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“Thank you,” she said on a tremor.
He took his seat again, facing her. Watching her crumble.
She could not crumble.
Lifting her head, she met his steady stare, relieved to see his eyes without his hat tipped so low. “I’d never allow someone to record something like that. I wouldn’t do this. It’s so out of character that I can’t even fathom how it happened!”
“I believe you, Avalynn.” His dark eyes offered an anchor in a wild, turbulent sea. She latched on tight.He may be her bodyguard, but right now he was being a friend.
Her gaze dropped to the computer tablet resting in his lap.
“I forwarded it to you,” he said.
She couldn’t quite meet his eyes. “Have you seen it yet?”
“No.”
The quiet word provided a bit of calm. She used it to gather herself. She had to get her crap together. There was no time for mistakes. Not with tens of thousands of seats sold out across America.
He held the tablet out to her.
Reluctantly, she took it and then smashed the wad of tissues to her eyes again so she didn’t have to see that look of sympathy Julius must be wearing. “I’d like to be alone.”
“Of course.” His boots moved out of her line of sight. Seconds later, he returned and set a box of tissues on the bed next to her.
Without another word, he left the room.
That choppy ocean called life pitched her around like a ship in a storm. Thiscouldn’tbe happening. Couldn’t be real. There must be a mistake—someone who looked like her was on that video.
She swiped a clean tissue over her eyes again and set the tablet on her knees. Julius had the video queued up and ready for her to view with a touch of a finger. At first, all she made out was flesh and movement. Then came the sound of a rough groan.
Oh god.Could her bodyguard hear that from outside the door? Where was her manager and PR team?
Heart thudding erratically, she lowered the volume and stared at the scene unfolding before her eyes.
So far, the camera didn’t capture her face. Or the face of the male either. Just his…
Oh god.She was not one to size shame, but he was…smaller than average.A lotsmaller than average.
Where did this take place? Nothing about the room gave away the location.
When did it happen?
Who was her supposed lover? She could count them on one hand and didn’t recognize the guy.
The man grabbed the woman’s hip and turned her body toward the camera. Avalynn squinted harder at the screen. Her heart plummeted when she saw theonemark in the world that could identifyheras the woman in the video.
It couldn’t be. She didn’t buy that somebody didn’t doctor her face or have a similar tattoo.
The tiny bird tattoo on her outer thigh, low enough that it peeked out beneath all her short skirts. The small, puffy bluebird with two music notes floating from its beak was a play on her name, which meant beautiful bird and nodded toward her passion for singing.
But…it looked too real.
“No,”she whimpered as she watched the rest of the video that would forever damage her reputation, sully her name and end her career.
It really was her on the tape. And that tattoo gave her a reference point. The tape had been made after her twenty-third birthday, the date she got the tattoo from a well-known artist in Las Vegas.
Problem was, knowing the timeframe still didn’t identify who the lover could be.
