“Thank you, Gerard. And you too, Clint. You both have done great jobs. It’s been a pleasure working with you.”
Gerard laughed. “You sound like you’re going somewhere, Miss Riley.”
She wasn’t going to address it. “Right now, we’ve got a hurricane to get through.”
* * *
Laine, Winnie, and Tamyra had sneaked out right after Riley. They had work to do. By the time they made it to Starbucks to concoct their plan, they were windblown, wet, and frazzled.
“How are we going to prove this woman has done something to Riley?” Tamyra asked.
“Girl, you have been in the world of the pretty for too long,” Winnie said, her white hair pressed against her face. “Deceitfulness reveals itself.”
“And it’s usually stupid, too,” Laine said, pulling a black ponytail holder out of her soaked purse and tugging at her wet hair until she looked sleek.
“Obviously y’all have never met some of the women I’ve competed with.”
Winnie and Laine looked at each other. “Touché,” Laine responded.
“So we’re just going to go into the office and look through Mia’s stuff and find everything we need and save the day like in some pathetic novel,” Tamyra scoffed.
Winnie chuckled, and the Styrofoam cup she held in her hands shook with her. “I think she just dissed you.”
“I don’t know if I’m more horrified over the fact that she called novels pathetic or that you just said dissed.”
Tamyra wrapped her hands around the arms of her white pin-striped suit jacket. “This is crazy. All of it. We’re about to go through a hurricane. We’re still in our clothes from last night. We’re about to break and enter.”
“I have no intentions of breaking anything,” Winnie interjected. “I have an appreciation for nice things.”
Laine laughed.
“You two laugh. But I’m not going to jail.”
Laine pushed lightly on her arm. “My word, woman, you’re wound tight. I thought you got set free over there on that water ride.”
“Well, I can’t do anything without brushing my teeth,” Tamyra said. “Are y’all not at least going to your rooms to freshen up?”
Winnie and Laine scanned each other again. They both shrugged their shoulders. “Have you seen yourselves?” Tamyra questioned.
Winnie answered. “We’re about to go through a hurricane, Tamyra. I don’t think the fact that our breath stinks or that we’ve been in the same outfits for almost a day is going to be of any real significance.”
“And with the hurricanes we’ve been through this week, I’d say the welfare of my teeth isn’t high on my list of to-dos either. Plus, I just fixed my hair,” Laine retorted.
“Well, all I can say is, if you two question Mia looking and smelling the way you do, she’ll give you whatever information you need with no problem.” Tamyra immediately noticed the glint in Laine’s eyes. “I’m not getting in trouble, Laine Fulton.”
“No, but if you’re going to your room, that will be the ideal cover. When you get there, call Mia and act like you’ve had an emergency. That will give me and Winnie plenty of time to get in there, see what we can find out, and then get out without having to confront her.”
“And what, pray tell, am I going to have an emergency about?”
“A broken nail?” Laine huffed. “I don’t know! What do beauty queens have emergencies over? Be demanding. Be obnoxious. Tell her your peanuts are out and no one refilled them. Dump your Coca-Colas down the drain and tell her you can’t go two hours without one. Be creative. Surely world peace is not the only thing you can talk about.”
“I can talk about pitiful romance novels,” Tamyra quipped.
“Children. Enough,” Winnie intervened. “Tamyra, you go to your room. Call Mia in about ten minutes and tell her that you are freaking out about the storm. You wish you had gone home. But now you can’t get out. But make sure she is the one you get. And tell her you want her specifically. Not to send anyone else up.”
“Then stall,” Laine said.
“I’ll give you ladies thirty minutes. And if you can’t get it done in thirty minutes, you need to make sure you don’t quit your day jobs.”
“She’s sassy for a swizzle stick,” Laine said.
“We have our assignments.” Winnie was well into the act.
Tamyra shook her head. “Go live out your fantasies, ladies.”
Winnie giggled as she pulled Laine down the breezeway, the wind all but picking up her pudgy frame. If it hadn’t been for all the rhinestones, she would have surely flown away.
* * *
Tamyra slid her key into the door and the light turned green. She heard the bolt dislodge and turned the handle, entering the tranquility of her room. The real hurricane headed for them was nothing compared to the storm that had blown through last night. She mumbled beneath her breath at the two women who were forcing her to lie. She hated lying. That was part of the reason she had run away. But avoidance felt as much like lying to her as telling a bald-faced one. And just when she had decided she wasn’t going to avoid the truth anymore, they were making her lie all over again.
She set her key down on the small console table against the front entrance wall and walked into her room, dimly lit by the cloud-covered view. She noticed that the beds had yet to be made. Probably with the storm, the staff was exceptionally taxed. Her eyes scanned the sitting area. Her blood all but stopped flowing when she saw a figure sitting on the sofa. Everything that accompanied terror swept through her body: her pulse quickened, sweat broke out on her forehead, and her feet wouldn’t move. He spoke first.
“You’re a hard one to find, Tamyra.” Jason stood. His six-foot-five, three-hundred-pound frame all but shut out what light was coming from the sliding-glass doors.
She tried to get out a sound, but her voice was gone. Fear had stripped it bare. She reached over and grabbed ahold of the table.
He took a step forward. “I
