In Her Sights (The Thousand Words Series Book 2) (11 page)

In Chicago, Kenny had a limo waiting and dropped Paige and Francois off at her house before heading to his hotel. She was a little miffed she didn’t get a chance to spend time with him alone, but it wasn’t as if she didn’t have his number.

The next couple of days were busy with welcome back and congratulatory dinners. Few knew Paige didn’t expect to win, so her thrill at achieving the number eight spot was genuine. Preston spoiled the achievement for her with his appearance and decision to bring Alastair with him.

“Paige,” Alastair said quietly, raising his champagne glass in an understated salute. Having done his part, Preston turned and left. Paige hoped he choked on his gimlet and faced her ex with a bright smile.

“Alastair, I’m so glad you could make it,” she answered in the way of greeting. This particular party was relatively small, but there were still abundant ears nearby and Paige hoped he wasn’t here to make a scene.

“I doubt that. You’ve been avoiding me for over a month.”

“I’ve been a little busy. If you’re
here,
” she gestured at the room full of mingling guests, “then I suspect you’re aware of that.”

“The crown wasn’t going to happen. Preston told me everything, including that. He said you might not even keep the one you have. Dad’s pushing for it, you know.”

He didn’t raise his voice and didn’t seem to be trying to make a scene, but she knew this would attract attention at some point. Paige had hoped they wouldn’t do this here and looked for somewhere to lead Alastair where they could talk in private. Of course that was its own scandal in the making. She glanced about for Francois, wondering where the hell he was. The first time she actually
wanted
a chaperone and he was MIA. This wasn’t even her house, it belonged to one of the organization’s major donors. Someone who backed her, privately of course, in her bid to be Miss Great Lakes. There was nowhere to go to escape the notice Alastair would eventually draw to them, intentional or not.

“Let me offer you a fresh glass.”

Paige jumped when Kenny appeared beside her and removed the champagne flute from her fingers. He handed her another glass, even though she’d hardly touched her own.

She looked around to see if anyone noticed Kenny’s sudden appearance by her side. A few people had, but no one that was likely to be aware of their relationship, of sorts.

“What are you doing here?” she whispered, then realized that sounded as if she wasn’t glad to see him. Actually, with Alastair sizing him up the way he was, Paige wasn’t sure it was a good idea for Kenny to be here at all.

“Offering my congratulations, of course.” He smiled. “And Francois called.”

That explained a great deal.

“This is actually a private party for those who contributed to Paige’s rise to royalty. Figuratively speaking,” Alastair said.

“Actually, it’s technically sponsored by the board and therefore available to those who contributed to the Miss Great Lakes Program. If you make a sizable donation, and you know Paige, as it turns out you can score invites to these things as a thank-you.
Literally
speaking,” Kenny answered with a smile. “And I did help her with the Miss North America thing. I’m sure that counted for something.”

Alastair nodded. “Was that to pay them off so she doesn’t lose her state crown? Or are you going to get your band together and play a couple of songs?”

“Just a donation, no strings attached. The guys would probably give me a hand again if I needed to do a benefit concert, but it won’t be necessary. She cleared the top ten. It’d look bad for them to depose her now.”

“She only made eight because of you.”

Paige bristled and fought the urge to slap Alastair. She should really walk away from this. He always had the uncanny ability to push her buttons. The men on either side of her were nearly oblivious to her presence though, so leaving wouldn’t end this. If anything it’d get worse without her there to mitigate.

“No, she made it that far on her own. I only partially balanced out the damage Preston did. She might have gone higher if he’d been a better brother. I suspect she would have.” Kenny took a drink from the glass he was holding, Paige’s glass. He barely sipped before making a face.

“Warm?” Paige asked with a smile.

“Hmm, and flat. Doesn’t matter. It’s only meant to be a prop,” he said, looking at his glass. Turning his attention back to Alastair, Kenny continued. “This conversation would be better suited elsewhere.”

“She wouldn’t return my calls.”

