The Best Friend Scandal - Lucia Jordan Page 0,29

freaked out by whatever was holding onto me now. The rest of the crew of models was looking a bit rattled at what was behind me, too, as I felt myself being carried away.

I hoped it wasn’t a monster.

10

Chapter Ten (Arlo)

I wouldn’t have even gone back to the office if I hadn’t realized that I had left my phone sitting on the top of my desk. When I got there and saw the dress hanging on my office door, I knew that Hensley had repaired it and dropped it off. I wasn’t expecting the note that was attached to fall down when I reached for it. Maybe it was a thank you note for the roses that I had my secretary send to her. I unlocked my office and went inside. After I hung the dress on the garment rack with the others, I grabbed my phone, slid it into my pocket, and then read the note.

* * *

“Here’s the dress. Hope you have a fun night; I know I will.”

* * *

Dammit, Hensley. I knew exactly what that note meant. It meant that she was mad at me and going out with Cai again tonight. I started to drive back home, knowing that Hensley was an adult who was capable of making her own choices, and it was none of my business who she went out with or what she did at night, not as her friend, or boss, or anything else. But before I even got close to my apartment, I turned the car around and drove toward one of Cai’s favorite clubs. I couldn’t help myself. I just needed to make sure she was okay, and then I would leave her alone. I had watched out for Hensley ever since we had first met, and I didn’t see any reason to stop now just because we had had a couple of arguments.

They weren’t at the first club I checked, but I knew all the clubs that group of models liked to frequent. Some of them were more “above the table” than others, and some of them were downright drug dens. I shuddered to think of Hensley in one of those. I also started gripping the steering wheel too hard when I thought about how much I would snap Cai into two pieces if that were where he had taken her. Sure enough, it wasn’t until I got to the very last club, the worst one, that I found them. As soon as I spotted his platinum head on the dancefloor, it wasn’t hard to see Hensley being whirled around like a rag doll in his arms.

“Get the hell away from her,” I growled as I pulled Cai’s hands off her and caught Hensley in my arms.

“Man, chill,” he said as he started to laugh. “You’re not my boss here. This is our club, and we can do whatever we want. It’s after work hours, so your contract rules don’t apply to what we do with our personal time.”

“I don’t give a fuck what you do on your own time,” I snarled. “But if you so much as touch Hensley again, I will fire your ass before you can blink. And trust me when I say that I’ll find something in that contract to sue you over. I’m sure there are plenty of options. Stay the hell away from her.”

“If you fire Cai, you lose all of us,” Kerynne said as she danced around him.

“Can’t lose you if I’ve already fired all of you,” I said. “So that goes for you, too, Kerynne. It goes for all of your whole little crew. Stay away from Hensley. What did you give her?”

Cai pulled out a small bag from his pocket and waved it in front of my face to show me.

Hallucinogenic.

Hensley made a strange snorting noise in my arms and then started to giggle uncontrollably. I picked her up and threw her over my shoulder to carry her out. When we got to my car, I slid her into the passenger seat and buckled her in.

Once I started to drive, she was still laughing. She laughed so hard that she couldn’t stop almost the entire way to my apartment. I couldn’t take her back to her apartment, not in this kind of shape. She was hallucinating, and that could get her into some real danger. She had to be watched through the night. By the time we pulled up at my apartment, she had gone from laughing to crying.

“What’s