“I moved out. Well, he kicked me out, so I moved into Mom’s hotel until she goes back to L.A. But as soon as those photos surfaced, I knew it was Dave.” Ben picked up his beer and took a long swig, then placed the bottle back on the table. “I hadn’t given him back my key, so I let myself into his place while he was at work and checked the laptop. And bingo.”
“He wasn’t bright enough to delete the evidence?” Roper asked in disbelief.
“He’s cocky enough to think he wouldn’t get caught. But he’s wrong.” Ben shoved his hands into his back pockets. “Before I came here, I turned the laptop over to the police. Then I called Buckley and gave him a tip.”
Roper shook his head hard. “You did that for me?”
Ben shrugged. “Maybe I also did it for me. A little redemption, you know? So maybe I could look at myself in the mirror and not hate what I see.”
Roper tried not to wince. For all Ben’s faults, he obviously had a good heart. And Roper knew what it was like to hate yourself at least a little bit. “Ben, it’s okay. I don’t hold what Dave did against you. I appreciate you stepping up to the plate for me. I do.”
“Don’t thank me, at least not yet. There’s one more thing you need to know,” Ben said, looking down as he spoke. He drew a deep breath. “You know how Buckley’s known a lot about you lately? Where you’ve been and who you’ve been with?”
“Yes,” Roper said warily.
“It was me. Mom would mention things in casual conversation and I’d tip off Buckley or gawkerstalker.com,” he said, self-loathing in his voice.
“I’ll be damned.” Amy had been right. It had been someone close to him. He shook his head in disbelief. “Why the hell would you do it? Do you hate me that much?”
His brother shook his head. “No. I thought it was funny at first. And things always seemed to go your way. I thought it would be a lark to see you twist in the wind a little. But I realize now how pathetic that is.”
Roper could have bashed his brother for what he’d done, not just to him, but to Amy. Obviously, though, Ben was doing enough bashing to himself. Roper couldn’t bring himself to tell his brother all was okay, but he wasn’t going to add to his misery.
“What did the police say about the laptop?” he asked, bringing the subject back to Dave and what mattered at the moment.
“They need to go through the computer. Since I had a key, they aren’t going to press charges against me for taking it. And I don’t understand any of the legalities, you know, like whether or not they can use it as evidence. But they’ll see what they find on it and go from there.”
Roper drew a calming breath. He glanced at Ben and tried to see the baby brother he’d always loved. “We’ll have to do the same.” Roper walked over to his brother and threw an arm around his shoulder. “We go on from here,” Roper said.
Ben inclined his head, meeting Roper’s gaze. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Nothing. We’re family and-”
“Hey, isn’t that Amy?” Ben asked, jerking a finger toward the TV.
Roper glanced up, took one look at Amy in the pantsuit she’d worn the day they’d met at Sparks Steak House, and he grabbed the remote control to raise the volume.
He lowered himself onto the couch and watched her, interviewed in the comfort of her own living room by none other than Buckley the Bastard, himself.
“I thought it would be entertaining for my listeners to hear about a day in the life of John Roper from the woman in charge of handling his affairs for the past month,” Buckley said.
“You do have a way with words,” Amy said, shaking her head and laughing. Her curls fell over her shoulder in sensual disarray as she flirted with Buckley.
Roper couldn’t believe his eyes.
“She’s playing him,” Ben said, easing himself back on the couch beside Roper.
“But I appreciate the chance to tell my story,” Amy said.
“She’d better be playing him and not exposing my life for public consumption.” Or his fears and insecurities to a world that already thought he was a washed-up loser. In a few weeks he’d prove them all wrong.
“Relax, man,” Ben said. “I know a con when I see one. Buckley’s so happy to have her talking, he doesn’t realize she’s the one using him.”
“So the pictures that recently surfaced were doctored?” Buckley asked.
“That’s right,” Amy said with certainty. She didn’t even flinch at the subject.
“Can you prove it?”
She shook her head. “Not yet.”
“Rumor has it the police have a lead.” Buckley leaned in close.
Amy shrugged delicately. “I haven’t heard anything about that.”
Roper glanced at his brother. “You stole that laptop. Aren’t you worried?”
“No. In all likelihood, the police can’t use the evidence against Dave. But at least I’ll have planted doubt in the public’s mind about those pictures. It’s the best I can do.”
Roper nodded.
He listened as Buckley questioned Amy about Roper, his habits, his dedication, his talent, trying to trip her up or get her to admit that Roper was more of a player than a dedicated athlete. He failed. Not once did Amy speak in terms other than respectful and in a way that built him up in the public eye.
She was every inch his publicist.
She was every inch the woman he loved.
“I was hoping for some juicier information when I set up this interview,” Buckley said. “So far you haven’t given up anything.”
“I’m a publicist. My job is to be behind the camera, not in front of it.”
“Yet you’re here. You agreed to talk with me.”
“Technically, you conned two elderly women into letting you come here to dig up dirt on John Roper. Isn’t
Without warning, the camera panned to Rose and Darla who waved from the kitchen. Roper figured Amy must have bribed them but good to keep their mouths shut during the interview.
Buckley turned red in the face. “They invited me.”
“Not to worry,” Amy said, patting his hand. “I was happy to get in front of the camera.”
“You were?” Roper asked aloud.
“And why is that?” Buckley asked, clearly looking for a scoop.
“Go ahead, tell them you dumped the infamous John Roper and be done with it,” Roper muttered.
Beside him, Ben chuckled. “Come on, she isn’t going to diss you in front of your home crowd.”
“Thanks to me she’s bare-assed on the Internet.”
“It isn’t really her.”
“Like that matters?” Roper asked.
“As you can see, I come from an outgoing family.” Once again the camera angle widened to include Rose and Darla, who this time hammed it up for the television audience, blowing kisses and calling out the names of friends back in Florida.
Roper winced. He could only imagine Amy’s mortification. And yet she’d put this circus in motion by talking with Buckley. He leaned forward, wanting to hear more.
“But I’ve always shied away from being in the spotlight,” Amy went on to explain.
“Which must make your relationship with Roper an uncomfortable one.”
Roper didn’t miss the satisfaction in the bastard’s voice or the man’s obvious pleasure in knowing Roper was probably watching and squirming. Which he was.
“At first, yes.” Amy glanced down. “You see, I didn’t realize that I was afraid of disappointing someone very special in my life. Someone who’s no longer with us. My father.”
“But what about today? The photos?” Buckley prodded, obviously not willing to let Amy go off on a tangent, even one Roper sensed was of the utmost importance-to him.
“Oh, he’d hate those photos,” Amy said. “But he’d understand how they came into being. Just as I now understand that I idealized the man he was, the things I thought he expected of me. But I realize now my dad was
