why is he here?”
“You don’t have anything you want to say to people. With the reunion coming up, you don’t want to make even a tiny statement?
“Are you a receptionist or the fucking paparazzi?” Holden snapped.
“Just a guy with a phone,” said, well, the guy with the phone. I hadn’t caught his name. “But the internet’s been talking about you, obviously, and if you could just give me a quote, man, it would really help me out. I don’t want to be stuck answering phones forever, you know?”
“You’re trespassing.”
“The guy at the gatehouse let me in.”
“That’s because you fucking lied about why you were here. I want you off my property. Now.”
“Dude, you don’t have to be like this.” The guy’s voice took on a whining tone, and Holden’s hands clenched into fists. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to warn him not to punch the guy, or encourage him. The guy was pissing me off, and I didn’t even know what was going on. “People want to hear from you. They wanna know where you’ve been, and why you left. Seven years later and still no details about her death? Don’t you owe your fans more than that?”
“I don’t owe anybody anything,” Holden spat. “If anyone’s stupid enough to still care after all this time, that’s on them. Now leave.”
“But you—”
Holden grabbed the guy by the shoulder and tugged him to the door.
“This is an invasion of privacy,” he growled. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Seriously, what made you think this was okay?”
“Chill out, dude.” The guy held his hands up, not so much to protect himself from Holden, I thought, as to make it look like Holden was the one being unreasonable. “I was just asking.”
“You were doing a hell of a lot more than that.” Holden plucked the guy’s phone from his hand, leaving the cord of his little earpiece dangling down his chest. Holden frowned and tapped the screen. “Is Dr. Thao even coming?”
“Give me my phone back!”
“Answer the question and I’ll think about it,” Holden barked, his attention still focused on the phone.
“Fine, yes, she’s coming. She thinks the appointment’s at seven.”
“Good.” Holden looked up from the screen and fixed the guy with a glare. “She and I are going to have a talk about the kind of behavior her employees believe is acceptable.”
“Come on, man. That’s my job you’re talking about.”
“I thought you just said you didn’t want to be stuck answering phones for the rest of your life.” Holden gave him a hard smile. “I’m doing you a favor. Just think how much more time you’ll have for whatever tawdry little blog you run, once you’re no longer gainfully employed.”
“I didn’t mean that I wanted to get fired.”
“Probably should have thought of that before you decided to trespass and harass me and my guest,” Holden said, his smile still diamond sharp. “Now, you said something about wanting your phone back? Go fetch. And then get the hell away from my house.”
He let go of the guy’s shoulder and threw his phone out the door. It landed with a thunk in a snowbank a few yards down the driveway, sending a little poof of flakes up around it as it sank.
“What the fuck?” The guy looked at Holden in shock.
“You’re lucky I only deleted the video, and didn’t decide to keep your whole phone.” Holden’s smile grew thinner. “Now get the fuck out. I don’t want to see you here again.”
The guy just stood there, aghast, until Holden gave him a little nudge to get going. Then he stumbled through the door and turned around, looking like he wanted to say something else. Holden slammed it in his face.
He pressed his hand against the door after it closed, his head down, shoulders heaving. I watched in stunned silence, trying to work up the nerve to speak, or even just to figure out what to say.
“Holden?” I whispered.
He spun around and stared, his eyes full of an emotion I couldn’t parse.
“Are you—”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” he snapped. “You can get the door when the doctor comes. Just tell her I’ll pay for whatever, and to bill me later.”
“But do you—”
“I said I don’t want to talk about it,” Holden snarled.
There was so much anger in those words that I stepped back in spite of myself. He held my eyes a moment longer, then strode across the foyer, disappearing down the hallway that led to his studio.
I gaped after him, wondering