Page 23 of Double or Nothing

“Yes, we’re friends. How about you? Are you friends with him?”

She stares at me, and I stare at her, and the world stops. The humdrum of bullshit fades away around us, and there’s only Alice Rose Parker and me. Jack. The man who just bought her paintings because he wants to get his dick wet.

She’s thinking about Bryce, and I’m thinking about her thinking about Bryce. The air is full of questions, unanswered. And I feel something… I sense something…

“Hey!” I hear, and the world starts moving again. It’s the man himself. He practically careens into us, as though he’s done a bastard sprint over here.

Guess he clocked us talking.

“You two ok?” he says, but he’s looking at Alice. I notice the way he puts a hand on her shoulder, protectively.

She stiffens. Nervous. Her blushing cheeks shine brighter.

“I’m great,” she says, and points to the SOLD signs. “Your friend Jack just bought my paintings. All three of them!”

Bryce’s eyebrows couldn’t physically go any higher. His mouth drops open before he comes to his senses and snaps it shut again.

“Oh, fantastic. That’s excellent,” he says. “Huge congratulations, Alice, and what a great investment, Jack.”

He doesn’t hug her, just gives her shoulder a pat. Strange, since Bryce seems quite an affectionate kind of guy.

“I didn’t do it for the investment,” I tell the guy whose asshole drove me insane. “I did it because I wanted them,” I say, and crack out my joker smile. “I always love a threesome. How could I resist?”

Bryce doesn’t rise to it. His eyes are earnest as they land on mine, and there’s tension there. Serious tension.

I should let this scenario pass by as a mystery, but I’m too intrigued. I’m the kind of guy who can never finish up a game of Cluedo until I know the killer.

Alice relays to Bryce my spiel of what I saw in the paintings, and he’s trying to listen, but his thoughts are with me. Trying to keep me at bay somehow. But fuck that.

I like to play. Hard. And this Cluedo game has only just begun.

“The event finishes at ten, right?” I interject, and Alice nods.

“Yes, ten.”

I clap my hands. “Excellent, the night will still be young.”

“Hardly,” Bryce says, with a pathetic laugh, but I’m not looking at him, I’m looking at Alice.

I play my energy as casually as I can.

“How about all three of us head out for a celebratory drink afterwards?”

“I’d love that,” Alice says, without so much of a pause. “You’ll come, won’t you, Bryce? Dad’s finished now, yes?”

She tips her head towards the corner of the room, where the group of men are dispersing.

Ah, ok.

Her dad.

The clues are coming in thick and fast.

If I was a betting man – which I am – I’d say that Alice Rose Parker’s father isn’t just a friend of Bryce’s, but a colleague. And from the way he gives me a glare of absolute horror when I smirk at the realisation, I’d bet Alice’s father is not just a colleague, but a superior. An important one.

Oh, how life can get complicated. The clues are addictive.

“Let’s do it,” I say, and cut the conversation short. I pat Bryce on the arm. “I’ll go log my payment details with the charity broker, and we’ll make a move as soon as this place is done.”