“Who are you?” the man asks, annoyed.
“Your worst nightmare if you don’t let me call my friend.” I snatch the phone out of his hand. There’s a photograph of one of Colin’s pantings on the screen.
“Hey,” I frown at him, “can’t you read?” I point to the sign on the wall right next to his face.
NO PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE ARTWORK, PLEASE.
“Dick.” I give him another frown for good measure and delete the photo. “I’m with gallery security. I’m going to let you stay here tonight but only after I delete your photos.”
The guy looks around nervously and I have to work really hard to keep my smile inside.
When I’ve deleted five photos of Colin’s work and one really weird picture of a cat wearing a tiny mustache and sombrero that is wrong in more ways than I can count, I type out Teagan’s phone number. Thank God I never figured out how to put it in my speed dial and memorized the damn thing.
She answers in one ring. “Quin! Where are you? Mick is looking all over the place for your dumb ass.”
“Listen, I don’t have much time. I’m at an art gallery downtown with Colin.”
“You’re where? Doing what? With who?”
“You heard me. I need you to come down here with Rebel. Do not bring Mick. I’ll deal with him later.”
“What the fuck, Quin! He’s worried and now he’s going to be pissed. What am I supposed to tell him?”
“Tell him I’m fine, that there was a bit of a misunderstanding, and that I’ll go out with him in just a little bit. I just need to finish up here.”
“Where is here?”
I look around, trying to find some sort of identifier. The ginger is staring at me. “Dude. Stop looking at me like that. Your white eyelashes are freaking me out. Where are we?”
“Are you on drugs?” he asks.
“No. Where are we? What’s the address here?”
“You seriously don’t know where you are? And you expect me to believe you’re not high? You’re not security, are you?”
I roll my eyes at the man and leave him standing there. At the front of the room by the door I find a stack of cards with the gallery’s address on it. I rattle the number and street off as the ginger comes to my elbow.
“You’re not fooling me,” he says. “Don’t even think about running out that door with my phone.”
“Teagan, come now. I’ll see you when you get here.”
“But! … I don’t get it!” she yells.
“Just come! And bring your muscle!” I hang up as the ginger is reaching for my arm.
“Touch me and I’ll tie your dick in a knot,” I warn, stepping back while holding his phone out at arm’s length towards him.
He snatches it from my hand. “You need to learn some manners.”
“And you need to learn how to match your clothes better. Plaid and stripes do not match, okay? And redheads should not wear orange. It’s just … wrong. And so is dressing up your cat like a tiny Mexican musician, for the record. Get a life dude. One that doesn’t include torturing animals.”
“I don’t torture animals. Ginger likes it!”
I bark out a laugh. “Your cat’s name is Ginger?”
“Yes. She’s named after Ginger Rogers if you must know.”
I don’t even know who that is, but I don’t need to. This guy is a freak. I leave him standing there and grab two flutes of champagne off a tray before going back to Colin’s side.
I feel like a total ninja with my undercover phone moves until he turns around and glares at me. “Who did you call?”
My eyebrows go up. “What? Who? What are you talking about? Me?”
One of the women standing in front of him puts her hand on his forearm and steps closer, asking a question that seeks an answer she clearly could care less about. All she wants is to get a whiff of his Colin-ness and honestly, it’s just kind of sad to watch.
“I’ll be over there looking at the paintings,” I say, rolling my eyes and leaving Colin to the cougars.
As I stroll across the floor and stop at the first piece, I’m struck by how light and happy it seems. The one of Teagan was beautiful, but there was this tinge of darkness to it. I thought it captured her perfectly and assumed it was his signature look, but this painting tells me otherwise.
“He’s very talented,” says a man’s voice behind me.
I turn around and find a guy in a black turtleneck and a matching eye patch behind me. I believe it’s his partner next to him, judging by how close they’re standing to one another.