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I paused, staring at that photo. Wait a minute…
“See!” Marta crowed in triumph.
“Yeah, actually, I do,” I murmured. The heartsickness I’d felt seeped away, eclipsed by anger. Burning anger that made me want to have a throw-down with someone.
Thankfully, tables and racks blocked me from the first person who’d be my target.
“Sadie,” I called to my friend.
“Yeah, boss?” she called. She’d been teasing and calling me that all day.
When I looked over, I saw she’d inched closer and now stood only a few feet away. Her narrow-eyed, suspicious stare took in all of Marta and the bitchiness she represented. I had no doubt Sadie had heard everything and was outraged on my behalf.
“Can you to watch the room for a little bit while I deal with this?”
“Whatever you need.” Sadie smiled softly, sympathy in her eyes. She didn’t know the whole situation, but she’d have my back. I’d have to fill her in later, so she wasn’t pissed at Axel.
“Thanks.” Spinning on my heel, photos in hand, I marched toward the back door of the room—which Marta couldn’t get to, due to the table configuration we’d set up. Thank God. That ought to slow down the poisonous bitch while I found Axel.
I couldn’t even believe this!
“Hey!” she yelled behind me. I heard a clatter but didn’t slow. I hoped I’d see Oak or Barke, who should be nearby, and send one of them to backup Sadie.
“Sorry,” I heard my friend say. “You can’t go beyond this point.”
Whatever Marta replied was lost to me as soon as the door swung shut. I took off running toward Axel. This ended now.
Marta’s words echoed over and over in my head.He’s going home with me tonight.
I slowed to a walk as I approached the gym but couldn’t stop from looking over my shoulder to see if Marta was sprinting after me from the other direction. No sign of her. Darkly, I thought it might be a little funny to see her running in her fancy heels, but that was a thought for another day.
“I need to get these to your mom.” I waved the pile of pics at Oakley, who was manning the door and taking tickets. Hopefully, she was in there. I’d left my purse under the table back at the book fair and couldn’t buy an entry ticket.
My cousin rolled his eyes at me. “You sure you don’t want to just see Axel?”
I shrugged, forcing a smile. That was exactly who I needed to talk to. “There’s an issue. Can you sent Barke over to help Sadie at the book fair while I take care of this part of it?”
He stiffened. “She okay?”
“I think so.” Sadie handled customers every day at her grandma’s diner. I had no doubt she could handily deal with Marta. Still, having Barke there would ease my mind.
“I’ll radio him. You go on in,” he said, jerking his head toward the entry. “Axel is all way at the back by the outside doors.”
“Thanks. When you see his assistant, if you see her, stop her as long as you can, okay? She’s going to be mad as hell.”
“Hmm… Fun challenge.” Oak winked, rubbing his hands together and no doubt plotting a character’s demise—a character who might look like Marta. Family… They knew you better than yourself sometimes, could be a pain in the ass, but they always had your back. My relatives were the best.
He opened the door, and I dashed into the brightly lit gymnasium. A chattering wall of noise immediately enveloped me. It echoed around the cavernous space and bounced off the metal, open-raftered roof that we used to try to throw basketballs through back in the day. I had no time for nostalgia. I had a mission. Determined to end this, once and for all, I made a beeline for Axel where a long line of people waited to talk to him and get an autograph.
This would cause a stir with people from town—though there were a lot of out-of-towners here. With rides, games and all the celebrities, people came to our little fundraiser from all around every year. And with the fame, came a bunch of photographers and reporters, too.
As the person in front of Axel walked away with a huge smile, he glanced up and his eyes immediately locked on me, sending an errant sensation of fuzzy warmth prickling through me. His face brightened from the fake smile he’d been giving everyone, and he beamed at me. That happy expression faded when he saw the look on my face. As his brows furrowed, he said something to the person in front of him, gave a nod then patted the kid’s shoulder as he side-stepped the child then half-sprinted toward me.
“What’s wrong?” he demanded.
I raised an eyebrow at him. “Marta just confronted me to give me a little info and tell me to stay away from her man. She gave me these.” I shoved the photos into his hand. He didn’t look at them immediately, staring aghast at me.
“She said what? Bristol, I—”
