“Why would you do that to Bailey?” I asked, desperately searching for a shred of humanity hidden deep within him. “And Nikki?”

I could deal with the fallout in my own life, but the collateral damage in this scenario was criminal. The guilt I was feeling was off the fucking charts.

Luke scoffed. “Who gives a fuck about Nikki? As far as Bailey goes, if you make the right call, I won’t.”

“If I say no?” I asked hoarsely.

“I’ll make sure that a search for her name will imply she directs amateur porn. Potential employers, prospective boyfriends—because let’s face it, we know you two won’t last—even the teachers of her future children.” He leaned back, leisurely placing an ankle over his knee like we were old pals shooting the breeze.

Denial seized hold of my brain. “That can be scrubbed.”

“Not fully.” Luke smirked, his tone even more condescending than usual. “The internet never forgets, Carter.”

Neither did I. Somehow, I’d get even for this. But first I had to stop my life from imploding. Or minimize the damage, at least.

Morrison was nothing if not a coward, so I changed tactics. “You realize blackmail is a crime, right? A felony, in fact.”

“Eh. I’m not concerned about that.”

Holy fuck, he’d lost his mind.

“Why not?” I snapped. “You think your lawyer parents will bail you out?” I ran the risk of provoking him, but I was filled with so much rage, I could barely contain myself.

Luke remained eerily calm like the psychopath he was. “Speaking of parents, have you met Bailey’s? Lovely people.” He frowned, studying me with disapproval. “Not sure they’ll say the same about you if this video makes its way into their hands.”

“Are you willing to risk jail to take me down?” I spat out. “I could call the cops right now.”

“You can’t be stupid enough to think I have the only copy. If you do that, it blows up immediately. Putting me in jail won’t fix her reputation. Are you willing to gamble with her future?”

The answer was no—and he knew it. At least I now had his threats on tape. Problem was that wouldn’t stop him from going nuclear on Bailey’s entire life first.

“If you drag Bailey into this, jail will be the least of your concerns. I won’t have anything left to lose.”

Despite my violent fantasies about Morrison, I’d never seriously contemplated killing him. Until now.

“Oh, I don’t know about that. You have lots of other things on the line. Deluca and I have been chatting lately. Maybe he would be interested in seeing your film debut.”

“Go ahead,” I ground out. Tom Deluca was part of Los Angeles’s management team, and I spoke to him regularly too. “Do that and leave Bailey out of this.”

“Nah.”