Free Riverstar (3) by Tess Thompson Page B

How much will it take to get you to sell out to the first tabloid that calls you?”
    “No, Sabrina, he’s not like that,” said Bella. “He’s only trying to help. He probably saved her life tonight when he didn’t let her get in that car. He and my brother go way back,” she added by way of explanation.
    “There were two men following me, sissy,” said Tiffany, raising her head. Her mascara was streaked down both sides of her face. “I was trying to get away from them. They followed me when I came out of the bathroom, so I had to get to my car and get away from them.”
    “I saw them,” said Ben to Sabrina. “I didn’t recognize them but they didn’t look like anyone you’d want around your sister.” He paused, looking over at Bella for a moment before meeting Sabrina’s gaze directly. “And I am most certainly not interested in selling a story to one of those morally bankrupt tabloids.”
    “That’s what they all say,” said Sabrina.
    ***
    Bella walked Sabrina out to her car. It had stopped raining hard but there was a light mist that would make her hair curl up like a short bush on top of her head. Ben . Why did she have to care what he thought of her?
    Sabrina leaned against the side of her car. “Bella, I’m so tired of this. I really thought she was different this time, thought she’d finally grown up.” She took keys out of the bag over her shoulder. “How the hell am I going to get Richard and Graham to overlook this?”
    “Maybe it’s just a minor setback. People relapse all the time. She said you two had a fight.”
    Sabrina shook her head, a look of bafflement on her face. “That’s ridiculous. We didn’t have a fight. I don’t know why she’d say that. We never fight. I left her in her room after dinner with her script and a hot bath running. I made sure they’d taken all the booze out of the minibar. I thought she was good.”
     “Listen, if it helps, I’ll talk to Graham for you. And I know Richard believes in her. And, really, there’s no reason they even have to know. Ben and I will get her back to her room and settled in. Maybe this can just blow over. Okay?”
    “I guess. Regardless, I need to get to bed. Tomorrow’s going to be rough either way. Sometimes I don’t know what’s worse, drunk Tiffany or shamed, hung-over Tiffany.”
    “It’ll be all right. Just get her to me in the morning and I’ll fix her so she looks like she had that bath and went to bed early.”
    “Bella, thank you.” Sabrina’s eyes filled with tears. “You have no idea how important it is that she keep this job.”
    “What do you mean?” asked Bella softly.
    “We’re broke. Dead broke. Most of what she’s made she’s blown on bad investments and snorting it up her nose. If this doesn’t work, I don’t know what will happen to us.”
    “Surely it isn’t that bad?”
    “Yeah, Bella, it is. We’re up against it here.”
    “Well, we just have to make sure she keeps this job then.” She hugged Sabrina. “It’ll be all right.”
    After Sabrina drove away, Bella went back inside Riversong. It was almost eleven o’clock and Tommy’s band was putting away their instruments. The place had emptied of almost all the patrons except for a few tables finishing drinks. Her friends and Ben were where she’d left them at the bar. Tiffany, Bella was glad to see, was eating her soup with Ben sitting next to her. Cindi was putting clean glasses on the shelves behind the bar. Genevieve and Stefan were huddled together, talking quietly.
    Ben looked up at her when she slid onto the barstool next to him. “Everything okay?”
    She nodded, still processing what Sabrina had just told her. “Yeah.”
    “I have to go to the bathroom,” said Tiffany, still slurring her words. She had broccoli bisque on the side of her face.
    “I’ll take her,” said Genevieve. “I need to go too. And then I should get out of here and get some beauty sleep.” She said this last part to Stefan.
    “Don’t