“I suspect she might now.” Kenny nudged Paige toward the open french doors at the far side of the room. Paige nodded in farewell to Alastair and let Kenny direct her out of the suddenly oppressive room.

Francois joined them from wherever he was hiding before they’d made it halfway to their destination.

“You need a chaperone. Also, make it quick. Paige, you need to mingle,” Francois said with an air of one that assumed he would be obeyed.

“So that was Alastair,” Kenny said as soon as they reached the balcony.

There were a few other guests out admiring the city lights from the penthouse but no one Paige knew and they ignored her. Paige had seen the view before and leaned against the brushed steel railing as she faced Kenny. He didn’t look upset, but you could never tell. Alastair was handsome, smooth, and tall. Kenny might be tallying a list in his mind now.

“Yes,” she answered. Simple was better. “Thank you for coming. I –”

“You’ll probably be seeing me at most of these things now. Just in case.”

Paige smiled just for him and his eyes lit slightly when he noticed the difference. “I can handle that.”

“I can see why you left him. Alastair, I mean. Is he going to continue to be a problem?”

“I’m not sure. He said something about Hale, his dad, pushing to have my title removed.”

“You’ll be fine.”

“Hale can make donations too. And he’s a local businessman with no small amount of pull. Things add up.”

Kenny just shook his head. “When I spoke with Ambrose and Mark on the board, they’d already talked to Hale. I took a chance and told them about Preston and the Miss North America Pageant. I told them what I did to counter your brother’s sabotage, in part anyway.

“Image is more important than Hale realizes. People put down this competition saying it’s all about a pretty face. You know better, Hale does too, as do the people on the board. The image you present can’t afford to be tarnished. They want to bury this, especially now that you cleared that top-ten hurdle. That was an achievement they can take pride in. It’s something the girls who dream can take pride in. And it’s something that brings in donations.

“Ambrose and Mark weren’t happy when I pointed out you could have gone further. And they were grateful I stepped in to level the playing field, at least as much as I could.”

“It’s hard to say I could have gone further, Kenny.”

“No, it’s not. Did you really not realize exactly how they dealt the cards and quietly shuffled you off?”

Paige shrugged slightly. “I knew it would happen. I wasn’t looking for when or how.”

He nodded. “That’s fair, I suppose. It was your interview.”

“Oh. Makes sense, my score was low. My question was a bit ...”

“Harder? Non-standard? Noticed that did you?”

“Difficult to miss. I forgot about that.”

“You’re in denial. They eliminated you and Miss Baja that way.”

“Miss Baja? Kenny, I made it to the semi-finals because of you. If there was anyone else they wanted to be rid of, it would have been much easier to do it before it was televised.”

“I’ll grant you that, if you’ll concede I may not have been the only one who interfered. Their host –”

“Jack Sloan has always been very vocal about being from Paramus, New Jersey,” Paige argued.

“And his wife is from Tijuana.”

“So was Kyndra,” Paige said, more to herself than to Kenny.

“I assume that’s Miss Baja?”

Paige nodded. “Okay. So the board will occasionally exchange favors. I really didn’t want to know that.”

“Relax. Francois and I were watching and discussing it. With the exception of the two of you, it all looked on the level. He knows scoring and agreed with everyone’s scores. He believes you would have passed the interview had you been given a normal question. Your question wasn’t so far off-spec most would notice, just enough that the judges could, and did, score lower for your answer.”

She nodded again. “We don’t know the questions, obviously, but we know the formats they use, the topics they’ll choose from, and what they’re looking for. I should have been able to handle it better.”

Kenny looked around and, confused, Paige did as well, wondering what he was looking for. Seeing nothing of interest, except Francois’s unhappy face as he silently faced them and shielded them from view of the people mingling inside, she turned back to Kenny.

His lips met hers, briefly, gently. Just a feather-light brush. Barely a kiss at all. She nearly staggered with the emotional impact.

Sliding a hand around her waist to steady her, Kenny whispered in her ear. “The deck was stacked so don’t second guess yourself. You were amazing.”

