Page 79 of Overexposed

Studying Seven, I tilted my head to keep an eye on him as we headed away from her bedroom.

“What?” he demanded.

“Nothing, just trying to figure out where you found that unexpected scrap of humanity.”

“Fuck off, Ollie,” he said without heat. “I’ll take care of arming the security system. Get some sleep.”

“Yep,” I said, then headed to my room.

Alone.

While the very beautiful, curvaceous, and hot-tongued Stella slept a few doors away.

Life could be cruel and kind.

chapter

twenty-nine

Stella

Iwas scrolling through the blind items and updates on social media that loved to post celebrity spotting. I’d missed a couple of breaking scandals this week living with the boys. The sex was incredible—so no complaints there—but I swore Seven had something new every damn evening.

While I could try my luck at day shots, the best scores were during parties, which, by and large, happened at night. People drank, they got tired, their judgment grew questionable, and if I was in the right place at the right time, then I would have it made.

When my passenger door opened, I jumped. Then Ollie slid into the seat next to me. “Hey Snow.”

“Ollie.” I tilted my head to give him a once-over. “What are you doing?”

I flicked a look out of the car. I was parked not far from Mann’s Chinese Theater. There were some rumors about filming permits for right at the theater, which could lead to some fun shots. Although today wasn’t looking promising.

“I’m helping,” he said, grinning. “I came disguised, see? I even brought my own secret spy camera.” He palmed something from his pocket and held up what could be a laser pointer fromthe size of it. “Takes pictures in bursts. So you can get a lot all at once. It’s not noticeable, so we can get up close if we need to.”

Ifwe… “Ollie, you do remember which side of the line you actually live on when it comes to the paps, right?” Though I had to admit, his enthusiasm wasadorable. Probably wise to keep that particular compliment to myself. His disguise consisted of jeans, a button-down shirt that was open over a dark T-shirt, a dark baseball cap, and sunglasses.

“Hence the disguise.” He shook his head. “I’m starting to worry you don’t listen to me, Snow. But it’s fine. I’ll forgive you.”

Tongue against my teeth, I fought the urge to laugh. “Gracious.”

“I can be,” he said firmly. “So what are we doing? Who is the target? Need me to flush the big game out of a store?”

Since we were nowhere near a store, it was a safe bet the answer to that one was no. Before I could answer though, my phone rang.

Dad’s contact information popped up. “Hey, Dad,” I greeted him, holding up a finger to Ollie’s lips to silence him. “Everything good?”

I’d made it to the house once to make sure he was stocked up and to check in with Mom while she was on shift. When they divorced, I doubted she ever planned on being his at-home care nurse, but she hadn’t hesitated when asked.

We might not be as close as some mothers and daughters—yeah, I’d always been a daddy’s girl—but I could rely on her. She’d always come through. She was getting frustrated with Dad pushing it constantly, and I was going to arrange some downtime for her, but that meant getting more money in, which meant more photos.

I wasn’t paying rent right now—my apartment was totally uninhabitable—so that might be enough to bring in anadditional nurse to cover her shifts for a week. It was something to think about.

“Everything is fine, Shutterbug. But I need a favor.”

“As long as it’s not asking me for contraband of any kind to sneak past Mom or the other nurses, I’m in.”

He coughed through a laugh. “Sometimes, I wonder where you got your sense of humor.”

“Me too, then I remember who raised me.” His chuckle deepened at the verbal poke. “What’s the favor, Dad?”

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