Chapter 22
TWENTY-TWO
MINA
He seemed so natural up there on stage in his impeccably tailored Armani tux.
I had been fearful ever since the graffiti on my car, and watching him still made me feel safe.
Despite everything. He let me shave his face with a straight razor two hours before we came.
He stared at me with the most wicked eyes as I drew the blade carefully across his neck.
I was the only one he trusted to do it. We only made it halfway through before he gathered me in his arms and took me in the shower.
Even now, he stared across the room and found me.
The sinful glint in his eyes held our secret and sent heat spearing through me.
Lock was my drug. Even as I felt my world tilting on its axis.
Even as I looked for secrets and lies in every look, every word, when I was with him…
when it was just us, everything always melted away.
“Thank you,” he said, concluding his speech.
It had been a poignant one, marking the tenth anniversary of the day he broke ground on Bennett’s Place.
But tonight, he unveiled the plans for a statue that would stand outside the entrance to the new health and wellness center he planned to build.
He wanted it to be a surprise even to me.
As the shimmering silk tarp came down, I felt like I was the statue.
He had commissioned a twelve-foot-tall bronze replica of Frères Célestes.
Those two fish in abstract, forever intertwined and surrounded by the Pisces constellation.
Lock and Bennett. The brothers whose story made everything tonight possible.
And all I could see was cobwebs on a wall in the bedroom of a killer.
As Lock finished, the large screen behind him faded into a portrait of Bennett Manning at five years old. He was laughing, holding up a smallmouth bass. Bennett only looked like Lock around the eyes. But you could see he would have grown into his own brand of handsome.
“He’s pouring it on tonight.” Eli Shepherd stood beside me, clapping. “Every guy in here is about to open their wallets. And half the women will want to open their legs.”
“Eli!” On Eli’s other side, his wife Piper snapped at him.
“Ignore him,” she told me. “No more wine for you, Eli.”
It took Lock a while to make his way back to our table. Everyone in the room wanted to shake his hand and congratulate him.
“I’m surprised you’re not up there with him,” Piper said. “I thought he wanted to show you off.”
Eli smiled. “Don’t embarrass her, Piper.” Eli was being extra attentive to me tonight. I didn’t know if it was his own guilt over what I’d walked in on, or worry that I’d tell Piper if he didn’t stay close, or something else. Had Lock asked him to keep an eye on me out of fear for my safety?
“I’m not embarrassed,” I said. “But this is about Bennett’s Place. And Bennett.”
Piper shook her head. “It’s still hard for me to fathom it. It’s just so sad the way Lock carries that boy’s ghost around with him.”
“He’s not carrying a ghost,” I said. “He’s honoring his memory. There’s a difference.”
“I thought he was nuts when he told me how much money he was going to divert from the foundation to start this side project,” Eli said. “His father would have hated it.”
“I think that was part of the point.” I smiled.
“You had to know his father,” Piper said, never missing the chance to remind me how long they’d been in Lock’s life before me. “I think he was even more handsome than Lock. I had the biggest crush on him when I first met him.”
Eli raised a brow. “Be glad you didn’t, Mina. He would have made your life hell.”
One of the servers walked by with a tray of champagne. I eagerly took a glass and sipped.
“He wanted his son to marry a woman befitting his station,” Piper said, taking on a cartoonish British accent. “He would have viewed you as a filthy commoner.”
Eli laughed. “Don’t pay her any mind. Lock’s father felt the same way about us. He was appalled when Lock decided to live in the dorms and have a pedestrian college experience.”
Lock was making his way back toward us, but it would take him some time. I tried to catch his eye through the crowd, but he was too far away from me.
“I hate these things,” Piper said. She finished her own flute of champagne and snapped her fingers above her head, calling the server back to take her empty glass.
“You can just set it on the table,” I said. “They’ll get it when they come back this way.”
Piper gave me a scathing look, then instantly covered, finding her plastic smile. She turned on her heel and stormed off.
“Ignore her,” Eli said. “She’s in a snit because somebody else showed up wearing the same dress she’s got on.”
“I hadn’t noticed.”
“Just don’t mention it, whatever you do,” he said. “You look great, by the way.”
“I hope you told Piper that too.”
Eli blushed. “I know how to mind my manners. I have to ask you though. Is something going on between you two?” He pointed his champagne flute toward Lock, still shaking hands after leaving the stage.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. He just seems worried about something.”
“Did he ask you to keep an eye on me?” I blurted.
Eli finished his champagne and set it on the table. “He mentioned something.”
“Like what?”
“Just… he told me to look out for you. That you might be under some extra stress at work. Do you want to talk about it?”
“What did he say about my work?” I hated myself for asking. This wasn’t like me. Lock and I didn’t talk about each other behind our backs. From the surprise in Eli’s expression, he realized it.
“It’s nothing, Mina. I shouldn’t have said anything. It was just my awkward way of trying to be a friend.”
“They should be serving dinner soon,” I said. “I’m going to go catch up with Lock.”
I felt guilty for leaving Eli so abruptly.
He was right. That was him trying to be a friend in his own awkward way.
