Page 66 of My Beautiful Sin

“And you know this because Devlin told you so?”

“Do not even. I know you like him now.”

He chuckles. “Let’s go with accept, okay? I’m not sure I know the guy well enough yet to truly like him. But seriously, how do you know when the picture was taken?”

I tell him that also, and he laughs at my shoe analysis, but he can’t fault my logic.

“I’m worried about you,” he adds. “First, I was worried that Devlin was going to break your heart. I’m mostly over that. Now I’m worried about the bigger picture.”

“I know. I get it.”

“Do you? Because Saint has secrets. He must.”

I don’t answer. Mostly because Devlin himself told me as much. But that’s not something I feel inclined to share with Lamar, who’s only recently come around to Team Devlin.

“Someone is obsessed with exposing whatever is going on with that man,” he continues. “You’re a reporter. They know he has a secret. And it sounds like they’re starting to get dangerous.”

“Yeah, but who?”

“I don’t have a single idea, and that’s what scares me the most.”

“Me too,” I admit.

“Shoot me the text,” he says. “I’ll poke around.”

“Devlin’s already poking around.”

“Yeah, I figured he would be. But we have different resources. Let me do this.”

I forward the text with the picture of Devlin and Reggie, but I don’t have high hopes. As soon as he acknowledges that he got the text on his end, he tells me that he’ll call later about the computer. We hang up, and I turn back to Brandy, who looks as concerned as Lamar sounded a moment ago.

“Were you planning to tell me any of that?”

“I wasn’t keeping it—”

“Somebody has got it in for you. What does Devlin say about all this?”

“He’s worried too.” I shrug. “But what can I do? It’s not like I’m going to hide under a log.”

She grimaces but says nothing. After a minute, she gets up, telling me she’s hungry. I follow her to the kitchen, where she grabs one of her disgusting green smoothies as I climb onto a stool at the bar. She starts to sip it, then leans against the counter, her eyes on me. “I need to check in at a few of the shops on Pacific that stock my bags. Then I thought I’d surprise Christopher. He’s doing research today at the DSF.”

“He’ll like that.”

“Yeah, I thought I’d hit Brewski and get him a coffee. Want to come with? You could surprise Devlin.”

“Not a bad idea,” I say. “You can tell me the rest of the dirty details of you and Christopher as we walk.”

“Yeah, if we’d actually worked up to dirty, I could. That’s your department, remember?” She bats her eyes as she grins. “But you could maybe give me some tips?”

I snort with laughter. “Brandy, my naive friend, you have so got a deal.”

For the next couple of hours, Brandy and I gossip our way from store to store as she checks stock, picks up order forms, and discusses pricing. I mostly window shop, though I do buy two silly T-shirts, and it’s not until the last stop before we hit Brewski that someone finally recognizes me.

Or, at least, that someone tells me they do.

“You’re the one who’s dating Devlin Saint,” a customer in The Escape says, hurrying up to me and then rummaging through her bag. “He is so hot. Is he as hot in person as he is from far away?” She’s talking so fast I couldn’t answer even if I wanted to. “I saw him once down the block, but he was gone by the time I got there. Is it cool having your picture everywhere? I bet you print out all the social media pictures. I’d have them taped to my mirror if it were me.”

“Um,” I say, as she finally pulls a pen from her bag and thrusts it to me. “This,” she adds, “would you sign this?”