And where was Lea? Not in the hallway that connected the living room to the foyer. The half-bath on the far side of the foyer was taped off and also empty.
Alison, Lea’s assistant, bolted from her post at the stairway and rushed up to Nikka. “Oh my God. The executive from KPAC just stormed out.”
“Shit! Go see how close we are to starting.” Nikka steered Alison toward the dining room at the end of the hallway, opposite the living room, where Todd stood still fuming. “I’ll find Lea to see why she’s not at the podium.”
“Lea said not to leave the stairs or the front door unattended.”
“Forget the front door. I’m going upstairs. I’ll keep watch.”
Alison furrowed her brow.
“We have got to get this show on the road. Go.”
Alison trotted down the hallway as Nikka took the stairs two at a time. At the extraordinary sight that greeted her, she skidded to a stop.
In the middle of the hallway, Lea stood with her back to Nikka and held Vivienne tightly in her arms. The older woman had her head nestled in the crook of Lea’s neck, trying to catch her breath.
“Look. Don’t panic,” Lea said. “She just has to stand there.”
Nikka couldn’t make out Vivienne’s response.
“Just find a way,” Lea said. “I’ll read the statement first.”
Nikka darted into the first open door—an office with a daybed. She stood still as a mouse to hear every word being said out in the hallway.
“Take a deep breath, and I’ll take you back in there myself. I know it’s hard, but we can do it. We’re a team.”
“Promise?” Vivienne’s response was more sniffling than words.
“I do.”
Fabric rustled. More hugging? Stroking? Surely not kissing. Nikka shivered at the thought of any part of her own body touching Vivienne’s. The sniffling grew softer until a door opened and closed. After creeping out into the hallway, she stood there alone for a moment and tried to process what she had just seen and heard. Before she could, the door to Beth’s room opened, and Lea slipped out.
“Ah.” She locked on to Nikka. “Are we ready downstairs?”
“Alison is finding out. But the natives are getting restless.”
“Okay. Let’s go.” Lea pulled down on the hem of her suit jacket, yanking out the wrinkles where Vivienne’s head had been.
“Is everything okay in there?” Nikka motioned to the door.
“I hope so.” She leaned in to Nikka as she passed. “Vivienne’s gone round the bend. We need to find a replacement for her as soon as we can.”
What the hell? Either she or Vivienne was being played here. She was pretty sure it was Vivienne. In fact, she would bet her salary for a lifetime that there would be beach weather in Siberia before Vivienne and Lea were a couple. Lea was probably just telling Vivienne what she needed to get through the day. This was her business after all.
Alison and Todd Mason waited for them at the bottom of the stairs. “Ms. Truman. I’m so sorry, but we are finally ready.”
Lea turned to Nikka. “How do I look?”
Nikka ran an appraising glance up and down her boss. Black skirt and jacket with a lacy camisole underneath. Professional, sexy, in control.
“Great.”
“All right, then. Showtime.” Lea strode into the hallway, only to turn around and stretch a hand back to Nikka. “Stand up there with me.”
Nikka hesitated. What would Lea gain with Nikka up there?
“Opportunities like this don’t come up every day.” Lea seemed to channel Nikka’s father.
She was right. Nikka could figure out why Lea wanted to share the podium later. She dropped her hand into Lea’s. It was soft and warm and fit perfectly.
Lea squeezed her fingers and met Nikka’s gaze with a half smile. “Come on. This can be your moment too. Our moment.” She let go and strode toward the living room with a bounce in her step.
Nikka rushed after her to grab her future beside her boss.
Maggie needed to get into the house without being caught by Lea or Nikka. The back of the house was a perfect entry point. She could scale the deck off the kitchen that cantilevered into the forest. That way, she could peek into the kitchen without being seen, making sure she could slip inside without running into anyone who knew her. First, however, she made a quick detour to the bakery van and pulled a wrinkled Made From Scratch T-shirt out of the glove compartment. Her stash in case she ever forgot her work uniform for events, which happened more than she cared to admit. After yanking it over her head, she jogged to the back deck. She judged the climb. A foothold on the pier footing, a handhold on the joist and she could leap over the top rail. She was already in motion when a loud “stop!” cut through the air.
