Darkness Loves Company: A Tides of Darkness Prequel

by Sarah Blair

  “Don’t look at me like that. God, Becks. I can’t.” His voice broke on the last word and he dropped her hand.

  She grabbed him before he could turn and wrapped her arms around him. It was exactly what he’d wanted five seconds ago, and now he found it completely unfulfilling.

  “I’m so sorry.” She was offering a true apology for a lot of things, and he accepted it as such.

  “Me too,” he said. “But we can’t do this anymore. Especially not now. Not here.”

  “Fuck it.” She hugged him tighter and he squeezed his eyes shut, memorizing the feel of her body for the last time. “We said some words on a beach in Antigua, like five minutes ago. If he’s got a problem with me offering comfort to a friend who just lost his wife, I’ll go down to City Hall right now and withdraw the papers. You know how long it takes them to process anything. I won’t even have to get an annulment.”

  The sly smile on her face when she pulled back made him smile too, and damn he wanted to kiss her. He read the signs, dilated pupils, tongue darting out to wet her lips, and he knew she wanted it, too.

  “Come on.” She tugged his hand. “Let’s grab a drink.”

  Twelve

  The press was out in full-force.

  Not only a herd of paparazzi, but local and national news vans lined the curb on the access road running into the park. A press line lit up the wide walkway right outside the entrance to the Central Park Zoo.

  Sidney gritted her teeth and leaned up as the driver pulled the Town Car into the line of traffic. “I’m not ready, could you swing around the block?”

  “Sure thing.” The driver glanced at her in the rearview mirror, then pulled around the line of cars.

  Sidney dug her thumb down into the line of the gown her stylist had brought over along with a team of estheticians to wax, blow out, and airbrush her from top to bottom. The dress was a size too small, which didn’t matter a whole lot considering there was no back. And hardly any front to speak of either.

  Her nose itched, but she was too afraid of smearing anything to scratch it. Her lash extensions made her feel like bats were swooping around her face, and she wondered how she’d managed to wear them so often before.

  The driver brought the car back around and Sidney waved him over before they returned to the car line.

  “Right here is fine, thank you,” she told him.

  He pulled off to the side and got out to open her door. She took the hand he offered, and the skills she had getting out of a car in heels and a gown without falling flat on her face or flashing her snatch came right back to her.

  Hard to believe she’d been throwing her sparring partner around on the dojo mat just a few hours ago. She already felt the ache in her shoulder, and the heels certainly weren’t helping her worn out calf muscles.

  “Thanks.” She breathed through the pain, and slipped a fifty to the driver.

  “Have a good night.” The chauffeur stared at every bit of her exposed skin and ground out a noise in the back of his throat that made her want to practice finding the pressure point in his wrist she’d learned about that afternoon.

  He got back in the car and zipped away.

  “Skeez,” Sidney muttered.

  A long, low whistle sounded behind her. She sucked in a deep breath and spun around, ready to put the narrow end of her heels into some testicles.

  The angry wind left her sails when she spotted Williams standing there in a sleek black tux with a big goofy grin smeared across his face. He did a slow turn to show off.

  “Whoa,” she said.

  “Don’t act so surprised.”

  “I’m not used to seeing you—”

  “So dapper?” He tugged on his tasteful black tie, and waggled his eyebrows.

  “—in something that matches,” she finished.

  “Yeah, you’re lucky Megan made me dress up for our wedding. Even luckier it still fits. Even more lucky I went with the bottoms it came with instead of the kilt I wore when we got married.”

  Sidney did a double-take, and he continued with a shrug. “What? Dad’s from London, raised in Inverness, Mom’s from Doha, they met as professors here at NYU, and boom. Here I am. Born with this impeccable bone-structure, on the bustling isle of Manhattan. It’s an all-American love story, baby.” He glanced down at her. “I’m guessing you just had that laying around?”

  “My stylist did.” Sidney smoothed her hands over the artfully draped smoky blue silk chiffon. Thousands of intricately placed crystals and sequins dripped down the deep vee in the front, flowing along the high split into to a froth of sparkles at the bottom. “Is it okay? I feel like a waterfall.”

