Maya’s Triple Dare(Divine Creek Ranch 6)(89)
“No, Frank. You’ve made a mistake. Go home and cool off. We’re done.”
“You’re going to regret this.”
Clearly unable to let the veiled threat pass, Boone stepped up and said, “Mister, you’re going to be the one with regrets if you don’t do as the lady asked.” Boone looked ready to kick his ungracefully aging, preppy ass.
Kendall noted with satisfaction that Maya stalked back through the door leading into the kitchen, punctuating the end of their conversation with her absence.
Kendall and Richard joined Boone and closed in on Reeves, who cast them an infuriated glance and stalked down the driveway to his Jaguar. He laid a strip of rubber on the white concrete driveway to match the one he’d left the week before on the street out front.
“Asshole,” Boone said with disgust.
“He’s not the type to just back off,” Kendall said. “We haven’t seen the last of him. I wonder who he has after him that he needs Maya’s money so badly.”
“What was he going to do? Make her marry him?”
“I don’t know. We need to ask Jack about having Ace and his buddy look into this.”
Without any further interruptions, her valuables and necessities were loaded into the back of Kendall’s pickup in boxes, along with her full suitcases. The furniture from her playroom was all carefully padded and loaded into the U-Haul trailer they’d brought with them. Boone would be following them, driving Maya’s silver Cadillac. They were putting off the trip to the bank where the safe-deposit box was because the bank was closed on the weekend.
Maya got into contact with her real estate agent friend and made arrangements to list the house for sale. After that was taken care of, she called several other friends to let them know she was back in town but only temporarily. Several of them banded together and talked her and the men into having an early supper with them before they headed out.
Maya told her friends she saw no need in hiding her relationship status from them and explained to them her situation. Kendall watched her friends’ faces with enjoyment as they wrapped their minds around her loving three men.
One of the women, Sheryl, kept glancing at him and his brothers and blushing, while Linna asked Maya if that was common in Divine and might they know of other men looking for a similar arrangement.
The third friend, Trina, sighed and said, “Lucky wench. You make me sick.”
It was nine o’clock and they were halfway to Divine when they got a text from Jack. “Call when you get this.”
* * * *
Along with the others, Maya watched the grainy video of her and Boone dancing together the previous evening. She glanced at Boone across the marble countertop in the kitchen of the Divine Creek Ranch house. He looked furious. All the men did, but he did in particular. She turned her gaze back to the laptop monitor. The audio was of poor quality with lots of conversation and background noise over the loud music.
The video had recently been posted to the Divine Morality blog site. There was also a clip of the girls dancing together. It was a violation to be singled out like that, but she couldn’t say she was surprised by it. Realizing she’d forgotten about the note again, she reached into her purse and pulled out the plastic bag.
“There’s something else you need to know about,” she murmured.
Grace and her men, and her men looked up at Maya, and she felt a wee bit foolish for forgetting about the note so many times. She laid the bag on the table. The note was open so it could be read without removing it.
After reading it Grace asked, “When did you get this?”
“Monday afternoon.” She explained its appearance on her car window and the circumstances surrounding it. “I forgot all about it, until Wednesday night. Kendall, I was going to give it to you Thursday morning because I didn’t want to ruin our evening out. The guys got home and I forgot again.”
Kendall put his hand over hers in a reassuring gesture which told her she must’ve looked embarrassed for forgetting such an important piece of information.
Jack said, “It’s a good thing Ace and Kemp are back in town. The blog is in serious infringement of libel laws. They’re using the girls’ names, and now ours as well, and putting a really dark slant on what’s in the videos. They make it sound like y’all were inciting a riot or an orgy or something. I’m not happy at all that whoever had the camera was that close to Grace and the others. They even promise to add more videos down the road.”
“That’s our opportunity, then,” Ethan murmured, his arms around Grace’s shoulders as she stood with him. “We’ll plan an event at the club and advertise it. It’ll draw this person, or persons, out and perhaps we can catch them at it.”