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“A lot more than you’ve got,” she told him.
Harold shrugged. “Your blind faith is touching but pathetic. Let Drew sort out his own garbage. You have a career and reputation to protect. The more distance you get from him, the better off you’ll be. Believe me. I’m trying to help.”
“No, you’re not,” she said. “I’ve had people help me before. It doesn’t feel like this.”
Harold walked away, and Jenna stood like she’d been turned to stone. Her euphoria had been transformed into a gut-churning cold sweat. If those pictures really were doing the rounds on the internet, then things were going to get ugly for Drew in a big, public way. Tonight. She had to warn him.
At the same time, she was furious at him. Had he been making a fool of her, telling her it had just been photos that evening at Sobel’s party? He’d said nothing to her about staying the night in a bed full of naked women and leaving the next morning.
Not that it was any of her business. It all happened before she’d gotten involved with him at all, to be absolutely fair. Still, if they’d videotaped him in that state, his goose was cooked. At least at Maddox Hill.
Was that what she had to look forward to? Her lover’s sex tapes, doled out online one by one, with lots of buzz and buildup to a gleeful, greedy viewing public? It would be so awful.
She stopped next to the window overlooking the garden, pressing her forehead against the cold glass. God, what was it about her and men? Was she destined for this? Did she have a sign on her back? Gullible Nitwit. Please Lie to Me.
In any case, she didn’t want him taken by surprise. She texted him. where r u?
She hurried down the stairs and caught sight of Vann, Drew’s CFO, muttering into a phone. He closed the call when he saw her.
“Vann, have you seen Drew?” she asked.
“Last I saw, he was heading over to the security station with Zack.”
“Thanks.” She stared down at her phone. Still nothing from Drew. She texted ?? and started trotting in that direction, tottering on those ridiculous heels. Then she stopped, and with a muttered obscenity, plucked the shoes off. She gathered up big armfuls of that huge skirt and ran in her stocking feet.
Zack gave her an odd look when she skidded into the security center sideways, pink and out of breath. “Jenna? What’s up? Everything okay?”
“Fine,” she said, panting. “But I need to find Drew. He’s not answering my texts.”
“I saw him heading back toward the ballroom a few minutes ago,” Zack told her. He gestured toward the bank of security monitors. “Check those out. You might see him.”
Jenna leaned over, peering at the images on various screens, one after the other. Drew didn’t show up in any of them. Damn.
She turned to hurry out, but something on the last screen caught her eye. She turned back, leaning closer. That camera showed part of the grounds and the parking lot, and a tall man walking toward...wait.
Was that Harold? What...?
A car pulled up, and a woman was getting out of the back seat. She was tall and slim with a big cloud of curly blond hair. In the orange-tinted gloom of the parking lot, her eyes were smudgy pools of shadow. Harold took her arm, and she stumbled back against the car.
Harold pulled the tottering woman sharply after him and out of the camera’s range. They looked like they were heading toward the side lobby, which was currently not in use.
Harold was up to something. She had to find out what it was. She didn’t need any more damn surprises tonight, thank you very much.
Jenna ignored the security staff’s puzzled looks as she took off once again, shoes swinging by their straps as she ran to the side lobby. No time to explain anything to anyone.
The eastern lobby was deserted. It had a large number of large, bushy plants in the vaulted atrium around a decorative waterfall that wasn’t in use yet.
The big revolving door was shut, but someone had propped open the door beside it. Jenna slunk back against the wall behind the bushiest foliage as Harold and the woman with him appeared through the glass door.
They burst through it, arguing. Jenna slid back along the wall and into the recessed entry to the women’s bathroom, gathering her skirt into a tight bundle to keep it quiet.
“You had one job, Tina. One. I said not to be late. Timing is everything tonight.”
“I told you! I had a problem with Lauretta’s bonehead boyfriend, and he—”
“I don’t want to hear about it,” Harold snarled. “Hurry!”
“I gotta stop at the bathroom,” Tina said, her voice sulky. “When you’re pregnant, you gotta pee all the time. I came all the way from Lauretta’s house and it’s, like, an hour and a half from here. So I—”
