What a Girl Wants (25 page)

“Or,—” Maddie put some distance between her and Alex, “—the husband has always been a control freak. He gets his wife a burger and coffee without asking her. Maybe she felt like a hot dog? But no, Mr. Control decided she should have a burger and even puts ketchup on it. I’m sure Mr. Control knows exactly how much ketchup she needs. And what if she wanted a cold drink instead of hot coffee? But then again, since he never
told her
that he was heading over to the snack bar, she had no choice or say in the matter now, did she?” She smiled right back with her own “So there” smile.

“Is that from the
The Tao of Maddie
?” Alex asked.

“Nice. From lovey-dovey to cynical commentary.” Tim chuckled. “And you accuse me of being jaded?”

Maddie shrugged. “I have my moments.”

All the fight drained out of her. She yawned, tucked her legs up and glanced around. The young woman with the gargantuan sunglasses who Maddie had noticed by the ladies’ room took a seat a few rows behind them and opened a book.

The lady reading the paper kept shooting Alex dirty looks. What was her problem? Maddie wondered. The woman tapped one of the men playing backgammon on the shoulder and whispered something to him, while casting a sideways glance at Alex. She opened the paper. Both men stood behind her and read over her shoulder. All three of them shot Alex disgusted looks.

Maddie got a clear view of the front page. She rubbed her eyes, looked again and gasped.

She squeezed Alex’s hand. “Look.” Maddie pointed to the trio with the paper. “Your picture is on the front page of that rag. You and Crystal Washington.”

At closer inspection, Maddie saw that it was an older picture of the two of them. Alex’s hair was a lot shorter and Crystal Washington was a lot less endowed. “Oh, gawd,” she said aloud. “What a bunch of crap. Look at the headline.”

Alex turned, stood and took a step closer to the trio with the paper. He burst out laughing.

Maddie stood next to him and put her hand on his arm. “Are you okay?”

He nodded, put his arm around her waist and kept laughing. “Like I said. This trip keeps getting better and better.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

“There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it’s all over.”

—Gloria Naylor

“If that bitch was going to leak Alex’s history, the least she could have done was get her facts straight,” Maddie said to Reece. “And notice how the article makes
her
look innocent?”

After docking and meeting Stewart Milton, Maddie had taken a power nap and showered. Her hotel room had Internet access, enabling her to set up a video chat with Reece using her laptop’s webcam. Alex and Tim were visiting with the Donovan clan. “He was fifteen years old, not seventeen,” Maddie continued. “One hundred students? It was
two
students. Bunch of asswagons.”

“You expect a paper that calls itself
Reckless
to get its facts straight?” Reece said. “Is Alex wigging out over this?”

“Here’s the thing.” Maddie opened a bottle of nail polish remover. “He burst out laughing, even after we both read the article.”

“That does not sound like him.” Reece popped a few M&Ms into her mouth. “But I’d pay to see that.”

“I know.” Maddie wound tissue between her toes, prepping them to remove the pink polish. “Alex said, and I quote, ‘I don’t care what a bunch of nameless, faceless people who would spend money on fabricated crap think about me’.”

Alex was absolutely right. It was
fabricated crap
. He had told her a long time ago about the stunt he’d pulled as a kid.

At fifteen, he was on his high school’s hockey team. They were headed for the state championship when they found out their star goalie and best defenseman were going to be yanked from the team because they couldn’t pull out a much-needed C in math and English. The team’s mission was to have Alex hack into the school’s computer system, change the two teammates’ Ds to Cs and then switch them back to Ds after the tournament.

Alex said his mother had a canny ability to read her children’s emotions and moods, especially when they had taken a wrong turn. He turned himself in when confronted at home and took full responsibility for the act. He was considered a bright student with a spotless record. Instead of a suspension, he was given one year of community service with no computer access at school or at home.

His parents doled out their own discipline—volunteering Alex’s services to St. Anthony’s Bingo every Friday and Saturday night for the next twelve months. Needless to say, his social life that year had also been hacked.

“Guess who’s going to be characterized in my next strip?” Reece held up her drawing. Maddie laughed at the caricature of Crystal, with the addition of a tail and horns. She was holding a pitchfork as a microphone. “Everyone at the mag knows the so-called article is cow dung. We did get a laugh at the claim that
Alex Donovan was seen escorting four women to his suite for an orgy
.”

“Idiots.” Maddie held up two bottles of nail polish in front of the computer screen. “What do you think? Vixen or Chocolate Cherry? I’m going to the Donovans’ for supper tonight.” She got up and fished a flirty sundress out of her suitcase. She held up the brown polka-dotted dress against herself. “I thought I’d go with this.”

“Super cute,” Reece said. “Vixen would look great with that. Hmmm, perfect dress to play connect the dots.”

