Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 131459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Imogen Who? The text said on a photo of Genny looking upset, walking through the Biltmore mall in Phoenix, hands in the pockets of some cream joggers, a matching hoodie up top, the hood pulled over her hair. She had big shades cover her eyes, her head was cast down.
It was obviously a recent picture.
What was further concerning was that Bowie was not with her.
This was slapped on the bottom corner over another picture taken of Tom and Mika outside the Hermosa. However, in this shot, Tom had turned and tipped his head down to Mika, and they appeared like they were close to kissing.
The text above their heads said, Trading Up.
Fuck, shit.
He flicked his finger on the screen so it would scroll away and handed the phone back to Cadence.
He tried to catch Hale’s eye, but his attention was on his own phone, and considering his mouth was tight, Tom knew what he was seeing.
“We’ll stop being the couple du jour in a few jours,” Mika joked.
He took her hand again and said nothing, because after what had just happened, he didn’t think that would be true.
Another text came through from Jamie.
Security in motion. We’re all heading to Saks. We’ll wait until the men connect with staff and then the women can go in under escort. The team are closer, they should be there when we arrive.
Perfect, Tom replied.
The atmosphere was heavy as they rode the stop and start of any car journey in the city.
“Is she sensitive to those things?” Mika asked quietly.
She meant Genny.
“Her skin is pretty tough. But you never develop complete immunity to that kind of thing,” Tom answered. “She’s adopted a habit of avoiding it and probably hasn’t seen it.”
Or, he hoped she hadn’t.
But, as he spoke, he noticed Cadence and Mika exchanging a glance.
When she felt his eyes on her, Mika looked to him.
“I don’t have to avoid it because I don’t have the avenues to run into it, but I really don’t care what people say about me,” she shared.
“Mom’s all about complete immunity,” Cadence said.
Tom found this unsurprising.
It was part that shell she’d erected.
It was part who she was.
“And you, honey?” Tom asked Cadence.
“Well, that was extreme, and felt unsafe. But people have been ‘Poor Cadence Merriman this,’ and ‘Poor Cadence Merriman that,’ since I was born, due to, you know, losing Dad.” She shrugged. “So, I kinda don’t know another way it could be.”
At that demonstration of maturity, Tom and Hale exchanged a glance.
Though, Tom was far from a massive fan of “Poor Cadence Merriman” anything.
She lost her dad, but she was so much more than that.
“Though,” Cadence carried on, “it’s all kinds of crazy that people who do that kind of thing have complete immunity to the concept that the people they’re doing it to are actually people.”
“Absolutely,” Hale replied.
Within fifteen minutes, they hit Saks.
They waited maybe five minutes before they got the go ahead.
And Hale and Tom angled out of the car to make sure the handoff went smoothly.
They left one of Jamie’s cars for the women, Jamie took another to his office, and Judge and Tom went with Hale to the airport so they didn’t have to say goodbye with an audience on the sidewalk.
Once they’d dropped Hale, on their way to Jamie’s to regroup and discuss what they were going to do as they waited for the women, Tom asked, “Have you and Chloe ever faced that kind of attention?”
Judge shook his head. “Elsa has her spies in Prescott. She throws a picture of us out on her show every once in a while. It keeps the interest up, so there are shots of us elsewhere. But it’s never been that bad.”
“Cadence thinks it’s about me and Mika.”
Judge nodded. “Chloe dove into her phone, and she thought the same thing.”
Tom looked out the window.
“She’s worried,” Judge said.
Tom looked back to Judge.
“About you and Genny. Also about Bowie and Genny. She intends to broach it with her mom. She’s not hiding it from you. She just doesn’t want anything weighing on you because you seem happy with Mika.”
“Nothing that concerns my daughter is ever a weight I can’t carry,” Tom returned.
Judge smiled.
“I’ll talk to her,” Tom said.
Judge nodded.
Tom sucked in a breath through his nose and let it out, releasing everything else with it.
One thing he knew, outside taking precautions to keep the ones he cared about safe now that they knew the attention had intensified, and he was going to have a longer conversation with Hale about getting a security team in place, there was nothing he could do.
They just had to live with it.
It was frustrating.
And it was infuriating.
But it was out of his control.
* * *
Hale
Hale sat alone on his plane, trying not to think not only about how alone he felt, especially after how alive the cabin seemed with all the company he had when they flew out.