Struggling to keep my cool, I concocted a story. “It’s for a friend. It’s his anniversary this week, and he asked me to hold on to his wife’s gift, so she doesn’t scrounge around their place trying to find out what he got her.”
She tilted her head. “Why was it on the floor?”
“I put it on the buffet last night, but it must have fallen off.” At least that part was true. But I wished that I hadn’t been so careless. Even Zeke had missed it.
She squinted at me. “Who is this friend?”
I wasn’t about to implicate a real person. But I didn’t want to make someone up, either, not at the risk of her checking to see if the guy existed. “Why does it matter who he is?”
“Why are you being so evasive? If you got me an engagement ring, then just tell me. It’s not like I didn’t suspect that you—”
“Fine. You want proof that it isn’t for you? Then I’ll open it.” I grabbed a butter knife off the table and sliced the tape on the sides. I lifted the lid off the box. “There, see. Gucci earrings.” I recognized them right away. Eighteen-karat gold, jade and diamond drops.
She peered into the box, studying them for a few contemplative seconds. “How do you know they’re Gucci?”
Shit. The logo wasn’t visible. I knew because I’d bought the damned things, but that didn’t jibe with the story I was telling her. “I can tell by the style.”
“You certainly have a good eye for women’s jewelry.”
“Yeah, I guess I do. But I told you it wasn’t a ring.”
She studied the earrings again. “When is your friend going to pick those up?”
“He isn’t. I’m supposed to bring them to their party on Friday night.” In actuality, I planned to see my mom that evening. She’d invited me for dinner. “They live in a suburb just south of the city.” I added that detail because I was trying to make it seem more believable. The real day. The true location. The designated time. “It starts at seven, but it’s not a surprise or anything. It’s a cocktail thing they planned together.”
“You better tape the sides of the box up again and try to make it look like you didn’t open it.”
“I’ll do that later.” I fidgeted with the lid.
She watched me, a bit too closely. “I’m sorry if I put you on the spot about it being a ring. But you’re still acting strange.”
“It’s been a strange day.” I set the box down, needing to be rid of it. “Can we just eat now?”
She nodded, and I decided that if I bought Mom anything else, I would have the packages sent directly to her, keeping Tracy from stumbling upon them. I couldn’t cope with another mishap.
We took our seats, the silence between us as thick as the lie I’d just told. But there was no way I was going to come clean about who the earrings were for.
My mom was my secret to keep.
Eleven
Tracy
Zeke gave me a ride home from Pine Tower. But as soon as I got in the door, I called Alice, fretting over Dash and his odd behavior. And now I was at Alice’s house, in her room, telling her about my concerns.
She worked while we talked, sorting through a box of feather boas for a client and placing them in two distinct piles on the bed. Spencer was out of town on business and wouldn’t be back until next week. The two Maltese dogs were nearby, though, curled up in a corner.
Alice frowned. “Are you sure you’re not overreacting?”
I sat on a corner of the bed near the maybe pile. “I don’t think the earrings belonged to a friend. I think Dash bought them. There was just something about how quickly he knew what brand they were.” Something that gnawed at me.
“Then he must have bought them for you. But he changed his mind about giving them to you.”
“Why would he buy me a gift like that? They’re not anywhere near my style.” My heart thudded in my chest. “What if they’re for another woman? What if he got hurt and mad that I’d rejected his proposal and went back to one of his groupies?”
“Oh, Trace.” She dropped a red boa into the reject pile. “He wouldn’t do something like that, would he?”
“I have no idea. But I can’t rule it out, either.”
“Come on, let’s think this through. If Dash bought the earrings for someone else, then why didn’t he just hide them from you? Even if the box had accidently fallen on the floor, he still left it out in the open where you could see it.” She cocked her head. “Where’s the logic in that?”
“There isn’t any, I guess. But if the earrings were for a friend’s wife, then why wouldn’t he just tell me his friend’s name? Why was he being so secretive?”
“I understand your fear, honestly I do. But before you jump to any more conclusions, is there any way that we can investigate his story and see if it checks out?”
“Short of following him on Friday, I don’t see how.” I breathed in my pain. “That part of what he said sounded true. That he really does have plans that night. Maybe he’ll be seeing the woman he bought the earrings for.” I searched her gaze, my pulse skittering. “If I took the chance and followed him, would you come with me?”
“Yes, of course. I wouldn’t want you doing something like that alone.”
“Thank you.” I’d rejected Dash’s proposal, but we’d agreed to keep seeing each other. It wasn’t as if we’ve ended our affair or voided our agreement to remain monogamous to each other. But now I couldn’t ignore the gut-clenching possibility that he could be sneaking around with someone else. “I appreciate you being here for me.”
“Always.” She closed the boa box. “I’ve never followed anyone before. Have you?”
