Free Starstruck - Book Three by Gemma Brooks

open so he could step outside. As he clicked on his flashlight
once again, I saw someone moving back by the grotto.
     
    “See!” I whispered as I pointed. “There!”
     
    He shined his light back towards the grotto.
     
    “Who’s there?” he yelled out. “Show yourself or I’m calling
the police.”
     
    I clutched onto his arm, my fingernails digging into his
flesh.
     
    “Brynn, there’s a Glock 42 in the top left drawer in the
kitchen by the stove,” he said. “Bring it to me.”
     
    My heart raced. I’d never touched a gun in my life, and I
didn’t even know he had one in the house. How come I’d never come across it
before?
     
    I let go of his arm, albeit unwillingly, and trekked inside
to grab the Glock.
     
    “Here,” I said as I handed it to him mere seconds later. I
hated touching that thing. The cool metal of the handle gave me chills.
     
    “Who’s back there?” he yelled again. “You have two seconds
to show yourself or I’m shooting.”
     
    I covered my face with my hands as the pit of my stomach
churned. This was either going to be nothing or it was going to be something
very bad, like something out of a horror movie.
     
    “You don’t have to shoot,” a woman’s voice giggled. “It’s
just me, silly.”
     
    Out from the grotto emerged none other than Miss Ava Fox,
string bikini barely covering her lady bits. Her body was incredible but her
smile was evil. She emerged from the grotto as if she owned the place and had
every right to be there.
     
    “What are you doing here, Ava?” Hudson demanded to know.
“How’d you get in here?”
     
    “You gave me the code, remember?” she said. She was talking
to him, but her eyes were on me, menacing me with every move.
     
    “I did no such thing and you know it,” he said. He rested
his gun down on the table. “How’d you get in here?”
     
    “Don’t you remember that weekend during the reshoots?” she
cooed. I came up to your hotel room, we drank a little. You couldn’t keep your
hands off of me for two seconds. You told me you missed me.”
     
    I wanted to throw up. I wanted to run away. But for some
reason, I was paralyzed. My feet were cemented to the patio floor.
     
    “You made love to me twice that night,” she continued. “Two
amazing times. It was incredible.”
     
    She studied my face, and I knew right then and there that she
was trying to get a reaction out of me. I refused to let her see me crack.
     
    “Get out of here, Ava,” I said. “You don’t belong here.”
     
    Hudson seemed simultaneously shocked and pleased that I was
standing up to her.
     
    “Hudson,” Ava pouted. “Tell Miss Iowa USA here the truth
about us. Tell her before you take this too far with her and break her poor
little heart.”
     
    Hudson shook his head. “Stop it, Ava.”
     
    “She deserves to know about you,” she said. “And all your…ways.”
     
    “Ava,” Hudson seethed.
     
    “You don’t date someone for two years and not learn a thing
or two about their deepest, darkest secrets,” Ava cooed. She began to walk out
of the pool and towards us, like some siren emerging from the ocean.
     
    “What is she talking about?” I asked him.
     
    “Nothing,” he said. “She’s trying to scare you away from me,
that’s all.”
     
    Ava tossed her head back and laughed maniacally.
     
    “Yeah, keep telling yourself that,” Ava said. “Hudson Smith
has no secrets at all. Brynn, are you sure you know what you’re getting
yourself into with this one?”
     
    “Why are you still here?” I replied, ignoring her question.
“You’re not wanted or welcome. Get out before we call the police.”
     
    “How do you like that ring he got you?” she asked. Her eyes
glowed with malicious intent as she stared at my hand. “I bet he told you it
really meant something, huh? How adorable. You two make me sick.”
     
    I clasped my ring and hid it from her sight, staring at
Hudson and pleading silently for an explanation.