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I gotthe impression that he was eager to get going from the way his eyes darted to the exit before settling on me, so I was going to keep this conversation short. “Have you seen Marlee?” I asked, getting right to the point.
He swallowed hard. “Uh, no.”
“You sure about that?” He was a bad liar.
Michael sighed. “I’m not supposed to say where she is. Or anything, really.”
There was something about the way he said it that set off warning bells inside my head. He was holding something back.
“But you know something, besides just her location.” It wasn’t a question.
“What? That’s crazy. I don’t…” Michael trailed off with a heavy sigh as I narrowed my eyes at him. “Okay, fine. I know something, but I can’t tell you. I’ve been sworn to secrecy.”
“Are you kidding? You’re really not going to fill me in on what’s going on?” I ran my hand through my hair and shook my head. “Come on, man. I’m crazy about Marlee, and I just want to make sure she’s okay. It’s important.”
Michael’s eyes softened, and he glanced around before stepping a little closer and lowering his voice so that no one nearby could overhear.
“Listen, you can’t tell anyone you heard this from me. Faith will kill me if she finds out I spilled the beans, and I don’t want the honeymoon phase to end before we’ve even said our vows.”
“Fine, sure. I’ll keep it quiet. Just tell me what’s wrong with Marlee.”
“It’s...delicate.She’s been having trouble with her ex-boyfriend. The guy posted some nude pictures of her online.”
“What?” I had no idea what to expect, but this was a real shock.
“I guess her name is attached to the pictures, so you can find them if you search for her.Anyonecan.”
All the pieces of the puzzle suddenly fell into place. The article about us freaked her out because the media was determined to uncover the identity of my new mystery woman. If her name was on those naked pictures…
“I’ve gotta go,” I said, turning to head back to the elevator. I needed to check this out and figure out what to do from here.
“She’s at the wedding venue,” Michael said, and I paused to look back at him. “She’ll probably be there until the early evening.”
“Thanks.”
That one word wasn’t enough to convey my appreciation, but I knew that he had somewhere to be, and I was eager to get up to my room to check out his story. A large part of me hoped that I wouldn’t find anything, that Michael had somehow gotten his facts wrong.
But I found what I was looking for within minutes. A quick search of her name, and I was directed to the porn site with five pictures of Marlee’s gorgeous body on display.
Son of a bitch.
I had always been a big supporter of women making their own decisions, and if Marlee had posted these herself, I would have tried to accept it. I wouldn’t havelikedit, but I definitely could have lived with it.
But this was different. If her ex posted these without her permission, that was a serious problem. The more I looked at the selfies, the more furious I got. It was a violation of Marlee’s privacy, and my feelings for her had given birth to a protective instinct that wouldn’t let that stand. I was going to fix this for her, one way or another.
I just had to talk to her first. If she was at the wedding venue, I couldn’t do much about that now. Even if I could figure out where it was, I wasn’t going to go and demand her attention. I doubted that she’d appreciate me making a scene right now. She was probably already mortified, and I wasn’t going to make it worse for her, no matter what.
So, I stayed in my hotel room until the evening, trying to distract myself by flipping through channels on the TV. Nothing held my attention, and I ended up reading through the script again, getting more familiar with the role I wanted to play. I hadn’t heard from Sam about that yet, but it was on the back burner for me right now. I had bigger problems.
Finally, at seven in the evening, I figured that the decorating had to be finished. Taking the elevator down to the eighth floor, I went to her room and knocked on the door. Listening intently for movement on the other side, I waited a full minute before knocking again. There was nothing to be heard, and no answer at the door.
I sighed and pulled my phone out of my pocket. I wanted to see if I would hear it ring inside the room, so I selected Marlee’s name in my contacts and held the phone to my ear, not expecting her to answer. But she shocked me by picking up during the second ring.
“Hello?” she answered tentatively.
“Marlee? Where are you?”
“It doesn’t matter, Bowen.” She sighed. “Trust me, it’s better if you just forget about me.”
