Pretty in Kink (17 page)

But it was Lexi again, moments ago, her tone much less
upbeat than the earlier one.

“Britt, I uh…can you please call me? There’s something I
need to tell you. Something you’re not going to like. It’s very important.” The
message ended with a resounding click.

Doris opened the car door and climbed into the passenger
seat. In her usual prim manner, she clicked her seat belt in place, popped open
her briefcase on her lap and set it up in desk fashion. She flipped through her
organizer, pressed her cell phone on. It played a cheery tune as it loaded.

“I bet that call you got was either from that potty-mouthed
Lexi, or that biker.” Doris pecked at the screen, her cheater glasses perched
on the end of her nose.

Britt jammed the key into the ignition, turned over the
engine and set the air conditioner to blasting. She was dying to call Lexi, but
she had to get rid of this energy-sucking leech first.

Doris.

She threw her arm over the seat, backed out of the gravel
drive and onto the blacktop county road. “Please, I’m not in the mood.”

Gawd, I need to look for a new agent.

“But Britt, I am sick to death of—” Her iPhone rang in her
hand, startling her. She tapped the keys with a rusty-tipped fake fingernail.

Saved by the blessed bell.

“Hello, Agent Doris Sterns speaking.” She smiled, nodded.
“Yes, yes, hello, Colleen. I’m so glad you called. So, were you able to get the
deal approved? Did the attorneys—” She blinked, sitting silent for a long
moment. The chatter of the voice on the other end of the phone grew loud enough
for Britt to hear, but she couldn’t make out what held Doris’ stunned
attention.

A strangled growl escaped Doris’ throat. “What? No.” Her
hand fluttered up, trembled, covered her gaping mouth. “Are…are you sure?”

The heavy weight of dread closed around Britt. She knew that
look, recognized the appalled astonishment, which would soon be followed by a
ranting rage. Colleen was the Victoria’s Secret contact whom Doris had been in
negotiations with on Britt’s behalf. She couldn’t imagine what sort of demands
on the other end of the line could be causing Doris’ free hand to fist and the
knuckles to whiten.

“It can’t be. There must be some mistake.”

Another pause followed by incessant chatter.

“Please, please, Colleen, give me a few days. I-I’ll look
into it, you have my word on that. One way or another, we’ll get this all
straightened out, you’ll see.” Britt identified the tone of desperation, one
thin layer coating the temper that simmered below it. Doris laughed, her voice
hollow. “It’s most likely nothing more than a false, slanderous attempt by one
of my agent competitors to edge Britt out of the running.”

Crap. What in the world was going on?

“Yes, yes, thanks so much for your call. I’ll be in touch
soon.”

Doris punched the Disconnect button. She winged the phone at
the dashboard. “Unbelievable.”

Britt flinched when it smacked the windshield then clunked
against an air vent as it fell to the floor. “Doris, that is—”

“Don’t Doris me.” Her white veneers clenched, making the
muscle in her jaw bulge. Her venomous eyes glittered with revulsion. “Do you
have any idea what you’ve done now?”

Dismayed at the personal attack, Britt pulled over and
jammed the gearshift into park. “No. But it might help if you’d just tell me
instead of throwing your temper around. Just know I will not pay for any of
your rental-car damages.”

“Damages? Did you say damages?” Doris shrieked. “That little
windshield scratch is nothing compared to how much damage—and money—you’ve cost
me with your latest antics.”

“Don’t have a clue what you’re screaming about.”

“Really? Do nasty pictures ring a bell?”

Britt’s vision wobbled. She did her best to keep her
expression calm and unmoved, but shock had a stubborn way of making her eyes go
wide and her mouth gape. Pictures? She couldn’t possibly be referring to
those
pictures. No, it couldn’t be. She’d burned them herself.

“How could you?” Doris stomped the floorboard.

“I-I don’t know what you mean.”

“Well, I’ll tell you then.” Her tone snapped whip-like, her
livid gaze not far behind. “It seems Victoria’s got wind of some photos that
just released in this week’s issue of some filthy publication called
Leather
& Lace
something-or-other. An amateur’s contest for fifty-thousand
dollars.”

Britt’s palms sweated so much they slipped from the wheel.
Her stomach lurched. She was going to throw up. “No. No.”

Lexi’s second message…had it been about this situation?
She’d sounded worried, almost scared.
Please, no.

