‘Seen what yet?’
The screen was frozen on a shot from the group date. Denton was hollering as five women splashed through a muddy obstacle course (which I was fairly sure was a reused challenge set fromDesert Island Castaway) in an effort to win some one-on-one time with him.
One of the women was Jeanette.
This man. Thisfuckingman.
‘Lily?’
‘Give me the remote.’
He did. I scrolled through until I found Denton’s interview.
I watched Murray watch it. He folded his arms. His eyes narrowed. His jaw turned to granite.
‘Are you all right?’ he asked, when it was over.
‘I’m fine. So—’
‘Lily,’ he said, twisting around to face me, ‘are you all right?’
‘Yes,’ I replied, looking him in the eye. ‘I’m fine. Because we’re going to ruin him.’
‘Okay. What’s the plan?’
An unexpected well of emotion rose up in my chest.
There was simply nothing I could say to this man that would shock him. Nothing I could do that would make him look at me any different.We’re going to push Denton off a bridge,I might say, and Murray would think for a moment, and then he’d say something like,We’re going to need something heavy to weigh him down. What if we steal that photocopier Tony won’t replace?
‘We’re going to get the women to unionise,’ I said. ‘Now let’s figure out how to do it.’
It was a three-pronged strategy.
We worked through the night, putting together our first prong, a video package of Denton’s worst moments (affectionately dubbed ‘the shithead reel’). The interview I’d done with Denton that afternoon was the centrepiece, but we weren’t lacking for material. ‘This could be three hours long and we’d still be leaving shit on the cutting room floor,’ Murray said, through a mouthful of green curry.
Keeping it from Tony was the biggest challenge. Given Denton was his nephew, there was zero chance he was going to be on board with our plan to ruin him. However, he was also profoundly lazy, so when Murray volunteered to run point on the Last Chance Party and the Necklace Ceremony, he went for it. ‘You splitting up with your wife is the best thing that’s ever happened to me,’ he guffawed. ‘You two girls should look at this guy’s work ethic. This is the kind of thing you should be emulating.’
‘Actually, I thought Lily and I could run point together,’ Murray said mildly. ‘I don’t have as much experience as you, Tony. I might miss things on my own. That all right with you, Lily?’
‘Of course,’ I said. ‘After all, I need to step up my game.’
‘Whatever.’ Tony waved a hand dismissively. ‘I’ll be looking closely at the footage tomorrow. Don’t fuck it up, or there’ll be trouble.’
‘We won’t,’ I promised, fantasising about the day I was going to put a stiletto heel through his throat.
We headed out to the Villa early. ‘Fingers crossed we can actually figure out how to make this thing work,’ Murray said, heaving the screen we’d stolen from the equipment room into the boot of his car.
‘It’ll be fine,’ I said, shoving the projector in next to it. ‘If we can’t work it out, we’ll get Saurav or someone to help us. We’re not the only people that hate Denton.’
We managed to do it on our own, though, setting up the screen in the makeup room and balancing the projector on top of the mirrors. ‘Got it,’ I said, flicking the projector on as I stood on one of the tables. ‘Can you pass me some more gaffa tape? I don’t want this to come tumbling down.’
Murray did, and then his hands settled on my hips. ‘I don’t want you to come tumbling down,’ he said, when I raised an inquisitive eyebrow at him.
As I secured the projector, I made a mental note to re-download Bumble the next time I had a night off. Murray might be separated from Julia, but he was still a) technically married and b) definitely not over her, and despite the air-tight seal of the vault, I liked the feeling of his hands on me a little too much.
He helped me down from the table. ‘I’m going to go call Cooper Pryce and see what it would take to get him out to set,’ he told me. Cooper, who had been on track to be the Romeo before Tony overruled everyone, was our second prong. ‘You got this?’
‘I’ve got this. Now get out. No boys in the makeup room.’
