“Oh my God, Mimi, you are right.We do know her!”
They didn’t “know” her.They “knew of” her, she’d guess.
“I was sorry to hear about Spencer,” the easy, cool guy said with real empathy.“Went to the funeral.”
One of few.Even she wasn’t there.
Breathing got hard.Her head was spinning.Fast.Vertigo closed her eyes, but still the world flashed before her.Two lives, her two lives, were never supposed to collide and certainly not like this.Her past life was supposed to be over.Would it ever be over?
“Her name’s Elle Jones,” Cam said with such conviction there was almost a laugh in his voice.
When her eyes opened, they immediately landed on the cool guy still scrutinizing her.
“Want me to shut up?”he asked.On instinct, she nodded.“‘Kay.”
He sauntered past and the door was almost clear when—
“Candy?”
Cam.His hand slid onto the side of her neck.God, she couldn’t look at him.If the woman in front would just get out of the way.Who were the others?Staff or something, they hung back, loitered on the stairs, though probably absorbed every word.
“I have to get out of here,” she whispered to no one in particular.
“You’re not wearing shoes.”
Yeah?And what did that matter?
The brunette scoffed.“Shit, if I had a dollar for every pair of shoes I lost at a party…”
“Would you turn around?”Cam asked, pulling her back a step.“Mom, get in the damn house.”
Mom?That woman in front of her was his mother?
“Thena Collier,” the woman said, discerning eye growing acute.“Camden’s mother.”
Confirmation.Shit again.
“No,” she said because nothing would compute.“Sorry, I can’t—”
“Find Schmidt outside,” cool guy called somewhere in the background.“He’s one of the drivers, he’ll take you home.”
“Tripp!”the brunette exclaimed.“Don’t scare her away.We want her to stay.She’s Cam’s friend.His special nookie on the pool table friend.”
“Nookie?”There was such hope in the older woman’s question.
“There’s a damn camera in the room, Rox Out.I’m surprised she hasn’t sprouted wings and flown out of here.”How did this Tripp understand?He got it.In a breath, he understood something she hadn’t even figured out yet.“Schmidt won’t tell anyone where he dropped you.He’s discreet.No one will follow you.”
“Is the camera the problem—out!”
“Rox—”
“Get your shit and disappear, Hatfield.”
He huffed.“Is there somewhere we can set up to—”
“No,” the brunette said and clapped her hands.“Call Keith.Go to the club.Play nice there a while.Out!Out!Out!”
That got the bodies moving.Thena gave the camera guy and his people space to leave the building and the brunette went after them to slam the door before their asses were barely on the other side.
