Filthy Rich, Wild with Lust

Chapter 22

“It’s in the city and will be a late one. We will probably have to stay the night in a hotel.”

“What?”

“You’ll have your own room, of course.” He rolls his eyes. “I’m not stupid, and there is no way I’d share a room with you.”

There’s a reason Henley James doesn’t date; nobody would put up with his s**t. “Goodbye, Henley.” I walk down the steps.

“It’s black tie,” he calls.

I turn back. “What?”

“The function, it’s black tie.”

Fuck it, now I have to spend money that I don’t have on a stupid dress. “Great.” I smile. “Can’t wait.”

I storm back to my house while inwardly kicking myself for agreeing to this.

What did you do?

Vroom, vroom, vroom.

Laughter echoes through the street, and Barry’s ears prick up.

“Huh.” I glance toward my front windows. It’s nearly 6:00 p.m. on Thursday night.

“What’s that sound?” Chloe asks from her fold-up chair. Damn it, I wish my new couch would arrive already.

Vroom, vroom, vroom.

More male laughter. A girl screams.

“What is it, Barry?” I get up and walk to the front window, and my eyes widen in horror. “What the hell?”

“What?”

“You better come look at this because you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

Chloe gets off her fold-up chair and comes and stands beside me to spy through the sheer curtains.

Taryn is roller-skating up and down the street. She’s wearing electric-blue biker shorts and a matching sports bra. Her hair is in two pigtails, and her huge perky boobs are hanging out on display. She has white knee and wrist guards on.

“Are you kidding me right now?” Chloe snaps. “Who the f**k is that?”

“Taryn, the one I was telling you about.”

The neighborhood men are all on Blake’s front lawn chatting, while secretly eyeing her.

“She obviously saw them and then came out to put on a show,” Chloe scoffs. “Has she no shame?”

“Does it look like she does?”

We both watch as Taryn is over-the-top flirting and being dramatic as she skates. I roll my eyes. “Give me a break.”

She touches Blake’s tie and says something to him, and he laughs out loud.

“f**k off, you silly show-off witch,” Chloe snaps, her eyes glued to them.

Henley’s car pulls around the corner and slows right down. He says something to her through the window of his car, and she laughs out loud. “Oh, Henley, you’re so funny.”

No, he’s not.

“He’s a grumpy shithead. Goes to show how little you know about him,” I whisper angrily.

Henley doesn’t bother driving into his garage. He parks his car in the driveway and gets out and goes to talk to the boys on the curb. They stand around chatting as they enjoy the show.

“Of course he does that,” Chloe snaps, infuriated. “He’s a fucktard too.”

He eyes her up and down, and I fume.

“We have established this already.”

She starts to try and spin with her arms out wide, and I roll my eyes. “This isn’t f*****g Xanadu, you silly bitch.”

I spy through the sheer curtains, and I watch Henley watch her.

I don’t like him looking at anyone else.

Rebecca walks across the road. “Who’s this coming?” Chloe asks.

“Rebecca. I met her on Saturday night. She’s nice.”

She steps onto my lawn. “Why is she coming over here?”

“I don’t know. Quick, act natural.” We both run and dive onto our fold-up chairs.

“Taryn better f**k off. I’m really going to lose my s**t. I have not liked him for three years for her to swoop in and steal him at the finish line,” Chloe whispers angrily.

“Blake won’t like her,” I whisper. “Henley will like her. I just know it.”

“We need to take this b***h down.”

Knock, knock sounds at the door.

“Come in,” I call.

Rebecca opens the door, “Hi.” She smiles. Her face falls when she sees Chloe. “Sorry, I didn’t realize you had company.”

“No, no, come in. This is my girlfriend Chloe.”

“Hi, Rebecca.” Chloe smiles.

“Umm...” Rebecca looks between us and then closes the door behind her. “Have you seen that i***t on roller skates?”

“I’m going to throw some ball bearings on the road so she falls ass over tit.” Chloe rolls her eyes.

Rebecca sits down nervously, and I get the feeling something is wrong. “Are you okay?”

She shrugs. “So...” She pauses as if choosing her wording carefully. “If I needed a confidential, unbiased female opinion on something in my house, could you two keep a secret?”

Chloe and I exchange glances. “Yeah.” We shrug.

