Alpha Billionaire Series
Hot Mess Chapter 28

NICK

I threw the phone across the trailer. Kayla hadn't returned my calls, or my texts. This felt entirely like when we first met. She didn't block me; I could leave messages. But she wasn't responding.

And I couldn't get time away from the set to check on her.

We were behind. Not my fault, but very much my problem. I needed an overnight away. I could jet down to LA, check on Kayla, and come right back.

Knocking on my trailer door interrupted my personal tirade. "What?" I barked.

"They need you on the set in twenty, Mr. Sadler."

"Fine!" I yelled, not moving from my position in the middle of everything, not answering the door.

I stood there, stewing in place until another knock sounded a few minutes later.

"Ten minutes, Nick. Get your a*s out here or-"

I yanked the door open. "Or what? I'm not the one causing the delays around here."

I stormed down the stairs, leaving the trailer door swinging, and past the assistant director, Steve.

"Well, at least you're in the right mood for today's scenes," he said.

I turned and glared at him. I didn't need this. I needed to replace Kayla. I needed Isaac to leave me a snarky message telling me I was overreacting. But that wasn't happening.

Isaac hadn't called me back after I texted him what was up. That did not bode well.

When I got to the set May Rogers was already crying. Ever since she joined the cast she was always crying, needing her makeup fixed, getting in my way.

She was only slated for three episodes. My character had to make some questionable choices regarding her. Of course, that meant we had to film a s*x scene.

My contract for Captain Wonder stipulated that any new projects had to maintain the integrity of the character as long as I was under contract. That meant no more overly sexual scenes. Unfortunately, the contract for this show preceded Captain Wonder. And as far as this crew was concerned, I was a gratuitous set of abs with lines. They couldn't kill me off fast enough.

And they weren't killing off May. In my opinion they shouldn't have even hired her. If she didn't like the lines in the script she refused to learn them. The only reason I knew she read them was because she complained about them. And she complained that we didn't have enough scenes together.

The few scenes we had were more than enough for me. She had been a little less than professional when it came to filming the s*x scene in the woods. But mostly, I didn't like May because she was preventing me from leaving and getting to spend a few precious hours with Kayla.

I held onto my anger and let it work for me.

The scene went really well, and I expected Jeff to call it. May broke character before Jeff said anything and announced she felt there was too much hostility coming from me.

I growled in frustration. If I couldn't be at home, I needed to at least be on the phone and not standing here while some actress who hit it big in her first handful of roles acted like a diva.

"May, that is not your-"

"You want to see hostility?"

"Nick, I think you need to leave now," Steve told me in a cool voice.

"Oh, I'm leaving. I'm gone. I am so gone." I threw up my arms and headed right back to my trailer. I had to search around for my phone from when I threw it. But as soon as I had it in my hand I was on the line with my pilot. I needed to get to LA. He needed to come get me ASAP. I had a car waiting outside the lot within twenty minutes.

"Nick, what do you think you are doing?" Steve didn't exactly chase after me, but he did.

"I'm taking a forty-eight-hour leave without pay to contemplate my poor behavior on set today. I think it's a very good way of managing my tension, and I will reflect on the error of my ways."

"No one kicked you off the set."

I spun on him. "My finacée isn't calling me back. I'm worried. I'm kicking myself off the set before I do more than yell at May for ruining a perfectly good take."

Steve nodded and shook his head. I wasn't the only one frustrated with her.

"I'll be back once I know why Kayla isn't returning my calls."

He shrugged and let out a heavy breath. "I hope she's okay. She's a sweet lady."

"Thanks. She's a real contrast to that one back there." I leaned in and lowered my voice conspiratorially. "When are the writers going to, you know?"- I cocked my head to the side indicating killing her character off. "Ratings love her. And they really love the tension between your characters."

I glared.

"Forty-eight-hours, I'll let Jeff know. You realize May is going to tweet this out, that you were removed from the set after she confronted you about being hostile."

"Fuck, change the story then. Tell Jeff I'm sick, whatever." I ran my hand through my hair and looked down the road for my ride.

"I'll tell Jeff your girl is sick. It's why your focus is off. And I'll do it in earshot of May. Maybe if she hears about your fiancée from someone other than you she'll back off."

"I could use that."

The car finally pulled up. I opened the back and climbed in. I looked up at Steve before I closed the door. "Thanks, man. I mean it."

"I've been there before. I get it. Go replace your woman."

If I had thought waiting for the damned car to show up had taken a long time, waiting for the plane was interminable. I didn't want to think of the time that got wasted while waiting to get back to LA.

"You haven't returned my calls," I barked as I pushed into Isaac's office.

"I have a situation. I'll call you." He pulled the earbud out of his ear and stood. His hands were up and making small patting motions as if I needed to soothe.

"Nick, you need to sit down and take a big breath."

"Where the fuck is Kayla?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean, you don't know? Come on, Isaac."

I sat and clenched my fists. I felt helpless listening to him.

"She didn't show up at that job I got her. She hasn't blocked my number; I'm beginning to wonder if she even knows how to. I hired a PI to check out all the hospitals for me. Nothing. But this"- he reached out and picked a padded envelope off his desk and handed it to me- "came in this morning's mail."

I opened the envelope. The house key, still on the realtor's plastic key fob fell into my hand.

"She's ghosted us, Nick."

"No." I shook my head. "Why? What happened? How?"

"You are asking a lot of questions neither of us have an answer for. You're the one who was sleeping with her, did she say anything?"

I shot him a glare, before I realized he was only speaking the truth.

I fisted the key, its brass teeth cut into my palm. I surged to my feet. "I'm going to see if she left any hints at the house. I drove too fast. I didn't care. I needed to get to the house, maybe being closer to where Kayla had lived would help me to understand what the hell was going on.

The house looked like it always had. The light was switched on in the kitchen.

I ran up the steps. My foot slipped on something, fucking my balance up. I did an ungraceful spin, trying to get stable flooring under my feet. I landed on one knee, braced on the fingers of the opposite hand. All that stunt training, and I naturally hit a superhero landing. It might have been cool if I wasn't so pissed that I lost my footing to begin with.

It was a fucking envelop. A big one. Other than my footprint there weren't any marks on it. I knocked on the door before using the key.

"Kayla? Babe, are you here?"

I went straight to the kitchen where the light over the sink was on. The kitchen didn't smell of recent cooking. All of the dishes were put away. I opened the fridge and checked the garbage. Both were empty.

I tossed the offensive envelope on the counter before checking out the rest of the small house. Nothing. The only sign she had been here was her shampoo in the shower. All of her clothes were gone.

I checked the bed side table drawer. The box of condoms was still there.

I dropped to the bed.

"Fuck." I buried my head in my hands. She was gone.

"Fuck!"

I threw the condoms across the room.

There was no reason to stay here. I got up and returned to the kitchen to turn off the light. That envelope was still on the counter. I opened it and spilled the contents out on the counter.

"Fuck."

I spread out photos. There were pictures of May and I from the shoot, but they didn't include all the cameras and work crew, so it looked like... F**k! It looked like I had been having sex with some other woman. If Kayla had seen these out of context. There were more photos.

"How the hell did they get this?"

I picked up a shot that was clearly from Halloween. Kayla's costume around her waist and my hands on her breasts.

No wonder she left.