Chapter 17
17
“A sh, wait up!” Heath called out when I nearly reached the bar set up near the floor-to-ceiling windows at the side of the room. “Can we talk for a minute?”
His fingers wrapped around my arm but it was a gentle touch, unlike when he’d reprimanded Jade. I sucked a deep breath, because fuck, my crush on him hadn’t gone anywhere. Stupid fake dating idea had me all messed up.
“Sure,” I replied, aiming desperately for casual and unaffected. “What’s up?”
His brow dipped in a frown. “You’re mad at me.”
My jaw tightened, but ultimately I had no right to be pissed off. After all, we were fake . So, with that in mind, I shook my head. “Not at all. You did nothing wrong. Although, now that Carter knows we’re not actually dating, there’s probably no point in keeping up the charade anymore. Especially since you’re here with another girl.”
He ran a frustrated hand through his hair, drawing my attention to how great he looked in his tux. White tie was my new favorite dress code.
“Okay, well, I’m mad at you,” he announced, giving me a stubborn glare.
I squinted. “Why?”
He gestured in the direction we’d just come. “You’re here with Carter!”
“And…?” I wasn’t following his train of thought.
His scowl deepened. “And I’m fucking jealous, Ash. I wanted to?—”
“Hey…” Carly cut in, sliding an arm around my shoulders. “I’m not interrupting anything intense and serious here, am I?” As if she was fully aware that she absolutely was . “Cool. Good chat, Heathcliff. Your date is looking for you, and I need to talk with Ash. Bye.”
She smoothly steered me away from Heath and didn’t stop until she’d practically dragged me up the grand staircase and parked us on a chaise lounge overlooking the party.
“What was that all about?” I asked, perplexed.
She shot me a long look. “I could ask the same, Ashley Layne. Since when were you caught in a love triangle between Heath and Carter? You really, really need to be careful around Carter, he’s?—”
“Got a short temper? I’m well aware. What’s up with you, though? You look…stressed.”
Carly grimaced, her gaze tracking over the party below us. “Yeah. I had a run-in with Paige and Jade.”
“Ah.” I hated that she was still being treated like some kind of homewrecking whore when it was Nate who’d cheated, not Carly. He was such a prick. I needed to punch him in the dick again. “Are you okay, though? They didn’t hurt you?”
Carly offered a weak smile. “They wouldn’t ever hurt me physically. It’s against society rules.” She gave me a wink and shrugged. “That’s why they settle for verbal abuse instead. And probably why Jade has steered clear of you all week.”
That was surprising, given the implications of Abigail’s experience. “Huh. I don’t know if I like that rule…” Then again, the phrasing of Carter’s warning about bitch-slapping Jade somewhere else made me think it’d be okay if no one was around to tattle. That thought made me smile. Then my traitorous imagination added in Carter watching with glee, and my stomach tightened in excitement and a touch of arousal. Crap.
“Are you cool hanging out with me until the gala ends? Or did you want to go back to whatever that messy little love triangle was down there?” Her pursed lips and narrowed eyes were full of questions, and I groaned.
“Truth?”
She nodded, looking vaguely offended. “Always.”
“There’s no love triangle. I’m not even dating Heath, he just…okay, fucking hell, this sounds really dumb now but it made sense at the time. I panicked about people starting rumors about me and Royce, and me and Carter, so I asked Heath to fake-date and contain the drama. Wow, okay, that is even worse out loud.” I scrunched up my face, resisting the urge to rub at my eyes and smudge my dark eye makeup. “What is wrong with me? That doesn’t even make sense!”
Carly cackled with laughter. “Oh my god, you manipulated yourself because you like Heath.”
I winced. “I think I did. But he was the one who suggested it.”
She rolled her eyes. “Of course he did. He’s also the one who kisses you in public, isn’t he? To make it seem real?”
My cheeks flamed with embarrassment. “Not just in public,” I muttered, feeling stupid.
Carly cracked up. “You’re not fake dating, my friend. You like each other. It’s totally okay , and actually weird that you don’t just admit it.”
I blew out a long breath. “Ah well, that would be thanks to carry-over resentment from Nate keying my car, then setting me up to look like a sex worker when Heath propositioned me inappropriately at my massage job.”
Her mouth just about hit the floor. “Excuse me?”
“Uh…long story. Sort of.”
“I have the time.” She rose to her feet and gestured to a waitress to bring us fresh drinks, then settled back into the lounge beside me. “Start at the beginning, you dirty secret-keeper.”
And so I did.
By the time I finished telling Carly all the details, including how sweet Heath had been with me all damn week, and all the kisses that were surely for more than just appearances, I had to admit she was probably right. Heath wasn’t just faking it. And neither was I.
Except he was here with Jade and hadn’t planned to tell me about it, and that still stung.
“Look. The Jade thing is a non-issue,” Carly announced. “Trust me. Picking a date for tonight was never about who you wanted to spend an evening with, but everything about who could help you win . That’s why I’m here with Martin. He has the personality of a rancid fish, but he’s smart.”
“Speaking of whom…” I tipped my head to the rather unattractive guy heading up the stairs toward us. His tux was pristine like every other gentleman at the gala, and the watch on his wrist screamed money.
Carly gave a quiet groan under her breath, then pasted on a polite smile. “Hi, Martin.”
“Carly, it’s nearly time for the challenge and we haven’t discussed strategy at all. We need to—” He cut himself off, glaring in my direction. “Can we speak alone?”
My friend rolled her eyes dramatically but pushed to her feet nonetheless. “ Fine . But only because Ash is technically our competition. Catch you later, girl.”