  “Yeah, well, don’t go chasing yourself.” He tucked his hand around his chin and scrutinized her. “We might want to put ‘Blending In’ on your list of lessons to learn before going into the field.”

  “Yeah?” She adjusted the edge of the fabric around her cleavage. “A mile of tape and it’ll still be a miracle if I don’t come out of this thing. I feel naked.”

  “At least you can breathe.” He tugged at his collar.

  She shivered in the skimpy gown and wished Drew had brought some kind of wrap, but she didn’t want to complain any more since Williams was doing her such a huge favor. “Thanks for coming. Sorry it was so last-minute.”

  “Pfft. Whatevs.” Williams rocked back on his heels and shrugged. “Typical Friday night for me.”

  Sidney narrowed her eyes. “Megan was gonna make you play Parcheesi again, wasn’t she?”

  “She just gets so mad when she loses! And that’s not even when she’s filled with ragey pregger hormones.” Williams offered his elbow and she took it gratefully as they headed up to the entrance. “Why can’t we play Monopoly so I can let her win discreetly like a normal couple?”

  Sidney laughed. “She doesn’t know you’re here, does she?”

  “I told her it was a work emergency, but I’m pretty sure she knows. She was happy for the opportunity to catch up on her soft-core Scottish porn drama.”

  “She’ll probably have more fun than we will.”

  “What? No way. Miss my chance to play James Bond for a night?” He adjusted his tie. “This is gonna be fun.”

  “Oh, God.” Sidney stopped and turned to him. “Williams, you don’t know how brutal these people can be.”

  “I’m teasing, princess. Chill out. My wife is a retired runway model. Brutal is her middle name. My fifteen minutes of fame might’ve run out, but I still know how to mingle. We can handle this.” He put his hands on her shoulders. “Lesson one: Focus. What’s the objective?”

  She took in a long breath, reminding herself of the real reason they were doing this. Peyton’s body was still chilling in a drawer at the morgue.

  “Peyton Remington, co-chair of the wildlife foundation this gala is raising money to benefit. Evidence suggests she was attacked by a koala several days before her death, and I want to find out more about that,” Sidney explained. “The gossip is gonna flow faster than the Veuve Clicquot tonight. Someone here might know of a connection to her death that’s been overlooked by the investigators in favor of the top suspect: her fiancé.”

  He gave her a single nod. “Get your boyfriend off the hook for murder. Got it.”

  “He’s not my boyfriend.”

  “Ex-boyfriend.”

  “We weren’t even—” Sidney squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her fists.

  “You were on a break?”

  She opened her eyes ready to strangle him. He covered a laugh with his fist, eyes watering. “Teasing. Geez, Lake you make it so easy.”

  “I hate you.”

  “No you don’t.” He threw his arm around her shoulders and gave her a rowdy side-hug. She teetered in her heels. “You love me. You’re so glad I’m here, helping you help this douche-bro who totally doesn’t deserve your deep, abiding friendship.”

  “Okay, yeah, but it’s not about Hutch, anymore.” She flung her arm around him, partly out of friendlines
s, mostly out of the need to keep from face-planting on the worn paving stones. She kept her voice low, leaning into him as they neared the crowd. “I saw Peyton’s file. It was awful. There’s a reason Hutch is terrified. We have to find out what did this to keep it from happening to someone else.”

  “Sidney!”

  A camera flash blinded her.

  “Who’s your boyfriend, Lake?”

  “Gil?” She put her hand over the paparazzo’s lens, blinking the floating dots out of her vision. “Get that camera out of my face, you shitgibbon.”

  “Ghost Boy?” He laughed and shook his head. “Oh, this is too good.”

  “That was years ago, man.” Williams waved his hand in dismissal. “Old news.”

  Paparazzi rushed to circle them like vampires sniffing out a paper cut.

  “Are you kidding? That clip of you running around screaming about a ghost is the funniest thing I’ve seen this century.” Gil kept snapping away as he spoke. “I hope you’re getting ad money on that, cause we all know it’s got about ten million more views than your actual show did. So, how long have you two been bangin’?”

