Page 77 of Best Served Hot
‘Iknowwe do,’ Lena agreed. ‘But that’s not the only reason you want me to get a message to her, is it? You just want her to know what happened.’
Nicole smiled sadly. ‘OK, Lena, you got me. It’s true. I don’t want her to go another minute thinking I left because I wanted to.’ She slumped in her chair, trying not to cry. She’d worked so hard to distract herself from Alex, hoping a little pain might pass. But talking to Lena about her? Nicole was still as shattered about her as ever.
Lena looked at her pityingly. ‘I don’t know what you see in her, honestly. But… I owe you one. You’ve made me feel a lot less like a muppet. So I’ll go see her for you.’
‘You will?’ Nicole said, pathetically grateful.
She nodded reluctantly. ‘But don’t blame me if we end up in a fistfight!’
Forty-Four
‘I knew it. I KNEW IT. That fucker!’ Alex said, ecstatic. Her suspicions were true. It had only been Ethan keeping Nicole away. Nicole loved her.
Alex didn’t even care that it was Lena delivering the news. Lena was now very much in the black with Alex and would be until the end of time. ‘I need to talk to her.’
‘Didn’t you hear me? She’s off-limits. I’m the go-between. Because he thinks I can’t hurt him,’ Lena said while the both of them were squashed down a dingy back alley around the back of the Tap Street offices, standing next to some rather stinky bins.
Alex noted how miserably she delivered that pronouncement, and she no longer cared about their past. They were in it together now. ‘Then he underestimated you,’ she said kindly.
Lena looked like she was trying not to feel pleasure at the compliment. ‘He underestimated all of us. I hope that’s going to be his undoing.’
‘So he threatened me withprison?’ Alex asked in horror.
‘That’s right.’
‘And there’s an account with all that money in my name? In the bloody Cayman’s?’ She shook her head. ‘He’s off his rocker. Seriously. He nicked all that money and made sure he couldn’t touch it anymore just to split us up? Fucking bonkers.’
‘It’s real scorched earth shit,’ Lena agreed.
‘So now I guess we just have to provehe’sthe criminal?’ Alex said, without hope. ‘How the hell are we going to do that?’
‘That’s the thing. We thought you could help with this,’ Lena said.
‘Me?’
‘Well, you know how he did this, don’t you? He made up false expenses. Expensive items, sets, performers that never existed,’ Lena said. ‘A little here, a little there. I guess it added up over the four years he’s been exec.’
‘I guess that makes sense. How the hell didn’t he get spotted? Surely the channel noticed the money wasn’t on screen…’
Lena shook her head. ‘They wouldn’t notice a bit of money walking out the back door when so much was coming in the front. And that show sells serious ad time. His words. I overheard him and his dodgy money guy talking about it.’
Alex sighed mournfully. This was crazy. ‘But how can I help you prove it? I didn’t know anything.’
‘I don’t know. But you worked with him as closely as anyone did. You must have seen something. Even if you didn’t realise it at the time. There must besomething. Dodgy receipts from the show, stuff with his signature on…’
Alex shook her head miserably. ‘There’s nothing I can think of. And even if we could get hold of that kind of stuff, it might not exonerate me. His name won’t be on anything, not directly,’ she said angrily. ‘He’d have made sure of that. We need real, ironclad proof. Something that can be directly tied to him.’
‘Look, I was just a runner. But you were in that office with him almost the entire time of his shitty little reign. You really can’t think of anything?’ Lena asked, annoyed and frustrated.
Alex shook her head. ‘No, I can’t think of anything.’
Lena groaned. ‘Nicole put a lot of stock in you being the one to sort this.’
Alex was miserable again, her joy at the discovery of Nicole’s lasting love gone. If she couldn’t get back to her, what good was it? ‘I’m sorry.’
Lena shook her head at Alex, turning away. ‘I hope Nicole appreciated me coming out here to get knocked on my arse for absolutely nothing.’
‘Wait a sec,’ Alex muttered. What Lena had said sparked something.
