Jaden (Jaded #3)(22)

He sighed a second time. “I hope it was worth it… whatever you three did to get here.”

My jaw firmed. “It will be.”

He shook his head and stood up from the table. Taking his coffee and the newspaper, he saluted Denton with his cup. “No offense to your presence, but because of my daughter and her two friends, I’ve found that I’ve lost my appetite.”

“Oh.” Denton frowned. “Okay.” After he left the room, Denton asked, “What was that about?”

“Nothing.” I gripped my coffee cup tighter. “Just . . . he wants me to hide. I have a different opinion.”

“Oh.” He glanced to Corrigan and Bryce, who were still frozen in their state, waiting. And just like that, both finished what they were doing. Bryce poured himself some coffee, and Corrigan bit into his toast. Bringing his coffee and a cup for Denton, Bryce took my dad’s empty seat, and for a moment, all four of us were quiet around the table.

Corrigan finished his first slice of toast and picked up his second. Before he bit into it, he said, “All right. Quiet time is over, folks. What’s the plan?”

Everyone looked at the other. No one said a word. Then I laughed and shook my head. “No one has a clue.”

“Well, screw that. Let’s figure something out.”

Denton was still swinging his head from one end of the table to the other. He leaned forward now. “Wait. You guys are going to figure out who framed Sheldon?”

“You got any ideas?” Corrigan asked.

“No, but—” he stopped, a quick frown appeared.

“But what?” I leaned forward, resting my elbows on the table. My coffee cup was suspended in front of me.

“I heard a rumor.” He looked to Bryce.

“About me?”

“No, about that model you were dating.” Denton cast me an apologetic look.

I rolled my eyes, but the mere mention of her brought a nice little stabbing pain to me. Lovely.

Bryce looked at me, too. “I swear, Sheldon, I slept with her once. The rest of the time was just making sure she never went off the deep end. That’s all over now. She’s got nothing on me anymore.”

“No.” Denton cut in, stopping anything I might’ve said. “That’s the rumor I heard, not about you or Sheldon, well, not really. I heard her assistant was the one who cut Sheldon’s brakes. The reason why,” he looked at Corrigan, “you had that accident.”

“Wait. What?” Corrigan jerked forward in his seat.

“Where’d you hear that?”

Denton turned to me. “My agent told me. She heard it from one of her clients. You know how that stuff gets around.”

Her assistant cut my brakes? I glanced at Corrigan. She’d been the reason he got in an accident? His gaze was clouded. I couldn’t decipher the emotion, but when he met my gaze and looked away with a cringe, it left a sour taste in my mouth. It also set our next step in stone.

I wanted public. I wanted a confrontation. I wanted to ruffle some feathers, and maybe the real killer would make a mistake.

“What are you thinking?” Bryce had been waiting. He leaned forward. “I recognize that look.”

Denton frowned. “Is it sad I recognize it, too?”

Corrigan turned back, a half grin on his face. He shook his head, a sad laugh coming softly from him. “It’s that look that always gets us in trouble.”

They were right.

We’d probably get in trouble.

I didn’t care, and thirty minutes later after I relayed the plan, they didn’t care either.

“Right.” Denton clapped his hands together. “Now for the best thing. Disguises.”

*

Sneaking out of the house was the first part of the plan. Bryce announced his excuse first. He was going to call his agent and then take a nap. Corrigan was second. His excuse was a movie. He would be in the theater watching a movie. Then Denton, who had the real excuse. He let everyone know he was going to have dinner with a movie producer. That much was true, but he didn’t give the details that the dinner was at the same hotel where Bryce’s ex Guada-whore was staying at too. And me—I gave no excuse. At this point, Beth and Neil seemed relieved if I wasn’t in a room with them. There was no tension, so when they went to the pool for a relaxing afternoon, I snuck into the garage first. I climbed into the trunk, leaving it open, and a moment later, Corrigan crawled in with me. Then we waited, but it wasn’t long before a driver came over and got behind the wheel. We could hear him saying to someone else, “Yeah, boss needs a ride to the city. No, Car One. It’s what he wants. Yeah. Yeah.”

After that, everything worked like clockwork.

The car started and pulled around to the front. The back door opened, and we heard Denton say, “Mr. Scout needs a ride as well. He has to meet with his agent.”

I felt Corrigan laughing behind me, and I elbowed him in the gut. “Hush.”

He wrapped his arm farther around me, pressing behind me. He whispered back to me, “Stop worrying. I’m just thinking of your dad and Beth, what they’ll think having the entire house in peace for the whole afternoon. I bet they won’t even know until we get home.”

“Or until the paparazzi finds us. I’m sure my dad will get a call right away. He’ll be pissed.”