Undercover Heat (23 page)

“If you thought I was implying that you needed to justify yourself to me, you’re wrong. We never said we had an exclusive relationship.”

“Come on, Carrie. This goes way beyond a verbal agreement between
two people, and you know that.”

She jumped up from the bed, and finding nothing more adequate to do, she chucked a pillow at him. “God, what’s with you, Ty? You come up here three weeks ago, sweep me off my feet, make me believe that there was something between us that was actually worth salvaging. Then what? You suddenly have this epiphany that I can’t hack the pressure of being with you, so you take off. God, where ha
ve I played this scene before?”

He cocked his head, as if he hadn’t heard her right. “Wait a minute. You actually think these stories are true. Layla, the hooker. And you think I am standing here lying about it now?”

Her father’s accusation drifted through her head. The woman in the suite with him
. Her father wouldn’t lie.

Ty buried his face in his hands and cursed. “Good Lord, Carrie Ann, have I really fallen that far in your eyes? In all the years we were together, did I ever lie to you? Did I ever give you a reason to believe I wasn’t true to you?”

“Does it matter?”

“It matters to me.”

“Then you tell me what am I supposed to make of this? In two weeks I have spoken to you once, and the one time I dare to call you, I get your ex-wife on the phone, who tells me what a wonderful time you two are having together. The next thing I know, I see pictures of you and her together. And then to top it off, you’re caught in some back room with a prostitute? Never mind the whole world now thinks you’re a sex addict who caused me a nervous breakdown.”

Ty shut his eyes and stuck his hands in his pockets. His chest heaved with a deep breath, before he opened his mouth. “Layla stole my cell phone,” he finally said. “Hell, she probably figured you’d call so she could plant the seed in your head. I’m telling you she’s on a mission. She hired some dumpster diver to dig up dirt, and then she hired a prostitute to seduce me.”

“And you couldn’t help yourself.”

“I told you nothing happened!” He cursed and pressed his fingers to his temples. “Damn it, Carrie, I hate fighting with you.”

“So don’t do it.” She plopped back down on bed, and Ty looked at her a moment, before walking around and gesturing to the space beside her.

“May I?”

Carrie scooted over to give him more than enough room. He sat down with his elbows on his knees and scrubbed his face in his hands. “Look, I’m not going to bother giving you lines, because I think you and I are way past that. The truth is, I put myself in some stupid situations that I have no excuse for. But that’s not why I’m here. I’m here because I thought I should warn you.”

Carrie heard the tremble in his voice. She hated that she wanted to reach out and touch him. Instead she folded her hands and held them in her lap. “Warn me about what?”

“Layla knows about the baby.”

Carrie let the words settle around her. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure. I think her plan is to play this whole thing out in the press so she looks like a victim.”

“She’s trying to blackmail you. She wants your money.”

“Part of it. But now I’m beginning to think she’s out to get you. She’s jealous, Carrie. She wants to scare you off.” He slid his hand over her knee and squeezed. “I came back because I wanted to talk to you about this face-to-face.”

“You know, this is why I left this business in the first place. All the deceit and underhandedness. That’s not me.”

“I know, and I hate that I exposed you to all this.” He looked back at the closed bedroom door. “I shouldn’t have come up here in the first place. But when I saw you at
the studio...”

She slid off the bed and stood over him with folded arms. “Oh, I get it. This is you letting me down easy.”

He looked up at her and shook his head. “God darlin’, what the
hell is that supposed to mean?”

This was it. It was happening all over again. She allowed herself to go where her feelings took her, and this was where she ended up. “Get out, Ty.”

“What?”

“Get out!” she repeated, pulling him off the bed. “I’m not letting you say goodbye this time because I am saying it first.”

“Carrie I-”

“I want you to go,” she said on the wave of a breath. “I want you to leave.”

He stared at her a moment, as if waiting for her to change her mind, but when she didn’t, he turned back for the door. “Listen, Earl has been calling my cell phone. I think this whole thing has him freaked out. But if he or anyone else tries to contact you, you let me handle it. This is my problem so I’ll deal with it. Okay?”

He didn’t wait for an answer. By the time she opened her mouth, he was out the door, his footsteps echoing in her ears.

In the three days since he left Middle Valley, Ty hadn’t left his New York hotel. He wouldn’t have bothered today but
Manny told him Earl needed to see him pronto at Hoggins Diner. So here Ty was, wiping the sleep from his eyes at three in the afternoon, eyeing a breakfast that miraculously included nothing from a vending machine.
Across from him, Earl hadn’t touched the cheeseburger and chili fries. Maybe this wasn’t just his usual melodrama.

“I think I may have done a bad thing.”

Ty took a gulp of his coffee and studied his former boss. His pudgy cheeks flushed, and his upper lip trembled. “When you say you did something bad,” Manny said, “is this a personal thing, or something that has to do with Ty?”

Earl wiped his brow with his napkin an
d stared into his coffee. “Well...
”

Ty pulled his cap over his eyes and slumped down in the booth. He didn’t think he could handle anymore bad news
.
“Come on, Earl, just spill it
. Places to see, things to do.”

“I know all about Carrie.”

Suddenly engaged, Ty lifted the bill of his cap. “What the hell do you mea
n 'you know about Carrie’?”

Earl squeezed his eyes shut, like suddenly struck with pain. “I had this interview with this guy from ‘It’ magazine,” he said. “And he asked me some questions, and I answered them, but I’m not
sure I said the right things.”

“What kinds of things did you say?” Manny asked.

“Well, he asked me about the gossip about Carrie Ann. Said the magazine was about to break a story about your love child.”

Ty blinked. “What?”

Earl made a pass across his forehead with a napkin. “I felt bad. I know how rough the tabloids have been on you two, and I wanted to make sure the stories in the magazines
were at least the right ones.”

