“I’ve been trying to work that out. All I can imagine is that she set me up. She knew if she let me see Ty I’d come over. Maybe she thought it wouldn’t be that hard to get me into bed. Then she’d have the proof she needed to destroy my marriage to you and wreck my chances of ever getting custody of Ty. But I didn’t go for it. I wasn’t even tempted.”
“So…she had to do something else.”
“Yes. I’ve watched that damn thing so many times, trying to figure it out. I bet it’s the same man in the video she sent me before.”
“What video?”
“It’s not pretty, but I’ll forward it. I think she dubbed my face over his. Notice that once the sex starts, you don’t see much to identify me.”
She noticed that he’d switched her to speakerphone, which meant he was probably forwarding the video he’d mentioned.
“There’s just a glimpse of my face here and there,” he finished.
If what Simon said was true, whoever had manipulated that footage had done a damn fine job. “Would Bella really be capable of something like that?”
“I’m sure she would,” he said. “She was very upset last night. But this time she’s gone too far, crossed the line.”
“But it would take someone with real technical know-how. Someone who was used to editing video.”
“Right. But thanks to me, she has plenty of contacts in the movie industry.”
Her phone buzzed, signaling the receipt of a text message. “Hang on.” She put him on speaker, too, while she watched the clip he’d sent. It was Bella with someone else, all right. A message came with that erotic footage: Ty’s new daddy.
Gail was shocked by Bella’s desire to inflict pain. “When did you get this?”
“The night I cut my hand.”
That made sense. Maybe she was making an earlier mistake worse by wading in even deeper, but Gail had to go with her heart on this one, too. “How do we prove it?”
He blew out a sigh. “You believe me?”
She allowed herself a wry smile. “Did you think you might have trouble convincing me?”
“I was worried. I meant what I said. I don’t want to lose you, Gail.”
“Be careful,” she teased. “You swore you’d never marry again.”
“I’ll settle for avoiding another divorce.”
She laughed as relief flooded through her. They were in a mess, but they had each other. “So what do we do now?”
“We take the video to a specialist, see if they can prove it was doctored. We won’t let her get away with this.”
“Sounds good to me.”
“Does that mean you’ll come to L.A. and stay with me until I can get this cleared up?” he asked.
He wanted to know if she trusted him enough to stand by him publicly. Was she willing to go through what the next few weeks would require?
“I’ll be on the next flight.”
* * *
Gail thought she was coming to his rescue. Simon knew that was the quickest way to get her to return to L.A. But she’d done enough for him already. He was sober, he was innocent and he was angry. He’d get himself out of this latest scrape.
Ian squinted against the sunlight that poured into his house when he answered Simon’s knock. Then he scowled. “Simon. What are you doing here? Why didn’t you just call me?”
Simon didn’t reply to the question, but asked one of his own. “Late night, huh, Ian?”
It was easy to tell from Ian’s demeanor that he knew something had changed. “Not too late, no. I collected you at the airport and then I came home. Why?”
“Did you stay home?”
There was a slight pause. “Actually, I did.”
Pushing past him, Simon headed into the living room. Fortunately, Ian lived alone so Simon didn’t have to worry about barging in on anyone else. “Where’s your computer?”
Ian followed him. “Why do you want to know?”
“Because you have about five minutes to prove that you didn’t doctor that video, or hire someone else to do it.”
“What video?” he said, but Simon could tell he knew. He knew and yet he’d been sleeping. So when did he learn if not this morning, like the rest of the world?
“The one where I’m supposedly having sex with my ex-wife.”
Ian tightened the belt to his bathrobe. “Simon—”
“I know you did it, Ian,” he broke in.
“No.”
“Then prove it.”
Hands spread wide, Ian stepped closer. “How?”
“Give me access to your computer.”
He covered his face, then dropped his hands. “Come on, you know I’d never do anything like that. If there’s a video out there, Bella must’ve created it herself. Or your father helped.”
“It wasn’t my father.”
“How do you know?”
Because his frustration and disappointment this morning had been too real. Because he’d meant what he’d said when he praised Gail, and he was right about her, which lent him more credibility than he’d had in years. And because he’d apologized for the incident with Bella. Tex didn’t have the strongest character in the world, but Simon believed he’d been on the level about all of that.
Besides, he’d signed the release. If he wanted to force Simon back to L.A. he’d already had a way to try and do it. He’d accepted the loss of Simon’s name on his movie. Ian was the one who felt he stood to lose if Simon stayed in Whiskey Creek and fell any more in love with Gail. “A lot of reasons.”
“But he was furious when I tried to give back your part in Hellion.”
“He signed a release, Ian.”
“That doesn’t mean he was happy about it.”
“He wouldn’t have done it if he wasn’t ready to let me go. You want me to make that movie even more than he did. Why?”
“Sure, I want you to make that movie. I’m your manager, and that’s an Oscar-worthy part. I hate to see you screw up your life just because you’re suddenly pu**y-whipped. But I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you.”
“I wish that was true, Ian. I’ve been good to you. Paid you well. Kept you on, even after what you did to Gail’s business, since I felt somewhat responsible for that. But now I’m realizing a few things I should’ve seen before.”
“No, you’re jumping to the wrong conclusions,” he said.