  Rage burned Sidney’s face. If she so much as laid a hand on him, he could claim assault and that was a whole bag of snakes she had no interest in unleashing. She opened her mouth to yell at the parasite, but Williams slipped in front of her and held up his left hand.

  “Try again. Happily married.” He smiled. “Ms. Lake and I are here as friends to support a good cause. Let’s keep the attention where it belongs—on Peyton Remington. A classy lady who just wanted to save the animals. Like we all do, right? Enjoy your evening, folks.”

  Williams grabbed Sidney’s hand, directing her to the entrance of the zoo.

  “Hey, is Peyton’s ghost around here anywhere?” The paparazzo called out behind them.

  “The correct term is spectral apparition, you moldy bag of wank!” she yelled at him.

  “Do not engage, Lake.” Williams squeezed Sidney’s hand even tighter, and tugged. She followed his wake through the sea of photographers as he blew straight through the dwindling press line. He stepped up to the woman at the entrance with a bluetooth headset stuck in her ear.

  “Ms. Lake, plus one,” he said, and kept walking.

  “Uh, sir?” The woman fumbled with her clipboard. “Wait!”

  Williams didn’t slow down. Sidney kept a tight grip on him, praying she didn’t face-plant in her ridiculous excuse for shoes.

  “Oh! Lake! Here you are.” The woman called after them. “Table One!”

  Williams completely ignored the hostess and grabbed two glasses of champagne from a waiter as they entered the tent.

  “Enjoy your evening,” the waiter said.

  Williams gave him a regal nod, then finally slowed.

  “Okay. So you’ve definitely done this before.” Sidney kept her voice down as she scanned the crowd scattered around the tent.

  Williams handed Sidney the extra glass and clinked his against it, then sipped his champagne. “Damn, that’s good stuff. Anyway, we’re not here to impress anyone. We’re here to garner information. Stick to the plan. We’ll be fine.”

  “Right.” Sidney squared her shoulders and took in the scene, but her anxiety only heightened.

  Professional lighting created a warm, glowing ambiance underneath the clear tented night sky. Some of the faces seemed familiar, but slightly altered, like there’d been a sale on nose jobs and face-lifts recently. Behind the podium in the center of the tent, a gigantic banner spread across the width of the stage. Peyton’s face grinned out over the crowd, a moment frozen in time of her cuddling an adorable koala.

  “My daughter’s got a stuffed bear exactly like that. Calls it Mr. Fluffers,” Williams murmured.

  “Koalas aren’t technically bears.” Sidney parroted back the research she’d done while the stylists waxed her completely raw. She finished off her champagne in one long drink. Seeing Gil again stirred up things she thought she’d put behind her. She checked over her shoulder to make sure he was blocked outside and not coming after her again.

  “Easy on the fancy juice there, partner. Everything okay? You look like when Megan has one of her Braxton Hicks contractions. Breathe. Hoo hoo heeeee.”

  “I’m fine.” She swapped out her empty champagne for a fresh glass. “Don’t look at me like that. I can do this. It’s fine. I’m fine.”

  “Listen, this is your thing. If you really want to get out of here we can—hooooly buckets!” He grabbed her arm, and she jumped back to protect her gown as the fresh champagne sloshed out. Drew made it abundantly clear: her life was on the line if anything happened to that gown. “Is that Amber Stone?”

  “Amber Stone?” Sidney scanned the crowd. Her stomach formed a hard knot.

  “She has that new song out.” He sang a few flat lines. “Yes! That’s totally her, draped around your boy over there. Megan’s gonna lose her shit.”

  Sidney spotted Hutch surrounded by a gaggle of gold-diggers. One platinum blonde was already tucked inside two out of three pieces of his suit. Sidney’s blood pressure skyrocketed.

  “Ugh. Her real name is Ainsley Fairnsworth. Her dad manufactures medical supplies. He made his fortune on colostomy bags. He was after my grandfather to partner with him for years.”

  “Yeah, well, she’s got the number one album in the country right now.” Williams showed her a photo of the cover on his phone.

  She scowled. “A screech owl can have a number one album if you auto-tune it enough. Doesn’t mean she has any talent.”

  “Oh. Ouch! The shade is out. Gloves are off.” Williams’ eyebrows shot up and he took a step back. “Am I mistaken, or did this party just get exciting?”

