“Camera crews? Why?”
He shrugged. “They did some photoshoot here with Fitzy and Louis to promote the new season. Ranielle, too. But as far as I know, the only people who went into your villa were the cleaning crew.”
“Something tells me the cleaning crew didn’t leave behind a bloody cow heart.”
“Awhat?”
“It had a note stuck in it.” She paused, because Ranielle wasn’t the only one who could do drama. “It said:We get what we deserve.”
Elijah’s eyes widened. “You’re kidding.”
“I thought maybe it was another competitor.” Sierra eyed the security cameras. “Did someone get in early? Trying to put me off my game?”
“No one even knew you were going to be here. You’re the season’s big shock factor. Maybe the producers were messing with you.”
“Or maybe it wasyou. Are you worried that if I stick around, I might stumble onto some secrets you’d rather keep hidden?”
A muscle jumped in Elijah’s jaw. “Nice deflection, Sierra. We all know you did it.”
“I was never the only suspect. Vera hated her.”
“Vera hates everyone.”
Elijah finally walked out of the gate, slamming it shut on her. She wrenched up the latch and hurried after him.
“Alicia was seeing someone,” she said to his back.
His reaction did not disappoint. The shoulders bunching toward his ears. The hands curling into fists.
He liked to pretend he was so calm, so grounded, so balanced.
Sierra knew better.
“That’s a lie,” he said quietly.
She matched his pace. “No, it’s not, and I think you know it. All those times she disappeared, or came in late to the studio, smelling like high-end perfume, and practicallyglowing. . .”
“She wasn’t,” he said, more intensely now. “She wasn’t that kind of girl.”
Sierra lifted an eyebrow. “What kind of girl, exactly? The kind who flirts? The kind who dates people who aren’t you?” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “The kind of girl whogets what she deserves?”
For a moment, she thought his anger might overcome him. She could see it simmering, simmering . . .
But then he stopped walking and took a long, slow breath. When he looked at Sierra again, his composure had returned. “I could never have hurt Alicia.”
“Do you know who she was seeing?”
His jaw remained firmly shut.
“Right,” she said. “Well. Thanks for nothing, I guess.”
She turned on her heel and strode away. She’d lied—he hadn’t given hernothing. Elijah had been in possession of her villa’s keys the entire time. If he was telling the truth and he hadn’t let any of the crew inside, either there was another set of keys somewhere, or he’d written the threatening note himself.
Sierra had managed to steer clear of her team all morning, butshe had no chance avoiding them on the shuttle bus to the studio. Beck marched down the aisle and sat beside her on the back bench.
“Oh goody,” she said.
There was a determined shine to his eyes. “We haven’t had a chance to talk.”
