I could only hope he understood I was talking about more than where he was staying.
Relationships were inherently complicated, never nice and neat. And in my experience, love was chaos. There was nothing organized or orderly about it. If one was looking for perfection, they were never going to find it. If I was forever living in fear of getting hurt again, I might as well resign myself to the idea of being alone, and even worse than that, lonely. One I could accept because I understood after my horrible marriage and an unimaginable loss that I had to be the source of my own happiness. It was too important to entrust to anyone else. However, being happy and healthy lost some of its shine when there was no one around to share it with.
I grabbed my purse after shoving a change of clothes and a few other essentials inside, just in case. Salinger texted me the security codes for both the underground garage and the building. He asked if I wanted him to meet me in the parking lot, or if he should send the building security down to ensure I wasn’t bothered once I arrived, but I told him the short elevator ride should be fine. I put on a baseball hat and a pair of clear, non-prescription glasses at the last minute just to be on the safe side.
Usually, I had a car service to take me to and from the set, but since this was an unplanned trip and I didn’t want to bother Arrow, I figured I’d have to make do with a regular ride and hope for the best. Luckily, the driver of the car that came to pick me up didn’t seem to recognize me in the slightest, which was hilarious since he mentioned more than once that he heard a rumor the building where we were going was where Salinger Dolan was staying while he was in town filming a movie. I tipped him generously and chuckled the entire ride up the massively tall building until I reached the penthouse where Salinger and his brother were staying.
It was a really nice building and the amenities were beyond impressive. The top floor felt far away and secluded from the rest of the units. I could see why the guys had picked it. It felt like a spot where the wealthy and young would come to play.
I exited the elevator and hit the extravagantly decorated hallway that boasted a three-sixty view of the beautiful Vancouver skyline. I faltered a step when I immediately heard the sound of loud, male voices shouting through the only door on the floor. I frowned and started to walk quickly toward the noise. As I got closer to the penthouse, the louder the sound of the arguing got. The language they were throwing around was ugly, and even though I was sure the expensive apartment was built to be fairly soundproof, I could hear that things were getting thrown around and that the brothers might be getting physical with one another.
I frantically knocked on the door, hoping to distract them and remind them that they should know better than to act out like this when it was common knowledge they were staying here. I didn’t want Salinger in the gossip rags for trashing a multimillion-dollar home that didn’t belong to him. That wasn’t the kind of press we needed before the movie was released. That was his old image, the one he’d worked so hard to leave behind.
I knocked again, this time gasping in surprise as it was yanked open by a very disheveled Salinger. His normally spiky hair looked even more unruly than normal, and I could see the hint of a bruise already forming on one of his high cheekbones. His dark eyes looked more tumultuous and angrier than I’d ever seen them, and his broad chest was heaving with erratic breaths. I gave him a wide-eyed look as I noticed his t-shirt was ripped at the collar, and the knuckles on the hand holding the door were raw and bloody.
“What happened?” The question rushed out as Salinger was grabbed from behind and pulled out of the doorway.
Both of the brothers were big and muscular, but I was suddenly very aware of just how much bigger Jeno was than Salinger. He moved the blond man out of the way like he weighed nothing as he glared