Dirty Sexy Alphas (Twenty Book Box Set) - Hannah Ford Page 0,257

ago. I should have. I just…I was afraid and I…”

“Afraid? Of what?” he pressed. “Of me? Did you not trust me, Sophie? Because guess what? I trusted you.”

Tears slipped down my face, and I quickly brushed them away. He didn’t want to see me sobbing over the terrible things I’d done to him. I needed him to know the truth.

“I didn’t write that article,” I said. “You should at least know that. I got fired today because I wouldn’t write it.”

“You wouldn’t write it but you had no problem doing all the research. Is that supposed to make me feel any better?”

“No. Leo please,” I said, and I could see it, right before me. This man I’d grown to love was slipping through my fingers—gone already, in fact. I could see it in his eyes. I had betrayed him, and he could never trust me again. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. Honestly. What I felt for you was real. I’ve been struggling with this story thing for weeks and I know I should have—”

“I don’t need to listen anymore,” he said, his voice as cold as the cemented footprints outside the theater. “I get it, Sophie. No need to explain. It’s fine, really. This is L.A. and I’m used to having women use me. Men, too. Everyone wants to be around me just to create some attention for themselves so they can say they hung out with Leo Armstrong or are friends with Leo Armstrong or fucked Leo Armstrong. Now I can just add you to that list.” He turned and began walking down the long hall toward the screening area around the corner.

“Leo, please. Wait…”

He stopped, and the small, hopeful part of me thought maybe, maybe, he would come back to me, pick me up in his arms, and tell me it was okay. Instead, when he turned to face me, totally expressionless, he said, “Congratulations. I’m usually better at spotting users. But you were good. You were the best, Sophie.”

This time, when he turned and walked away, I knew he wouldn’t come back. When Leo Armstrong was done with something, he made a clean break. He’d said so himself. He never went back, never stayed friends with ex-girlfriends or old business associates. I knew, as he turned the corner to try to salvage what was left of his premiere, that I’d never see him again.

Chapter 20

The thing about living in a city for a very short amount of time is that it takes no time to pack up and get the hell out of town.

Ava Marie watched as I closed the last box in my room. Everything else was already on the little trailer I’d rented, attached to my car, ready to be hauled all the way across the country. Hardly enough distance between me and the mess I’d made of my time in Los Angeles.

“You sure you’ll be okay driving by yourself?” Ava Marie asked. “It’s so far.”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” I said. “I need time alone, to think.” Five days on the road traveling three thousand miles might come close to what I needed to clear my head of everything. Leo had put our relationship behind him and left me no choice in the matter.

And by now, I knew that he definitely wanted me to put him in the past too—my unanswered texts and calls proved as much.

Ava Marie carried my bag as I carried the last box outside. She had a long day of rehearsals for a television show she’d just been cast on. Tomorrow, one of her dancer friends, Rosario, was moving in to take my place. Everyone kept moving along while I felt like I was being pushed out. But I guess I’d done it to myself.

Ava Marie gave me a hug at the curb. “You don’t have to go, you know. Don’t let that editor bitch run you out of town.”

“I’m not,” I said. “I just need to get myself together. I might come back.” I didn’t really believe I would. I was already seeing L.A. as some sort of blip on the radar of my life, a moment I’d done something wild—moved across the country, dated a celebrity and had it all blow up in my face.

A week later I was falling into another friend’s arms—my best friend, Delaney.

“Screw everyone,” she said. “I hate them all. Whoever you want me to hate, I’ll hate them times ten.”

I smiled, wearily. The drive across the country had been more exhausting than enlightening,