Page 78 of Reckless Seduction
Another two fingers.
I smirk. “Such a good girl.”
She lowers a finger, and I laugh at seeing her usual fire. The woman just flipped me the bird. Dani is barely able to hold her own laughter back.Brat.
“Why do you look like you’re about to do something you regret?” Dani asks as we make our way around the room again, my every-watchful gaze still following her around the room.
“Because I am,” I admit truthfully, an unusual weight bearing down on my chest. Dani halts her footsteps, looking up at me with a sad frown on her face.
“You can still change it.”
“No, I really can’t.”
Luckily, without Seamus looping our comms, Bailey herself can’t hear us.
I don’t get the chance to respond.
Eight minutes.
I turn to find Bailey. My gaze follows her as she makes some excuse to Drew before shuffling away toward the intended meeting point. With Dani on my arm, I go to follow, right past her intended ex-fiancé.
“Finally decided to slum it with the rest of us, Kavanaugh?” My fists clench at the sound of a man’s voice. Fuck. He isn’t even a man. He is just a boy playing at being one. Seamus and I took the time to suss out Crowe and Drew. There were a few things Bridgett told us that didn’t sit right. Parts that don’t add up when it comes to Bailey.
Drew’s affair with Bailey’s best friend is part of that. For years, they’d been meeting at hotels, a time or two in his office, but never at his condo. Bailey had a key and often came and went throughout the week when she was at work. It would have been too risky.
So why the sudden change of venue? Drew must have known the risk of Bailey stopping by.
Then there are the issues with the spark plugs.
The service receipt in her glove box that our mechanic dug up listed her last repair less than three months ago. That explained why the spark plugs looked so new. All except the one. It had been cracked and dirty, and Bailey wouldn’t have known to look for something like that. To her, it was just a case of bad luck.
Drew seems the likely suspect. According to our sources, he’s been avidly trying to search her out. Whether over guilt of the affair or something more sinister is yet to be seen. We’d been sure to cover our tracks when we took Bailey, and even when I outed her father, she still hadn’t given us up.
Why?
“I’m not quite in the slums just yet, Knight,” I sneer at him. “I’d have to sink a whole lot lower to hit your depths.”
“You’re nothing but a rat, Kavanaugh,” he hisses. “A rat thinking he’s better than everyone else around him when all he smells like is sewer.”
“Just because I don’t cover my scent in potpourri doesn’t mean I’m a rat,” I tell him. “It means I’m not a snake hiding in the tall grass until easy prey comes along.”
“Baby,” a reedy voice interrupts before the asshole can rebut. “There you are. The entertainment is going to start soon, and I want to get a good seat.”
There is no doubt in my mind that this is Brittany, the woman Drew cheated on Bailey with. Everything about her is fake, and I can’t see the appeal. Her platinum blonde hair is an obvious dye job, and her overly large breasts are too big on her stick frame to be real. Her face is wrinkle-free and her lips look almost cartoonish with how plump they are.
“I don’t see your seller token,” I smirk, “yet I see you brought your whore with you.”
Dani snorts beside me, quickly covering it with a cough. The woman’s Botoxed lips curl with disdain, making her even uglier. Jesus, she looks more like a blow-up doll than a human.
“Who the fuck do you think you are?” Her expression is one of indignation, as if she can’t believe I would dare speak to her like that.
“I’m the man who’s going to take everything away from your boyfriend here,” I sneer. “So I’d get those Botox treatments while you still can. Not that it will change much about that sour expression of yours. There’s only so much surgery can help you with.”
Then I walk away.
THIRTY-ONE
The car eases to a slow,deliberate stop beneath the sweep of the entrance, headlights gliding over polished stone and a crowd that glitters like something untouchable. Cameras flash in quick bursts, catching diamonds and sequins, the sharp lines of tailored suits, the easy laughter of people who have never had to earn their place in a room like this.
