“Sta…Star Cap…you mean…” Zane stared at the little boy in bewilderment. “You mean Benton Sinclair came to get Ms. Hawthorne?”
“No,Star Captaindid! Except she called him Chris while she was waiting for him. Everybody was here,” he told Zane, quite self-importantly. “The helicopter was going WHP-WHP-WHP-WHP-WHP so everybody came out to see what was going on and then they called everybody else to see what was going on until everybody came to see what was going on and Ms. Hawthorne was just standing there with a big poofy bag and I said what’s going on to her and she said her brother Chris was coming to pick her up’ and then A HELICOPTER LANDED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SQUARE AND STAR CAPTAIN GOT OUT AND THEY FLEW AWAY TOGETHER LIKE IN AMOVIE!!!!!”
At that point, Mabs Brannigan ran out of her clinic, parental alarm obvious even from half the town square away. She relaxed as she visibly realized that all of Noah’s noise was not because he’d hurt himself or the world was otherwise ending, and she whisper-shouted, “Quiet, Noah, there arepeople sleeping around here!”
Zane breathed, “Not anymore,” as Noah looked marginally guilty, but then lit up with the memory of the helicopter and, apparently, the Star Captain himself making a surprise appearance in Virtue. He reached into his pocket for his phone, intending to call Benton, then swore sharply enough that Noah widened his eyes at him. He muttered, “Sorry,” and then wentacross the square to Mabs, who looked grateful that Noah trailed after him. “Could I borrow your phone? I need to call…”
It was not quite seven in the morning. Zane sighed. No one in their right mind would call somebody at this hour unless it was an emergency, and while the disaster unfolding around his relationship certainly felt like an emergency tohim, he wasn’t sure Benton Sinclair would agree. Especially if Zane was somehow misunderstanding, and the movie star was not, somehow, alsoVictoria Hawthorne’s brother.
“Never mind,” he said wearily. “I’ll drive back down to the city and try to find a pay phone on the way. Do those still exist?”
“In some places,” Mabs said tartly. “There’s a good explanation for all this, right?”
“There is, but I dropped my phone in the Hudson so I haven’t been abletoexplain it. It’ll be fine,” he said for the hundredth time, more to himself than Mabs. “I know where Ben is staying. I’ll just…go down there…” He turned away and went back to his car, grateful that it was so early that he’d at least make it back down to New York at a reasonable hour. Early enough, at least, to apologize to Vickibeforethe ball.
The hotel Bentonwas staying at didn’t want to give Zane his room number. This was, of course, reasonable and sensible of them; it was not good policy to tell people off the street what room the celebrity guests were staying in. Unfortunately for Zane, when he identified himself to the front desk, the woman behind it grew cool and judgmental. “Ah. Mr. Bellamy. Yes. We’ve been asked to specificallynotput through calls from you. Good afternoon, sir.”
Zane resisted thumping his head against the counter, and instead managed a polite smile. “Right. Of course. Sorry to bother you.” He worked his way back into the lobby—all pale marble and cream-colored upholstery, with glittering crystal chandeliers and a great deal of staff all moving around quietly to keep things clean and quiet—and, once he was out of sight of the front desk, followed someone into the elevator.
They had upgraded the security system since the last time he’d been there, and it now required a key card to choose your floor. Zane cast a glance to the elevator’s mirrored ceiling like he might get help from above, then smiled at the older gentleman tapping his card to select his floor and said, “Same floor, what a coincidence.”
They had not, at least, upgraded the stairways to use the same key card access. Probably because it was a fire hazard, but maybe just because Zane got one tiny break in this whole mess.
Not enough of a break for the older gentleman to have been staying on the fourteenth of fifteen floors, of course. No, he’d been on the fifth floor, which meant Zane had ten flights to walk up, and he couldn’t risk shifting into a wolf, not in a highly secured hotel. The truth was, if anybody was paying enough attention, he wouldn’t even make it to the penthouse floor—which was where Ben always stayed—without being thrown out.
Nine floors later, sweating like a horse, he thought getting thrown out of the hotel might make a better impression than arriving at Ben’s door sweaty and smelly. But he would never get to apologize properly to Vicki if he waited until the ball, so he slogged his way up the last set of stairs, and at least took a few minutes to catch his breath before going onto the penthouse suite floor, following the single hallway, and knocking on the double doors.
Audible surprise came from inside the suite, with a woman’s voice coming closer to the door as she said, “Did you order room service? Good, I’m starving!”