“Wait a minute,” Ty lowered his voice, and leaned further over the table. “Earl, how would you even know there was a right story to begin with?”

His eyes closed again. “Because I overheard it.”

“Overheard what?”

“The night you left for LA, I went to visit you at the hotel just to be nice, and I sort of overheard you and Carrie’s father yelling at each other inside. I mean, I had an idea you two were messing around, but I didn’t know-” He picked up a piece of cold bacon and chucked it back on his plate. “Poor thing, how could she just not eat?”

“Wait a minute,” Manny said. “This guy who interviewed you. What was his name?”

“That’s the thing.” Earl dug into his pockets, and after producing a stray button and a petrified stick of Trident gum, he found a tattered business card. He looked at it and slid it across the table to Ty. “Harvey Tillman is what it says on the card, but when I called the number, it didn’t exist.”

Ty wracked his brain, thinking of every word passed between him and the Deacon, and what spin Earl could have possibly applied. He lifted his cap and ran his hand through his hair before replacing it. “Listen Earl, you di
dn’t spill everything did you?”

Earl pushed the heels of his hands to his eyes, and groaned. “I’m sorry. I thought I was doing you a favor.”

Ty felt the grease shift in his gut. If Earl was any other person, Ty would have wrung his neck. But instead he felt sorry for the poor guy. He cared about Carrie almost as much as Ty did. “Look Boss, I know you didn’t mean any harm,” Ty said. “I just don’t want to
make things worse for Carrie.”

“Anybody want more coffee?” Stacy looked at Manny when she asked the question and snapped her gum at Ty with a scowl. It made him like the girl even more to know she was mad at him on Carrie’s behalf.

“I suppose I should be glad you didn’t spit in mine, huh Stacey.” Ty kidded.

“I’m not talking to you.
And
I hope Carrie Ann Langley isn’t, either.
Jerk.” She left the pot on the table and marched back to the counter.

“She a huge fan of Carrie’s.” Ty told the men. He nodded in her direction, just in time to catch her nasty look. “I knew Stacey was a nice girl when I met h
er. She’s got good taste.”

“And not a bad judge of character either,” Manny said through a mouthful of bagel.

“I just feel terrible for Carrie,” Earl said. “At least this is good publicity for the show. She’ll benefit from the sales.”

“Is that all you care about?” Ty asked. “The money?”

“No, but she does,” Earl said. “She made it pretty clear when she first signed on to do this that she needed the money for that bed and breakfast of hers. Otherwise, I don’t think she would have gone through with it. From what it sounds like to me, she wasn’t wild to see you again.”

“Yeah, she still isn’t.”

Manny dumped a pack of sugar in his coffee. “She still hasn’t answered your calls, huh?”

“Christ, can you blame her? This is all my fault.”

“How? You can’t control what Layla does.”

“Well, now that the mess has been made, I want to be the one who cleans it up as best I can. Maybe we should talk about the gala.”

Earl’s eyes widened as a glob of Ketchup fell from his burger to his lap. “Oh, man, no. Don’t tell me you’re backing out.”

“Not me. But Carrie should, and I want to make sure she won’t catch any grief about it.”

“What do you mean? It’s a closed party
,
” Earl said. “Sure, the press will be outside, but once she's in the hotel, it’ll be fine. Besides, in the message she left me last night--”

“Wait a minute.” Ty looked at Manny then back at Earl. “Carrie called you? What the hell did she say?”

“Not much.” He shrugged. “Just that she was looking forward to the gala, and that she’d be brin
g
ing her sister and father as her escorts. I made sure her wishes were granted of course. I’m just hoping this ‘It’ Magazine thing doesn’t turn into a fiasco.”

“Hold on
,
” Manny said, his eyebrows raised. “If Carrie is going to be there, you want to make sure the attention is off of her, right? Well maybe the best way to do that is to make sure it’s all on you.”

“It’s on both of us.”

“Wel
l maybe it doesn’t have to be.”

Ty watched as Manny motioned for Stacey.

“Don’t tell me you want me to bring a date?”

“Why not?” Manny asked. “Right now the public is drooling over Ty Hollister’s love life. Maybe if people think there’s a new woman in the picture, they’ll leave the old one alone. You can suck up the limelight, and Carrie can lurk in the
shadows.”

Earl rubbed his hands together and laughed with a snort. “This will be great. They’ll leave little Carrie alone, and you’ll be on the front page of every rag in this town.”

Stacey stopped at the table and tossed her long brown ponytail over her shoulder. “What can I do for you guys?

“What are you doing Saturday night?”

She looked at Ty then back at Manny. “Why?

“Ty, here was just saying that you two are old friends. And he was wondering if you wouldn’t mind doing him a favor.” Manny gestured for
her to sit down.

Ty listened as words flew around him. He topped off his coffee and leaned back in his seat, while Manny cleared his throat and presented a pad of paper and pen. “Okay people
,” he said. “This is the plan.”

***

“They’re whispering!” Layla hissed, then kicked Harvey under the table. He spit out his coffee and uttered a curse, torn between kicking her back and throwing her on the table and giving it to her like he’d been meaning to.

“Can you see what they’re saying?”

“I’m not a fucking lip reader.” He told her. “But if you would shut up, mayb
e I could hear them.”

“Don’t talk to me like that you little weasel. You work for me, remember?”

He wanted to punch her in that hot little mouth of hers. Even smothered in that cheap pink lipstick, it made his cock twitch. He didn’t even mind the new red hair of hers, or the bag lady clothes she wore as a disguise. Hell, he’d still do her. He’d do her good. So hard and fast, she’d be senseless, and that little pink mouth of hers would beg him for more.