I wove my way through the crowd, making pleasantries with the donors I recognized.
Most were old money. Peers of Lock’s father.
And I never once felt judgment in their eyes the way I did with Piper Shepherd.
A hand slid up the small of my back. Lock seemed to appear out of nowhere.
My heart fluttered as he brushed my cheek with a kiss.
He smelled delicious, and I couldn’t help letting my mind wander to what we’d been up to just two hours ago.
I’d give anything to go back there. I’d give anything to rewind the last two months.
“Come with me,” he said. “The governor just showed up. I want to introduce you.”
We spent the next half hour rubbing elbows with some of the most influential people in Michigan politics. We made a good team. Lock would humbly introduce me. I would lavish praise on the guest du jour.
“Well done on the health care bill, Congressman Peters. It will be your signature legislation.”
“I can tell you firsthand how well your community learning initiative is working in rural schools down here, Governor Callum.”
Once we had made our tour of the room, I was exhausted.
“I don’t know how you do this,” I whispered to Lock. “There’s so much ass-kissing going on I’m afraid these people are going to need back surgery for the amount of time they’ve spent bent over.”
Lock smiled. “Shh. That ass-kissing might benefit you someday. If Gilchrist makes good on his threat to run for Congress, you could run for prosecutor and replace him.”
“You should eat,” I said. “You always forget at these things, then you end up with a migraine.”
“Later,” he said. “I promised Senator Whitlow five minutes. But you go eat. Piper and Eli just sat down. They can keep you company until I get free.”
He caught my frown.
“Sorry,” I said. “Piper can be a lot. She’s always judging me. And you, for that matter. She said something when they got here about bending my ear about some skin care product. She says they’ve hired her as a brand ambassador.”
Lock laughed. “Well, at least she’s on brand. Just tell her you’ll buy some lotion or whatever she’s hawking this time. It’ll make her happy, and I promised Eli.”
“I don’t get it,” I said. “She’s educated. She could do any number of more worthwhile things. She’s got a degree in public relations. She should use it.”
“Who’s judging whom now?” Lock said.
“Sorry. I’ll go sit with them. I’ll be on my best behavior. Pinky swear.”
Lock pulled me close and brushed his lips against my ear as he whispered to me. “I don’t mind if you misbehave, my little dove. You know how much I like to punish you afterward.”
He bit my earlobe. I gasped. Then, he disappeared back into the crowd, leaving me breathless. I couldn’t wait until this night was over and we could just be alone together. I knew I’d feel better then.
I ducked into the ladies’ room. As I opened the bathroom door, a cool blast from the air conditioner hit me. It felt good. I made my way to the vanity and pulled out a tube of lipstick. The lighting in here was harsher than I remembered. I looked washed out.
The stall behind me opened and Piper walked out. Her smile faltered and then brightened when she saw me.
“Sorry,” I said. “It got a little loud out there.”
“Eli’s about had it,” she said. “He’s really an introvert. He can hang for a while, but by the time I get him home, he’ll be jelly. Plus he’ll sleep all day tomorrow and complain he’s got a headache.”
Piper opened her clutch purse and pulled out her compact. She dotted her nose and cheeks.
“That really is a fabulous dress Lock put you in,” she said. “Is it couture?”
I took a step back from the mirror. I wore a royal blue off-the-shoulder silk number. I laughed. “I don’t do couture,” I said. “This is off the rack from Nordstrom’s.”
“Oh, honey,” she said. “That man of yours can afford to fly Christian Siriano himself out to the house for a private fitting.”
“He’s not like that,” I said. “Lock’s happier spending money on nights like this.”
“Sure,” Piper said. “I’ve seen that car you drive.” She dropped her compact back into her purse and clicked it shut with gusto.
I opened my purse and dropped my lipstick back inside. My magnetic watch band caught on the metal clasp. It fell onto the counter. My red ribbon slipped down and Piper saw it. In the mirror, she stared at me wide-eyed. Then she grabbed my arm and pulled at the ribbon.
“You have got to be kidding me,” she said. Then she threw back her head and laughed.
I wrenched my arm out of her hands and snapped my watch back over it.
“Is he still running that scam?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” I said.
“Did he tell you it made you special? Oh, honey. There were more than a few girls on campus running around with those things around their wrists. Eli and I used to call Lock the Red Silk Romeo. He’d give these red ribbons to women.
Cooked up some story about how it was a symbol of how much he cared for them.
Told them to wear it so he’d know it meant something to them too. ”
I was speechless. Piper wasn’t.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you. I was just surprised. I haven’t seen one of those for a long time, is all. I had no idea Lock was still doing that. Or that anyone would fall for it.”
I felt like my lungs had just flattened. Piper had such disdain in her eyes when she said it. She knew she’d hit a nerve and seemed to relish it.
“Ugh. I’m sorry. I’m sure it was different with you. He put that hunk of ice on your finger. Just ignore me.”
She scooted past me, her face ashen. I don’t know if that was genuine remorse for being so rude, or whether she was scared of how angry Lock would be if I told him what she said.
The room spun. The ribbon around my wrist seemed to burn through my flesh.