Lindsay watched the video with a level of apathy that amazed her, although it was melting away. Erika Atlas was a whore. Lindsay already knew that, she didn’t need to watch her hanging on Dev in a music video to prove it.

Dev didn’t get it. He was uncomfortable talking about Erika, and Kenny’s argument that convinced him to permit the rumor that he and Erika had a relationship. Well, at least stop denying it. Apparently it was great for publicity to have the photos of them together show up all over the web and celebrity magazines. It pissed Lindsay off more every time she saw them. Kenny was
supposed
to be Dev’s friend, although he certainly wasn’t Lindsay’s, and she had been waiting for this little gem of an idea to blow up on him. One of Dev’s fans was bound to notice his stand-offish attitude toward his ‘girlfriend’ at some point. Why wasn’t anyone noticing Dev’s shy smile was still shy with Erika? Why has
no one
questioned why they don’t have a single picture of a kiss? Even on the cheek? An arm around her? Or holding hands? Was the media
that
dense?

But Kenny’s plan hadn’t backfired yet, and now there was another video. That made four videos. Why couldn’t they just sing and release the singles? Why did they have to shoot videos? Why videos like these? It was like all the lovey steamy smut no one was capturing in pictures was saved for the videos.

She wondered if Dev would cut his ties to Erika Atlas if she asked him. Kenny would kill her. He hated her anyway. The call to come save Dev in Atlantic City was surprising until she thought about it. It wasn’t support for Dev so much as he didn’t want Dev to melt down before he could bag Paige. Now that his little drama was done, Kenny was back on the job of making her life difficult.

On the screen, Erika slid behind Dev and wrapped her arms around him. One was around his waist, almost. If it was a few inches higher it’d be around his waist. The other hand crawled up his stomach and chest like something slimy. Lindsay had to suppress the urge to throw up.

Okay, so maybe Kenny wasn’t responsible for the atrocity she was watching now, but he certainly didn’t prevent it. If he was Dev’s friend, he’d remind the cutie on her screen that he had a girlfriend. Specifically that he had a girlfriend that didn’t like watching this shit! Kenny had a lot of influence with Dev. Well so did she.

Lindsay clicked to freeze the video as Erika ground her hips against
her
boyfriend. Dev’s face failed to show the disgust Lindsay felt. She picked up her phone, intent on calling Dev, but found herself calling Randy instead. She didn’t realize her mistake until he picked up.

“I haven’t heard from you in a long time. Thought you said you were done with me,” his voice betrayed just a hint of a smooth southern drawl. And a smile.

Lindsay hesitated. She
was
done with him. He was a great lay, but she had Dev. Didn’t she? Her eyes flicked back to the scene frozen on her computer.

“Never mind. I misdialed,” Lindsay said, intent on hanging up.

“Wait a sec,” Randy said. “How about lunch? I was just going to meet up with Ruby and Olly.”

Lindsay glanced at the time on her computer, then her eyes flashed back up to where Erika’s hips pressed against Dev’s.

“Sure. Roberto’s?” She asked, knowing it was Olly’s favorite and just about the only place they ever went.

Randy laughed. “Naturally. Half hour?”

“See you there.” Lindsay hung up, already dreading the decision to go. She needed to think this through, and it would help to talk it over, but Dev wouldn’t be happy if she talked it over with Ruby and Olly. He’d be livid if he even found out about Randy.

She should call and cancel, then call Becky. Maybe drop in on her mom. Or even her dad. Lindsay checked her reflection in the mirror in her room, refreshing her lipstick and running a brush through her hair. She grabbed her purse and keys. The keys made her hesitate. It was Dev’s car.

It wasn’t like she was stealing his car or anything. Lindsay closed her laptop and slid it into its case, bringing it along. She wasn’t even sure why. She hadn’t decided whether she would talk to Ruby about this. Dev wasn’t cheating on her, she was sure of it.

○ ○ ○

“He’s
so
cheating on you,” Ruby said after watching the video for the third time. “But, then again, you aren’t exactly an angel yourself, angel.”