Hanging the dress in the closet, Maddie thought that a week ago she would have been all over the-connect-the-dots comment. At the moment, she’d be happy spending a couple of nights with Alex
¾
no anxiety, no questions
¾
just enjoying each other’s company, talking, playing Scrabble, and indulging in one of their guilty pleasures, watching a mindless, politically incorrect movie.

She sighed and sat back in her chair.

“Hey,” Reece said. “Did you ever model the lingerie you bought?”

“Haven’t gotten around to it yet.” She squirted polish remover on a cotton ball and dabbed her toe. “It seems like it’s been one thing after the other.” She still had to get those answers he’d promised out of him.

“Get with the program, girlfriend. Slip into that scarlet bustier and strut your stuff.”

Maddie nodded, smiling in agreement. “We have no plans tomorrow. The whole day is ours. So a lingerie show is definitely doable.”

Reece lifted a coffee cup in the air. “Here’s to multiple Os. Have a couple for me while you’re at it.” She took a sip of coffee. “Besides hot screamers, what else you got going in Maui?”

“Downhill mountain biking at the crack of dawn day after next. You should try it with me sometime.”

“Not even if Tim were waiting at the bottom of the mountain, naked, panting for me.” Reece feigned a shiver. “Hey, I have to log off soon, so I’m going to do this quick.” Reece waved two tickets in front of the screen. “My treat.”

Maddie slipped her glasses on to get a better view.

“Yeah, I know.” Reece pressed the tickets to the screen. “You hate birthdays, but we haven’t had a girl’s night out in a long time. So, when you get back. You. Me. Dinner and—”

“You shouldn’t have.” Maddie felt her cheeks redden. She always felt awkward receiving birthday gifts. Reece had purchased two front-row seats to Avenue Q on Broadway. “You’ve already done enough for me. Letting me bend your ear, verifying that information—”

“Knock it off. Besides, I’m cool that way.”

“That you are.” Maddie laughed. “Thanks. And the midnight cheesecake run will be on me. It’s a date.”

The door opened, and Alex walked in.

 “A date?” Alex stood behind Maddie, dropped a kiss on her cheek and nodded to Reece.

“Yup, me and Mads with a few naughty puppets.” Reece waved the tickets again. “Hey, hot stuff.” She winked. “An orgy, huh?”

“My cue to leave.” He walked toward the bathroom.

“Come back, Ace, it’s all good,” Reece said, smiling. “We’re on your side, buddy. Even the unibrowed gossip queen Callie has agreed to line her kitty-litter box with the rag.”

“Does this mean no more Alex cartoon strips?” he said over his shoulder.

Reece popped a few more M&Ms into her mouth. “Let’s not get too carried away.”

He shook his head. Smiling, he said to Maddie, “Going to take a quick shower.”

“Wait,” Maddie said. “Look at Reece’s drawing. It’s not you.”

Reece held up Crystal’s picture.

“She’s so going to kick her ass in a strip, and I’m going to help her with some captions.”

Alex squeezed Maddie’s shoulder. “Thanks, Lucy.” He pointed to Reece. “You too, Ethel. But it’s better to let it die a fast death. Ignore it.” With that he retreated to the bathroom.

“As if,” Maddie and Reece both said at the same time.

After his shower, Alex pulled on a pair of shorts and lingered by the bathroom doorway, admiring Maddie. She sat cross-legged on the bed with tissue wrapped between her toes, wearing his plaid boxers, his FDNY T-shirt—both too baggy on her—her hair damp, not a stitch of makeup on, and she still looked like a wet dream come true. His groin tightened.

“Did you say hi to your family for me?” she asked.

He walked further into the room and sat at the foot of the bed. “They’re stoked about seeing you tonight.”

She smiled. “I get a kick out of them. Did they see that stupid article?”

“Yup. Kristi and Jen’s knee-jerk reaction was to round up family and friends to buy up as many copies as possible. My mom wants to confront the rag’s publisher, editors, hell, even the delivery guy and ask if they kiss their mothers with their lying mouths.” He chuckled, shaking his head. “We had a good laugh.”

She stretched one leg out and grabbed a small red bottle off the nightstand. “You still think this is funny?” She shook the bottle. “Not that I’d take it seriously, but that’s me.
You
on the other hand—”

“Don’t care what those idiots have to say.” And if trashing him kept Crystal, Victor Grant and all the gossipers out of Maddie’s life, even better.

“Not hard to figure out who their so-called source is.” She unscrewed the cap and started to brush dark red paint on one of her toes. “I have a bucket of water with her name on it. She’d melt in a nanosecond.”

Wrapping his hand around her ankle, he massaged her soft skin with his thumb. “I told everyone the same thing I told you and Reece. Ignore her.” He took the nail polish bottle from her and read the name. “Vixen, huh?” He lifted a brow. “This color looks familiar.”

She giggled. “You could have started a whole new trend for dudes,
babe
.”

