Page 81 of The Big Easy & Other Lies
I trudged after her, retying my mask and trying to breathe under the weight of this new disaster pressing down on my chest. When I reached the bottom of the stairs, the throng of costumes had already swallowed her. Rhett would probably be wondering where I was, but I was still too angry over the leak of my designs to want to see him.
I spotted Bran’s head poking well above the crowd. He wore a green knit cap as part of his and Chloe’s Jack and the Beanstalk costumes. He caught my eye, and I waved, hoping he couldn’t see the evidence of tears. When someone called his name, he turned, and I seized the moment to slip out the front door.
And then I walked.
Chapter 29
I headed to the guardhouse and out through the gate. The guard eyed my costume. I pulled off the headwrap and mask but kept going, desperate to flee the bright lights and noise and Angelique. At first, I wasn’t going anywhere in particular. I counted streetlamps as I passed them and put one foot in front of the other. Four, five, six. Before long I realized I was on Freret Street which would run me into my street and a mile later, to home.
I kept going.
Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen.
At twenty-three, headlights swept up behind me and then stayed at a crawl. I glanced over. It was Rhett, with Livvie beside him. A moment later, Bran’s truck joined them.
I didn’t stop.
“Cam?” It was Livvie, leaning out of Rhett’s car window. “Cam, what happened? Did you run into Angelique?”
Instead of answering I turned and walked to the truck. Chloe popped the door open and moved over so I could climb in.
“Home, please.” That was all I said.
Bran pulled around Rhett and headed up Palmer. After a minute he said, “Rhett’s behind us.”
I shrugged. Thirty-one. Thirty-two.
Forty-four. That’s how many streetlights separated me from the LeBlanc mansion. We pulled into the driveway with Rhett behind us. Bran stopped and I climbed out, wondering if I should have been a zombie tonight instead of a pirate as I marched toward my front door, ignoring the car doors slamming behind me, then the crunch of everyone’s feet on gravel. The fastest pair jumped in front of me. Rhett.
“Cam? Please? Tell me what’s wrong?”
Livvie was right on his heels. “You’re scaring us. What happened?”
I stepped around them and dropped onto the top step. Delphine had laid off me significantly since we started getting her the cash for her meds. I didn’t want to try her patience by clomping through the house with a witch and werewolf behind me.
“Angelique stole my capstone designs.”
“What?!” This from Livvie and Bran who, with Chloe and Rhett, had formed a semi-circle of freaked out faces staring at me.
“What do you mean?” Bran asked.
“Amber let me into Angelique’s workroom. She said that after seeing my work for the play, Angelique’s designs felt more like something I would do.” I dropped my head to my knees, feeling sick at the memory of my first glimpse of the evidence. “She was right. It was my stuff, except with better fabrics.”
Stunned silence met this. Chloe finally broke it. “How did she get your designs?”
Rhett answered. “Me.”
Livvie flew into motion, and Bran grabbed her before she could lunge at Rhett, who had jumped out of her way.
“Livvie! I didn’t give them to her!” he said. “But—”
“But you had my sketchpad for a few days.” My voice came out flat, and I straightened to stare at him.
“Yeah. She must have found it and cribbed your ideas.” He looked heartsick. “But I never took it out of my room, Cam. I’m so sorry.”
Livvie glared at him. “How could you leave something like that laying around for her archenemy to find? How stupid is that? So stupid,” she spat, answering her own question before he could protest. “So incredibly stupid.”
He stared at the ground, not even looking angry. Just ill.
