“Broken hearts don’t always mend.” He sniffed and waved a hand. “Who am I kidding? I’m a serial dater.”
“In Paris you weren’t.”
“Ages ago.” He tried to brush it off. “Love the attention. Do you know how many free dinners I get a month?”
“It’s not love.”
“I dish with my besties. I love what I do. I have family at King’s. You’re coming to work for us. Who could ask for anything more?”
“You’re settling?”
“Moi?” He pressed a hand to his chest. “As if!”
“So you’re okay if I just let Brock walk away when this is all over with?”
“For shame! How could you? Fight for him.” He turned her around to button up the back.
That’s when Ash saw Brock in the doorway. By the look on his face, he’d heard. “No, Rico. It’s time for me to let go. Of a lot of things.” Her heart clenched tighter when Brock’s eyes captured hers, longing and pain mixed there.
Could she get over him? Did she even want to?
Before she did anything, he had some questions to answer.
***
“Hey, Ash,” Charlie called, waving her down before she headed to the main stage.
“You okay? You look a little flustered.”
“You’re gorg, as Rico would say.” She held her at arm’s length. “I’ve got the contract you approved, ready to sign. If you’re game, we can have a little ceremony after your last walk and seal the deal.”
“That’s perfect, Charlie.” Finally, she’d get her first mega contract her way, on her terms. Mom, Dad—look out retirement, here it comes!
“And that’s pure delight you see on my face.” Leaning close, she whispered, “Don’t tell anyone, but we’re giving away weddings to all the military couples tonight.”
Her generosity overwhelmed Ash, making her blink back a wave of tears that threatened to spill. “That’s so wonderful.” You are not a crybaby! What gives?
“No tears. Don’t ruin the mascara.”
“Girl, you are not going there!” Rico rushed over and tsked.
She sucked it in, her lip trembling. However, she could not stop her raw, bruised heart from throbbing.
If love did this to her, she didn’t want any part of it any more.
***
In the area for models backstage, she paced. We can do this the easy way or the hard way.
“Nerves?” Brock asked, standing a few feet away.
She halted. “Thoughts. Memories.” Her mind raced, gears slipping into place. “The picture.” There were only a few people in the entire world who had that exact one. It wasn’t a professional shot. “How did you get it?”
He froze, yet she swore he was in motion; the look in his eyes, quickly sheltered, contradicted his stillness. “I met with your parents. They gave me details.”
The way he worded his reply troubled her. “Dodging me?”
“Is it obvious?” A muscle twitched along his jaw.
Two models rushed around her, taking their places to go on. Ash scooted out of their way and found herself practically pressed up against him. “Why are you carrying a picture of me taken nearly seven years ago?”
“What?!” Felix, in his ear, shouted.
“I heard that,” she muttered.
“Sarge, retreat. Now! Incoming!”
Brock flinched.
“Army?” She shook her head. “Why didn’t I know that? Why didn’t I Google you?” Her head pounded. Or was that her heart? “Simon. You knew him. The—”
“Photo,” Brock admitted softly. He braced himself. “He gave it to me.”
Her stomach rolled. “You served with him.” Her lips were numb; words just tumbled from her. “And were you part of it?”
His frown? Real or manufactured?
“Boss…something…to tell you.” Felix’s words came in and out, so Ash only caught the gist of it.
“Not now, Felix,” Brock muttered.
She backed away. “You?” Ash didn’t want to believe it. “I caught on to his little scheme when I saw private pictures of me in the German newspapers. Not naked ones, mind you, but others. And other girls. Plenty of them.”
“You’re guessing it was him, obviously.”
“I know it was him.” She’d dropped him like a hot potato even before he confessed to the dirty deed.
He didn’t want her, just what she could fetch for him.
Neither did Brock want her. Shockwaves crashed down on her. Brock valued Simon’s word over hers. You can take out the knives from my back now! Lesson learned! Again.
***
“He wouldn’t do something like that. He was a Ranger. Dedicated. Honorable,” Brock insisted as Ash walked away to take the stage for the first time tonight. Don’t go! His legs shook. Brock longed to loosen the bow tie around his neck. But it wasn’t the piece of fabric that strangled him.
“Simon could! He did!” Felix’s voice came through, loud and clear.
“I trained him. Boot camp. War zones. He was like a little brother to me.”
“She wasn’t the first. Or the last. Before he died.”
“Fernando, straight up?” He’d slipped and used his friend’s real name instead of the nickname they’d come up with when he’d signed on to Brock’s agency. Brock rushed to the side of the curtain, peering out to watch Ashley command the runway. God, she was something! His gaze swept the area, noting his people in place among the crowd.
“Oh, crap! She is personal.” Felix cursed. “He hid it from you. Took extra tours. Risked our lives and yours. For the glory. Such a user and a loser. But some of us saw it, firsthand. Why do you think we wouldn’t go out drinking with him on leave?”
The jagged pieces dropped into place. That sound in his head blared. But Simon’s words rushed back. Sorry. Don’t believe everything you see. Got caught one too many times. Still have my six, right? Take care of my girl.
