Decipher (Declan Reede: The Untold Story #3) (31 page)

“Of course, he might not have mentioned it because he thought he’d been invited to a date with the leggy strategist from Sinclair Racing. I hope he’s not too disappointed to find out who his date really is.”

“Fuck you, Declan!”

I chuckled. “I thought I’d just explained that, Darcy. Never. Again.” In the next breath, I called out, “Hey, Blake! Over here.”

Darcy went from a red so deep she’d almost gone purple to a white that would rival the finest china. She’d clearly thought I was bluffing about inviting Blake.

“Declan? What—” He cut off when he saw Darcy standing with Alyssa and me. “Darce? What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same question, Blake!” The words were spat with such disdain, I almost felt sorry for him. But only until I remembered the things he’d said about Alyssa in the pub when I’d first arrived back in Browns Plains.

“God, you’re both as bad as each other,” I muttered and then led Alyssa away as the two of them started a shouting match that soon filled the entire room with their voices.

When I was far enough away from them, I turned to Alyssa. I almost didn’t want to look at her, because she’d fallen suspiciously quiet and her back was ramrod straight as she’d walked at my side.

“What the fuck was that about?” she asked. Her mouth was tight, mashed into a line that showed her clear displeasure.

Fuck. I’d hoped she’d see the funny side of it. “Exactly what I said it was about. I wanted to be sure Darcy got the message loud and clear that we’re together and to back off.”

“So you tricked her into coming into the city, spending a fortune on a dress, getting made-up, just to prove a point.”

Across the room, the sound of a slap echoed around the hall and Darcy stormed off, out of the ballroom. Despite Alyssa’s unease, I chuckled at the sight because honestly, I was feeling pretty damn proud of the reaction I’d got. It was no less than either of them deserved.

“Are you kidding me right now?” Alyssa’s gaze was wild as she turned back to me.

The laughter died on my lips. “What?”

For a moment, all Alyssa did was stare at me. She barely even blinked. Then she turned away. “We should probably find our table.” Her voice sounded like something had defeated her—as if she’d been the one on the receiving end of the payback I’d dished to Darcy. She walked off without waiting for me to escort her.

It took me a moment for my thoughts to catch up with what had happened. “Lys?”

I started after her, but Paige’s hand caught me instead. Her talon-like nails dug into my forearm. “I didn’t think you were bringing, um, what was her name again.” She waved her hand in Alyssa’s direction as if to dismiss her as unimportant. “Oh well, I’m sure we can squeeze her onto our table.”

“I don’t have a seat at your table.”

“Don’t be silly, Declan, of course you do.”

“No. I don’t. Sorry, Paige, I was given a better offer for tonight, so I gave my ticket away.” I nodded over to where Blake was sitting in the seat that should have been mine, looking like someone had just run over his puppy. “He’s an old school friend. I didn’t think you’d mind.”

I tugged my arm free of her hold and started toward Sinclair’s table, where Alyssa was just finding a seat.

“You’re sitting at Sinclair’s table?” Paige’s voice pitched higher than I would have thought possible.

“Yeah. See, Morg and Edie invited me. They were so excited about seeing me again that I didn’t have the heart to tell them no.”

“What about our little chat?”

“Yeah, about that. Can we rain check it again for a couple of hours? I have some entertaining to do soon, while Alyssa is otherwise occupied.” I winked at her, certain that she would have been in the loop about the hotel room date I had with Tillie and Talia. “I should be back down around eleven if you want to chat then?”

“Maybe we can chat in your room?”

I chuckled. “Sorry, Paige, I’m hoping that will be occupied most of the night. I’ll meet you at your table, and then we can go somewhere private. Although, I probably should tell you that Sinclair Racing have made me an offer too. One I’m very tempted to accept.”

The corners of her eyes pinched as she glared at me. “I thought you were set on coming to race for me, darling.” The way she said the word darling made it sound more like she wanted to choke the shit out of me than anything else.

I shrugged. “Nothing’s set until it’s in print, right?”

After assessing me carefully, she nodded.

“Oh, and Paige.” I slid my hand into the right-hand pocket of my pants, where I had one hotel room key. Being as inconspicuous as I could, I placed it into her hand. “Can you pass this to Tillie for me?”

She nodded and slipped the card into her bag.