“Dev understands my problem, Ruby,” Lindsay ignored the slam. “He’s my polar opposite, so he doesn’t get to sleep around.”

“A little unfair, don’t you think? You get to be yourself and be a nympho, he gets to be himself and be a prude. You get to ‘control yourself’ and be a prude, he gets to ... be himself. Shouldn’t he get to experiment?” Randy asked.

Lindsay rounded on him. “Whose side are you on?”

“Yours, but before you call him to the table on this, you need to take a step back. I’ve been your release valve a few times now, and God knows how many others there were or are. I’m not judging, just saying.” He held up his hands in a defensive posture. “Where’s his release valve?”

Ruby shook her head. “Erika Atlas isn’t a release valve, Randy. She’s a main course, but I see your point. It’s nice of you to take that stance, boys stick together and all that,” she paused and glared at Olly. “Why aren’t you defending the little geek?”

Olly shrugged. “Can’t stand the pompous twit.”

Ruby rolled her eyes and returned her attention to Lindsay. “Don’t tell Dev he said that.”

“Go ahead. He doesn’t like me either,” Olly disagreed. Randy snickered.

“How can you tell?” Ruby asked, her eyes boring into him as if daring him to give the wrong answer. With Randy laughing quietly beside him, Olly seemed to have more of a backbone.

“Did he say something to you?” Lindsay asked, wondering if Olly would be honest now that he thought he had backup.

“No. Guys just know these things.”

Lindsay and Ruby gave curt nods and dropped it. Olly didn’t really know, but there wouldn’t be any convincing him.

“Anyway, as I was saying,” Ruby continued. “Erika Atlas isn’t a one night stand, and she isn’t a release valve. She wouldn’t stand for it. Not from anyone, not even Devin Giles. I think those promo shots on the celeb sites are real. If they were staged, she’d be kissing his cheek or something. But it’s always him helping her out of a limo. Or they’re together at some event and he’s handing her a drink or whispering in her ear. I hate to say it, but I love that one at the beach where she’s sitting on his shoulders.”

“Enough, Ruby,” Lindsay said through gritted teeth.

“I think her point is there’s something going on. They’re together a lot,” Olly said.

“That and the ‘it’s not real it’s just for publicity’ thing is just an excuse Dev’s feeding you so you don’t get upset when you see the pictures,” Ruby nodded.

Lindsay didn’t want to hear this. She shook her head dismissively. “No, Ruby. Not Dev. It’s not that he’s a prude. He’s just reserved. It’s how his mom raised him. It took me forever to get him to cave in. Not because he didn’t want it, or even because of his values. Teri had him on a guilt trip from beyond the grave every time I got him hard. I can’t see it. I don’t think he’s capable of cheating, he’d be suicidally morose.” Lindsay closed the laptop. She was wrong to discuss this with Ruby and Olly. What was she thinking?

“How long have you been dating?” Ruby asked.

Lindsay picked up the laptop case but paused and looked up at the question. Ruby knew very well how long they’d been together. She ranted about it often enough.

“Four years last week. I still have a sunburn from our weekend getaway to prove it. Why?”

“Right. And you finally got him laid when?”

Lindsay frowned. “A year ago.”

“Right. And he said then that he wanted to marry you, right?”

Lindsay wasn’t comfortable with this conversation, but she nodded.

“Right?” Ruby asked again, clearly wanting her to give voice to her answer.

“Right,” Lindsay whispered.

“So since that time, your birthday has come and gone –”

“An engagement ring isn’t a birthday present, Ruby,” Lindsay interrupted.

“It is for some, and Christmas has also come and gone. Setting those aside, your fourth anniversary has also passed. How long is he planning on dating you before popping the question? At this rate, by the time he gets around to asking, angel, you could be looking at a ten-year engagement. Either that, or his heart isn’t in it.”

Lindsay shoved the laptop in the case, shaking her head and refusing to believe it. Of course she did believe it, or at least had doubts. Doubt was what forced her to come here in the first place.

“Lin, you can’t let him slide on this,” Ruby said, reaching out to take Lindsay’s hand. “You have to address it.”

