“There’s no one here. It doesn’t matter.”
“The owner of the store is here.”
“He’s out back. And, if not, what of it? Do you think anyone will believe someone like him? He is beneath me.”
Beatrice Landseer and… Solomon Royce?
I stood perfectly still, caught up in the moment. Panic and awareness blazed through me. I wasn’t supposed to be here, I wasn’t supposed to hear this. And, why were they here, too? I didn’t understand.
“It’s just so boring,” Beatrice said. “Do you know how annoying it is? I make excuses to Asher, time after time, and yet he won’t do anything about it.”
“He’s not going to divorce you, obviously. Even he knows that won’t go in his favor. What grounds does he have for it, anyways?”
“If he knew, then he’d have plenty of grounds,” Beatrice said. I imagined her grinning, some sly, sleek look like a wicked Siamese cat.
“Yes, and then you’d receive next to nothing afterwards. Just relax and be patient. I have everything under control. Asher’s not an idiot, but he’s too trusting by far, and he’ll play into my plan exactly.”
“Our plan,” Beatrice said, sweet and seductive. She sounded so much different now; still the same voice, but with more emotion. “You won’t leave me out of it, will you?”
“Of course not,” Solomon said. “For now, just continue as you have been and we’ll go from there. I won’t have another ‘business trip’ planned for awhile, so I’ll be able to set things up. You should do the same. Keep tabs on this new girl, too. Maybe see if you hear any rumors? If Asher’s done anything with her, even something remotely incriminating, it’ll work out in our favor later on.”
“Yes, but I doubt he will. She seems dull. Though that type does seem to be his sort most times. His pet projects annoy me to no end.”
“I know. I know. Soon. Don’t worry.”
I needed to leave. Beatrice and Solomon sounded like they were finishing up in the book club meeting room, and if they realized I’d heard everything, well, I didn’t really know what they’d do. Something bad, obviously, but the scope of it was beyond me. I didn’t even fully understand most of what they’d said, except for the obvious parts. Insinuations and assumptions and piecing together parts of their conversation only went so far.
I rushed to the bookshop door and tried to hurry outside, but a man blocked my way. Shit, oh God!
“You’re sure in a hurry,” Jeremy said as I crashed into him.
Oh. Oh! This wasn’t terrible. Just Jeremy. “We need to go,” I said. “Now. Hurry.”
“What?” He gave me a funny look.
I pulled him out of the store, dragging him along. He seemed reluctant to come, but went nonetheless.
“Jessika,” he said. “Seriously, what’s wrong with you? You wanted to get a book and now you’re pulling me away from the book store. You were only in there for like three minutes.”
“I’ll tell you in the car. Where is it? We need to hurry. We can’t…” I looked over my shoulder just in time to see two people exiting the book store: Solomon and Beatrice.
A corner, somewhere, we needed to hide. I rushed to the right and pulled Jeremy into an alleyway. The greasy, stale air in the side street smothered me and I wanted to choke, but I carried on.
“I really don’t understand,” Jeremy said. He refused to move any further, holding his ground.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Beatrice and Solomon walking past the end of the alleyway. Beatrice tilted her head slightly, looking just barely at me and Jeremy.
Fuck! An excuse, we needed an excuse to be in the middle of an alley, to evade her scrutiny. I jumped into action and grabbed Jeremy’s face in my hands, twisting us both to hide the majority of our features. I pulled him into an awkward kiss, shoving him against the wall.
Beatrice scoffed, sounding repulsed. Then the telltale sign of her departure, her heels tapping past the alleyway entrance.
Jeremy gasped, astounded. When I was sure Beatrice and Solomon were gone, I let him go, which worked out well because he pushed me away at about the same time.#p#分页标题#e#
“I’m flattered and all,” he said.
“Don’t be,” I said. “It was a ruse.”
“Right. Like some spy stuff, huh? Detective movies? You on the run from the law or something?”
“No. I’ll explain it in the car. Where did you park? Can we get there this way?” I peered down the alleyway, reluctant to go back to the main street.
“Yeah,” he said. “I guess.”