“I don’t see any lights.”
“They’re behind that large backdrop. I bought and repurposed one from an old studio?—”
“Is that also Phoebe’s work?” Mitchell asked as he pointed at his assistant to take photos.
“Yes.”
“You’ve definitely put a lot of thought and money into this, Tate.”
“I have. And this final retail space will be a tease of all the stores that are in Haven proper. I’ve commissioned all the stores to have a table.”
“Commissioned? Not rented?”
I shook my head. “Haven is my home. I want our storefronts to succeed. The Wonderland space is to bring new people in, but I won’t be forgetting my roots. I want to push the foot traffic into the town as well.”
Mitchell’s eyebrows rose and glanced at his junior reporter. “Did you get all that?”
“Yes, sir.” The kid pointed to the mic that the mayor was wearing.
“Well, Tate, you’ll be making the front page of the Chronicle.” He held his hand out to me.
“I appreciate that.”
“Very impressive, indeed.” Mitchell wandered away, his hands linked behind his back as he looked around on his own.
The coils in my belly calmed. “What else can I show you, Mayor?”
“I’d like to see the lights back there.”
“You can see that on opening night at eight o’clock.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Is that right?”
I grinned. “We’ve been working on that surprise for weeks. No one sees it until it’s perfect.”
Well, I planned to show Amber the night before, but Candice didn’t need to know that.
I still had to have a few secrets.
21
amber
“DoesNoah know you stole his Jeep?”
James’s lips tipped up at the corner in a sly smile. “How do you know it’s the tyrant’s ride?”
“Oh, just a feeling.” I patted the special locked console with the fingerprint reader.
She snickered. “What he doesn’t know won’t hurt his wittle feelings.”
I shook my head. Brooklyn Dawn had more security than I did even on the worst days of my career. While I might have to worry about a hoard of fans surrounding me, James and her band had to worry about far more nefarious things. She may rail at the restrictions put on her, but she’d seen firsthand what their stalker could do when they almost killed Lindz.
I may have felt trapped by my fame some days, but I rarely dealt with that kind of fear.
“Did you at least check in with him?”
“He’s got a tracker on me. He knows where I am.”