No! She couldn’t be caught before she even got started!
Hanging off the joist, she looked down and saw, of all people, Josie Williams.
“I knew you were up to something.” Josie crossed her arms.
“You’re wrong. I’m not.” Although swinging by one hand from the bottom of the deck clearly said otherwise.
“Bullshit. We both know they’re checking press IDs at the front door. This is your way in.”
“Okay,” Maggie said. “You got me. What do you want?”
“I want to talk to Beth Walker.”
“I can help you with that. But first you got to help me.”
“With what?” Josie’s tone turned cautious.
“This is a rescue. They’re keeping her here against her will.”
“For real?”
“Would I go to all this trouble if it weren’t?” Maggie nodded up to her hand still clutching the joist.
“You could be crazy.”
“But I’m not. For God’s sake. You want in or not?”
“I do.”
This Josie Williams was her kind of gal.
Polite applause filled the living room. Nikka radiated with pride as Lea stepped to the podium.
Lea looked out at her audience and met as many gazes as she could. “I still love you,” she said softly, but the microphone, finally working, carried the words to every part of the room. “God knows I’ve tried to stop. Tried to cut you out of my heart, but every time I look around or fall asleep, I see you. Still with me, like a ghost, haunting me with your betrayal.”
Lea paused dramatically; the audience, so restless only minutes earlier, leaned in as one to hear what she would say next. Who knew she was such a great actress?
“Obviously not my words. I’m very fond of you all, but we’ll have to get to know each other better before we can call it love.”
The audience chuckled. She had them.
“No surprise here, those were Beth Walker’s words, written to the love of her life in letters that she never sent. But now, thankfully, we all can read them.” Lea held out her hand.
A tall librarian-looking woman stood up from the first row and handed Lea a pair of old, tattered composition notebooks.
A unified gasp came from the people in the room.
“Sorry.” Lea laughed. “These aren’t the real notebooks from Don’t Waste Your Wishes although we’re still looking for those. That’s the next press conference, we hope.”
More laughter from the audience.
“This is… Let me first thank Lynne Davis from Kerry and Collier for an amazing partnership on this venture. This is Beth Walker Revealed.”
She nodded at the woman who had handed her the books. “A couple of months ago, we found these documents at a local bank in a safe-deposit box that had come up for renewal. As legal representative of the Walker estate, Truman and Steinbrecker opened the box, expecting nothing, and instead found a treasure beyond belief. These are the originals of the love letters to a Hollywood starlet who died in a mysterious car crash only a few miles from where we are right now. We’ve all speculated about who Beth Walker drew on as the basis of her Heartwood couple, Daisy and Bonnie, and whether there was inside knowledge, if y
ou get my drift. And now, after all this time, we finally have our answer.”
She paused to let the drama build. “Yes, tell everyone you heard it here first, folks. Beth was madly, passionately in love with Dawn Montgomery, the breathtakingly beautiful star of such movies as Drop in the Bucket and Summer’s Day, wife to superstar James Montgomery, who lost his battle with cancer last year, and as these letters will chronicle in exciting…and intimate detail, lover to a young Beth Walker.”
Once on the deck, Maggie peeked in the kitchen.
Only the catering staff bustled around inside, so Maggie buzzed through the kitchen porch doors as if she owned the house. The staff froze until Maggie tapped the bakery logo on her chest. “Made From Scratch. We did the cupcakes. These the extras?” She pointed to a three-tier stand on the counter, filled with cupcakes.
“Ah…yeah,” a woman in a white chef’s coat answered.
Maggie edged by her, grabbed a small plate out of a cabinet by the fridge, and then snatched a Lemon Lover off the stand. “Thanks. I just need one.” Her motions were so confident in a kitchen she knew like the back of her hand, the staff immediately scooted out of her way.