I headed over to the Sinclair Racing table, and took my seat next to a very frosty Alyssa, who was deep in conversation with Danny’s wife, Hazel.

Danny welcomed me with a nod before giving me a questioning look, no doubt in response to Alyssa’s refusal to even acknowledge I’d sat down. I just waved off his curiosity and concern. She’d come around once she realised what having Darcy and the others off our backs meant for the longer term.

Before long, the first course was dropped to the table. All throughout the meal, Alyssa barely said a word to me. Even once dessert had come and gone, I was still facing the cold shoulder. Although it didn’t seem arctic as much as bottled-up and ready to burst.

Not for the first time, I cursed the fact that I hadn’t warned her what the night was really about. There was still one more stage too, and after her reaction to the first part, I was more determined than ever to keep her out of it. Not only would she have plausible deniability, but it would also mean she’d have less reason to be pissed at me.

Around eight thirty, I excused myself from the room. In some ways, having Alyssa not talking to me was easier for this part. At least she didn’t demand to come with me.

When I was near the door, and close enough to Wood Racing’s table that Tillie could see me, I walked up to Sophie, one of the women who worked in promotions at Sinclair Racing. She was partially in on the scheme, so she knew I’d be interrupting her evening for a little while. With a nod, a smile, and a touch to her arm, I led her out of the room and toward the hotel elevator.

While I was waiting, I caught sight of Tillie watching me from the door to the ballroom.

Turning my back on Sophie, I tapped my watch and mouthed, “See you later,” to Tillie.

The risk of course was that she’d go straight to Alyssa and let her know where I’d disappeared to, but Eden and Morgan were on hand for that, at least for the next ten minutes before they moved into position.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: CAUGHT OUT

A LITTLE BEFORE nine, I was waiting alone in room 608 of the Suncrest Hotel with the door ajar, listening for movement outside. Sophie had headed down to her hotel room with instructions to keep herself amused for around an hour before heading back to the ball if she wished. Her part in the night was done, and now there was nothing to do but wait.

Wait for the trap to spring. For the concrete evidence that Tillie and Talia were trying to ruin me, with Paige pushing them from behind the scenes. The fact that from the time I’d agreed to discuss the position at Wood Racing I’d been paparazzi-free until I’d mentioned Sinclair again, and had the paps back on my arse, made me almost positive about my assumptions. If I was right, and she had been running some sort of smear campaign, the news that Sinclair Racing had made me an offer would be sure to send her into a frenzy.

After that would come a fresh round of scandal. Or at least, an attempt for it. The scandal she’d end up with, though, might not be the one she was hoping for. 

Just as I suspected, around ten past nine—almost an hour before the time the girls were supposed to arrive for our rendezvous—there was movement in the hallway. Moving with so much care that I was barely even drawing a breath, I crept toward the door with my camera in hand.

Through the crack in the door, I spotted the two women—one a mess of red curls and the other with sleek blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail. The key card that I’d given Paige was in Talia’s hand as they crept up to room 607—the one directly across the hall from mine.

Following in their wake was the young pap who’d baited me at Bondi and had followed me for so long since then. I slunk back into the shadows a little as he passed, rushing to catch up with the other two. Then I pushed the door open a little wider and stuck my camera through the gap to follow them.

Without a word between them, the three of them set themselves up in a row in front of the door. Tillie held up her hand and Talia poised the key card near the door. With a silent count of one-two-three using her fingers, Tillie counted them down. On the three, Talia slid the card into the reader on the door and shoved it open.

When they did, I crept out of my room and followed them with the camera.

“Declan, sorry we’re early, we—” Tillie’s voice grew quieter as she moved into the room before cutting off completely, no doubt as she spotted the actual guests. “What the hell! You’re not Declan!”

She swung around and spotted me. I couldn’t stop laughing when I came up behind the trio and saw that Morgan and Eden had obviously decided to take our plan a little bit too literally—they were both in a state of undress. The only thing left on the pair was his boxer-briefs, which were doing nothing to hide anything because of the way his dick made them tent out, and Edie’s bra and panties.

Morgan grinned and waved for my camera. Fucker never was a shy one.

“What the fuck is this?” Tillie practically screeched. “I thought we were supposed to be hooking up for some fun?”

“I don’t know what sort of kinky shit you’re into, bringing him with you.” I nodded toward the photographer. “Or maybe you just thought that you could catch a few photos of me in action if you got here early enough. Isn’t that right, T?”

