Page 66 of The Elusive Billionaire
“Madi has always gotten a weird vibe from Quinn. Then when you went back to California, she started lashing out at me with little barbs, like she did today about not being there for you. Almost as though she took it as a personal affront that I didn’t chase after you. But after all of today’s revelations, I realized something.”
“What?”
“Well, for starters, the photos of Savvy didn’t circulate until after someone announced that you were stranded during a hurricane with a mystery woman. The moment Savvy was exposed—all her secrets leaked—almost as if someone had an entire press kit ready to go.” He tugs on his earlobe, and it’s soclose to what Sage does when he’s thinking that it makes my chest ache with memories that will never again be a reality.
It’s another reminder that we’re all drifting apart and I’m not always going to be part of their day-to-day. Then a flash of Savvy’s face enters my mind, and the void I’ve been attempting to fill suddenly feels less like a black hole and more like a pinprick.
Jesus. I rub at my heart with my knuckles. It’s racing as though I just ran a marathon. Just thinking about Savvy gives me heartburn.
“True,” I say. “But wasn’t it Betty at the diner who outed Savvy?”
“But how many people knew you canceled your meetings with Quinn at the last minute? The rest of the executive team had already been sent home, and as far as they knew, you were heading to the inn to be with your family, so who else knew you were at home and not at the inn with the rest of us? The story that you’d ‘gone missing’ was out there before anything was released about Savvy. And what better way to spread that particular gossip than by stopping in the diner and letting it slip?”
He’s right. I had planned to ride out the storm at the inn with him and Sage, but it hit so suddenly, I’d decided to stay home right before Savvy turned up.
Braxton stares at me as though I’m missing something important. “The stories, the podcast, the photos, they were all rapid-released after someone let slip that you were stranded with a mystery woman. The information that was leaked wasn’t hearsay. It wasn’t random town gossip. They had details, receipts. They had access to Savvy’s unreleased podcast.”
My mind swirls with scenarios—each one more dysfunctional than the last. “There’s no way anyone could have predicted my land would turn into a literal island, and Savvy didn’t tell anyonethat she was coming to my house. It’s why she was so freaked out about Clover.”
“That’s what I mean. Someone had access to the details, and Madi has a pretty good read on people. My gut is telling me that someone has been building a case against Savvy—and possibly you—for a long time. If it’s not Quinn, it’s someone else that’s close enough to us to know the intimate details. Someone willing to sell you out. Someone willing to work with families like the DeVanes and the Ashfords.”
I nod as suspects form before my eyes. Quinn knew Savvy was with me, and her voice is ice-cold anytime she mentions Savvy’s name.
“What could Quinn possibly gain by doing that?”
Braxton’s chuckle tells me he thinks I’m being obtuse. “Money, your attention, you,” he lists as though they’re the most obvious things in the world. “Take your pick. Why does anyone do anything?”
I snort out a wry breath. “I think it’s well-documented that I’m far from a prize to be won. But it doesn’t make any sense, regardless. These attacks feel personal to Savvy, but I can’t tell if the hits are meant for the both of us or if I’m just the accelerant used to hurt her.”
“Greyson, I love you, but you’re an idiot. People, women especially, adore you. I don’t know what the endgame was, but let’s talk in absolutes. In your email to our employees, you specifically mentioned riding out the storm with family. Only a handful of people knew you were home alone, and Quinn was one of those people.”
Braxton stands and paces as he talks. “Yes, the attacks feel personal on Savvy because other than the perception of you marrying what the media is calling a stripper, nothing has been personal to you.”
I scoff. Everything about Savvy is personal to me.
He says, “The DeVanes want to make her pay, and they’ve proven they’ll take their time to make sure they cause her the most amount of pain possible because they’ve known for years that there was some connection to Ace.”
“Right,” I say. “If they’ve been patiently waiting, they could’ve been searching for a way to hurt her since he took her from Vegas. They’ve probably been putting out feelers, biding their time for the right moment, and that right moment exposed itself when news of our…relationship was made public.”
It’s all very plausible, but is it realistic?
“It sounds to me like they found a mole willing and able to help take her down, and you’re just a casualty they were willing to lose.”
“A mole? Seriously?” A migraine tugs at my eyelids. How many punches will I take today?
“As I said, I don’t know what the end goal is, but I do believe the stories being presented to the press were preplanned, so we need to be open to the possibility that we might have a traitor within our company.”
“Let me guess.” Savvy barges into the room as though she owns the damn building. She’s a walking contradiction—fragile in body yet fierce in mind. “Quinn is your prime suspect?”
She’s touched up her makeup, and she stands before me as the worthy adversary I know her to be. Pride makes my fingers twitch, and my brain nearly combusts at the realization.
My, how quickly I’ve converted to the dark side.
“There are no suspects,” I say. Quinn has been my assistant since I was in college when Braxton and I first took over Omni-Reyes. I refuse to believe there’s not some loyalty there. If this is all true, I’ve failed every promise I ever made to Ace.
“There are no suspects yet,” Braxton says. “But we’re not taking it off the table. Until we have a better handle on what’s going on, all conversations should be kept to our family.”
“Clover—” Savvy starts, but Braxton doesn’t allow her to finish that train of thought.
