Page 68 of See You There
A married woman making out with other men.
Her grandmother would have loved this. She’d have crowed that she knew it all along.
Dahlia was her mother’s daughter.
James cleared his throat and cast his brother an impatient glance when Luke surged to his feet and began pacing the length of the kitchen.
“So, your husband is on the payroll?”
“I’m not sure what that has to do with anything?”
“We need to know everything about your life,” James explained in his carefully measured voice.
“Scott has nothing to do with this.”
“Someone is trying to kill you!” Luke burst out from the kitchen. His emotion was a sharp contrast to his identical twin’s calm. “And they don’t seem concerned about who else is collateral damage.”
The veins in his neck strained, and the lines of his body drew tight with anger.
“Scott isn’t trying to kill me!”
“Then who is?”
Luke’s face was like a thundercloud. Exhaustion dragged at her, and she slumped back into the chair. “I honestly don’t know. But it’s not Scott. If I die, the money dries up. I only matter to Scott alive.”
“We will need to follow up on that. Look…” James held his hands out in a placating motion. “The police are investigating these attempts. If there is something in your life that you don’t want the police to discover, you need to tell us. That’s why we’re here.”
Dahlia recoiled internally. She’d allowed herself to forget that Luke wasn’t helping her, being nice to her, because he cared about her. She waspayinghim. She was an undersexed, thirty-year-old fool, who had been ready to spread her legs for the first attractive man to be nice to her—forgetting that he, like all the rest, had his own reasons for being there.
“We aren’t digging into your life for fun. The police will investigate you to find out who is doing this. And if it’s linkedto something illegal, then I need, as your attorney, to know your exposure.” James’s voice was firmer than it had been before.
“I haven’t done anything illegal,” Dahlia protested.
James picked up the pen and wrote the word Victor on the legal pad. On the line below, he wrote Scott.
“You don’t have the same last name?” James asked.
“Victor had my name changed legally to Dahlia Everton soon after I signed with him.” Scott had been furious.
Dahlia pressed her tongue into her front teeth. She was going to cry. She’d known this day would come. That someone would find out. But having it come on the heels of humiliating herself in front of Luke… He must have been so pleased at how easy it was to get her panting.
Hot pressure stung at the back of her eyes.
“Do you owe money to someone, use drugs…”
“I don’t do anything! I work. Go to Pilates. Fake dates with Chandler… That’s it. I have an incredibly boring life.”
“Except for the secret husband part,” Luke muttered.
Dahlia kept her eyes on her fingers clasped together in her lap. Thankfully, James ignored him.
“All right. How about this? Who would profit if you died?”
Dahlia let out a bitter laugh. “Trust me, I’m only valuable if I’m alive and working.”
“Life insurance?”
Dahlia shrugged. “I’m sure the studio has a policy on me. It’s pretty standard for a feature film.”