Talia’s lip curled upward in disgust. If I’d been paying more attention to her face in the club rather than her boobs and her body, I might have seen just how similar her eyes were to Paige’s. They were a different colour, a slate grey rather than blue, but the same shape.

“I guess you might have got a scoop, even if it wasn’t the one you wanted. Sorry guys.” I winked at Morgan and Eden. “It really was time you two came out into the open with your relationship. Although, I didn’t expect you to get quite so . . . carried away.”

Morgan grinned at me. He was enjoying himself way too much—not that I could blame him because I was feeling pretty damn jubilant myself. Especially knowing that Alyssa was downstairs, unaware of what was happening. Hopefully that meant it wouldn’t make her madder at me. She’d come around about the Darcy thing before too long, I was sure of it.

“What can I say?” Morgan said. “This woman makes me insane.”

He wrapped his arm around Eden’s shoulders as she shot me a death stare that told me she hadn’t entirely been expecting visitors so early. I shrugged, but I didn’t think Morgan and I would be in too much trouble. We were still alive, for one thing. 

“But the texts,” Tillie said, as if she genuinely believed she had something over me because of half a dozen completely innocent texts between us.

“What about them?”

“You promised me a good time.”

“What is this? A fucking men’s bathroom? ‘For a good time, call.’ Plus, I offered nothing. All I gave in my text was a time and a place. How was I supposed to know you meant you wanted to meet up for sex? All you asked is for some fun. For all I knew from your texts, you just wanted a game of checkers.”

Morgan sniggered into his hand before Eden—who’d slipped her dress back on—slapped his bare chest with the back of her hand to silence him.

“You’ll pay for embarrassing us like this.” Talia looped her hand through Tillie’s arm and started to pull her back toward the door.

“How? Another article in
Gossip Weekly
? Is that supposed to scare me? At this point, you’d just be flogging a dead horse. It’s not like the public gives a shit about me.”

Tillie started to argue, but I held up my hand to silence her.

“However, they might be interested in a scandal involving a team owner running a smear campaign against an opposition driver just to get him to change teams. And about how she used nepotism and family favours to pull the strings to do it.”

Talia’s eyes widened a little. I could see the genuine fear flash across them for a fraction of a second. Her business probably meant the world to her; I wondered what her mother had on her that she’d agreed despite it all. Although looking at the way she looked at Tillie, I wondered whether maybe Paige had less influence than someone else.

“You can’t prove that,” Tillie said.

“Just like I can’t prove that it was you who drugged me at the benefit in November.”

Her smile was victorious.

“But,” I added before she could celebrate too much. “Gossip magazines don’t really need
proof,
do they? They just need enough evidence to make it not be libel. Say a recording of a trio of people entering a private hotel room looking for a scandal.”

“You can’t prove that’s what we were doing.”

“Maybe you’re right. Maybe we should let the public decide? I’ve got people ready to send the feed to the Internet.” I was bluffing, but it wouldn’t take long to upload the footage. “All it will take is a one-word signal from me and it’s up for the world to judge. What do you think?”

Talia grabbed Tillie’s hand again. “Can we just go, please?”

“You should listen to your girlfriend, Tillie. Or should I say, Miss M?”

She snarled at me.

“I know all about your little scam that you’ve been running. Chasing me all over town with your tits out and your tongue hanging from your head, pretending to be interested in me just so you could implicate me in scandal after scandal. And yeah, I probably did a pretty damn good job of helping you out, considering the shit that’s been going on in my life lately, but you crossed some pretty big lines.”

She glared at me.

“Sending anyone after Alyssa was the biggest. I can deal with anything anyone wants to say about me, I’ll take it all day every day, but bring her into it, and you can bet your bottom fucking dollar I will burn down every motherfucker who tries to hurt her.”

“You’ve only got yourself to blame there. She’s a two-bit nobody. No one would even give a shit about her if you hadn’t been involved.”

“Til, let’s just go,” Talia said, tugging at her arm.

I ignored her pleading and focused on Tillie. “She’s worth ten thousand of you.”

“You wouldn’t even know a good thing if it hit you.”

“And you’re a good thing are you? ’Cause from what I’ve seen, you’re just desperate for a story—any story—and if you get laid along the way it’s just a bonus. Admit it, it was all a set-up. Even when you were at the airport on your knees wanting to suck me off, it was all part of this game wasn’t it?”

