Page 160 of Smoke and Fire
A gleam entered her eyes.
“Lizbeth is a website developer,” I said quickly, already catching her train of thought. “Not a romance author, although she probably should be. She’s read all the books in the library, then supplied them with more.”
“Well, Jess is a very famous author that has never revealed herself. There’s a lot of speculation about who she is. Really, she could be . . . anyone.”
My voice was almost an octave too high when I asked, “No one knows?”
The girl studied me for a moment, and I wondered if she could see the beads of perspiration forming on my skin. Lying had never been my forte. If my life depended on me telling a falsehood, I’d be dead in seconds.
“No.” She shook her head. “And she’s been tracked here.”
“By who?”
She waved that off. “Doesn’t matter. I wanted to come see if the rumors were true. I’d love to sit down and talk with her a little bit about one of her books, that’s all.”
I swallowed hard, my mind racing. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Working for Bastian was supposed to be an easy gig where I moderated social media responses to make sure fights didn’t break out, answered a few questions, and sorted email. This whole lying-to-a-stalker thing had notbeen a desired skill in my supposed resume.
To get away her scrutinizing gaze, I glanced around.
“You’re welcome to stay and wait. A lot of people come in to bum off the WiFi, so I can’t guarantee it’ll be easy to track an author down. Lots of women come,” I added, then cleared my throat. “They don’t say much, for the most part.”
“So you don’t know a local romance author?”
Her dark eyes probed mine again, and suspicion lay deep in their depths.
I swallowed hard.
“Nope. Don’t know Jess.” I forced a wry chuckle that sounded strangled. “Wish I did, though. Love her books. I didn’t know she’d been tracked to here.”
That much was sort of true, since Jess didn’tactuallyexist and I definitely loved the books. The woman pointed to my current book.
“A fave, for sure. Just wait until you get to twenty. Twenty one releases next week and I’m just dying. My girlfriends and I are having a Jess retreat at a cabin we rented up here. They’re all flying in before the launch so we can prepare for it together. The onlything that would make it better is to meet Jess herself.”
She squealed.
I almost swore.
Instead, I managed a bright smile. “Girls retreat over a romance novel!” I cried. “Sounds amazing.”
“We’re all reading it on our phones the moment it arrives at midnight. We’re going to stay up with sugary food and talk about our favorite Jess book. Mine is thirteen, of course,Change is a Monster." Her nose scrunched up. "Really didn't like book four,Lust is a Darkening Hellscape,at all. But that seems normal enough! Anyway, can't wait to hear what you think. I'll be around for the next week or more.”
I smiled because there was nothing for me to say.
She pointed to the table where she’d set her stuff. “Mind if I sit down for a while? I need to plan some of the party.”
“No.” I shook my head. “Make yourself comfortable. There is a fire raging in the forest north of here,” I added. Maybe that would deter her. “It’s going to be out of control soon, a source of mine says. Just so you know in case you need to alter travel plans. I'm sure the hotel would accommodate any changes.”
She dug through her purse as she chewed through a bite of cake pop, clearly not caring about the inherent warning as she pulled out her phone.
“Okay, sounds good.”
Her attention refocused on her screen.
And all my hopes for an easy job plummeted.
THAT NIGHT,I paced back and forth outside the RV. A dry wind stirred hair off my shoulders as I spun for the two-hundredth time while waiting for Bastian to text me already.
I’d sent a somewhat frantic video recounting The Situation, as I dubbed it. Then I followed it with a GIF of a monkey darting away from a woman chasing it in high heels. To seal my emotions, a second GIF of a woman low-level losing it came next, followed by a man surrounded by peaceful mountains. The wordnamasteflashed across the bottom.
