Page 146 of Triggered By Love
Chapter Forty-Seven
Dinner wasboth a blessing and a disaster. It all depended on perspective.
Avery enjoyed the interplay between Matt and Joan, but she was downright disgusted by Matt’s handsiness. The football player’s fingers were all over her, either running down her arm or trying to feel her pantiliner or touching her face.
And then there were the cameras with Alida in back motioning them to kiss. It was awkward to the max, but at the end, she thought, screw Alida and the fake dating story, and gave Matt a “stop” gesture by holding her palm in front of his fish lips.
He wasn’t happy, but he had an appointment with Ivanna to get his clothes on and feathers pasted. Good riddance.
By the time Avery arrived at The Edge, every nerve of hers was on the edge of breaking down. This was it. The big moment for Brando. The large banner featuring his handsome face was hung at the entrance to the deck, visible when the guests alighted from the elevator.
Since the upper deck restaurant was closed, they used its dining area as the “backstage.” It was a little weird, because the models would exit the restaurant, descend the steps to the triangular jutting sky deck, walk in a straight line to the farthest corner of the deck, then turn around and stop on the transparent floor to be photographed, before sashaying up the steps to the restaurant. The guests would be seated near the thick glass walls on two sides the deck, and the photographer’s “pit” would be between the base of the steps and the base of the triangular transparent floor.
The Secret Service agents were out in full force, and there was one stationed at every corner, as well as several in the restaurant and on the upper deck leading down to the sky deck.
Avery’s palms were sweaty, and “what-ifs” cycled through her brain, going through every snag she might encounter.
“Hey, girl, give me a smile,” Kerry said after she walked through the metal detector. “Ivanna just texted and said the models are on their way. I’ve got all the clothes racks numbered in sequence order, and everyone’s animal effects are in a hatbox next to their clothes.”
“Did they practice putting them on?”
“Yes, although she’s going to personally glue Matt’s feathers on his forehead. She’s with him right now.”
“I can’t believe she got them done,” Avery said. “I’m glad she wasn’t really hurt.”
Avery wasn’t ready to process how she felt about Ivanna, but if Ivanna was truly innocent, it might be a good time to give her an incentive to work with her. She’d watch and see how the effects worked out in the show, whether the critics loved them or panned them.
“I’ve got this, all except Jason’s,” Kerry said. “He’s not going to want to wear that Mohawk down the back of his head and neck.”
“He’s determined to be difficult,” Avery said. “Let’s take a look at what Ivanna came up with. Maybe I can convince him once he sees it.”
Avery walked past the bar, around a large floor-to-ceiling aquarium to the back of the restaurant. She unzipped the garment bag holding Jason’s hunting outfit. It consisted of a tweed jacket with slanted pockets, a conservative plaid shirt, buckskin breeches, and boots. Instead of a fedora hat, Jason would wear a row of quills fanning out from his forehead and trailing down his neck.
“I don’t see the headdress,” Kerry said. “Why is it missing?”
“They should be right here in the hatbox.” Frustration bubbled up from the pit of her stomach. “I can’t believe they’re missing. I should have kept Trent as a spare. I bet he would wear the quills.”
“Jason said Trent was seen with Ernesto in a picture from last year.”
“Jason suspects everyone.” Avery flipped through the rest of the boxes and garment bags in case the quills were hidden somewhere else. “Obviously, Ernesto mixed in with some of the spectators. Trent and Jayla were Brando’s guests, so they had a legit reason for being in the crowd.”
“Maybe they saw something.” Kerry’s eyes lit like she had an idea. ““Do you believe Ivanna when she says Ernesto had a toy gun?”
“Toy guns are plastic,” Avery said. “It would get through the metal detector.”
“If Ernesto didn’t shoot Brando, then who did?” Kerry voiced the question that had been circling Avery’s mind the way a vulture circled a dying animal.
“Someone must have switched the guns,” Avery said. “You’d think people were taking pictures.”
“Not when everyone was screaming and running away,” Kerry said.
“I wonder if Saul knows more than he’s saying.” Could it be he’d seen the perp? Or had taken a picture? If so, why was he holding on to it? Why had he lied and said he wasn’t at the show?
“Finn!” Kerry spotted her man at the door. He entered with two other men, who were wearing cowboy hats.
One of them was Trent Gallagher.
“What is he doing here?” Avery asked as she moved with Kerry to greet the men.