“Always,” he repeated his promise now. Got caught one too many times. Brock had thought he’d referred to that last shoot-out. The hidden meaning cut through him now.
Honoring Simon had beat in his chest for years.
It tasted like sawdust now.
However, the realization of what a lie he’d lived drummed in his skull.
She came off the runaway and her bruised eyes encountered his gaze for a second before she turned away.
Ash wasn’t the only one who’d been betrayed. But she blamed him for this. And she was correct. He’d let his connection to a lying dead man guide him yet shackle him at the same time.
Now, he had to follow through and watch everything he’d built crumble into ruins.
Or did he?
***
“Two o’clock, boss.” Felix’s voice in his earpiece warned him a half hour later. “Red slinky dress. Came through the metal detector, steaming.”
Brock checked to find the very elusive agent marching their way. His hand went to Ash’s bare elbow, turning her slightly. If need be, he’d yank her behind him. “She’s here.” He alerted her gently.
“Sheil..Sheila.” Ash’s voice trembled, along with her body. Disillusion and sadness rolled off her.
“What’s this?” Her agent glared at her as she waved her hands. “You have some nerve going behind my back and brokering a deal, little girl.”
“Can we take this somewhere private?” Brock cut in, noting how the lounge area, filled with models waiting to go on, grew still and silent.
The woman reared back and gawked up at him. “You, that Rockdale guy? Are you two really married?” Her heavily made-up face went slack.
“It’s him. The groom in the photos,” Ash confirmed. “Don’t you think we need a heart-to-heart, Sheila?” She reached out to smooth back some of the wayward strands of hair sticking up from the woman’s updo. “We owe that to each other.”
A fusion of awe rippled through Brock. Here Ash stood, growing stronger by the moment and more than capable to vent, yet having com
passion for this woman.
Sheila nodded, but her hazel eyes teared up.
Within minutes, Brock guided them to the office where Felix stood guard once again. They exchanged a brief, knowing look.
Ash followed her agent, drawing up short at the threshold. “It had to be this one?” she asked him.
“The best.” He shrugged; memories of first meeting her and bringing her here teased him. Even in that awful colored gown, she was beautiful.
Strange: when he closed the door this time, he felt hollow, empty.
Ash carefully maneuvered the big dress she now wore and sat in the exact spot on the couch she had before. She shot him a glance.
Yeah, I remember.
Reaching out, Ash gently touched the older woman’s wringing hands. “Tell me.”
“You know.”
“Let me hear it from you.”
“You’re leaving.”
“Scaling back. Funny, when I don’t have much of a life I’m doing that.”
She pressed a tissue to her nose, dabbing it there. “I was desperate. How did I know he’d take it this far?”
“He?” Ash squeaked, jerking to glance at him.
Brock stilled. Confession time.
“Oh, come on, you must know he adores you, follows you around like a sad puppy. He wants to be as famous as you and thinks you’re his ticket to stardom.”
“Lyle,” Brock added.
“He’s…” Ash shook her head. “You knew?”
“Suspected.”
“He paid me to tell him where you were going to be and when.” She sobbed once and then caught herself. “Didn’t you wonder how he turned up everywhere in town?”
“It happened a few times that I noticed,” Ash murmured. “How could he afford you?”
“Trust fund,” Brock answered, hearing Felix’s voice say the same in his ear. “The money trail.”
“I found out about the threatening letters only a few weeks ago myself. You must believe me, Ash. I’d never be a part of anything like that. He blackmailed me, though. If I said anything to you, he’d plant lies about me. He was going to ruin me. I left the country.”
“But my mom and dad.” Her voice cracked. “They were so upset. You could have prevented that.”
“I gave them his name and number.”
“Whose?”
“His whose.” She pointed at Brock.
The pieces of the puzzle were falling into place.
“He’s the best, isn’t he? I figured with him on the case, you and they would be safe.”
“And you knew it was only a matter of time before you were found out.” Ashley swiped away a fast-falling tear. “Sheila, I was never going to fire you. That lunch turned from bad to worse. I could never make you understand then or since.”
“You weren’t?” Her mouth gaped open. “But, I thought…”
Ash shook her head.
A well of sadness came over the woman’s face and she cried, real gut-wrenching tears. “I’m so sorry!”
Sliding over, Ash gathered the woman in her arms and let her cry. “Just don’t get any on the gown, okay?”
A chuckle broke through. “We had a mess in LA that time, didn’t we? Soda right down the front of that three-thousand-dollar dress. Oh my word!”
Brock slipped out of the room as Ash and the woman reminisced, closing the door softly on the way out. “Felix, you heard?”
“Theta and Alpha are tracking down Lyle. You must have scared him the other day. His family hasn’t seen him since.”
“His phone?”
“You’re too fast for me, boss.” He grinned. “Quick assess. He idolized Ash. Hundreds of pictures of her. Ones he took. Ones he downloaded from other sites. His calendar is filled with her appointments and notes on having to get on the shoot.”
“He tried to draw her back to Dallas, to be here more and get jobs with her—that’s why the letters when she was away, right?”
“You’re catching on.”
