Page 31 of Rock Hard
“He looked at me as if he’d never seen a woman shift before.” For as long as she lived, she would never forget the look on his face. The king of beasts, gone absolute deer in the headlights. It might have been funny under other circumstances. “Then I grabbed the first intact article of clothing I found and got the hell out of there.”
She finished the wine, waving off his offer of a refill.
“Now that he knows the truth, he’s not just going to let that go, Alice,” Johnny said softly.
Alice wasn’t so sure. Nothing had changed, except Rex now knew what she was. That kind of knowledge had little influence over the heart or the soul, both of which were major players in selecting a mate.
“Well, it’s not up to him, is it?” She sniffed, lifting her chin. “Besides, I can’t worry about him now. We’ve got to find Carly.”
Johnny nodded, thankfully dropping the subject. “Right. Any ideas?”
“Yes. Remember when we met up with her in New York? Carly said her essay had won a trip to the finals, but she hasn’t said anything since. What if that’s where she went?”
“She snuck away for the semis without Rex finding out,” Johnny mused thoughtfully. “It stands to reason she’d do the same for the finals.”
“Exactly. And she probably would have gotten away with it, too, except my surprise visit got her busted. We need to find out when those finals are and where.”
“Agreed. Got a name?”
“No.” Alice frowned, angry with herself fornotknowing the name of the organization running the contest. “Wait! It’s probably on her finalist medal!”
She searched through the photos on her phone, finding the picture she had snapped of Carly proudly holding up her medal. Spreading her fingers across the screen, she enlarged the picture until she could make out the writing. “Got it! The North American National STEM Foundation!”
A quick online search and a couple of screen flips told them everything they needed to know.
“Go grab your stuff,” Johnny said, putting his phone up to his ear. “I’ll get us on the next flight out.”
“What about your benefit concert in Atlanta?”
“What, you never heard of the ‘Chicago to Atlanta by way of Phoenix’ route?” He grinned. “I’ll catch a late flight out tomorrow.”
“That won’t leave you much leeway.”
“I’m not worried. I’m sure you’ve got everything planned down to the smallest detail and things will go off without a hitch as usual. Besides, this is important.”
Alice took a moment to kiss his cheek. “You’re amazing, you know that?”
Johnny laughed. “Yeah, I know. Now get that tail in gear. We’ve got a conference to get to.”