“You promise you won’t tell anyone? It’s just that...” She pauses again. “We moved interstate to live here five years ago, and I’m so busy working that I haven’t made any friends. Well, I do have friends,” she explains. “But they are all couple friends, if you know what I mean. Like... I can’t trust them with a secret.”

“Of course. What’s going on?”

“I need to show you something.” She stands. “It’s at my house.”

“What?” I frown.

“Come on.” She walks out, and we follow her past the roller-skating i***t and the sidewalk perverts.

“I swear to god, if she makes a move on him, it’s go time,” Chloe huffs as she watches Blake talk to Taryn. “This street is like f*****g Tinder on crack.”

“Who are we talking about?” Rebecca frowns.

Chloe hesitates.

“Hey, I’m about to show you something that you promised not to tell. Your secret is safe with me.”

Chloe exhales. “I have a thing for Blake Grayson.”

Rebecca smiles as she marches across the lawn in front of us. “Who doesn’t.”

“I know, it’s so annoying,” Chloe huffs. “I wish he were ugly.”

“Then you probably wouldn’t like him,” I reply.

Rebecca walks us up the stairs to her front porch and into the house. She flicks the dead bolt on the front door behind us.

I frown. “What’s going on?”

“So...” She pauses. “This is so random, and I feel I might be going crazy, and I hope you are going to tell me this is all in my head.”

“Right...” Chloe frowns. “Go on.”

“So John’s back tire has been going down, and it was booked in for a service today to get repaired.”

“Who’s John?” Chloe frowns.

“Her husband,” I reply.

“He had to work, so I offered to take it in for him, and he took my car to work,” Rebecca replies as she leads us through the house.

“Right.” I frown. Where is this story going?

“And I took it in and got the tire fixed, and then I thought I would clean and vacuum his car out as a surprise.” She opens the internal garage door, and we see a gunmetal-gray hotted-up Audi SUV.

“Okay.”

“I want you to tell me I’m crazy.” She opens the back door of the car.

“Spit it out.”

“Get in.”

“What?”

She gestures to the car. “Get in, and don’t touch anything.”

Chloe and I climb into the back seat.

“Do you see anything abnormal?” Rebecca asks.

Chloe and I look around the car. “No...” We frown.

She turns on the flashlight on her phone and shines it on the window. “What about now?”

Two perfect foot marks come up on the inside of the door window: a woman’s footprints.

“I’ve never been in the back seat of this car,” Rebecca says.

Our eyes widen as we stare at the footprints.

“You see them, right?” she asks.

We both nod.

One footprint is at the side, as if someone has been lying in the back seat; the other one is on the other side of the window, as if they have been spreading their legs.

“You think he’s cheating on you?” Chloe whispers.

Rebecca shrugs. “How the f**k do women’s footprints get in the back seat of your husband’s car?”

“I don’t know.” I stare at the footprints. “They’re definitely there, though. You are not imagining this at all.”

“Fuck.”

We all stay silent as we think.

“You know what we need?” Chloe replies. “We need one of those black light semen detectors.”

“What?” I frown.

“Yeah, you know. Like the police use.”

Chloe begins to look in the pockets in the backs of the seats. “Did you check everything?”

“Yep, I didn’t find anything.”

Chloe gets down onto the floor and begins to feel around under the seats.

“What are you going to do?” I ask Rebecca.

“I don’t know. This isn’t concrete evidence enough to prove anything, but if he thinks I’m onto him, he’ll be super careful, and I’ll never know the truth.”

“You really think he would cheat on you?”

“He cheated once in college.”

I frown.

“He was drunk, and we were doing the long-distance thing, but he called me distraught half an hour after it happened, crying his eyes out, racked with guilt. He’s not the lying type. At least I don’t think.”

“Is this yours?” Chloe pulls out a small pink bulldog clip from under the seat.

Rebecca stares at it in Chloe’s hand. “No. It’s not.”

I put my hands over my mouth in horror. “Fuck.”

“Men are such f*****g idiots,” Chloe whispers angrily.

“Get out. We’ll talk about it out there in case he gets home,” Rebecca whispers. “I don’t want him to know I’m onto him.”

We climb out of the car and close the door, and we walk back into the house. “Who wants wine?” Rebecca fumes.

“Yeah, sure,” Chloe and I reply, both scared for our lives.