Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
But the next day the storm was pushing at the horizon, the billowing deep clouds building, and the ocean spray felt chill and icy on my skin.
“Are we going to reschedule the performances?” I asked Chamberlain as the Sirens stood in the gardens, my auburn hair whipping around my face.
“No, Sosie. They always go on.”
“But what if the storm—”
“They always go on. It won’t hit us here.”
This rich bastard was so arrogant he assumed he could control the weather.
But what the hell was I supposed to do? I guess the show must go on.
I had been so tired these last few days that I’d overslept, and now I was so late there was no one else in the changing room. Wishing the smell of coffee didn’t make me want to puke, I shucked my shorts and T-shirt off as quickly as I could.
The room was so quiet that my little grunts as I tried to pull on a white gown seemed extra loud.
Damn, I knew I wasn’t showing yet, but these dresses were tight as hell.
Still in my panties and bra, I flicked rapidly through the other dresses on the line.
There was very little variety, everything was designed to either fit tight or super-tight.
I would have to take off this bra, and hope I could fit into the gown.
Once again, I had such a strong sense of being watched, the tips of my nipples tingling as the cool of the changing room hit them.
“Granger?” I demanded to the walls. “I know you’re there, Granger.”
But there was no response.
I was sick of this feeling.
Usually as soon as I got out, I played in a loop all around the tables, but this time I went directly over to where Granger was smoking against the side of the house.
“Have you been creeping at me while I’m in changing room?” I demanded.
He narrowed those deadly gorgeous blue eyes at me.
“No, sweetheart. When I see your tits, you know it. Why do you think someone’s watching you?”
“Just a feeling I have,” I said. “I can’t shake the feeling that there’s someone watching me in there.”
For a moment he was stock-still, staring at me. Then, without another word, he grabbed my chin and yanked me forward, kissing me thoroughly.
“Clever girl.”
“What? What did I do?”
“I bet you’re right, my sweet songbird.”
“Right about what?”
“Mind your business. Now go out there and play until I tell you otherwise.”
Then he didn’t appear at the show at all.
The audience was buzzing with frenetic, barely-suppressed excitement, and a few of the other Sirens suggested stopping, the women pointing out the storm, the chill, the possibility of the roads getting washed out as the choppy waves hit them.
“No!” Mr. Hollingsworth insisted. “No stopping, Sirens. Play on. No storm has ever dared hit Hollingsworth House, and no storm ever will.”
Was it my imagination or was Pippa acting even more suspiciously toward me? She seemed to watch my every movement with hawk’s eyes, although Hayden was as solicitous and kind as ever.
Did she suspect the truth?
That the pregnancy test had been mine? That his baby was in my belly?
I played on as salt soaked into my hair, as the wind made eerie, wild sounds.
I played on until I heard his voice.
“Go back in that changing room,” Granger said in a low voice as he passed by me, leaning at the catered bar as if getting a drink was all he cared about.
“What—no! It’s creepy in there.”
“Yes, Sosie. Don’t you trust me?”
“Not at all.”
But he was already gone, Pippa’s jealous eyes following him out.
Had she seen us talking together?
I hesitated, but did what he said, cursing all blonde men in my head and myself for a fool.
Why had Granger ever come to Oystar Bay?
Hesitantly, I opened the heavy oak door and found myself again in the quiet luxury of the changing room. At Hollingsworth House even a place like this, just a transition space for the Sirens to change into our beautiful gowns, was refined and elegant.
But here was something so vulnerable about taking off your clothes in a space you weren’t sure was private at all.
There probably wasn’t a necklace either, and once Pippa found out I was pregnant and she wasn’t, I was going to get thrown out while Granger denied up and down he’d ever fucked me.
Suddenly, there was a scuffle, and a body hit the wall somewhere on the other side.
What the hell? I rushed outside, and looked up and down the hall. But there was no one around.
And then—
A part of the wall that just looked like beautiful paneling opened up and there was Granger, holding a very flushed and angry Hayden by the collar.
“This creep was peeping at you, Sosie. Just like you thought.”
