Not a chance. My head was spinning too much to make small talk. Would Bailey dump my ass if this got out? Who’d want to date a guy who had a sex tape circulating everywhere? Especially one like that. A threesome while I was getting high? Good look, Carter.

“Thanks, but I think I’ll take it easy tonight.”

“Okay.” Her brow furrowed and she lingered, still studying my face with concern. “Let me know if you need anything, all right?”

Like a time machine?

“I will. Thanks, Shiv.”

53. can’t have both

CHAPTER 53

CAN’T HAVE BOTH

Chase

At the ass crack of dawn the next day, I drove nearly three hours to meet with Stewart, Dallas’s litigator father. He not only fit me in last minute, but he refused to charge me for his time. Hell, I’d gladly pay his insane thousand dollars-an-hour rate or whatever he charged if he had a legal magic wand to make this all go away.

I needed to talk to Bailey. Would talk to Bailey eventually. But first I needed to get a handle on the situation and what the possible fallout could be. At least then I’d have more information when I did tell her.

After barely squeezing my truck into the heated underground parking garage, I took the elevator up to the thirty-first floor. A stainless-steel sign mounted on the wall that read Ward, Myers, and Trenton LLP greeted me.

I hadn’t been to a lawyer’s office since we had to handle all the legal matters relating to my dad’s death. It had been a media shitstorm back then. Paparazzi camped outside our house, my school, even my friends’ houses.

The constant, low-level nausea I’d had since last night surged. I didn’t want to relive that again, but I might if this got out.

Fuck. Maybe I should talk to my mom, but that conversation had the possibility of being even worse than the one I needed to have with Bailey.

Stewart’s assistant led me into his massive corner office. Floor-to-ceiling windows displayed a panoramic view of the city and beyond. Clad in a suit, Stewart’s imposing figure was seated behind his glass desk. He waved me in without glancing up from the paperwork fanned out in front of him.

“Thanks for meeting me on such short notice.” I settled into the sleek leather chair across from his desk and crossed an ankle over my knee.

“Not a problem.” Stewart shuffled the papers on his desk and set them aside. He glanced up at me and steepled his thick fingers, leaning over the desk with his brow furrowed. “Dallas said you had a nine-one-one situation on your hands. What’s going on?”

If only I knew.

“I’m not sure. There might be…pictures. Of me. Compromising pictures. Or a video maybe.” My stomach lurched, like speaking the words somehow made it more real.