Britt fisted her hands. If so, she would kill Lexi.
Kill
her.

“Yes, a woman in all sorts of tawdry poses,” Doris hissed.
“They said her face was concealed, but they had reason to believe it was you.
Tell me it’s a mistake. Tell me it isn’t you. Goddamn it, Britt, tell me it’s
not you in those pictures all tied up and half naked for the whole stinking
country to see!”

“It’s not me. It can’t be.”

“Really? Well, I had the same response at first. But then
she mentioned a mole.”

Britt’s pulse leaped, choking her. “A mole?” she croaked.

Doris’ dark eyebrows winged up as if she scolded a small
child. “Don’t you have a heart-shaped mole on your hip?”

Oh god. “A mole on my hip?”

“I distinctly recall you mentioning you’d like to have it
removed a few months back. I ordered you not to, as further damage to your skin
could mar your beauty and cost you future modeling jobs. Besides, I think I
remember seeing it in a few of your portfolio shots. It’s you in the pictures,
isn’t it?”

Remember, if it is you in those pictures, your face isn’t
showing in them. They can’t positively identify you. Don’t give away a thing to
her.

“No. There must be some mistake. I-I would never submit
pictures to a magazine for the whole world to see.”

But Lexi would for me, for us both…for the money. Even if
I’d changed my mind.

Doris held her gaze. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” she half lied.

Convinced, perhaps more because she wanted the tale to be
false, Doris snatched up her phone from the floor, tossed it into the briefcase
and slammed it shut. “Then take me back to the hotel. I have work to do to get
this deal repaired and rolling again. I’ll have to miss our flight, but it’ll
be worth it. This is just too much money to let it slide by.”

“Okay, sure.” Britt merged back onto the road. “I’m going to
get an earlier flight back. Is that all right? I’ll be there in time for the
shoot in Tampa tomorrow.”

She waved a hand. “Sure. Go on back to your friends. I’ll
fix this just like always.”

Britt didn’t take the bait. She held her tongue, drove
straight to the hotel and dropped Doris off without a word. Next she sped away
and located a sleazy porn and sex-toy shop. She donned her sunglasses as a wall
to hide behind in case someone recognized her from the contest, bought the new
issue of
Leather & Lace Magazine
and got back in her car. As she
settled in, she chucked the depraved publication onto the passenger’s seat as
if it had bitten her. Eyeing it, she drove back to the hotel. The urge to pull
over and barf overwhelmed her. She sensed she wasn’t going to like what she
found between the pages of that crude magazine.

That’d teach her to listen to her best friend.

Prior best friend.

Lexi’s pleading words of a week or so ago echoed through
Britt’s mind as she drove. “I’ll hide your face in all the shots. No one’ll
ever know it’s you. And just think. If we win the contest, that’s twenty-five
thousand dollars apiece.” She’d jiggled her eyebrows. “That means a new
wardrobe for you, and a new condo right on the beach. And for me, my own
photography shop.”

Britt pulled into the hotel parking lot, glanced over at the
magazine. Dread gnawed at her gut. So much for the condo on the beach. She had
a feeling she’d be living in a cardboard box on the street after all was said
and done.

She opened the magazine, thumbed through the pages, fingers
trembling…and sobbed at what met her gaze between the crisp pages.

* * * * *

“How could you do this to me?” Britt’s incredulous tone
echoed off the walls. She stood right on the very spot where Lexi had
engineered several of the poses that now had Britt’s career teetering on
disaster. It sickened her. It made her wonder what had ever gotten into her to
chance such a foolish thing.

Lexi presented her back to Britt. She marched to the dormer
window, leaned against the frame and stared down at the dark alleyway. She’d
rented the studio attic apartment in an elderly lady’s Victorian home on a
quiet street in downtown Palmetto Cove. Except for a rumpled, queen-sized brass
bed near the window, most of the cluttered, one-room space housed all her
secondhand camera equipment. Lexi drank, ate and breathed photography, and it
seemed the obsession had finally cost her.

“I-I told you. I didn’t.” Lexi’s shoulders slumped. She kept
her back to Britt.

Britt struggled to keep her temper in check. She could tell
by the few words and short-sentence replies that Lexi rode one of her emotional
roller coasters. When Lexi didn’t talk and grunted responses instead, something
was wrong. In this case, Britt knew what troubled her. She’d been caught. In
turn, Britt resisted the urge to strangle that delicate neck.