Yes, she was in!
Everyone was crammed into the living room, listening to Lea, except one young woman posted by the stairs.
Maggie winced. Of course, Lea would have that base covered.
She scurried by the living room door and eased up to her with the cupcake. “Hi. Lea Truman told me to take this up to Ms. Walker before she comes down.”
“Sorry, no one gets up the stairs.”
Maggie shrugged. “Ms. Truman’s orders.”
“She would’ve told me. I’m her assistant, after all.” The girl rose up on her tiptoes, clearly searching for someone in charge.
Maggie’s throat constricted. If she even made eye contact with anyone who had power, there would only be two seconds until total implosion.
Think. Think. Think. Maggie had nothing. Wait a minute… Assistant? Yes! Thank you, Harlan. “Yeah, I know. Alison, right? Look, go talk to Ms. Truman if you want.” She motioned in the direction of Lea’s voice, knowing fully well that Alison wouldn’t dare interrupt her boss now. “I’ll just be at the bedroom at the end of the hall.” Maggie didn’t wait for an answer. She started up the stairs, hoping that Alison would crumble in the face of all her inside knowledge.
No shout called her back as she bounded up the stairs.
Adrenaline rushed through her body. She could get used to success like this.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
She had celebrated too soon. Maggie took in the situation with one glance.
Vivienne, holding Beth by the arm, loomed before her in the hallway. When Beth saw Maggie, she tried to pivot out of Vivienne’s grasp, but Vivienne was clutching her way too tightly.
“What am I doing here? What I should have done the last time we were in this position.” Maggie set the cupcake and plate on a side table and made straight for Vivienne. She grabbed her thumb in the perfect self-defense move, yanked her hand away from Beth, and twisted her wrist and arm up behind her back in one smooth motion.
“Hey!”
“Hush. Not a word.” She yanked up Vivienne’s arm, and Vivienne whimpered in pain. “You don’t want to mess with me. I’m probably already on my way to jail, so I’ve got nothing to lose.”
Beth grabbed a nearby door handle to steady herself as Maggie strong-armed Vivienne back down the hall toward Beth’s room.
Maggie shoved her through the doorway and held out her hand. “Keys?”
Vivienne’s look went to a nearby table. The keys sat on its surface. She lunged, both hands out, but Maggie, who had followed her gaze, was faster. She snatched the keys first, and Vivienne’s fingers curled over empty air.
Quickly, Maggie shut the door in Vivienne’s face. “Payback’s a bitch.” With a grim smile, she locked her in and spun to Beth.
“They lock me in. Make me take drugs,” Beth said, her voice shaking. “Are you here to help me?”
“Yes.” Maggie laced her arm through Beth’s and directed her to the stairs. “I’m sorry it took me so long.”
At the landing, she peeked down the stairs.
Alison was still guarding her post, but she wasn’t facing them or the front door. Her attention was directed to the living room and Lea’s speech. She was edging closer toward it with Lea’s every word.
The front door opened a few inches.
Maggie froze on the top step, her arm around Beth.
If a guard or reporter stepped through that door, they would discover her and Beth in an instant.
But instead, Josie peered through the gap and flicked her head up in acknowledgment.
Maggie released the breath she’d been holding. She crept from stair to stair, guiding Beth in what became an excruciating trip. One creaking step and they would be caught.
Seconds seemed to stretch into years. Would they ever make it down?
Lea picked up a paper that was already on the podium. “In a statement that Ms. Walker wrote when she heard we were having the press conference, she states, ‘I believed that these letters and all my early notebooks in fact were gone or misplaced, and since the events portrayed here are of such a personal nature, I finally asked people I depend on and have faith in…’” Lea smiled broadly and pointed to herself. “That’s me. ‘And they assured me that people might be interested to see what such an emotional time was like for me.’”
A murmur went through the room.