Left alone, I decided to look for a bathroom upstairs before returning to the party. Martin had said it was nearly time, and I still had no fucking idea what the challenge even was, so I really should squeeze Carter for some information.
I finally found a toilet—after browsing through several rooms along the way—and cursed out the formal gown attire for a solid five minutes while trying to pee without ruining the dress. When I was done, I used tissues to blot some shine off my makeup, then headed back toward the party.
Distracted as I was with pulling my long black gloves on while I walked, I didn’t see the danger until I was too close to avoid collision.
“Just finished with another client, Layne?” Nate sneered as I stumbled back a step. “Whores like you are such hard workers, never missing the opportunity to make a quick buck.”
Rage welled up in my chest, and I ground my teeth together. “Is that jealousy, Essex? Is your ego bruised that I’m so repulsed by you that no amount of money could change my mind?”
His lip curled, and he huffed a cold laugh. “That’s cute, but we both know it’s not true.” His dark gaze shifted past me and his brows lifted. “Seriously, Royce, you too?”
Confused, I turned to find Royce strolling down the hall, his shirt untucked and his bow tie loose around his neck. He looked like he’d just had a quickie, but it sure as hell hadn’t been with me.
Royce frowned slightly, glancing between Nate and me, then shrugged. “Sure, why not? She’s hot.”
My jaw dropped. “What? I did not ?—”
“Hey, have you guys seen Ashley?” Carter asked, arriving at our little hallway party. “Oh, there you are.”
“Layne and Royce were having a private party up here,” Nate announced, smug as all fuck.
Carter just shrugged. “Okay, cool. Come on, Spark, I need you.” He grabbed my hand, linking our fingers and tugging me away as Nate tossed another snide comment about how in demand my services were tonight.
“What is his fucking problem?” I demanded, raging about Nate’s insulting bullshit just as much as I was mad at my own inability to put him in his place. Why the fuck had Royce lied too?
Carter glanced back at me but continued deeper into the house. “The gala is ending,” he informed me, ignoring my question, “which means the challenge is beginning. First thing we need to do is find a hiding spot.”
“What for?”
“I’ll explain once we find a good spot,” he replied, glancing behind us before opening a door and ushering me inside.
“Get out!” a woman yelped, clutching her unzipped dress to her chest.
I gasped, backing up a step before recognizing Paige—Nate’s girlfriend. But Nate had only just come upstairs when he accosted me so…
“Oh fuck!” I exclaimed, my eyes wide. Royce had just come from this direction looking freshly fucked and based on Paige’s appearance…
Carter’s hand on my stomach—apparently his favorite way of handling me—guided me smoothly out of the room again before I could say anything more, and the door slammed in our faces.
“Carter, that was—” I started to say in a strangled voice, shocked by the realization that Nate’s girlfriend was fucking one of his best friends. I didn’t like Nate but fucking hell .
“I’m aware.” Carter cut me off. “None of our business, Spark. Come on, clock is ticking.”
Somewhere to hide, that’s what he’d said, wasn’t it? “I have an idea.”
Carter let me take the lead, hurrying farther down the hall and following when I slipped into a huge bedroom, then opened the adjoining door to an enormous bathroom.
“Over here,” I whispered, pulling open the small door I’d tried earlier when looking for a toilet.
Carter stepped inside with me, and all of a sudden, the small, wood-lined room seemed a lot smaller. “Sauna? Nice. No one will come looking in here at this time of night.”
I smiled at the praise before catching myself. “Okay so…what are we doing? What’s the challenge? Is it…dangerous?” Flashes of Abigail’s warnings filled my head, but more and more I was thinking she’d been paranoid or delusional. None of what I’d experienced was matching up to the dark, scary shit she’d described. She’d mentioned a gala, but in her account she’d been asked to steal an heirloom from the hostess, then was punished with a beating for not doing it.
Carter sat down on the bench seat, giving me a small amount of breathing room. It was dark inside the sauna, especially once the door closed, so he pulled out his phone and turned the flashlight on.
“Dangerous? No. I mean…depends what you’d call dangerous. And whether you get caught.” He propped his phone against the wall so it gave us some light but wasn’t enough to betray our location, then he opened the bag he’d been carrying.
Curious, I watched as he pulled out a Polaroid camera and four small rubber ducks. Red ones, I thought, though the color was hard to make out.
“Here’s the challenge,” he murmured, keeping his voice low. “We each get two ducks, but we work in teams of two, so it’s four opportunities. Place a duck, take a picture, don’t get caught. You get caught by the homeowner or his security—or any other nonplayer—and your team is disqualified.”
I frowned, confused. “That sounds…very easy.”
Carter chuckled. “It is, if you don’t care about winning. Lots of DBs don’t even try, so they’ll place their duck somewhere boring and obvious and leave before there’s even any risk of getting caught. Pussies.”
“Okay…so how do we win?”
“That’s the spirit, Spark. We win by degree of danger. The higher the risk, the higher the reward.” He leaned in, his elbows on his knees and a devilish grin on his face. It filled me with excited flutters all over again.
I licked my lips, my brain whirling. “Okay so?—”
Before I could get my next question out, the bathroom door burst open and a woman’s giggles echoed through the room. Carter stiffened, and I clamped my lips shut like I was scared I might start yodeling or something.
The sauna door was thick enough that we couldn’t make out what the couple was saying—a man’s voice had joined her a moment later—but the giggles suggested the woman was decently tipsy.
Then a click sounded, and the sauna stove lit up with a dull glow.
“Shit,” Carter breathed, and I echoed that inside my head. We were about to be found before I even fully understood the challenge!