Page 19 of Rock Hard
Chapter Eight
“Alice, guess what?”
Alice settled back into her super comfy desk chair, a present from Johnny, and smiled back at the screen. Carly’s grin radiated from the screen, her excitement contagious. “What?”
“I made the finals! My essay got first place in the semis!” The young girl beamed, proudly holding up the ribbon and medallion draped around her neck.
“Wow! That’s awesome! Congratulations!”
“Thanks!”
Alice was pleasantly surprised – not because Carly’s essay won, but because Carly had somehow talked Rex into taking her. Maybe, Alice realized, it was a good thing she had left, after all. Without her there and Carly’s general dislike for her father’s staff, Rex was forced to take more responsibility for his daughter.
“Your dad must be so proud! How did you talk him into going?”
Carly’s wide smile remained, but she averted her eyes, looking down at the shiny gold medal in her hand instead. “It was really close, too. The guy who got second place did a brilliant paper on the correlation between sports-related injuries and genetic influences.”
Alice’s innate bullshit detector sounded the alarm at the blatant evasion. She knew the girl far too well to be fooled.
“Carly, where are you?”
Her eyes remained downcast. “In my hotel room.”
“And where is your father?”
At this, the young girl lifted her gaze, eyes flashing. “Probably drunk or getting blown by some groupie. How should I know?”
Alice felt a stab of pain slice across her heart. “Language, young lady!” she chastised sternly, though the girl had heard far worse around her father and his entourage. Alice had always tried to shield her from as much of that as possible, but she wasn’t there to do that anymore. Aching guilt piggybacked on the pain once again, compressing her chest and making it hard to draw a full breath. “Carly, did you sneak out to go to the semi-finals by yourself?”
“Not exactly.”
Alice raised an eyebrow and stared into the webcam.
“All right. Yes, I came by myself, but there was no sneaking involved. I just left.”
“You’refourteen.”
“Yeah, but I’m a fourteen-year-old with black and platinum credit cards.” When Alice continued to stare at her, Carly added, “Dad’s new PA didn’t like me bugging him, so she arranged it so I could buy whatever without having to bother him.”
Something inside Alice broke. “Where are you?”
“The Ritz-Carlton in New York City.”
Alice clicked a few keys. “Hang there for a while, okay? There’s a redeye heading out that way tonight and I’m going to be on it. Then you and I are going to put those credit cards to good use on Fifth Avenue.”
Carly squealed in delight.
Alice knew her impulsive decision to fly out to NYC wasn’t going to fix anything, but dammit, she had to do something.
She dialed Johnny’s number and quickly explained she was going out of town for a few days. When she slipped into the waiting limo a short while later, Johnny was already in the back seat.
“What are you doing?”
He grinned. “Going with you.”
“Why?” she asked, genuinely bemused.
“I need a reason?”
