In Her Sights (The Thousand Words Series Book 2) (12 page)

“Comfy?” Dev asked, laying one arm over her crossed legs.

“Yup,” she nodded. Lindsay pulled her tablet out of her purse on the table and started reading a book she put on there for the flight.

She was going to ignore Georgia and Krista if it killed her, and she was going to look smart, gorgeous, and confident while she did it. If she was going to lose Dev, it wouldn’t be to either of them. In fact, Lindsay tapped the screen to flip the page even though she hadn’t read it, she wasn’t going to lose Dev to Erika Atlas either. She’d call Erika, who would certainly deny it. Even if she was guilty as sin, you deny it unless you’re either caught red-handed, which she wasn’t, or you’re a ho. Not even a whore, just a cheap, low class, ho.

Lindsay stopped to consider that.
Was
Erika Atlas ...? No. She looked at Dev, watching him as he stopped typing at his laptop and considered something. His brow furrowed as he worked a problem over in his mind. He was just adorable, and naïve about so much she wanted to just scream. But Dev wouldn’t look once let alone twice at someone low-class or stupid. Men might be governed by the head without a brain an unreasonable amount of the time, but Dev’s hormones seemed to be stunted. If anyone knew that, she did.

Later that night, after the study group left and she and Dev were curled up in bed together, Lindsay rolled over and turned off the alarm on her phone. It was merely there as a precaution and anxiety kept her from falling asleep and needing it.

Beside her, Dev breathed heavily as she slid out of bed. He looked so peaceful. She felt terrible for doubting him, like somehow
she
was the guilty party. She was, but he was too. Maybe. What if he was? What if he wasn’t? Did it matter? Doubt bombarded Lindsay, just like it did on the flight from Seattle. She almost turned around and flew back as soon as she landed, unable to find the strength to confront him. Of course, she
wasn’t
confronting him.

Sneaking around the bed, Lindsay took his phone from his nightstand and left the bedroom. She crept downstairs and into the living room, closing the door behind her. No one ever came in here. Above her was a spare bedroom, below her was Frau Schmidt’s sewing and laundry room, unlikely to be in use at this time of night.

Lindsay took a deep breath to steel her nerves. She pulled up Dev’s text messages, none from Erika. No recent calls either. Of course Olly told her Dev would erase the evidence as soon as she walked through the door. Assuming it was even there to begin with, Lindsay told herself. She pulled up his contacts list. Erika’s number was there. She had hoped it wouldn’t be.

Closing her eyes and taking another breath, Lindsay opened them again. She dialed Erika.

○ ○ ○

Erika was still haunted by the first time she saw Devin Giles. She was addicted to watching their website for each new prank when A Thousand Words opened for Rushing On. Her manager talked her out of crashing their backstage parties in favor of inviting Dev into the studio for a collaborative effort.

Mark was a genius. The singles placed well in the charts, the videos were popular and gave her a valid reason to get to know Dev better. She discovered he was secretive and skittish.

That was three years and entirely too many appletinis ago. Dev would turn twenty-one next week, Erika reflected as she stared at the drink in her hand. She knew him better and wanted him even more, but wasn’t any closer to making him hers. He didn’t drink and Erika knew, if she actually caught him, she’d have to stop. She’d live. Sadly, she drank more
because
of him. Her liver was probably cheering her on more than anyone else.

Erika walked over to her piano and sat down, setting her drink on top. She took out her pencil and made some notes on the pages in front of her. Lately she’d written a series of songs focusing on slutty women that didn’t deserve the men they had. They were pretty much all based on Lindsay Caffey, and Erika made sure she worded them carefully so Dev wouldn’t recognize his darling girlfriend in the hateful lyrics.

She didn’t understand what he saw in her. Fine, she was pretty. Erika was pretty. Thinking Dev preferred blonds, Erika briefly went blond. And she personally thought she did it better. Dev gave her a curious look the next time he saw her and told her in no uncertain terms that he preferred her as a brunette, she just ‘looked weird.’

