Page 34 of Deadly Little Scandals
“But what do you do,” I could hear Campbell saying, “when a car is too big to fit in a spot? Or too…powerfulto handle?”
I rolled my eyes and continued jimmying the pin in the lock. The mechanism clicked, then gave, and a second later, I had the cabinet open. Inside, there was a Peg-Board, with easily a hundred numbered pegs. Valet keys hung on a good three-quarters of them. I scanned the rungs, trying to figure out what Victoria had meant when she’d said that we should check out the valet stand.
“Personally, I’m a bit of daredevil. You won’t tell, will you? I just like to go fast, is all.”
There.Three rows down, there was a key on a familiar-looking chain.A snake wrapped around a rose.I plucked it from the board and then saw two others. I grabbed them, too—seconds before I heard someone coming out the front door of the Arcadia hotel.
Keeping low to the ground, I shuffled toward the entrance and then popped up beside the group as they exited. When Campbell saw me, she cut the valet loose, and two minutes later, we’d made it far enough away from the building to examine our loot.
The three key chains were identical. The keys that hung on them were different, but all three had one thing in common.
Size.
“Golf cart keys,” Campbell said. “One for you. One for me. One for Sadie-Grace.”
Right after Victoria had pointed us to the valet stand, I’d been more focused on the bombshell she’d dropped about the Lady of the Lake than her parting shot.Don’t tell Lily.
“If Lily’s out, I’m out,” I told Campbell. I’d never cared about impressing the White Gloves in the first place, and I didn’t think there was any more information to get out of Victoria.
“What if Lily weren’t out?” Campbell asked me.
I wasn’t sure what she was getting at. “Victoria just said…”
Campbell smiled. “I happen to have an in with one of the other White Gloves,” she said. “One who isn’t overly fond of Victoria Gutierrez.”
texted Lily and Sadie-Grace. Campbell texted Hope, who met us—all four of us—at the front of the hotel. I didn’t know what Campbell had texted her, but she didn’t bat an eye at Lily’s presence.
“The golf carts are parked around back,” she said. “You obtained your keys?”
“Easy as pie,” Campbell replied.
“Apple pie,” Sadie-Grace added confidently. Then, in the interest of full disclosure, she continued. “Or so I assume. I wasn’t there.”
“We only have three keys.” I phrased my question carefully. “Is that going to be a problem?”
I was keeping secrets from Lily. If and when the truth about my parentage came out, she might hate me, but I wasn’t going to sit back and let anyone else hurt her if I could help it.
“Not a problem,” Hope replied cheerfully. “Each White Glove picks her own replacement. Victoria can’t cut any of you as long as I’m interested.”
Apparently, she hadn’t found Lily interesting enough to keep around on her own, but if she was part of a package deal with me and Campbell—so be it.
What are the chances that Lily can change any of the other White Gloves’ minds tonight?
Lily must have sensed something was off with me, because she squeezed my hand as we rounded the back of the hotel. “Don’t worry,” she whispered as a line of a dozen golf carts came into view. “I won’t let them cut you.”
Hope was as good as her word. Victoria didn’t say a thing about Lily’s presence. I counted sixteen other Candidates present, along with the eight White Gloves.
“Keys, please,” Victoria told us. I handed them over. She tossed one to Sadie-Grace. “You’re with Nessa’s group. Hope, you can have Campbell.” Another key toss. Victoria waited a moment and then closed her fist around the last key. “Sawyer and Lily are with me.”
Each golf cart had two seats—one front-facing and one back. I ended up behind the wheel of our cart. Lily was sitting beside me, and Victoria had taken up a perch on the backseat.
On the carts around us, the other White Gloves and Candidates chattered. Every single one of them was dressed to the nines.
Golf carts? Check? Formal wear (lake version)? Check.
“What exactly are we doing tonight?” I asked.
The answer, it soon became apparent, wasoff-roading. Victoria directed us past the hotel, past the ramp down to the docks, past the golf course and the tennis courts, past the condos, down a gravel road….
