“Yep.” She placed her hand in his, and their fingers entwined together.
They didn’t say anything as they followed the sandy path down to the stretch of beach. The water swished in and out softly. The stars were so bright and large, he believed he could reach out and touch them.
“It’s so peaceful here, isn’t it? It’s like there’s no one around but you and me.” Indigo spoke softly, as though if she talked too loud, it would shatter the quiet.
“It is. You feel like you can breathe. Like everything that pulls at you is nowhere near.”
“Yes, exactly that.”
They continued their walk before he asked the question he’d been wanting to for a while. He had a bare bones idea about it from the background check he’d run on her, but hearing from the source was always better. “How did you get into modeling? Was it something you always aspired to do?”
“It wasn’t something that I’d ever considered doing. It was Zara who wanted to be a model.”
“Zara, your agent?” He recalled the woman who’d been at the meeting where they first met. She was as tall and as lovely asIndigo, but she didn’t have the natural allure that Indigo had. Perhaps whoever had run the agency they’d gone to had seen that as well.
“Yeah, we were friends in school, and she told me about this agency that was doing an open call, but it was when we were supposed to be in class. I was in my rebellious stage, and so I said we should cut class and go.” Indigo laughed lightly. “Zara didn’t need much convincing. I think she really wanted to do it, but just needed me to give her a push.”
“Who would’ve thought you were a rebel?” Wilt loved hearing this story from her. He was aware that she grew up with only her mum. Her father had abandoned them and had died when Indigo would’ve been around six. He didn’t know if she had a relationship with her father. Not that it was a big deal for him.
“I was. I was railing against everything in my life. The typical teenager angst.” She stopped walking and looked at the sky before facing him. There was a trace of sadness in her eyes, as if she regretted the way her teenage self treated her mother. “My mum would’ve been much better off living in the sixties, than the early two thousands. She was so free-spirited. Didn’t conform to societies rules. I got so much grief about my name. I have no idea why she named me after a color in the rainbow.”
“Because you’re radiant like a rainbow,” he teased.
Indigo snorted. “That is so cheesy.”
“Maybe, but it’s true.” He didn’t care if he sounded like a fool, there was a radiance about Indigo that drew people in. It was why her modeling campaigns were so successful. “So, you cut class, what happened then?”
“Zara had a change of clothes, which reinforced my idea at the time that she knew I was going to agree to it easily. I was still in my school uniform, and they handed us forms to fill out. I never considered that one afternoon would lead to a career forme. I wasn’t even that amiable when I went in and talked to them. In the end, they did take both of us, but it became clear when I was constantly booking jobs and Zara was only getting the odd one, that it wasn’t going to work out the way she thought and hoped it would. When her contract expired a year later, the agency didn’t renew it.”
They’d stopped halfway through her story, sitting on the beach, hands still entwined.
“And Zara was okay with that? She didn’t mind?”
Was Zara the person behind these latest threats? They had started after she left to deal with an urgent client matter.
Would she put Indigo through something she’d been through once before?
What would Zara accomplish with threatening her friend?
If anyone had access to her location, it would be her agent. Not to mention, she had a book full of other models who would’ve given their eye-teeth for the lucrative Jeffrey Courteux assignment.
“I know what you’re thinking.”
He glanced over at her. “What’s that?”
“You’re wondering if Zara is behind these threats. I mean, I get why you would think that, especially after everything I just told you. But I know she wouldn’t be. She’s much happier being an agent than she ever would’ve been as a model. Not to mention she’s made a good living from it.”
“You’re right, I was thinking that. And for all the reasons you listed.”
“I know you probably don’t believe me, but I know Zara. She wouldn’t do this.”
Wilt didn’t know that at all, but the last thing he wanted to do was get into an argument with Indigo. Not tonight.
It didn’t mean he wouldn’t do a little digging into Zara.
“You know your friend better than me.”
“Well, that’s a non-committal response if I ever heard one.” A hint of derision in Indigo’s voice.