“No. But I think we can do this. Dash said that his friend lives in a suburb just south of the city, and if that’s where he’s going, he won’t be able to take the back roads to get there. He’ll have to take the highway, which will work in our favor. I’ll rent a car that he won’t recognize, and we’ll park on a turnout on the highway and wait until his truck or Zeke’s SUV passes.” I continued outlining the plan as it came together in my mind. “The party is supposed to be at seven. We should start our watch early to give ourselves plenty of time to look for him.”
Alice appeared to be contemplating it all. “If Zeke is driving, he’ll notice if we get too close. He’s trained to spot that sort of thing.”
“We’ll just have to be as careful as we can. We should probably disguise our appearances, too.”
“It sounds so covert.” She furrowed her brow. “But if Dash really is going out that night, and we manage to follow him to someone’s house, what are you going to do once we get there?”
“I just want to drive by and see if there’s a party going on. I think that kind of activity will be obvious.” I glanced at the fancy feathers on the bed. “There would be other cars parked on the street and other people going in and out. Dash wouldn’t be the only guest.”
“You’re right. I just hope that we can pull this off and get to the bottom of things.”
“Me, too.” I needed to know what was going on, and I wasn’t going to rest until I found out.
* * *
“You look pretty as a blonde,” Alice said, as we sat in the economy car I’d rented, waiting on the turnout on the highway near Dash’s house and keeping our eye out for him.
“Thanks, but I don’t feel very pretty.” I was too anxious to think about anything except the cars going by. We’d been here for about thirty minutes so far.
I glanced over at Alice, and she fingered the ends of her short, spiky brown wig. We’d chosen styles that mimicked our own hair, except in different colors.
I fidgeted in my seat. “It’s all so crazy. Me chasing down a man who doesn’t even love me.”
She hesitated for a second. “What if he does love you?”
“What?” I gaped at her. Had she lost her mind?
&
nbsp; “I know it’s a weird thing for me to say, especially now. But as badly as he wants to marry you, it’s starting to make me wonder if he might love you and not even know it. People can block out those types of feelings.”
“Is he blocking out that he’s lying to me, too?”
“We don’t know that he’s lying. And we don’t really know what’s going on inside of him, either. Spencer struggled with his feelings. He didn’t realize that he loved me until we were in the midst of a crisis.”
“That’s not the same as what’s happening between me and Dash.” I leaned forward, watching the highway.
“I’m sorry. I just—”
“There they are!” I exclaimed, as Zeke’s SUV cruised past us. I recognized the car, but I knew the license plate number, too. “It’s definitely them!”
“Then hurry up. Get out there.”
“I can’t just peel out onto the road.” As jittery as I was, I felt as if I was learning to drive all over again. “Keep your eye on them, and I’ll try to do this calmly.”
“Okay.” Alice stared out the windshield.
I merged onto the highway and stayed about three car lengths behind them, in the lane next to theirs. I’d prepared for this jaunt, reading tons of articles on how to tail someone and stay within surveillance range without being detected. Of course, none of those articles pertained to a situation like this, where the driver of the other vehicle was your celebrity lover’s bodyguard.
“You’re doing good,” Alice said.
I maintained the speed limit, trying not to hyperventilate, my breathing coming in short, quick pants. I couldn’t remember ever being this nervous, not even the first time I’d performed in public, and I’d gotten terrible stage fright that day.
What if I was wrong and Alice was right? What if Dash wasn’t lying? Or cheating? And what if he really did love me?
No, no, no, I thought. I couldn’t let my heart go there. I just needed to stay focused and follow him.
“Are you sure Dash is even in the car?” Alice asked. “I can’t see him.”
“He rides in back, where the windows are tinted really dark.” I gripped the steering wheel, and we continued on our trek, my nerves in knots.
About twenty minutes later, Alice said, “You better change lanes. They’re getting ready to turn onto the next highway.”
“Which way?”
“Left. He’s got his blinker on.”
I merged into the lane where I needed to be. Luckily the Honda in front of me was turning, too, keeping a space between us. But once we made another turn farther on, I had to be more careful. By now, we were in a posh suburban neighborhood with less traffic and fewer places to hide.
I tried to stay as far back as I could, without losing sight of them. Finally, they turned onto another street that led to a small hill, and I drove straight past it.
Alice bobbed in her seat. “What are you doing?”
“I’m going to circle back. I don’t want Zeke to see us turning right behind him.”
“I hope we don’t lose them.”
“I don’t think we will.” I gestured toward the hill. “It looks like there aren’t that many houses up there.”
“Maybe you should have been a spy instead of a singer.”
Yeah, I thought. Maybe I should’ve, considering the demise of my music career. Not that I’d had much time to focus on it lately. Between my dad’s illness and my affair with Dash, I’d gotten sidetracked. But I still planned to keep pursuing it, putting more music out there on my own.
I waited a few minutes before I made a U-turn and came back around, creeping along the incline Zeke had driven up earlier.
Alice leaned forward, looking out her window. “I don’t see the SUV. But you were right about it being less populated up here. There are only a few streets where they could’ve turned, and the one at the very top looks like a dead end.”
