Page 70 of Nothing to Do

“That’s exactly the idea.”

“Let me make sure my sister’s okay first.”

And it was as she turned her back that the glint of light on glass startled her. Not just any glass, a lens.

She whipped back around, showing Roxie her horror. “Is that the press? There in the trees?”

Roxie leaned to the side and she stepped out of the way to clear the view. “Yep. Dumbass. He invites them here, then gives them a show.”

“There’ll be a lot more damage control needed now,” Zairn said. “So much for salvaging his career. Now everything will go to shit.”

She met his eye. “He deserves that too.”

Another shout, another swing, and this time Roman made contact. Tripp threw him back, a look on his face that suggested maybe his own restraint was slipping too.

The hubbub on the beach grew to a furor and that was when the screaming started.

Alessia.

Passing through Roxie and Zairn, the mass of bodies pushing and shoving on the sand seemed to have no beginning or end. Her sister was somewhere in there and that was her only driving force. At the bottom of the deck stairs, someone grabbed her arm. A security guy.

She immediately tried to yank it back. “Let me go.”

“Miss Florin—”

“Let me go! I need to get my—”

“Thea!”

Alessia’s voice brought her around and there she was, being almost carried away by two big guys in black. Security. Her guard didn’t let go but did move with her as she hurried in her sister’s wake. Two other security guys came close, so she lost sight of her. They kept on going up the beach and over the grass toward the carts.

A massive crash stopped all movement. Shouting. Screaming. Crying. Shit, what had…?

The deck rail was broken and there was Roman rolling around in the sand with Deacon.

“Oh my God!” Alessia screeched. “Oh my God!”

“Enough,” she said.

The press had moved in closer, but Magnus was there, trying to get in their way. Good luck with that. What a shitshow and what an idiot.

“But Thea what if—”

“No,” she said, spurred to act when the security guards huddled in close and kept on moving.

Bundled onto a cart with Alessia, she held her sister as they drove away. She’d come to the island to protect her sister and tonight, she’d done that.

What about Zane?

She’d just abandoned him. Alessia wasn’t the only person there she cared about anymore. Zane, Roxie, even Zairn and Tripp, she didn’t want any of them hurt. Security had protected her, protected Alessia. Would Zane order them to protect him just as carefully?

Damn, not that he didn’t have enough going on, but she wanted to see him, to speak to him, to demand he be there with her. The guy was trying to keep his family together, and she’d just walked away. Another apology hung in her future.

TWENTY-THREE

BACK IN ALESSIA’S SUITE, waiting was all they could do.

“What if they’re hurt?” Alessia asked of her friends. “What if something happened?”

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