Page 104 of Unforgettable
“The news,” Vicki said as a matter of fact.
“My father is dealing with it.” She sounded so calm.
Clutching my shoulder, Lucas sighed. “See you inside.” Then he strutted up to Haven and Vicki. “Vicki, can I talk to you?”
Vicki cooed or squealed as she and Lucas walked away.
Haven stood ten or twenty feet away, watching me size her up. Or maybe she was doing the same to me.
My mouth was bone dry. My brain wasn’t working. And I probably couldn’t get my tongue to work either.
She beamed as she drew closer. “Hey, big guy. I love the tux.”
And I love you.“I was worried. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Never better.”
Her permanent smile said it all, but in that moment, I had to clear the air. “I didn’t leak anything to the press.”
“I know.”
My head jerked. “Do you know who did?”
“Let’s not talk about that right now.”
It was probably best to wait. Besides, I didn’t want to talk anyway. Instead, I wanted to kiss the lights out of her.
But what I wanted had to wait because Lucas returned right then.
“It’s time,” he said. “I want to address the group now that everyone is here.”
I extended my elbow to Haven. “My lady.”
She blushed as she took my arm.
No matter what happened from there on out, I was one happy motherfucker.
34
Haven
The twenty of us who were in the fundraiser were shuffled into the ballroom amid a packed house and instructed to sit in the front row. I felt like I was in my graduation ceremony at boarding school.
A lady, whom Lucas had introduced as Sandra right before kickoff time, fiddled with papers on the podium. Sandra was head of the Chelsea House for Battered Women and the master of ceremonies for the evening.
I didn’t know how I’d gotten the short end of the straw, but I was sitting next to none other than enemy number two—Beverly Sims.
She leaned in. “I didn’t think you would make it. Seems your father is in a pickle.”
My dad suspected that one of the Simses had leaked the affair to the press because Lorna Sims had been calling him all week, and he’d been ghosting her. He still hadn’t told me what else she had on him.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to know anymore. I was on the brink of doing something drastic to one of the Sims women, or maybe all three, although a part of me felt sorry for them. It was pathetic watching three women, with no father around, trying to hang on to a rich man’s coattails.
“I know you leaked his affair to the press.” I wasn’t sure, but I wanted to see what type of reaction I could get out of her.
Her hands were clasped in her lap, and her knuckles were almost turning white. “Wait ’til you hear what else we have in store.”
Ever so slowly, my head turned in her direction. “So you admit leaking the affair?”