  Sidney leaned in. “She was supposed to be watching my drink the night Gil slipped something in it. He fucked me up on purpose and made a fortune on the photos. I had a restraining order on him, but it expired. He quit following me after I stopped coming to parties, though, so I never bothered getting it renewed.”

  Williams’ surprise melted into full-out rage. “Okay, where is that bastard?”

  “It’s fine. I’ve got this.” Sidney patted his shoulder and handed him her champagne. “I’ll be right back.”

  When she approached the group, she turned her voice up three octaves and smiled a grin full of syrup. “There you are, Hutchy! Been looking all over for you.”

  “Hey, Sid!” he said. “I didn’t know you were coming.”

  “Pass up a chance to help out the animals and visit with my favorite people? I wouldn’t dare.” She slid her arm underneath his jacket and snuggled into him. She lifted her cheek and he played right into it, giving her a lingering kiss. She pouted. “I think these space heaters ran out of propane or something, I’m so cold.”

  A platinum framed glare appeared around his other side. Sidney feigned surprise.

  “OH EM GEE! Ainsley?” She threw her arms around the girl’s giraffe neck. “It’s been like, forever! I’m glad you finally got those braces off. I hardly recognized you. The new nose is cute too. I like the contouring.”

  “My name is Amber.” The girl leaned into Hutch. “I was just telling everyone my big news.”

  “She went platinum!” Hutch supplied.

  “Good for you! I really admire your patience. It must have taken forever to get that brunette out.” Sidney smoothed her hand over Amber’s carefully styled beach waves while she used her body to back her away from Hutch. “Impeccable. I hope you went to Bergdorf’s. Sonya’s amazing. No matter how hard I try to convince her, though, she won’t touch my color. She says it would be a sin against nature to mess with something so perfect! How often do you have to go in for your roots?”

  “Actually, he was talking about my album,” Amber corrected.

  “You do music now? That’s so cute!” Sidney snuggled back under Hutch’s arm. “How many is platinum, like a thousand?”

  “A million.”

  “Oh, good for you.” Sidney turned up the w
attage on her smile. Then, she took Hutch’s champagne from his hand and drank. “You know, I read the other day the population of Brooklyn hit two million? Everybody’s jumping on that bandwagon. I’ll never understand who’d want to be all the way out in Nowheresville when you could be in Manhattan. I mean, it seems like so many people, but then if you think about it, like, barely half of Brooklyn bought your album.”

  “Brooklyn’s experiencing a real Renaissance, right now,” Amber seethed. “There are some nice places out there.”

  “Let’s be real, those hipsters couldn’t tell a legit Renoir from a Giclée if it knocked them off their vintage unicycles, am I right?” Sidney smoothed her hand up Hutch’s chest and leveled her gaze on Amber. “If you want to invest in something, adopt one of those microbreweries. I know how much you enjoy mixing drinks. Maybe they’ll name a cocktail after you.”

  Everyone in the group cackled except Amber.

  “Teddy, can I borrow you for just a quick sec?” Sidney booped his nose.

  “Sure, no prob.” He waved to the group. “Thanks for coming, tonight.”

  Sidney led Hutch off to the side, gazing at him with nothing but sympathy plastered on her face. She fluttered her lash extensions, then reached up and adjusted his sleek bowtie, fully realizing every pair of eyes in the entire tent were now focused on her.

  “How you holding up?” she asked.

  “Better, now that you’re here.” He tucked the tip of his finger under her chin and she thought he might actually kiss her for real. She dipped her head to the side, away from the crowd.

  “Let’s go somewhere a little quieter?” She glanced over and found Williams waiting by the back corner of the tent. Sidney grabbed Hutch’s hand and led him in that direction.

  They passed Williams. He pretended not to even notice them, but he spoke quietly to Sidney, “Fuzz are here. Four, maybe five. I got your six.”

  Sidney pulled Hutch through the back entrance of the tent and out into an empty area with nothing but a couple of noisy generators. It was the perfect place to talk where they wouldn’t be overheard.

  Hutch kept a tight hold on her hand. “Sid, I’m so relieved you’re here.”