Page 129 of Happily Never After

“What is it?” She gripped the clipboard so tight that a bone cracked in her wrist. It sounded like a gunshot.

“We can’t take the planned route to Santa Monica.”

A jolt of panic clenched her stomach. “Why not?” There weren’t any mudslides in the forecast. It hadn’t even rained for six weeks. As far as she knew, there weren’t any wildfires either.

“There’s been a bomb threat on the 1. We’ll have to take the long way around, and that will add a considerable amount of time to the trip depending on traffic.”

“No can do,” Heather said. A live traffic map of Los Angeles was pulled up on her phone. “Topanga Canyon’s gridlocked. Everyone must be diverting to Route 27.”

Claire’s heart hammered in her ears. Okay, this was bad. But it could be worse. She had planned for this. She pulled out her phone and dialed the number for the helicopter company.

After a brief, frazzled conversation, Claire flung her phone into her bag and took a deep, steadying breath. The helicopter company wasn’t allowed to fly over bomb threat zones. They were shit out of luck.

What was she going to do? Bargain with the police to let them through? Find whoever issued the bomb threat and take a baseball bat to their testicles?

She couldn’t think in this dimly lit restaurant. She needed the sunshine, the sea breeze. There was a solution. There had to be, or Brad would probably dismember her piece by piece.

Claire walked out the front door. The chauffeur followed lamely behind her. Her eyes swept over the highway behind the restaurant as she tried to fight the molten wave of panic thatthreatened to suffocate her. There must have been a roadblock set up down the highway. Cars were already pulling to a stop just a few hundred yards from the restaurant. Soon they would be backed all the way up to Solar Flare. They needed to get out now.

She pulled out her phone and searched the route between Solar Flare and the pier. The bomb threat was located on a small state beach exactly halfway. Who called a bomb threat on a beach, anyway?

There was a route that wound up into the hillside and bypassed the affected section of highway. If she could find a way to slip onto that road, she just might save the whole thing.

Then she saw it. A bright red bicycle rickshaw. The owner was standing at the edge of the road, dawdling and staring at his phone. In a second, her decision was made.

“Excuse me, sir,” Claire said, striding across the parking lot. “I’ll give you five hundred dollars if you let me drive your rickshaw to Santa Monica.”

The owner swung around and stared at her, open-mouthed.

She pulled an envelope out of her purse and leafed out five hundred-dollar bills from an envelope marked “Emergency Bribes.” Today would mark the first time she had ever needed to use the envelope.

“You got it, bro.” The man swung his dreadlocks over his shoulder and climbed off the bike. “You know it’s like eight miles to Santa Monica though, right?”

She handed him a business card. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll leave it chained to one of the bike racks right by the pier, okay? You call me if you can’t find it later. Thank you so much. You—” she barked at the chauffeur. “You stand right by this and make sure no one steals it until I come back with the couple. When I leave, you are going to take whatever alternate route you can find to Santa Monica. Understood?”

“Yes ma’am,” the chauffeur said. He stared at the bike as if expecting it to disappear on its own.

Claire stormed back toward the restaurant. They hadn’t even made it through the first stop of the proposal before disaster struck. This wasn’t a sign, was it? Maybe she should have stayed in West Haven.

She stepped back inside to relay instructions to Mindy and the rest of the crew.

“You’re going to pedal two people eight miles? Are you sure?”

“Remember that spin class we used to take? We did like fifteen miles in a forty-five-minute class. I can do this.” She hadn’t been tugging two extra people during said spin class, but this was practically a matter of life and death.

“I need you, Heather, Sawyer, and Coli to get in the car and take the alternate route. The second photographer is already down at the pier, so we’ll have something even if it doesn’t have Coli’s magic touch. I need you to leave now because traffic is almost backed up to the restaurant.”

“Got it.” Heather threw her backpack over her shoulder. “Good luck, Claire.”

“That goes for you too, Luke,” Claire called over the headset. “Get out now.”

Claire glanced out the window. Brad had finished and was standing to put his jacket on. It was go time.

“Mr. Lux,” she said, bustling out the backdoor with a smile that she hoped looked natural.

Brad’s eyes bugged out. Claire wasn’t supposed to interact directly with the couple until everything was over. “There’s been a small change of plans. Hi, you must be Karen. I’m with the event planning company,” Claire said, reaching out to shake Karen’s offered hand. “There’s been a road closure between here and your next stop. We’ve had to arrange alternate transportation. If you’re ready, you can follow me.”

Brad’s smile looked rather strained as he put his hand on the small of Karen’s back. The couple followed Claire through the restaurant to the parking lot.

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