“And do what? Talk to him? There’s nothing Dev can say. He can’t believably deny it. Just the fact that I suspect he’s cheating will upset him. He’d probably be calmer if he really is banging Erika Atlas.”

“There’s your benchmark then. See how calm he is instead of how guilty,” Randy advised with a smile. Lindsay wanted to slap him.

“No. The point is, it’s a no-win situation. If I accuse him of something like that, I can’t back away from it. Particularly when I’m guilty of the same thing myself. He doesn’t ask me and he has every right to. He has every reason to suspect that I
had
to have slipped in the last four years. Dev doesn’t say a word about it.”

“You have a condition,” Ruby frowned.

“A diagnosis isn’t a free pass. Besides, Dev and I are in an exclusive –”

“You assume,” Olly interrupted.

“Officially,” Lindsay said, making and maintaining eye contact long enough to make him turn away. “An exclusive intimate relationship, and now that I’m eighteen and free from high school, I can fly out to see him whenever I need to. He leaves plenty of time in his very busy schedule for me, even juggling things at the last minute if I need him to. Granted I have to skip my own classes if I do that, but I can and sometimes do.”

“He should make the gesture of skipping his classes for you,” Ruby said with a little sniff.

“Dev’s at MIT,” Lindsay shook her head. “And he’s taking a full class load. I’ve just got a few at the community college for now. It’s easier for me to get caught up.

“He comes home when he can, I’m not always the one on a plane. We’re managing my condition together. Part of Dev helping is that he doesn’t ask about my past, and he doesn’t ask about my mistakes.”

“And he doesn’t ask if you’ll marry him,” Ruby finished.

Lindsay hesitated.

“Do you even talk about it?” Ruby asked.

“Sometimes. A little. Dev takes it as said and done that we’ll get married. I mean he knows that he has to ask and all that, but when we talk ... it’s like we’re talking about years down the road. Planning for when we’re already married. Talking about someday.”

“Pipe dreams,” Ruby said.

“Look,” Olly said with a sigh. “You won’t confront Dev, can we just take that as a given? It’s obvious. You’re going to look the other way no matter what other evidence piles up or what else Ruby says. Why don’t you ask Erika Atlas?”

“What?” Lindsay asked, eyes wide as she stared at Olly. She didn’t know Erika, how the hell did Olly think she was going to ask her?

“Sure,” Randy laughed. “Just pick up the phone, say ‘hey, Erika, this is Dev’s girlfriend. I kind of got the impression you’re banging my honey and thought we should meet. So wanna grab a bite sometime? Get mani-pedis?’ That’ll be great!”

“Something like that,” Olly agreed.

Lindsay punched Randy in the arm. She’d hit Olly too, except he was across from her and she couldn’t reach that far. “That’s a great idea, Olly, except I don’t happen to have Erika Atlas’ phone number. Used to, lost it. Damn it!”

Ruby smiled. “Call from Dev’s phone, angel. Bet she’ll answer.”

○ ○ ○

After lunch, Lindsay went home, packed, and caught the next flight to Boston.

Dev was understandably surprised when she rang his doorbell and interrupted his study group. Just the same, she was glad she did. Lindsay didn’t care for some of the members of Dev’s study group.

Georgia and Krista smiled a little too sweetly as Dev pulled up a chair for her, confirming some members of Dev’s study group didn’t care for her either. Lindsay pushed her chair closer to Dev’s and took a seat.

Her position put her right beside Kevin, who kept brushing a hand ‘accidentally’ against her bare thigh. It would bother Dev. Lindsay was getting bothered too, and hot.

Standing, Dev looked up from his computer questioningly. She shook her head as she turned her chair ninety degrees so her back was to Kevin and moved it up against Dev’s. He raised his eyebrows and looked around the table, almost embarrassed when she straddled the chair and sat again. Kicking one bare leg up and over Dev’s head, Lindsay realized she probably just flashed James on his far side as she settled her calves on Dev’s lap. Oh well, the hazards of thongs and mini-skirts. If James was looking, good for him.