I drove up and down the streets. The houses were few and far between, and the SUV wasn’t parked in front of any of them.
“Maybe he pulled into a garage,” Alice said.
Had I made a mistake by not following closer? “We still need to check the houses all the way at the top.”
“Then let’s go.”
There was only one house at the top, and sure enough, we’d hit our mark. The SUV was parked in the driveway behind an iron fence.
“There’s no party here,” I said, my heart going numb. “Look how quiet it is.”
“Watch out. The bodyguard’s coming.” Alice motioned with her chin. Zeke had just gotten out of the SUV and was striding toward the gate.
“I’ll just act like I made a wrong turn.” I looped the car around and retreated to the street directly below. I parked in front of a colonial-style house on the corner and caught my breath.
“Do you think he recognized us?” she asked.
“With these wigs? I don’t know.” I fought the urge to cry. “It doesn’t matter to me if he did. It’s over. I’m done. I don’t ever want to see or speak to Dash again.”
Alice put her hand on my knee. “Do you think we should wait a bit before you start despising Dash? It’s only a little after seven. People are notoriously late to parties.”
“Meaning what? That Dash was the first to arrive?”
“Don’t you want to know for sure? I know it scared us when Zeke reacted the way he did, but maybe he thought we were party guests and was going to open the gate for us.”
Should I let Alice be my voice of reason? From our vantage point, we would be able to tell if any other cars drove up the hill. I caved in, and we waited.
Twenty minutes. Then thirty. We even pushed it to forty, and the only vehicle that passed us was a white BMW. But it pulled into a garage on the street we were on.
With my pain growing every minute we waited, I finally asked, “Can we give up this charade now and accept that Dash lied?”
“Yes.” Alice’s voice was deflated. “I’m so sorry. You deserve better than this.”
“Yes, I do. And you know what? I’m not going to curl up in a ball like one of those little pill bugs. I’m going to confront Dash. Now. Tonight.” Preparing to do battle, I removed my wig, pulled off the nylon cap beneath it and tugged at the pins. Once my hair was free, I fluffed it around my shoulders. “How do I look?”
“Like a force to be reckoned with.” Alice got rid of her wig, too.
I zoomed back up the hill, adrenaline pumping through my veins. As bold as could be, I barreled straight ahead, blocking the gate in front of the house.
“Here we go,” Alice said, as she watched the bodyguard stomp toward us. “Damn, but he’s big.”
“Not as big as I am right now.” I shut off the engine and swung open my door.
I heard Zeke cuss before he asked, “Tracy, what are you doing here?”
“You didn’t suspect that the blonde who made the wrong turn was me?” I grabbed the wig from the console and threw it at the gate. When it landed on the ground, the poor thing looked like roadkill. “Who lives here? Who is Dash with?”
“Just calm down and go home.”
I glared at him. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Zeke removed his phone from his pocket. Was he calling the police to report me for harassment? No way, I thought. He couldn’t do that, not without creating a PR nightmare for Dash.
“Are you warning him that I’m here?” I asked.
“Yes, I am.” He fired off a text.
I looked over my shoulder at Alice, and she opened her door.
“Is everything all right?” she asked me.
“It’s fine,” I assured her. I gazed pointedly at Zeke. “I’m not leaving until Dash comes outside.”
Zeke’s phone beeped, and my pulse jumped.
He glanced at the screen. “Dash says that he’ll talk to
you later, after you go home.”
“I want to talk to him now,” I countered.
Zeke shook his head. “Just go, Tracy.”
“And let him finish his rendezvous with another woman? Screw you and screw him, too.”
Zeke shook his head. “You’re mixing everything up.”
“Oh yeah? Then tell Dash to unmix it for me.” I glanced at Alice again. She shielded herself with the passenger door, as if she was expecting a shootout. I stood out in the open, wearing my rage on my sleeve and welcoming whatever bullets came my way.
Zeke exchanged a few more texts with Dash, and my lying, cheating lover came outside. He looked angry. But I was fuming mad, too. What was that old saying, something about hell having no fury like a woman scorned?
Zeke unlocked the gate, and Dash approached me. Alice watched us for a second then slipped back inside the car and closed her door—giving me the privacy I needed to lay into Dash. Zeke backed off, too, and headed over to his SUV.
Dash grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the edge of the road. I yanked my hand away and met his gaze head on.
“I’m not with another woman,” he all but growled.
“Then what’s the deal with those earrings?” I snapped back. “And whose house is this?”
“I rented it for my mom, and I bought the earrings for her.”
I flinched, shocked into silence.
“I got her a bunch of other gifts, too,” he said. “I’m giving her all the stuff you won’t let me buy for you.”
I found my voice, hard and quick. “Don’t use me as your excuse to buy things for her.” I wasn’t to blame for that. “How long has she even been back in your life?”
He told me the entire Lola story, and my heart hurt for him. He was letting his mother take advantage of his success and use him for his money. I glanced at the house and spotted a willowy figure peering out the window. She was watching us.
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