“This is your chance, Ava. I’ll invite a bunch of celebrities, including Phoenix and those close to her. I’ll bring Hollywood to you in one place where you can investigate.Safely.”
My breath caught. “You’re serious?”
He nodded. “What do you think?”
All I could do was stare at him with my mouth open. “I think… you’d do that for me? Onyourbirthday?”
He waved that off. “Once you’ve had thirty-two of them, the novelty wears off. Might as well make this one useful.”
I let out an amused sound—something between a laugh and a snort. “But why would you do this?”
The look he gave me made my heart flutter. His eyes were soft with blatant affection, and I didn’t know what to do with that.
“I’m trying to be supportive.”
“I… I don’t know what to say.”
“Say you’ll come to my party. Say you’ll let me help.”
I swallowed hard. The idea of being surrounded by the Hollywood elite on a private island was surreal. Letting Lincoln help me like this was too much. But the chance to get closer to Phoenix, to Vauxhall’s orbit, to the truth—it was too good to pass up.
20
LINCOLN
The door clicked shut behind us. My penthouse was quiet, dimly lit, and for once, it didn’t feel cavernous and empty. Not with Ava here. I convinced her to stay rather than get another hotel. She stepped out of her heels with a sigh, her gown swishing around her ankles as she padded toward the windows.
The city lights spilled across her silhouette, catching the shimmer of her dress and the curve of her bare shoulders. She was beautiful. She wore an extravagant gown and was draped in diamonds, which I had to beg her to accept as part of her role as my “girlfriend”.
I loosened my tie and watched her from the minibar as I poured us drinks. She fit here. Not just in this space, but in my life. I’d been fantasizing about having her in LA for good—not as a temporary guest or a pretend girlfriend for the sake of her investigation but as the real deal. My partner. This was what I’d envisioned when we were barely into adulthood, and I told her I loved her.
Realizing that I was getting ahead of myself, I focused on preparing our drinks.
“I’ll never get tired of this view, Lincoln,” she gushed, staring out the window. “It’s beautiful.”
It was, but not as beautiful as her. I smiled and rounded the bar, holding two glasses. “I know you love it. You spend at least half an hour every day with your nose pressed to the window.”
Her soft laughter floated around the living room.
My eyes were fixed on her face as she accepted the glass I offered. She looked radiant and relaxed. In my space. The temptation to tell her what had happened years ago, how I felt about her now, what I wanted for us, was overwhelming. The feeling came up at least once a day. However, as always, I tamped down the urge because I didn’t want to disrupt the fragile ease between us.
“Thanks,” she said, taking a sip. Her eyebrows went up. “You knew what I wanted.”
I gave her a half-smile. Of course I did. I watched her like my life depended on it. Taking in everything about her as I desperately tried to relearn her, to gauge how best to get her back. “I’ve noticed you tend to go for the citrus blends.”
I leaned against the window and watched her admire the view of a well-lit LA.
“Thank you for tonight, Lincoln,” she whispered without looking at me.
“You’re welcome.”
We went to the charity gala she had been plotting to crash. Only she didn’t have to sneak into this event. Rather, she walked through the front door on my arm. Michael was one of the biggest sponsors of the yearly event, so getting in was not an issue.
“Since your friend Michael is so involved, I wasn’t surprised when I didn’t find anything. He’s one of the good ones.”
My lips twisted into a wry smile. She’d gone in hoping to find connections to Dorian Vauxhall. She was establishing a chainof characters in the shady game, but there was a major missing piece. The person directly involved with Vauxhall, the major link between him and Hollywood. All the others we discovered were just pawns, like Phoenix.
“I could have told you that you wouldn’t find any connection there, because if my friend wasn’t one of the good ones, we wouldn’t be friends.” I shrugged. “But I thought I’d let you find that out for yourself.”
