Page 128 of Good Girl's Guide to Love
“How is Natasha doing?” Quinn asks as she overhears our conversation.
“Really good,” Stella adds. “We got coffee last week.”
I feel like I’m going to be saying this a lot, but what kind of family am I getting myself into?
“I’ll fill you in later,” Ainsley promises as she wraps her hands around my forearm. “Let’s just concentrate on today.”
I wish I could, but the pessimist in me doesn’t see how this is going to work. “Not that I don’t trust you guys, because clearly this isn’t your first rodeo, but this seems a little far-fetched. Are we sure this is going to work?”
“Oh it’ll work,” Quinn says. “We’re putting a psycho, a narcissist, and a douchebag in a room together. What could go wrong?”
A million things sprint through my brain, but I can’t think about them when I hear a voice come through on a speaker Logan has set up. It’s Porter, who is down in the lobby with Emmett as our lookouts, with some sort of high-tech ear pieces and microphones.
“Boiled Bunny entering the building,” Porter says. “And from what I can tell, she’s taking the bait.”
Here we fucking go…
When Stella started uncovering the tangled web that Katie, Brad, and Jonathan weaved, the plan we came up with felt a little too crazy. A little ridiculous. But the Banks siblings told me it would work. The partners all gave me affirming head nods.
And so far, much to my surprise, it is. It began with Simon and Logan getting into Brad’s hotel room earlier today when he was at the gym to plant the surveillance equipment. I had my doubts they could pull it off, but apparently a well-placed bribe and Simon “knowing a guy” did the trick. And now, step two is complete, as Katie has taken the bait. That one I had more faith in. All that took was Logan sending Katie an email from “Brad”—well, the mirrored email he created to send it to her—asking her to come see him before he left for Milwaukee.
And being that she’s his former mistress, she couldn’t come fast enough.
That’s right. Stella dug. And that’s the goldmine.
“She’s pulling the trench coat in the hotel move,” Porter says. “This is going to be epic.”
“Aw, I remember when I did that,” Quinn says.
“We don’t need to hear a story time right now,” Maeve whisper-yells. “Plus, we need to keep our voices down. Be safe about this.”
That’s not a problem for Ainsley and me. We’ve been holding our breaths since we got here. Not that I don’t have faith in the Fury for doing a solid investigation, but if we can get proof that we were set up, and it just so happens to land on their desk, then this saga is going to finally be over with.
Logan adjusts the cameras, one facing the hotel door, another facing the room hooked onto a lamp, and the otherexpertly hidden in the headboard. It lets us watch every angle on each monitor.
“Showtime,” Logan says as we watch Brad's expression of surprise when he hears a knock on the door.
When Brad opens it, he steps back a little, clearly not ready to see Katie standing in the hallway, jacket wide open, and not much underneath.
“Hey, Pookie. Did you miss me?”
She pushes him into the hotel room, Brad stutter stepping back, as she tackles him onto the bed.
“Katie, what are you doing?” Brad asks in a muffled voice as Katie attacks his lips, straddling him, jacket still on.
“What do you think I’m doing, silly? Everything worked. We can be together now. Eeek!”
Katie dives into Brad’s mouth, and I watch in horror, but Ainsley turns away.
“I don’t think we should be watching this,” Ainsley says. “Just tell me when this is over.”
“Oh, sweet Ainsley,” Quinn says. “Even when she’s having sex, she’s still our innocent girl.”
“It’s not that. No one should be watching this.”
She’s not wrong. I never saw Katie kiss before, but it’s like she’s trying to swallow Brad’s face like she’s in some sort of alien movie.
“Ew,” we all say in accidental unison. I have to shake out the chills because…no. Just no.