“Are we going to go there again?” Britt reined in the shriek
that threatened to erupt from her throat. “How else could they have gotten
there? You were the only one in possession of the film. Then I took the
supposed only developed photos and burned them. But now they’re right where you
wanted them. You made it all too obvious how much you wanted the money. And to
top it off, you won the contest.”

Lexi snorted and lifted a slim shoulder. “Won it? I wish,”
she muttered. In the black pajama bottoms splattered with pink hearts and the
bright-pink spaghetti-strapped shirt, she looked way more comfortable than her
body language and attitude portrayed.

With a sigh, Britt plopped down onto the worn loveseat that
faced a small TV perched on wooden crates. She started to prop her feet on the
rickety coffee table, but it was littered with eclectic magazines, empty Coke
cans and a dried-up TV dinner.

“Lexi, would you quit with the denial? Damn it, please come
over here and sit with me. We have things to discuss.”

Lexi turned back, her toned arms folded across her abdomen.
The glow from a streetlight outlined her small frame through the glass. Tears
glittered in her eyes. “What else can I say? I told you I didn’t send the
freaking photos into the magazine. You keep throwing it back in my face. Now
here we are, and it’s not gonna do me one fucking bit of good to talk about it
anymore. All I can say is, I don’t know.” Her gaze flitted down, back up. “I
don’t know how they got there, I swear.”

Britt couldn’t take it anymore. She wanted Lexi to own up to
the truth so they could work on patching things up. Lexi’s denial of the issue
made Britt’s frustration and anger rise to the surface. She wanted a
confession. She wanted the truth. But now it was apparent she wasn’t going to
get it. Lexi intended to leave Britt to pick up the pieces of Britt’s life that
Lexi had been responsible for shattering. Yes, Britt would take responsibility
for letting Lexi talk her in to the shoot in the first place, but Britt had
changed her mind once the photos were developed, and had had every right to do
so.

Lexi’s betrayal and stubbornness to accept her part in this
made Britt’s whole body tremble. She ground her teeth together and breathed
through them in short gasps that made her dizzy with rage. She shot to her
feet.

“Why do you keep lying to me? Why? I thought we were
friends. I thought we would be for life. Now look what you’ve done,” she
shrieked, her arms flailing. “I’ve got Doris breathing down my back and
practically voiding our contract. Victoria’s is demanding some sort of proof
that it isn’t me, which you and I both know it is. The magazine is on sleazy
newsstands all over the country, and it’s too late to do a damn thing about it.
Lexi, do you realize what you’ve done just because you had to have that
twenty-five grand? You’ve ruined my career. And you’ve ruined a friendship,”
she choked out, the tears now streaming down her cheeks. Out of it all, losing
Lexi’s friendship had to be the worst part. She had been like a sister.

But no more.

Britt kicked a discarded tennis shoe out of the way and
started for the door.

“No… Please, Britty, I didn’t—”

“Shut up, Lexi.” She yanked open the door.

“Britt. No, p-please don’t leave.” Lexi raced across the
room, dodging all her equipment. She gripped Britt’s arm and leaned back so
Britt couldn’t leave. Lexi sniffled. “Please, I swear, you’ve got to believe it
wasn’t me.”

Her heart hurt, but Britt used a firm, almost cold tone.
“Exactly what I wish I could say about the person in the photos. But it is what
it is. Me. At least I’ll be admitting it to Doris and accepting the
consequences of my stupid actions. It would be a nice start if you could do the
same.” She ripped her arm from Lexi’s quivering hand. “But I see we’re never
going to get anywhere with that, are we?”

Lexi stood there sobbing, which meant Britt had her answer.

“Okay, well let me tell you one last thing. You can keep
every damn dollar of the contest money. Because no amount of money can make up
for all the embarrassment and pain you’ve caused me.”

Lexi stifled an explosive sob.

Britt went on, determined to stand her ground. “I don’t want
to see one filthy penny. Do you understand me?”

Lexi nodded. “Perfectly.”

Ah, finally a morsel of a confession. But it was all she’d
be getting, she knew that now. She could stay here until dawn, but Lexi
wouldn’t budge. She’d continue to insist she hadn’t submitted the photos to the
contest. They’d go round and round, so why stay?