Page 23 of Callback
CHAPTER EIGHT
Marly
“He might notrecognize you,” Jude whispered over his shoulder.
Right. The wig. And the makeup. I lowered my chin, pulling the acrylic hair over my face, draping it in front of me like a curtain.
“Jude? You’re actually here?” Ash’s voice was a deep baritone, rich and velvety and I could practically hear the inquiring smirk in his voice. “You haven’t been here with anyone since…”
Jude cleared his throat. “Yeah, well, we were just leaving.”
“What?” Ash asked. I peeked up through my lashes, trying to get a glimpse of the scene in front of me. “Come on. Stay for one community drink? Eve and I were just headed there.”
Oh my God. I hadn’t even seen the girl standing behind him. She was thin with lush curves and short white-blonde hair in a pixie cut. And she was glaring at me with her liquid lined eyes, a smirk tilting one side of her mouth.
“Marlena?” Ash asked.
Shit. I clenched my eyes shut. Why’d I have to look up? Why’d I have to stare at Ash’s submissive so hard? If I had just kept my damn head down, maybe we could have gotten out of here.
I darted a glance to Jude, who sighed, giving my hand a light squeeze. He lifted his brows, and the unasked question ofWhat do we do now?hung limp in the air between us.
“What are you two up to?” Ash asked. Moments ago, he’d seemed so relaxed. Happy even that Jude had been here with another sub. But now? Anger tightened his lips and his shoulders seemed to lift higher around his ears, bunching with rage.
Instead of shrinking against Ash’s display of anger, Jude stood taller, stepping closer to his friend. “Marlena, go back into the room. And take care of that first assignment.” He held the keycard out for me to take. I took it, our fingers brushing.
“First assignment?” Did he mean reading the contracts? That seemed unnecessary now…
He glanced over his shoulder, pointing to the wig.Oh, right.Take off the makeup and wig. I nodded, backing up toward the room. Placing my palm at the crest of the wig, I slipped it off. Guess it didn’t really matter if anyone recognized me now. I was in this.Reallyin this. If Ash knew I was here, it was all going to shit anyway. I might as well stay and learn something. “Yes,Sir,” I said, rolling my eyes and sliding the keycard into the lock. With a beep, the door opened.
“Good girl,” Jude said. It was a compliment. Good girl. And yet, my spine bristled at it. “Only next time, say it without the attitude.”
*
I looked likemyself once more, though my hair was a little flatter than I would have liked. Luckily, underneath the wig, I had twisted sections of my hair into curls, so it fell in soft waves down my shoulders. Even though Jude said to wash my face, I still dabbed on some concealer, mascara and lip gloss, out of habit.
Jude had been in the hallway with Ash for about five minutes before he lightly knocked on the door. I opened it and he slipped inside, scanning me up and down. “Well, that’s more like it.”
I cast him a sidelong glance. “What happened? Is Ash going to tell Silhouette what we’re doing here?”
Jude shook his head. “Nope. That whole dirt thing LnS has on people? It works toprotectyou as well as threaten you. If Ash told anyone, he’d be in just as much deep shit as you and I.”
“Why was he so mad?”
“Who says he was mad?”
I dropped my cheek to my shoulder, giving Jude my bestcut the shitlook. His face broke into a smile and his chuckle rumbled through the room. “Okay, he was pissed. But that didn’t have anything to do with you. Not really, anyway. I think he just got excited to see me here with someone… and then, the fact that it was you, and not arealsubmissive, took away from his misguided happiness.”
“You don’t come here much anymore?”
“No.”
For such a verbose guy, it was an unusually short answer. But I knew not to push. I doubted it would get me very far, anyway.
“So,” Jude said. “What now?”
I shrugged. “Well, Ash seeing us is probably the worst that’ll happen here. No one else from Silhouette is a member, right?”
Jude’s grin was back, thank God. I preferred it much more to his scowl. “I can’t answer that. But I can tell you… that seeing Ash is probably the worst that’ll happen.”
