Page 165 of Tormented Billionaire Romance Series

Maggie ignored the question, or maybe she didn’t hear. “Megyn, we have to go to this party! Damn, they’re trying to find a wife for Carter Bryant!”

The name rang a vague bell, more vibration than sound. “Who’s Carter Bryant?”

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.” Maggie swiveled to face me. “Anyway, the most important part is that Brian Holt will be there. I’m totally going and you have to come with me!”

“Who’s Brian Holt?” I asked, totally lost.

Maggie finally turned back to me. “Okay, wow. You aren’t kidding. Look, Carter Bryant is a billionaire and he’s crazy huge in the art world. He’s on the council and everything. And Brian Holt is his super-hot best friend who I totally need to meet at this party.”

“Why do I need to go with you?” I asked, more than a little baffled. I hadn’t seen Maggie fangirl this hard over anything for as long as I’d known her.

“Um, because I need you to be my hype man. And maybe you can meet someone there, too.”

“What kind of party is it?”

“A boy-girl party.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Okay,” Maggie said. “It’s a costume party.”

“And it’s…” I checked the date. “Mags, are you kidding? This is Saturday. How am I going to get a costume ready in just two days?”

“You could just wear some cat ears on a headband like a lot of people probably will, just so they can get in. Or we can go shopping.”

“And I’ll miraculously be able to afford something.”

“Well, window-shopping is free, so… lots of stores will be trying to get rid of their extra stock, so we could find you something cheap. And if push comes to shove, well, there’s always thrift stores.”

I considered what she’d said. I did like going to pawn shops and the like to check everything out, since the collections were always so eclectic. Maybe I’d find something I could work with. “Okay. Let’s go. But I’m only doing this because you apparently have such a huge crush on this Brian guy.”

“He used to be a lawyer,” Maggie informed me, as if that explained everything. She smiled wide and bounced to her feet, grabbing my hand and dragging me along behind her all the way to the front door. “I’ll go get the car warmed up.”

“Geez, slow down. All I need to do is put my shoes on!”

Undeterred, no doubt incapable of noticing anything past the stars in her eyes, Maggie grabbed my front door and threw it open.

Standing on the other side of the door, fist raised to knock, was a tall and skeletal young man with long blonde hair and curly golden stubble on his neck in the imitation of a beard. He jumped back and clamped his hand to his thin chest. “Jesus, Mags.”

Deacon.

I’d forgotten all about him. It looked like shopping for a costume would have to wait, though if we did put it off, it would probably never get done at all, since that would leave only one day until the party.

Maggie continued to be undeterred. She grabbed her brother by the shoulder and pulled him inside my house.

Deacon looked at me with something like a mixture of fear and admiration. “Uh, hi, Megyn. Nice to see you.”

I smiled at him.

“Okay.” Maggie clapped her hands. “No time to chitchat. Deacon, plans have changed.”

He furrowed his wispy eyebrows. “You’re not telling me I came out here all the way for nothing, are you?”

“On the contrary. Everything’s still going to happen, just in a different order.”

Deacon shot me a confused look. I lifted my shoulders in a slight shrug, telling him I didn’t have a clue about what was going on, either.

“Megyn and I stumbled across a sudden errand we need to take care of. You can still take care of the deadbolt. Megyn doesn’t mind if you stick around. Do you, Megyn?”

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