“No—it’s all a misunderstanding,” Hayden protested.
I stepped past them. The room was narrow and dark, but there was a velvet bench set against the wall and, as Hayden begged me not to, I sat down on it.
To my horror, I saw a little aperture in the wall, and if I sat up on my hands and knees I could see right through it and I saw—
The very place in the changing room I had been not an hour before! The very place where I’d undressed, so close he would have been able to see how peaked my nipples were. . .
“How many of your friends have been in here peeking at the Sirens getting changed?” I cried.
“No—we didn’t do that—”
Granger struck him in the back of the head, a sharp brutal blow, and Hayden staggered forward.
“Answer her question.”
“I swear—”
Crack. Granger’s foot shot out to Hayden’s bent body and I heard a rib break.
“Answer her question.”
“Whoever Grandaddy wanted to give a special favor too,” he choked out. “People who did business with him.”
“Nasty fucker,” Granger said, and even though Hayden was already kneeling on the ground, he took his head and ran it into the wall.
“Stay the fuck away from Sosie. Or you’re going to end up even more fucked up.”
Granger put a big hand on my head, positioning me to face toward Hayden, the heavy gold of his wedding band knocking into my ear.
“This one’s mine. Is that clear?”
There was blood running down his face,
“What the hell, man?” Hayden spat at him.
“I’m afraid she’s always been mine and you got played.”
“Oh, when I tell my sister you two are fucking, she’s going to divorce you. You know she’s jealous as hell of Sosie. She’s always been jealous of Sosie.”
“But you’re not going to say anything, are you? I wonder what some of those big-name reporters out there would think about you getting caught with your pants down jerking it to the performers.”
“No—no,” he said eagerly. Too eagerly.
“Get out there, both of you.”
Hayden obeyed without another backward glance.
“Granger—”
“Go,” he said, that smile on his face that made him look like something unearthly and diabolical. “I’ll shut the door here.”
But I felt like I had to stop this, no matter what it cost. Who knew how long Hayden or any other of Chamberlain’s disgusting freak friends had been spying on the Sirens?
He had told me not to tell anyone. But I still had to give Pippa warning.
But when I pulled her aside, it did not go as I expected. Even though we were no longer friends, at least, at the very least, I would have thought she’d want to stop this. . .
In a few breathless sentences, I told Pippa most of what had happened. Or at least enough for her to understand that her brother had been spying on me naked.
“And how did you find this out again?”
“Granger—discovered it. Discovered the hidden room.”
“And why did he do that?” her hand was gripping my wrist, her hold painful.
“Wh—what does it matter?”
“Because it matters to me if my husband is out here rescuing you.”
“It’s not just about me! It’s about every Siren! You need to shut this down so it doesn’t happen to any other woman.”
I had to use my full strength to wrench my wrist out of her grip.
“Thank you for telling me.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? Are you going to shut this down?”
“If I were you, I’d forget all about it. It’s a huge compliment that Hayden would go to such great lengths to get your attention.”
“Seriously? You’re fucking disgusting, Pippa. He’s a creep.”
“He’s been in love with you for a long time. If I were you, I’d see that as romantic.”
“Or what?”
“Or I’m afraid your time here, and the opportunities you have to better yourself from your trailer trash background, are over.”
“You’re a bitch,” I said flatly. “Don’t contact me ever again. Our friendship is over. I wouldn’t marry your trash limp-dick brother if you paid me.”
“How dare you!”
She raised her hand to slap me across the face, ready to grind that massive bigass rock on her finger into my mouth. But I hadn’t spent all my childhood dodging my granny’s slaps for nothing.
I sidestepped her and gave it right back.
Smack. A nice big open-faced slap right across her cheeks.
“I don’t want your fake charity, and this was obviously never a real opportunity for me. So shut your mouth. If you won’t stop Hayden, I’ll find some way to.”
Pippa looked stunned as she nursed her beet-red cheek, but she was too scared to try that again.
“Just stay away from my husband!” she screeched.
“Or what?” I snapped.
And then I left her.