Point Of View 2 [*Do not read until you've read the same chapter of ATW]

Chapter 39 The Game player

Oh shit.

I look over at Jonah and Casey with wide eyes and a pit in my stomach. Jeremy is a very smooth. He finds ways to get what he wants and fool everyone. Did he sedate Julia and... and... no. Oh God, I hope not. 

Julia would never recover from a THIRD rape.

Nate grabs his phone and calls Paul.

"Paul. You need to go to the Avalon and check on Julia." 

"They told me I couldn't go back to the facility until I was 24 hours fever free..."

"Paul. GO. NOW!"  He demands and hangs up on the bodyguard.

"Nate. Talk to me." I take Nate's hand and sit him down on the couch to try to calm him.

"Cancel my meeting with Leslie. I need air." He bolts back up and heads to the exit, once again making Jonah and Evan scramble to catch up.

"What's going on?" Leslie walks into the room just minutes after Nate stormed out.

"Hey Leslie," I say in a drawn out, unenthused way. "I think Nate's going to have to cancel his meeting with you."

"What? Why? We have so much to go over!" She looks around the room trying to locate Nate and I don't bother telling her he is outside. I don't need Leslie hunting Nate down when he's in the middle of some panic attack.

"I'm sorry. Something came up last minute. I'll make sure he sees you first thing in the morning though, ok?" I look up at Leslie who scoffs.

"It's that Julia lady, isn't it? She gets in the way every single fucking time." She sniffs. Leslie sniffs a lot. I guess that's what happens when you're a cocaine addict.

 But for the first time, I feel like I need to stick up for Moretti. This is NOT her fault. Whatever is going on is bad. Bad enough to get Nate so worked up like that.

"She's not even here. She's not getting in the way. She trying to get better." I squint my eyes at Nate's manager and apparently this catches Casey off guard a little by the way her eyebrows raise.

"Well tell her to try harder. Nate has a tour schedule to worry about." Leslie leaves the room, and I slump down on the couch.

"She's a prize." Casey looks disgusted.

"She's just stressed. This tour took a lot of planning, people and hard work. She's not normally that on edge." I wave Leslie off like what she said didn't bother me.

Try harder. That hit a nerve.

Try harder? I'm doing every damn thing I fucking can to make sure everything is perfect. Try harder?  Seriously?

*****

After I cancel Nate's meeting, we head back to the hotel.  Casey and I try our hardest to keep things calm for Nate and Jonah, but they are worried. Really worried. No one knows the whole story. 

"Paul just texted me." Nate looks down at his phone on the table and we all freeze. 

"Here ya go." Casey hands Nate a cup of tea and then Jonah one. We all gather around Nate and his phone on the table. We'll all but Evan who can't seem to figure out all that's going on here.

[Paul. Tell me what happened]

Nate texts back, keeping the phone on the table so Jonah can see the messages.

[Getting it out of her now, boss. She's a mess though]

"This is awful." Nate grumbles.

[She's not making a lot of sense, but it sounds like Donovan came into her room. Told her shit like she wasn't taking her detox seriously. That she was playing games.]

Theres a decent pause where we watch the bubble appear and then disappear a few times before Paul sends what Julia is saying.

[He grabbed her arm and pushed her against the wall. She struggled with him but said it's his word against hers so she can't say anything. Jesus, he had the injection in his pocket already]

Oh shit.

Nate bolts up off the couch in hysterics. Livid.

"That sonofabitch!"

"He can't get away with this stuff, can he?" Casey asks Jonah. I look at Nate and then Evan. We need to fill him in before we start talking.

"Evan. We need to know we can trust you. Whatever is said in this room stays between us. I'm talking legal shit here. Shit that could put people in prison." I begin.

"Ma'am, whatever is said will stay completely confidential. You have my word." He nods with his eyebrows raised. Did he just fucking call me MA'AM? Hold the phone.

"You ever ma'am me again and I WILL throat punch you." I glare at Evan.

"Yes...ma'-... miss?"

I let out a frustrated sigh before telling Evan everything. And I mean everything. The bodyguard looks truly repulsed by what was told.

"So, he gets away with it?!" Evan looks sickened hearing this news. We all nod in response.

"The charges had to be dropped to protect her. By talking about it she could be charged with slander. So, she just had to." Nate says, "Drop it."

"And he's still treating her?"

"He's the only one familiar with her diagnosis. He's a very smart man. Graduated from Harvard. Knows his stuff. Jeremy Donovan is the only doctor that knows how to treat Julia's condition." Jonah says in a defeated manner.

"This is unbelievable. How can I help??" 

"You can't. We're here. She's there."  Nate responds. He's right. There's nothing we can do right now. Not from Amsterdam.

*****