Page 26 of Wilde About You

"I'm going to swing by your place and pick her up. My parents are freaking out. They got some weird message in the mail, like one of those crazy magazine cut-out ransom notes. Just says 'we need it back now or else.' My dad wants her home." They'd found my parents. Fuck.

Colin looked questioningly at me. I shook my head and grabbed the phone. "I don't need to go home. Tell them I'll take care of this."

"What the fuck are you doing with Wilde?" Ace asked.

"Oh, there goes all that brotherly concern right out the window. He saw me walking along the road because yes, someone slashed my tires. Colin came to my rescue. And we're sitting here eating pizza. I hope that's not too scandalous for you."

"Well, I know that guy, and if there's one thing he knows how to do better than snowboarding, it's getting into girls' panties."

"Yuck, I'm not talking about this with you."

"You've already fucked him, haven't you?"

I hung up and handed the phone to Colin. "Don't know what happened there. Bad connection I guess."

Ace called right back. Colin grabbed the phone before I could. "What?" Colin asked angrily.

"You are dead meat, my friend, and tell her to get her ass home now." This time Ace hung up.

"His threats are hollow," I assured Colin.

Colin tilted his head at me. "You think I'm afraid of your brother? At least not physically. I can whoop his ass in my sleep."

"But?"

"But he has way more clout than me on the team right now. He won the last big contest."

"Yeah, I was there."

Colin lowered the pizza slice he was holding. "You were there?"

"I was on assignment for that stupid online sports magazine. I got some great shots of Ace, but I never handed them over because I didn't feel the need to glorify my brother any more in our family. My dad brags about him to everyone."

"So, you were there when—" Colin started.

I scrunched up my face. "That was not a pretty fall. Yeah, I was there. I got a shot of that, too, but I'm sure you don't want to see it."

He seemed to be contemplating the idea. "Yeah, maybe not. Already haunted by the whole fucking thing. I can give you a ride to your parents' house if you need. Maybe you should talk to them."

I was shaking my head before he finished. "There's no talking to them. They'll talk at me, then I'll be lectured until my head is ready to explode, then I'll stomp out angrily and my dad will stand in the driveway and yell 'you come back here, young lady, we're not finished.' Same script for every one of our talks."

Colin chuckled. "Guess I could script every talk with my dad, too. What are you going to do about the photo? You know the one that I have no idea about except that it exists and some goons tried to kidnap you to get it."

I sat back feeling exhausted from the whole damn thing. "I still can't believe it's gone this far."

Colin was chewing a bite. It looked as if he had something on his mind.

"Go ahead. Spit it out." I put up my hand. "Not the food. I mean the question that seems stuck in your mouth." I smiled flirtatiously at him. "Your very talented mouth, I might add."

His smile, like the rest of him, was to die for. "I was just wondering what could be on that film. Were you witness to a murder?"

"Shit, you'd think that was the case." I shook red pepper flakes onto my next slice. "It was definitely not murder."

"Definitely not murder." Colin got up and grabbed two beers from the refrigerator. He handed me one. "The way you said that, I'm thinking the opposite of murder." His eyes rounded. "You caught Gregor screwing someone's wife. Was it Buck's wife? Wait, does he have a wife? I think he has one."

I'd put far too much pepper on the pizza and immediately had to guzzle the beer to cool the heat. I set the bottle down with a satisfied sigh. "I won't say any more because you are getting warmer. Shit, I guess that's the same thing as saying more."

Colin clapped once in victory. "Getting warmer. So, this has to do with sex but not Buck's wife. Or was it the other way around? No, I know Buck isn't married. His last girlfriend made sure it was a very public nasty breakup. Were they having sex? Gregor and Buck's girlfriend?"