Lea glanced first at Nikka and then to her audience. “Interesting to say the least. Aren’t we all thrilled beyond belief that something new by Beth Walker is about to hit the stands?”
Nikka looked out at the sea of nodding people in the audience.
Lea placed the statement back onto the podium and ran her hands over it, giving the reporters a moment to digest the news.
Nikka watched her, taking careful note of everything she did.
Lea met her gaze and raised her eyebrows in an unspoken sign of victory.
Nikka couldn’t help it; she smiled. Everyone stared at them, waiting for Lea’s next words. Someday, it would be her standing at the podium—her father was right—as a managing partner in Truman, Steinbrecker, and Vaskin.
“Let me bring in the author herself for a brief photo opportunity only. Ms. Walker is not up to answering any questions at this time. Lynne Davis and I will be happy to take your questions once Ms. Walker retires.”
Lea looked to the doorway of the living room. Her eyes narrowed.
Nikka followed her gaze.
The threshold to the hallway was completely empty.
Nikka started. Where the hell were Vivienne and Walker?
Lea’s hand covered the microphone as she leaned toward Nikka. “Get Walker down here. Now!”
“I’m on it.” Nikka casually made her way to the back of room, looking as if she were out for an evening stroll. Last thing she wanted to do was capture anyone’s attention. Fat chance. She wasn’t even out of the living room before a reporter grabbed her sleeve.
He fixed her with a probing stare. “Where is Beth Walker?”
Crap.
Maggie blew out a breath as Beth’s foot finally hit the bottom landing. Just a few more yards until they were out the door and she would have pulled off a rescue for the record books.
“Is there a reason why Ms. Walker isn’t here?” A man’s voice reached her, followed by footsteps.
Josie, eyes wide, quickly pulled her head back and closed the front door.
Maggie half carried and half dragged Beth into the tiny bathroom at the edge of the foyer. She closed the door just in time, but not before Nikka, followed by several reporters, turned into the hallway. Had she seen them?
Three steps out of the living room, Nikka nearly slammed into Alison. “Why aren’t you by the stairs?” She barreled around her. “Never mind. Just don’t let anyone up after me.”
The door
at the end of the hallway was locked. She pounded on it as loudly as she dared. “Vivienne. Are you in there? Open up!” she said in a stage whisper.
“I can’t.” Vivienne’s words were two loud sobs. “The keys are gone. And so is Beth.”
Nikka’s mouth went dry. “What do you mean gone?”
Maggie pressed her ear to the closed bathroom door. Voices filled the foyer.
Beth brought a shaky hand to her forehead; Maggie circled her arm tighter around Beth’s waist. She was holding up more than half the woman’s weight now.
Come on, Josie. Come on!
“Oh my God,” Josie cried out. “There is a bee on me. I’m allergic! Get it off! Get it off!”
Yes. Good girl. Maggie took a chance and opened the door a sliver to see what was going on.
Josie was in the foyer, spinning around as if looking for the culprit.
Two men and a woman rushed over to help.
She flapped her hands and dragged them away from the bathroom. “It’s gone. I think it’s gone. Did it sting me?” She pulled her top down off her shoulder, giving everyone a wonderful view of her cherry blossom tattoo, especially its branches that disappeared into her cleavage. “Is that something here?” She ran a hand down from her neck to her chest. “It feels like it’s stinging.”
Everyone stepped in closer. Even Alison came off her post to check her out.
In the bathroom, Maggie bit back her smile. The classic sexy girl as a distraction. And an impressive rendition at that. The girl had the chops to pull it off.
Maggie cinched Beth to her, eased out of the bathroom, and made her escape under the noses of all Josie’s good Samaritans.
Once outside, she dug into her pocket for the keys to the Saab still parked at the edge of the driveway.
Two beeps and the locks popped open. Maggie let out a long breath. They were going to make it.
“Come again?” Nikka asked. “I can’t hear you. Something’s going on downstairs.” The commotion was probably connected to Beth. That was where she needed to be. She turned down the hallway.
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