“What better way than to hit at the heart of who she loved the most. Her parents.” Protecting the ones you loved was always paramount in life. Ashley knew the code. Brock smiled wistfully.
“Sums it up. And, he highlighted tonight’s event.”
“All avenues of transport covered? Picture of him with the guards?”
Felix shrugged as if to say of course. He nodded to the closed door. “She’s not like the actress. I like Ash. The team likes her. She could fit right in.” He smirked at his boss. “Love gets us every time. Don’t you think so, Brock?”
That keen look sliced through him. All marriages are doomed, right? “Burns us, don’t you mean?”
“Nah. That’s our armor—builds us up on the inside, so we can be stronger on the outside. Have I taught you nothing?”
Brock wanted to laugh, but he was too shaken by what his friend said.
Love builds us up on the inside, so we can be stronger on the outside.
Was he right? Could this be a new code of honor? His code?
Chapter 15
Silence crowded around her as Ashley sat alone in the office. Her ears throbbed with voices and weeping and chuckles.
How had this happened?
Sheila had left minutes before, yet Ash couldn’t find the energy to move. After ten years of working with the woman, she’d let her go. Gently. Kindly.
It was the end of an era. A meteoric rise. Now a melancholy good-bye.
Thankfully, with the last check from Ash’s contract, Sheila would rebuild her business.
Ash owed her that.
“Can’t take away what she did for me,” she said softly, dropping her head in her hands.
“Most people would have had her arrested.” Brock’s voice was a balm to the wounds deep inside, even though she still ached from losing him.
“I’m not most people.”
“You’re on in a few minutes. Do you want to stall longer? Not do it at all?”
“Again, I’m not like others. I don’t let people down.” Finally, she looked up and saw him leaning against the door with his arms crossed. “Honor, you know?” It would be funny, how alike they were in some things, if she weren’t hurting so much.
A shadow darted over his features. “Somehow I knew you wouldn’t.”
“You once said, in this very room, that you’d never hurt me. You lied.”
Anguish flashed in his dark eyes.
“This is it for us…” A chunk tore from her heart.
“Lyle still hasn’t been apprehended.”
“He won’t hurt me. He had plenty of chances already.” The realization sunk in when Sheila had confessed. “Two people who wanted something the other could give to them. He wanted to be close to me. Good luck, magic, more gigs, for whatever reason.”
“I’d like to stay until this is all over.”
Her chin trembled as she forced a smile. “Finally, you’re asking instead of telling.”
His chuckle, raw and gruff, sent a burst of aching behind her ribcage.
“Sorry, but it’s not going to fly.” She sucked in a deep, quivery breath and slowly released it. “Mr. Barrett Rockdale, this is our end.” Her throat clogged. “Thank you for everything.”
Pushing away from the door, he straightened. “If there’s anything I can ever do for you—”
“Just please return my mom and dad.” Then she shook her head. “Other than that? No. I’m good.” Liar!
“Ash…”
She raised her hand and gave him that awkward wave of hers. “Good-bye, Brock.”
The click of the door as he closed it behind him felt like an arrow whizzing through the air and hitting her directly in her heart.
***
“What? Where have I been?” Ash stood in the bursting dressing room with half-dressed women and clothes strewn about. She grabbed Peg by her upper arms.
“Hey, back away from the clipboard.”
She eased her grip. “So you’re telling me my besties are up there on
the runway with…their guys? And where did they come from again?” She’d been so wrapped up in her own mess that she hadn’t kept tabs on her friends.
“Holy Batman and Robin, look at the time.” She glanced at her wristwatch. “Bah-bye!”
Her words died in her throat as Peg left her in the dust, the door not quite swinging closed.
“Ash!” Lacey cried. “Hurry up, will you?”
“Lace?” She raced to her best friend and gave her a quick hug. “You’ve been crying. Are you all right? And where’s Heather?”
“Everything’s good. I’ll explain as we run to the stage.”
Keeping up and listening at the same time, Ashley dodged the many attendees for the charity event. “Sorry,” she muttered. “Say again?” she asked Lace, hoping she didn’t say what she just thought she said.
“Can you believe it? My dad’s here and everything.”
“Gordo? Judge Daniels? This is real!”
“Stop!” Rico held up a hand at the entrance and blocked their way. “That, my dear, is the big finale dress. You must change. Now.”
“Again? Haven’t you seen enough of my girlie parts?” Her lips twitched.
He rolled his eyes. “Why me?”
Over the years, she’d seen that look too many times, thankfully not directed her way. “Okay, whatever you say.”
His directions proved he’d planned for any event, having several King’s employees on standby behind the stage. With a flick of his hand, they lifted the draping and made a small circular shape for her to enter. Rico snapped his fingers. “Dress number twenty-nine!”
With no time to spare, and with the help of Lace and Rico, she shed the gorgeous gown and hiked on the other one. “Are you sure about this?” She looked down. “Is this bridal enough?”
“Trust me,” Rico said. “I know what I’m doing.”
“He really does,” Lace said, backing up. “Come on.”
The music cued. She followed them to another area, away from the main entrance stage. “Is that an altar?”
“Heather’s coming!”
“Where? What’s this all about?”
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