Having no idea what time it was, I wondered if she might be home now. “Liz?”
Silence.
Well, I couldn’t stand there all night. I had things to do, especially now that I could hear my phone ringing. As pathetic and delusional as it was, I hoped it was Robert—that he’d somehow acquired my number and was calling to profess the deep feelings he’d developed for me.
Silly me. Pestering me from a restricted number, turned out to be what I suspected was an electronic caller. Whatever the case, it certainly wasn’t Robert, unless he’d called to sit in silence while I said, “Hello? Hello? Hello?” half a dozen times before hanging up in frustration. I couldn’t believe that I’d gotten my hopes up for that. More annoying was that I’d gotten a few calls like that recently. Damn bots.
I unplugged the phone from the charger, then went into my bedroom to ring Michael. I cursed when I saw a screen full of missed calls, all from Nick. Six in total, plus an additional two text messages! Was he for real? Irritation stabbed my gut; whatever residual nervousness I’d had about the mirror evaporated the moment I pictured my cheating ex-boyfriend’s stupid face. Now, I was good and pissed.
I made it as far as the first message before hittingdeleteas soon as Nick’s wretched cries shrilled in my ear. I deleted the rest without listening to them. There was a limit to how much I could take.
I didn’t think it could get any worse, but then I opened the texts. The first readHE MISSES YOU, which I didn’t understand . . . Until I saw the second, a dick pic that had obviously been staged to make his penis look bigger than it was—seriously, are men not aware we know such tricks? Either that, or Nick had gotten enhancement surgery since I’d last seen him naked. I rolled eyes and deleted the texts, too. Gross.
Nick, while duplicitous and lazy, could also be surprisingly tenacious when he didn’t get what he wanted. Something told me he was not going to go away quietly, which is why I didn’t block his number. He’d only find other means to contact me, like showing up at my place—or, heaven forbid, tracking me down and confronting me while I was decoying for a vampire. The situation required a nipping in the bud before he became a real problem. The last thing I needed was Nick screwing up my life once again, especially now that I was finally getting it back on track.
I started to call Dignitary but then quickly hung up after remembering the alternate number Michael gave me earlier. That lifted my spirits a little, since the notion of having to deal with another scathing exchange with Marlena made me want to vomit. Still, I was nervous about what he wanted, with him firing me still being a possibility.
“Hi, Michael. It’s Olivia,” I said as pleasantly as possible once he picked up.
“Oscar!” he bellowed. “How the hell have you been?”
“No, it’sOlivia. I’m calling you back from earlier?”
“I was just thinking about you, old buddy,” he prattled on. He sounded like he was opening and closing doors. “I haven’t seen you since Kennedy was president! How are you these days?”
“Uh . . .”
“That’s great! I’ll have to fly over to Barcelona to see it for myself.” More doors opening and closing.
“Michael, I—”
“I don’t have long to talk, so listen up, girl!” he hissed.
“Okay.”
“First, I want to tell you how sorry I am about Marlena’s earlier behavior. She was completely out of line, speaking to you that way.”
“No problem,” I said dutifully. What was I going to say—you’re right, she’s a bitch?
“No, itisa problem, but when she’s heated like that, it’s best to let her have her rant. There simply is no arguing with the woman.”
“Marlena was right, though. Shedidtell me the rules when I accepted the job.”
“Hogwash! She was unfair to you, and you know it! It’s not your fault that photographer snuck into Locomotive.”
“I guess that whole thing about vampires being invisible in photos is untrue,” I commented, wanting to get off the subject of Marlena. No matter what he said, I wasn’t going to badmouth her. She was still one-half of my bosses, and Michael had to be somewhat loyal to the woman if they’d been running a business together for nearly a hundred years. Insulting his partner was dangerous territory I didn’t want to enter. “What was the deal with that, anyway—the guy taking photos? Robert didn’t seem too taken aback by it.”
“Americans,” he said with a snort. “They’re so obsessed with billionaires. Particularly ones as good-looking as Mr. Bramson.” He went quiet, as if he was expecting me to agree about Robert’s handsomeness. I wasn’t going to fall into that trap. “The paparazzi is forever trying to catch him engaging in scandalous behavior so they can crucify him in the media. He’s been far too cautious to give them any decent photo opportunities, though, after what happened with . . .”
I sat still as a statue. “After what happenedwith?”
He sighed. “You’re a clever girl, Olivia, so there’s really no point in pretending. Even if I managed to convince you that you’d misheard me, you’d find a way to get answers on your own, wouldn’t you?”
Michael being cryptic and dodging my question was beyond frustrating. I wanted to jump through the phone, grab him by the lapels, and shout for him to spill the tea. Like Marlena, though, he was my boss. “I’m sorry, Michael, I’m not following. Answers about what?”
“I’m sure you remember how a few of our decoys have vanished?”
As if that was something I could forget.