Erika didn’t think she’d ever been told she looked weird before in her life. Kenny was with them and smacked the back of Dev’s head. Dev apologized immediately and he did it beautifully. He reworded his criticism to say she simply looked stunning as a brunette, it favored her eyes. Erika laughed, she had to. When she saw him next as a brunette again, he nodded and said, ‘better.’

She took it as a good sign at the time, but still didn’t know where she stood in relation to Lindsay. Could Dev talk to Lindsay like that? He refused to talk to Erika about anything personal. Not even school. Instead, Erika was left to talk to Kenny and Jess to get information. It was always hints of this and that. They seemed supportive of her efforts, but not openly.

Bryan was nice, and seemed to know Dev well, but also seemed to see right through her. Erika wasn’t able to get much information out of Bryan other than Dev had a girlfriend and she was good for him. They were well-suited for each other. Erika didn’t want to hear any of that.

After shooting a video with A Thousand Words while on their tour, Erika quietly bribed a photographer to tweak a few pictures of her and Dev to look more intimate.

The pictures looked like they’d just kissed and were coming up for air. They went viral and rumors of a romance spread like wildfire. Of course Dev and Erika made statements denying the rumors. She also had her manager make sure the pictures and headlines stayed very much alive and in the public eye. With only a little encouragement and direction on Erika’s part, Kenny and their managers came up with the idea of a public relations ‘relationship’ between her and Dev. No one believed there wasn’t a relationship anyway, they may as well benefit from it. Pictures here and there were easy to stage. A few events, a couple dinners. Erika could easily drop in on Dev and have someone take their picture. They simply wouldn’t comment on the pictures or deny any rumors. No one listened anyway. Things shouldn’t get out of hand with the G-rated material they were staging. They worked together and they were friends. Friends could be seen together.

Erika couldn’t believe Dev agreed. She
really
couldn’t believe he got Lindsay to go along with it. If she was his girlfriend, Erika would have said absolutely not. Erika reached for her appletini and took a sip, grimacing at the reminder at how little she understood about Dev’s relationship with his girlfriend.

Dev avoided photographers. Erika discovered it was like he lived in a bubble. It didn’t matter, the paparazzi followed Erika like she traveled with a neon sign over her head. Getting pictures of them together spread around was easy. Although she found she had to warn him she was going to show up or his rabbit-about-to-sprint expression would give away their little game. It was kind of cute, or would be if he wasn’t running from her.

If she sent him a text a few minutes in advance, he could steel himself, and his panicked expression was easily misinterpreted as merely surprised. She usually over-played her initial smile as a reminder to him. Dev’s answering shy, uneasy smile made him look a little happy to see her to someone who didn’t know him well enough to see how uncomfortable he was. Erika let them take a few pictures as she grabbed Dev’s arm and led him to the nearest private place. Looking for privacy invited public speculation, but in truth she was just trying to get him away from the cameras that threatened to give the poor boy a panic attack. She’d love to reward him with a big kiss and a snuggle, or something even more intimate, but had to settle for a Diet Coke or Dr. Pepper. For some reason, he always switched to Dr. Pepper in November and April.

Erika glanced over at a picture she had framed of her and Dev at the beach. He was smiling at her – a real smile, and it was really at
her
. She adored that picture because of the dozens out there, this one was genuine. Dev was really with her for a while. They talked, he laughed, smiled, and was actually
there.
Too bad it didn’t last. He had to catch a plane and go back to college. That was over a year ago. Erika didn’t understand why Dev was determined to interrupt his life for a degree he admitted he’d never use. It complicated working with the band, stressed him on tour, and – although he didn’t say it outright – seemed to make things difficult somehow with Lindsay. Maybe college wasn’t so bad after all, Erika decided.

She finally got Jess drunk at a party a few months ago and got him to open up about Lindsay. Not as much as she wanted, but a bit. There was a lot Jess didn’t know about the woman Dev had been with for years. Dev didn’t talk about her, not even to Jess and Kenny. Bryan knew something. Secrets. Lindsay and Dev were keeping secrets. Erika was dying to know what.

