I’m trying to do the right thing.”

“The right thing would’ve been never getting involved with that psycho bitch in the first place!” Josie stood from the booth and glared at Levi. “All of it. She was behind all of it. Exposing me, the lies about Anders, everything. And you helped her.”

Levi’s shoulders slumped in defeat as he nodded. “Yes.”

“As happy as I am to find out the truth, don’t expect my gratitude. You can go to hell.” Grabbing the envelope, she stormed out the door to her car. Her body vibrated with anger as puzzle pieces clicked into place. It had been Aubrey all along. She’d played a game with Josie’s life and flipped her world upside down. Wrapping her hands around the steering wheel, she shook her head.

“Fuck that,” she scoffed as she started her car. “No way is that bitch getting away with this.” Turning out of the parking lot she had only one thought on her mind: getting to the studio before Aubrey left.