Talia flinched away as I said the words. “What?”

I glanced between the girls and saw that there were secrets between them. “Oh! She didn’t tell you? How she got under the table at the fucking airport cafe, on her knees, begging me to let her suck my cock. How she kissed me in the cloakroom at the benefit, and probably would have done so much more if I’d let her? How she told me that she needs a bit of dick from time to time. Don’t tell me you’re keeping secrets from each other?” Each statement I said drew a new reaction out of Talia. Tillie looked like she was about ready to launch at me, claws bared.

“It was supposed to be together or not at all.” I didn’t know if Talia actually realised she was talking aloud. Her voice was quiet, almost pathetic, and her words were laced with agony. In the space of less than a minute, her face had paled to the point where I was surprised she was still upright. The sight was almost enough to make me feel guilty, but then a quick glance at Tillie wiped the guilt away.

Her face grew redder and redder, until I could almost see the blood vessels swelling beneath her skin. “How dare you!”

I scoffed. “How dare I? God, you’re pathetic. Just admit defeat and move on.”

“I’ll make your life a living hell.”

“No, you won’t.” It was Talia who’d spoken. “I won’t have you and Mum using my reputation this way anymore. Let’s go, Brad.”

The pap snapped to attention at her words.

Tillie snarled at me before moving to stop Talia. “But, baby, it was all for the story, I promise.”

“For the story,” Talia scoffed. “Then why wasn’t it on the list of things to include?”

I grinned at the fact that I’d just captured her admission on camera. It wasn’t enough to do anything legally, but I didn’t give a shit about legal. I just wanted them to back the fuck off and stay away. If I did something newsworthy, I deserved to be in the papers, but the muckraking had to stop.

“It didn’t feel like it was ‘for the story’ when you were clamouring to get under the table,” I said, to dig the knife in a little deeper. I couldn’t deny I was enjoying myself immensely.

Talia left the room, with Tillie close behind.

“Or when you were clutching at my cock through my pants,” I added as I rounded the corner to follow them with my taunts. 

I practically collided with Alyssa. The hurt, the pain, and the heartbreak that shone in her eyes stopped me dead in my tracks. Fuck. How long had she been standing there?

How much had she heard?

“What the fuck is going on?” Her tone was deadly.

I was fucked.

“Lys, I can explain,” I said as I led her back into our hotel room. The last thing I needed was Tillie coming back and witnessing the fight.

“You just can’t leave it, can you?” she asked as soon as we were through the door.

“Don’t you get it, Lys? We won,” I said.

“Won?”

“They’re going to back off. They’re not going to keep trying to dig up shit about me to get me kicked out of Sinclair again.”

“You could have done that yourself by not having anything for them to report on. There’s been nothing new despite the photographer being back.”

“They were just waiting for an opportunity because they thought I was actually going to change to Wood Racing. Now I’ve got something on them in return. Something that could threaten W. T. Entertainment’s reputation.”

Her frown deepened. “What about your reputation?”

“It was fucked anyway.”

“And mine?”

“They’re not going to come after us, Lys. We’ve got them by the balls now.”

“God, you’re nothing more than a man-child who’s so obsessed with revenge and proving something that he doesn’t give a shit about anyone else’s feelings in the matter.”

“Whose feelings? Darcy’s? Talia’s? Tillie’s? Paige’s? As if any of them don’t deserve a bit of heartache after everything they’ve done to me. To us.”

“No. Mine, Dec. You didn’t give a shit about me. Or Phoebe. I asked you to leave it, because it was finally settling. Because I’m supposed to be starting work at a professional law firm, one of the biggest in the world—a firm that could give me access to so much if I work hard enough—and just days before I’m supposed to start, you drag me back into these games. Do you think any of them are going to leave it be now?”

“Lys, I’m—”

“Don’t ‘Lys’ me, Declan. I can’t believe you’d do this. Worse, is the fact that you’d deliberately sneak around behind my back to set it all up. If you’re capable of lying to me about that, what else are you capable of lying about?”

A quiver raced through my body and my blood pounded in my ears as what I’d thought would be my moment of victory quickly became a disaster greater than any I’d faced. Even when I’d thought she’d left after the article, I didn’t have to face her anger or her obvious hurt. “I—I didn’t lie to you, Lys, I—”