Page 50 of Mr. Risky

“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.”