Hope had to think about to where that kiss was, and when it hit her, she nearly puked. St. Paul’s. Right at the river when they’d taken a stroll to have a serious conversation that ended in a kiss, and now this was being shoved into her face. Who the hell had taken it?
Who the fuck had seen them?
Hope slammed the door shut and retreated into the kitchen, her head against the cold door as she took deep, staying breaths. Because this was too much. This was Angelica’s worst nightmare, and it was becoming hers. Not only were they talking to Eva, but now they were going to interfere with them actually getting their work done.
They couldn’t go to the market like this.
Hope wouldn’t be able to stand out there and hand out food items if thesepeoplewere going to be accosting her. Elsie grunted again.
“Seems like Ronan’s not the only one who’s found himself in a bit of a scandal.”
God, Hope wanted to scream.
“Cadence!” She raised her voice to make sure that she was heard.
“Yes, Chef!” Cadence’s snarky and comforting voice reached her ears.
“Go get me FloRo because we’ve got a bigger problem. Might as well get Ange and Lyric too. Everyone’s going to need to be in on this.” Hope’s shoulders slumped. She was so tired of this. She just wanted to do her damn job.
“We’re already working on a solution.” Florence’s voice reached her ears.
For the first time since Hope had met her, she actually trusted that they were doing something about this problem. Because Angelica wouldn’t be able to think responsibly about it. She’d have the attitude that they should all be shoved off the property or arrested. And well, maybe that wasn’t a bad idea, all things considering.
“Elsie, will you load the car? Molly can help you.” Cadence helped direct Elsie on what to do while Hope retreated even farther into the dining room and away from the crowd outside.
“We hired private security to come and keep them away from you during the market.” Florence eyed Hope over.
“And if they slip through?” Hope asked.
“There’s only so much that can be done at this point.” Florence winced. “No one anticipated the mess that this would make, or just exactly what Josef’s leaking of videos and images was going to do to filming.”
“He’s leaked more than the one?” Hope bit her lip.
Florence bopped her had back and forth. “Several.”
“Wonderful. Absolutely fucking wonderful.”
Chapter
Eighteen
“I don’t likethat look on your face,” Angelica said as she paused. “When did you even fly in?”
“Last night.” Logan rubbed his hands over his face and mussed up his hair.
“I thought you were meeting us in Virginia Beach.” Angelica walked closer to him, crossing her arms as the bustle of the day started to build. People were mulling around, doing what needed to be done, and she was just waiting for filming to start.
“Thatwasthe plan.” Logan yawned again. “Sorry. It was a late flight.”
“No apologies needed.” She was still waiting for the other shoe to drop. Logan wouldn’t just up and leave his young family to come out here three days earlier than planned because everything was going well.
“Right. You’ll want one after we talk.”
“Naturally.” Angelica sighed. “In here.”
She walked him into the small conference room that was the nerve center of their operation and shut the door so it was just the two of them. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know what’s crawled up your ass where it concerns Florence, but you need to pull it out and deal with it.”