At first Lindsay was a goth and Dev wouldn’t even kiss her, and yet he wanted to marry her from the first date. Erika thought that was cute, but it also made her want to scream.

Jess said Lindsay led Dev around by the nose. He also said Dev was all about not having sex, it was the only thing he showed any backbone on. But Lindsay cornered him in Chicago last spring and pushed the issue. Kenny was there, they were sure he caved. Jess labeled her a slut and a player. Jess was too, so Erika trusted he would know.

He passed out eventually, but Erika was satisfied. Jess brought up some good points: Dev wanted to marry Lindsay from their first date but she was nineteen now, and they not only weren’t married, they weren’t even living together. Dev indicated before that college was some sort of problem between him and Lindsay, and Jess implied Lindsay was a wedge between Dev and Jess and Kenny. Adding up the pieces, Erika decided, for the good of Dev and A Thousand Words
,
Lindsay really needed to go. Kenny and Jess no doubt thought so too, although Dev would fuss about it. He just couldn’t see it clearly. He was too close.

Seeing that what she wanted was actually good for Dev and his band, and that was great and all, but it didn’t solve Erika’s problem. She stared at the sheet music in front of her and played a few bars. It was late and her heart wasn’t in it, but she persisted. Erika tried again.

The Thousand Words song playing lightly took a moment to register before she stopped and realized it was the ringtone she had set for Dev. Dev was calling her?

Erika spilled her appletini when she hurried to stand and swore as the sticky green liquid spread across the shiny white laminate of her baby grand. She turned her back on the mess and fumbled in her pocket, pulling out her phone and swiping her finger across the screen to answer.

“Hello?” Erika tried to sound casual but was sure she failed.

“I hope I didn’t interrupt something.” An amused woman on the other end of the line said. Erika’s brow pulled together as she held the phone away from her ear and checked the caller-ID again: Dev’s face smiled back at her from the screen.

“No. I was just ... never mind. No, not busy. Who is this?” Erika asked, unsure of what was going on, but unwilling to play games with whoever had Dev’s phone.

The woman paused and Erika’s anxiety grew. Who would have Dev’s phone and call her? Who would want to? Who would have the nerve? Erika sat down on the piano bench, flinching as she noticed the mess the spilled appletini made. Righting the glass, she saw the sheet music was wet as well.

Lindsay. She could certainly get Dev’s phone and might conceivably call her. But why? Erika asked herself. Because Erika was making a play for Dev. Of course it hadn’t been going very well.

“Lindsay?” Erika asked, her voice barely a whisper, and she prayed the younger woman didn’t think she was actually afraid of her. She wasn’t. Only that she’d clue Dev in on what she was up to, Erika admitted to herself.

“Good guess. Guilty conscience?” Lindsay asked.

“What?” Erika asked, almost breathless. She knew. Of course she knew, how could she not?

“You and Dev,” Lindsay said and Erika’s eyes flicked to the picture of Erika and Dev at the beach, of Dev smiling at Erika instead of Lindsay. Erika knew that one smile, of the hundreds in pictures they’d posted, was the only one that was genuine. Didn’t Lindsay see?

Erika saw a recent copy of
Shining Starz
magazine
Mark left for her with a picture of her and Dev on the front. He didn’t like that she now shared cover time with Dev using low-quality paparazzi pictures instead of professional pictures of just her, but that didn’t matter to Erika. What did matter was that Dev’s cute little half smile was the same as his smile in the photo with her at the beach. Erika knew the one at the beach was genuine because she was there, she saw it in context, but no one else would see it.

Lindsay didn’t know he was faking it,
Erika realized. She had to; Kenny said Dev told her about the PR dating scheme and Dev confirmed it later.

Lindsay cleared her throat. “Are you planning on answering?” she asked.

Lindsay didn’t know
.

“What about me and Dev?” Erika asked, wondering how to turn this to her advantage. Lindsay was told, but she must not believe it. Why not? What changed?