I turn in the other direction and run, not caring where I’m actually going.
“We just want to ask you about you and Victor!” a woman yells.
The first restricted area I pass is a level 3—too high for my badge level. I keep going, the pounding of footsteps on my trail getting louder.
As soon as I see the level 2 area, I grab the badge hanging around my neck and scan it, pressing the door closed behind me.
“Oh, hey Lindy.” Manny pulls his finger out of his nose and grins at me.
Ugh.
“Hey,” I say, breathing hard from running.
“Everything okay?” he asks.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
I pull out my phone and text Victor.
Me: I’m hiding in a cleaning supply room. Reporters are after me. And I’m suspended from my job so I’m probably not even supposed to be here.
He doesn’t write back immediately. I look around the room, trying to find a way out other than the way I came in.
“Are there any other doors to this room?” I ask Manny.
“Nope. There’s a vent.” He points at a vent cover on the wall.
“Uh, no.”
“Is someone waiting for you out there?”
I look at the door. “Probably.”
“You want me to go tell ‘em to leave?”
“No!”
I don’t want to be alone in this room with Manny, but I also don’t want to go back out there.
“You want some Mountain Dew?” He offers me a bottle of soda from the pocket of his navy work jumpsuit.
“I’m good, thanks.”
“You’re really pretty.”
Oh God. Why here? Why him? I try to smile.
“Thanks.”
My phone buzzes with a text. I grab it out of my bag.
Victor: Where are you? I’ll come get you.
Me: No! The reporters will mob us.
Victor: Okay, I’ll send security. Where are you?
Me: Uh…second floor, by the place that sells huge pretzels.
Victor: Sit tight babe, I’ll get someone there soon.
I keep my phone in my hand as I wait. Manny walks over to a small mirror hanging on the wall, gets out a comb and starts combing his slicked-back black hair.
“So…are you off?” he asks me.
“Yeah.”
I put my coat on, wanting to cover every inch of skin I can.
“I’m off at 2 am,” he says. “Want to hang out at my place after that?”
“Oh, I can’t. I’ve got plans with my boyfriend.”
His expression falls with disappointment. “I didn’t know you had a boyfriend.”
“Yeah, it’s a new thing.”
There’s a beep outside the door as someone scans their key card. When the door opens, a security guard steps inside the room, another one right behind him.
“Lindy?” he asks me.
I nod, relieved.
The guards lead me from the room, blocking the reporters with their arms out. I keep my head down as cameras snap and cell phones record.
The guards lead me to a Level 5 elevator, which takes us down to a long tunnel with a concrete floor. We walk past a few people with Level 5 badges on, and when we round a corner I see Victor, dressed in a dark suit.
“Hey,” he says, opening his arms to me.
I practically fall into his arms, the events of the past hour fading as he hugs me.
“What’s this about you being suspended?” he asks.
I look up at him. “Because of us.”
His gaze darkens. “Are you serious?”
“My boss said it’s against policy.”
“Fuck him. We’ll get this taken care of, I promise.”
I sigh softly. “What about the reporters? I don’t know how they found out.”
“So what if they know? Fuck them, too.”
“I’m just…not sure how to handle all this.”
Victor cups my cheeks and kisses my forehead. “It’ll be okay. Let’s get out of here and we can talk about it then.”
I nod, wanting nothing more than to escape everything else with him right now. But as he leads me past the other people waiting in the hallway, I hear snickers and whispers.
“That’s her?”
“She’s not even pretty.”
“Yeah, Boring seems about right.”
Victor hears them, too. He glares at them and squeezes my hand. I burn with humiliation, knowing that the news about us is out, this is just the beginning of questions about why in the world Victor Lane would ever choose me.Chapter Twenty-FourVictor“That’s seriously how you guys met?” Lorraine, the head of Blaze Public Relations, has her hand over her heart as she listens to me and Lindy tell her our story.
“Yeah, that’s how we met.” I give Lindy’s hand a reassuring squeeze.
“Wow.” Lorraine looks back and forth between us. “So that’s what your friend meant when she said you gave him hockey advice?”
Lindy nods. “I’m a lifelong Blaze fan.
“I love it.” Lorraine grins. “Tell you what, guys, I have lots of thoughts.”
My phone buzzes in my pocket and I take it out to check the text. Lindy and I have been in with people from the team’s front office and PR since first thing this morning. I’m missing practice right now.
The message is from Bryan.
Price of silence just went up to 100k. You’ve got until midnight.