“You’re the lucky lady who got Fréres. We’ve been trying to get him on this stage for years.” She slides my card.
“I guess I am.” She hands me the card back.
“Here are the dates he has available.” The woman turns a tablet my way, showing a calendar.
“Oh no, that’s okay.” I put my card back in my purse.
“You have to pick a date.”
“No, it’s fine, really. Thank you.” I give her a smile before turning to slip away back into the crowd to make my escape.
Chapter Seven
Gant
“You look happy.” Petersburg stops me when I exit the stage.
“Got bid on by the right person. You should be happy, too. Why the long face?” He had his sister bidding by proxy.
“My sister conveniently forgot that the friend she got to help us out hates my guts.” He chews on the corner of his mouth in worry. “Hopefully she doesn’t intend to follow through with her win. If I actually have to spend a date with her, one of us may not come out alive.”
A clasp his shoulder. “Let’s go see what they have to say at the auction table. I want to get the contact details for my date.”
Petersburg grumbles under his breath and follows willingly. As we round the corner of the backstage and head down the hall toward the payment site, Sean Campbell peels away from the wall like a leech detaching himself from a drained host to find a new victim.
A snake oil salesman smile stretches across his face, revealing shiny veneers too big for his mouth. I didn’t like seeing him right next to my princess and not just because she belongs to me but because Campbell is a predator.
He doesn’t assault women physically, but instead he preys on weakness and insecurity, bleeding heiresses of their money until their bank accounts are empty and their hearts are broken. He’s worked the whole South, and despite his shitty reputation, women still fall for his schtick.
The corner of Petersburg’s mouth curls up in disdain. “What rock did you crawl out from under?”
“My boys! Great to see you again.” Campbell ignores Petersburg’s insult. “You looked great up there on stage.” He gives us a thumbs-up. “You missed all the jewels in the crowd. They were looking particularly delicious.”
“Say one thing about my sister—”
“Or mine,” butts in Petersburg.
“And you’ll be eating your dick for dinner,” I say flatly.
Campbell smiles. “Your sisters are safe from me, my friends. I’ve my eye on a different morsel. She’s lovely and unaffected.”
“Naïve, you mean.”
“You say tomato, I say tomahto.” He winks. “I’m off. Try not to be too dull with the ladies. They’re here for excitement, not to be bored to death. I know it will be a challenge given that one of you is a history teacher and the other has his nose so far up in the air that he’s about to tip over, but maybe you two will finally get laid if you listen to my advice.” He waggles his fingers and flounces past us.
Petersburg drums his fingers against his thigh, probably debating whether he could bash Campbell’s face in without causing a scene.
“I’ll help you hide the body,” I offer.
“I wish. We’d all be better off if he were gone.” Petersburg takes a frustrated breath. “As long as he stays away from Cecily, we’re good.”
“And Caro.” Campbell tends to prey on lonely single women, so realistically Caro is safe, but someone who might be in danger is Cinderella. Campbell was hovering in her vicinity during the auction. “I want to find my bidder. I’ll talk to you later, Petersburg. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” I say as I leave the other man behind.
Out in the main area, I search for the golden head, but the lights are low, and it’s crowded. I see my family waving at me to join them. I hold up a finger to tell them I’ll be with them in a sec. The auction payment table is set off to the side and near the rear. There aren’t many people around it, so I head there. A man and a woman greet me with beaming smiles.
“Mr. Fréres, we were so honored that you participated this year. Your winning bid was forty-five thousand dollars, and it will do so much for the children. Here—” She hands me my black card. “This was left at our table.”
I frown at the small rectangle. “What about the woman who won the bid?”
“Paislee Abbott?” chirps the woman. “She paid with her own card.”
“No, it was Rhodes. Her card said Rhodes,” interjects the man.
“Oh, Rhodes. That’s good.” So not the daughter of Abbott. That’s a relief. “Where is she?”
“Hmm.” The woman tilts her head, trying to find my buyer.
“I saw Mrs. Abbott over by the Rodin statue, admiring his, ah, clean lines.” The man coughs lightly into his fist.
“Perfect.”
Once I near the Rodin statue, the princess’s golden hair is easy to spot. She’s a bright spot in the dim room. As I’m watching, the golden head bobs slightly and then veers away from the group of people around the statue. Is she going to the bathroom? No, it looks like she’s headed toward the exit.
I start pushing past people, grateful that I’m a little taller and a little bigger than most. The crowd parts easily for me. Right when I see a clear path, a woman appears out of nowhere. Julia Bennett, beautiful, rich, and uninteresting, places a hand against her chest. “Gant Fréres. I’ve been looking all over for you.”
I nod my head politely and step to the side. “Nice to see you, Julia. I’m sorry, but I’m in a hurry. I’ll catch up with you later.”
She reaches out and grabs hold of my arm. “I tried to bid on you.”
“That’s great.” I’m so glad Cinderella won. Bennett would eat me alive.
“I would’ve bid more, but I was distracted by the people next to me. The other person who was bidding tricked me into thinking that mine would be the winning bid, but she topped it before I knew what to do. I’m so sorry.”
The woman sounds distressed, but I don’t know why. I never asked her to bid. Not sure what to say, I give her another brief chin nod and try to move on.
“We should have dinner sometime. Tomorrow maybe,” she suggests.
“I’ve got a curriculum to prepare,” I reply. The golden head has disappeared through the ballroom doors into the lobby. I need to shake Julia off.
“School is on break.”
“A schoolteacher is never on break.” I give her a tight smile and pull her hand gently, but firmly, away from my arm. “I am not available, Julia. I haven’t been before and I’m not now. Don’t mistake my act of charity for anything else.”
Julia gasps. “When did you get so rude?”
“Born this way,” I tell her. Mom won’t be thrilled that I’ve pissed off a potential customer, but if I wait for another second, I’m going to miss Paislee. I take off, this time moving faster, pushing people a little harder. Why in the hell are there so many people at this damn fundraiser? By the time I get to the lobby, it’s empty. No golden-haired princess is anywhere to be seen. Outside, there are doormen and valets retrieving cars and hailing taxis.