Page 26 of Have To Be Mine

Annika smiled. “Go, Team Blackwell.”

“Let’s get this show on the road.” I walked over to the production coordinator, a woman named Sofia who’d been running around with a headset all morning. “Tell the photographers to get ready. We’re ready.”

“Where’s Dash?” she asked.

“Dealing with something. I’m authorized to make the call.”

It wasn’t technically true, but I didn’t care. The shoot needed to happen, and I wasn’t going to let Dash’s absence derail it. Someone had to take the reins, and at the moment, that someone was me.

Sofia nodded and spoke into her headset. “We’re good to go. Let’s wrangle the photographers and get the first models in position.”

All around the set, people sprang into action, like an army mobilizing for battle. All I could think about was that this army was missing its general.

Where the hell had Dash Blackwell gone? Was I going to have to explain to his brother that I’d lost track of him within the first four hours of day one?

9

DASH

The media was going to eat me alive. I could feel it coming. They were already circling like vultures, sensing something was amiss behind the scenes.

The set was perfect. I had finally figured out how to anchor the backdrops. So that was one crisis averted. The lights and shields and all the things needed to pull off an amazing photoshoot were all in place. I’d been working the press for the better part of an hour, smiling and deflecting and gesturing broadly at the stunning coastline like that was the story they’d come for.

It wasn’t working anymore. The setup promised something amazing and it wasn’t happening.

Fuck.

Adrian was going to strip me of the family name and banish me. I should probably head to a bank, pull out as much cash as they’d allow, and run. I would find a place to hide for at least the next five years. Maybe that’d be enough time to get him to settle down.

“When does the actual show start?” someone asked from somewhere to my left.

“Very soon,” I said.

“You said that twenty minutes ago.”

“Come on, Trevor,” I said, flashing him a smile. “You’ve heard the term ‘fashionably late,’ right? Well, this is just the world of fashion. Trust me. It’ll be worth the wait.”

I had no idea where to go from here. I had run my mouth. Promised things I couldn’t deliver. And it was almost time to face the music.

I turned away from the press and pulled out my phone like I was checking something important. I was checking nothing. I was buying thirty more seconds of looking like I had a plan. Which I did not.

Adrian had texted twice more since I’d told him it was handled. I had not responded to either message. Nothing had really changed. The tops were still missing and that was game over.

He could check in with his little spy if he wanted to know what was going on. He should get his money’s worth.

One of the media relations guys materialized at my shoulder. He looked like he was getting ready to run as well. Maybe I could catch a ride with him.

“We can’t hold them much longer,” he said quietly.

“I know.”

“You need to make a call, Dash,” he said.

I looked out at the water. The set was perfect. Everything was perfect. Except for the part where we had nothing to put on the models. I thought about my mother and how disappointed she was going to be.

I need this to work. For him.

“Give me five more minutes to go check in with Annika,” I said.