Page 117 of Cruel Hearts

“Wait! Who is this?” Mel asks, rising halfway off her seat and staring at Douglas.

We can’t be letting just anyone into our group, but Zane trusts him and Zarah stands near me, hovering, wringing her hands, waiting for the chance to speak to a man who’s been part of her household staff her entire life.

“This is Douglas—he’s Zane’s driver. If Zane sent him here, he trusts him, and he can help us.”

I introduce him to everyone. “That’s Mel Sanchez, a private investigator Zane hired. Ingrid Flannigan is Zarah’s nurse, and Max Cook is a reporter at theChronicle.You remember Richard Denton, I think. And Paulo is Mel’s brother. Why don’t you sit and visit with Zarah and Max. He can tell you everything you need to know.”

Douglas nods and kisses my cheek. “I told Zane if you left him, it would have been for good reason.”

“Thank you. I appreciate that very much. Max will explain where I really was.” The truth won’t redeem Zane in Douglas’eyes, but little by little, Zane is mending the past and fixing his mistakes.

He shakes Denton’s hand, and he lets Zarah lead him to the couch where they settle in to talk. Max joins them, unable to stay away from her but just as eager to add another person to our team.

Tears blur my vision. I went from having no one two weeks ago, to a room full of people who would give their lives to protect me because they care and believe in our mission.

“While everyone is catching up Douglas, why don’t you and I have a salon appointment?” Mel asks, holding a box of hair dye and a pair of scissors she snicks back and forth almost menacingly.

I love my hair the way it is, but I’ll do what she says. I can’t leave the hotel looking like a woman who’s supposed to be dead.

Quinn teases, “I’ll hold your hand while you cry.” She reads me so easily.

“Fine,” I mumble and follow them into the suite’s spacious bathroom.

“Quinn needs a photo. Her guy’s going to forge you new IDs. I don’t know if you’ll need them, but it’s better to have them than not.”

I don’t know what exposing Ash and Clayton will entail, but at some point, I’ll need ID. Even if it’s to leave King’s Crossing after this is all over.

“And think of a name,” Quinn says, perching on the edge of the large tub. “Something sassy. Something you’ll answer to in public.”

Quirking my lips, I say, “Something sassy? I’ll try my best.”

I sit on a barstool Mel dragged into the bathroom, and I’m at the perfect height she needs to cut my hair.

“Don’t worry,” she says, using her brush and gently tugging out the knots. “Before I decided to be a PI, I went to beauty school.”

“That’s quite a leap.” Quinn shifts and balances on the tub’s edge, trying to find a comfortable position. I hope she doesn’t fall in.

Mel explains why she decided to go into PI work, going back to school after realizing she didn’t want to cut hair for a living. My hair falls to the floor, and I watch in growing dismay while I listen to her story about growing up in LA. Her mom and dad could never find the footing they needed to jump from living in the poor part of the city to buying a house in a safer neighborhood.

She decided she would do better and majored in Criminal Justice. Using her degree and instinctive computer skills, she opened her own security firm and she’s been supporting herself and helping her parents for almost fifteen years. Sometimes Paulo acts as a consultant and business partner assisting in cases like this one if she needs more than two hands. “But only when I can drag him off set. He’s a stunt double in Hollywood,” she says, rolling her eyes.

I didn’t expect that, and I laugh.

Mel cuts my hair into a sleek bob. It grew out during the years Ash held me captive, and now the long blonde strands cover the floor. I feel like she took five pounds off my head, and I swish the ends back and forth.

“You look great,” Quinn says softly, her heart in her eyes.

It hurts her to see Zane and me together after what he did.

He says he loves me, even Nathalie admitted he thought about me during the years I was gone, but I’m not the one he’s spent the past five years with. Nathalie must be special for Zane to have invested so much time in their relationship. She shares a history with him that I don’t. That I may never.

Mel bends over and sweeps up the hair the best she can without a broom.

The hotel’s closed, and there’s no staff. We’ve been cleaning up after ourselves and hauling our trash to the dumpster behind the building. The manager unlocked a supply closet giving us access to vacuums, toilet paper, and an unlimited number of clean towels.

When she’s done, Mel shakes a hair coloring kit, the bottles rattling in the cardboard box. She chose a color called Copper Penny, and it’s a pretty rose gold. At least it is on the model on the front of the box. If the circumstances hadn’t required it, I may have tried it on my own, just for fun.

“Are you sure it’s different enough?” Quinn asks, swinging her gaze between me and the box.

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