She opened one of the doors a heartbeat later in a froth of familiar blue skirts and blonde hair. Relief crashed through Zane so hard he nearly dropped to his knees. His wolf said,Wait—and Zane saidNo, I can’t, if I wait she may never forgive me!
The wolf said,But—and Zane shook his head.Not now!
To his relief, the wolf went quiet as Zane received the full force of a feminine glare. He lifted his hands, trying to stop whatever she might say so he could blurt, “Please, wait, hear me out. I’m sorry, Vicki. I’m so incredibly sorry. I dropped my damn phone in the harbor yesterday when Nora kissed me and I’m anidiotwho doesn’t know anybody’s numbers, so I couldn’t call you and Ididcall the B&B and the school and Kate’s Cafe and nobody would talk to me and I can’t blame them because you must feel like you’ve been played, and I swear, nothing could be farther from the truth.”
She inhaled and Zane stumbled on, talking faster and faster in his desperation to be heard. “I’ll understand if you never want to see me again. It’ll break my heart, but I’d deserve it and I swear I won’t bother you, but please at least let me explain. I am not in a relationship with Nora Brusch. I’ve never even considered such a thing. She blindsided me yesterday and now that I’m thinking about it I can see that she’s been working up to something like this for years. I have no feelings for her, that’s the only time she’s ever kissed me, it was horrible?—”
That, at least, got a coughing laugh, which made the dress shift a little, which it shouldn’t have done, because it had been fitted perfectly on Thursday. Zane still plunged onward, saying, “This is probably a terrible time to confess it because anybody could be listening, but I should never have doubted my wolf, Vicki, or my feelings, or you, or anything. I knew the moment Isaw you that itwasfate. I was just afraid of it, because what if it was wrong, what if I was a terrible person like my father who didn’t really deserve someone as incredible as you are. If you’ll evenconsiderforgiving me, I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you, I swear I will, Vicki. I love you. I love you so much, and I’m an idiot for not telling you as soon as you fell out that window on top of m-me…?”
The last word trailed off into uncertainty as Benton Sinclair pulled the second suite door open. He was more disheveled than Vicki, but wore the signature jacket that Zane himself had designed for him, a velvet Rocketeer-style jacket in dark blue that was a shout-out to his Star Captain costume while also being perfect for the modern red carpet. He had on a white silk shirt beneath it, only partially buttoned, and was still wearing jeans, which Zane hoped to God he’d be changing before the ball.
He said, “Zane,” in a tone that managed to be both disapproving and amused, a trick of his rich English drawl. “I see you’ve met my girlfriend Marguerite.”
A cold drop of horror started at the back of Zane’s neck and crawled its way down his spine, through his throat, and into his stomach as he slowly turned his gaze back to the blonde woman, who was very clearly trying not to laugh.
She was the right height. She was blonde. Her eyes were blue. Maybe notquitethe same shimmering blue as the dress, and Zane had tried very hard to match the gown’s colors to Vicki’s eyes, but close. She wasunquestionablyin the right dress. And…she was a little less buxom than Vicki, a little slimmer through the hips, which…explained why the dress wasn’t fittingquiteright, and…
His gaze sank to her hands. To her fingernails, which were polished a pleasing pale peach, and which had no sign of fingerpaints staining them at all.
Zane said, “Oh, my God,” faintly, and staggered back to lean against the hallway wall, face in his hands. He mumbled, “I’m so sorry. I thought Victoria was here."
His wolf said,I tried to tell you!and Zane realized it had:thatwas why it had said 'wait' when he began to apologize.
You've never cared if I was talking to the wrong person before!he protested, although that, of course might have been enough to make him listen. He said,I'm sorry,to the wolf, and repeated, "I thought—" into his hands before snapping his gaze upward. "I thought Victoria was here. But she is, isn’t she? Or she was? Because thatisher dress, that’s—I’m not losing my mind,” he said, no longer certain of that. “Ben, look, I understand if she never wants to talk to me again, but…is she okay?”
His throat tightened around the words and he made a helpless gesture. “I didn’t mean to hurt her, and I know I did. Please, if you could tell her I’m sorry…”
Afamiliarwoman’s voice said, “Scoot over, Chris,” and this time Vicki, definitely Vicki but wearing a very pretty pink gown that was as slinky and snug as her blue one was frothy, ducked under Ben Sinclair’s arm, and walked into Zane’s arms to whisper, “That was a pretty good apology. Even if you gave it to the wrong person. And I love you, too, with all my heart.”
