Chapter 4 - The Wrong Camera
My manager looked as though someone had opened a trapdoor beneath him.
I stared at Madison.
“What are you talking about?”
Her eyes filled.
“I heard him on the phone this afternoon.”
David stepped away from the stand.
“You misunderstood.”
“No.”
“Madison.”
“You told someone table twelve had been reserved. You said Anna would be serving them because the schedule had been changed.”
My skin went cold beneath Gabriel’s coat.
I looked at David.
He could not meet my eyes.
I remembered arriving at four and finding my section changed.
I had been assigned table twelve even though it normally belonged to Marcus, one of our senior servers.
David had told me Marcus was sick.
Marcus was now standing beside the kitchen door.
Very much at work.
Very much not sick.
“David?” I said.
He stared at the floor.
Preston suddenly reached for his phone.
Gabriel’s security man moved.
I caught Gabriel’s arm again.
“No.”
The man stopped.
Preston laughed nervously.
“This is insane.”
His phone lit in his hand.
And on the screen, before he could turn it away, I saw a message preview.
DAVID R.
Gabriel saw it too.
So did Bryce.
Bryce’s face collapsed.
“Oh, hell.”
Preston glared at him.
“Shut up.”
Bryce pushed his chair back.
“You said your father just wanted Kane embarrassed.”
Silence.
Preston slowly turned toward him.
“What did you just say?”
Bryce stared at Gabriel.
Then at me.
His face was gray.
“You told us this was a prank. You said we’d get Anna angry, someone would film it, Kane would show up, and your dad would handle the rest.”
My heartbeat seemed to move into my throat.
Gabriel became unnaturally still.
I looked at my husband.
He already understood.
I did not.
“What rest?”
No one answered.
I turned to Preston.
“What rest?”
Preston shoved his phone into his pocket.
“There is no rest. He’s drunk.”
“I’ve had one glass of wine,” Bryce snapped.
“Bryce.”
“Don’t.”
For the first time that evening, one of Preston’s friends looked genuinely disgusted with him.
“You told us Kane had a temper. You said if someone humiliated his wife publicly, he’d put you through a wall.”
My fingers tightened around the edges of Gabriel’s coat.
Bryce continued.
“And your father would have cameras ready.”
A soft sound escaped Madison.
The senator at the window stood.
Gabriel’s face revealed nothing.
But his hand found mine.
Not possessively.
Not to pull me behind him.
He simply threaded his fingers through mine.
I understood then.
This had never been about Coca-Cola.
Preston had not chosen me because I was powerless.
He had chosen me because of exactly who I was.
David sank into a chair.
Gabriel looked at him.
“How much?”
David shut his eyes.
“Don’t.”
“How much did Roland Hale pay you?”
Preston moved fast.
“Don’t answer that.”
And that was the mistake that ended everything.
Every face in the restaurant turned toward him.
Preston's mistake was not the message on his phone. It was believing the people around him were too frightened to read it.
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