This was exactly what he wanted for the next few days. To hear her giggle, tease each other, laugh together, watch her enjoy junk food…just be together. He wanted to recapture their earlier carefree playfulness and forget about the unspoken explanations hovering over them.

He took the brush from her hand, dipped it in the bottle and began to paint a toe, at the same time painting the explanations in his mind. Where the hell would he begin?

She leaned back on her elbows, wiggling her toes. “I could get used to this.”

“Yeah, I’m all over that.” He shook his head. “Returning the favor.” He glanced up at her. “This,—” he held up the nail polish bottle, “—stays between you and me. Right?”

She shrugged. He held out the brush and bottle to her. “You’re on your own then.”

“Okay, okay, I promise. Geeze, it’s not like we’re doing each other’s hair.” Tipping her head to the side, she said, “I know the version in that rag of what happened between you and the piranha is highly fictionalized.” Her voice softened. “Do you want to tell me what happened between you two?”

He nodded. “I met Crystal when we worked for the
New York Headliner
. We were aggressive, ambitious, hardworking and the paper touted us as the
Headliner
’s dynamic duo.”

He dipped the brush into the bottle and kept his eyes on her shapely ankles while taking this trip down memory lane. “The adrenaline rush we got working together covering stories spilled into our personal lives, and we became involved
.
” Carefully, he brushed another toe with the paint. “I’m not going to make excuses as to why I fell for someone like her, I just did.”

Maddie’s foot stiffened in his hand. “You fell
in love with her?”

“I was attracted to her. We were lovers. We worked and played hard together.” He stopped polishing, lifted his head and looked directly into her eyes. “Neither of us fell in love.”

He felt her foot relax. “I told Crystal about the stupid stunt I had pulled when I was a kid. She found it fascinating.” Using the wet polish on her toe as an excuse, he blew out a breath to dry it. “Turns out I sparked a story for her.

“She started chasing the Pulitzer after I won mine. She told me about a story she was working on. Two sixteen-year-old boys broke through the security firewalls for the human resource department at National Defense.” He dipped the brush in the bottle. “Crystal’s source was unnamed. Only thing she would share was that he was one of the hackers and the son of a Brigadier General.”

Maddie’s eyes widened. “Holy jumpin’. Okay, wait.” She pointed to the bar fridge. “I know they’re overpriced here, but can you please grab me some pretzels, chocolates. Anything.”

He smiled, reached down into his knapsack and pulled out a box of Milk Duds. “I’m way ahead of you.” He tossed her the box.

“Thanks.” She blew him a kiss. “When did you buy these?”

“Before breakfast.” He nodded toward the knapsack. “I stocked up for you.”

She blew him another kiss and dug into the candy. “Okay, so what happened next?”

“Crystal recounted a story of these kids breaking into the main system and extracting personal information on each employee. Medical records, social security numbers. They manipulated the system and increased salaries.”

“How scary is that?” she said, chewing a candy. “Kids breaking into our national security?”

“It gets better.” He leaned back and admired his artwork on the completed foot. “They weren’t charged. The feds and security staff, embarrassed as hell, didn’t want it exposed to the public. They were approached by a software company called Zigmonoff Biomimetics—”

“Try saying that a few times.” She shook the candy box, spilling a few chocolates into her hand. “Never heard of them.”

“You’re not the only one.” He finished painting one of the toes on her other foot and gently blew on it. “The CEO of this company asked the feds to hand the kids over to his company. He was so impressed with their technical skills, he wanted to hire them on. The feds agreed.”

Maddie closed the candy box and put it on the nightstand. “Was this Ziggy Bio-whatever company a supplier for the Defense department? And I’m guessing the CEO was related to some bigwig in the department?”

“You’re not just a pretty face.” He took a tissue and cleaned around one toe where he’d accidentally painted on her skin. “Yes, on all counts.”

“Unbelievable. Unethical.” She let out a short laugh. “And dare I say, untrue? Sounds to me like the piranha spun an unlikely tale.”

He pressed a kiss on her ankle. “Sexy and brilliant.”

She smiled widely. “You busted that bitch, didn’t you?”

He nodded. “I got suspicious because it was a month after I told her about my teenage prank. She insisted it was a coincidence when I pointed it out.” He continued painting the rest of her toes. “She asked for my point of view with the article since I had experienced what these kids had done, on a much smaller scale, of course. I agreed because I wanted to poke enough holes in her article so she’d drop it. I cared about the
Headliner
and its reputation. Our editor was new at the paper. Great guy and he didn’t deserve to go down with her and her fake story.”

Finished with the polishing, he capped the nail polish bottle and handed it to her. “There was no information anywhere on Zigmonoff Biomimetics. When I confronted her, she said that was because they dealt with top-secret contracts. She gave me one of the company’s phone numbers. A satellite office in Barbados. Got a recorded message. That office was closed for three months.”

“Your spidey sense must have been going berserk. You didn’t leave it at that. Right?”