and lowering my voice. “We’ll get you out of here.”
Her eyes grew all soft and sweet as she nodded. I’d never truly understood until I’d gotten here just how kept Lila was. I mean, she’d always joked about being Daddy’s princess but what she’d meant was, she was her father’s pawn. Sure, he spoiled her when she played her part well, but when she didn’t…
I tensed at the memory of his voice, of the way he’d spoken to her the one time I’d overheard their conversation. My fists clenched under the table as I stared at the older man now, working the room like he really was some visiting royalty.
What I wouldn’t give to have the guy alone in a room. To show him that not everyone cowered before him. That someone out there was willing to take him on for the way he treated Lila.
But Lila, it seemed, wasn’t focusing on her father at the moment, she was eyeing the door that led to the house. “Where’s Tess?” She narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “She’s been cagey all week, which means she’s learned something.”
I grinned over at her. I wasn’t sure I’d ever understand her relationship with Tess, but to me, it was endlessly amusing. The week before, as Tess filled us in on her news, Lila kept whispering, “you little sneak,” but it was clear to me—and probably Tess too—that Lila said it in awe, not judgement.
Yeah, well… this sneak has nothing on Vivien, Tess had said as she’d pushed her glasses up her nose.
I watched Vivien now as she made the rounds as hostess on Devereaux’s arm. It was still hard to believe, to be honest. But I supposed maybe that plastic mask of hers made the perfect disguise.
See, it turned out that while the world believed that Vivien was Devereaux’s latest trophy wife, it was actually the other way around.
Apparently, Tess had caught Vivien after one of Devereaux’s infamous “ragefests” as Lila put it, and Vivien had spilled the beans. Vivien was rich. Like, filthy rich. But her ex-husband had made a fool of her when he’d dumped her for a younger model, and she’d been cast out of her Real Housewives of Beverly Hills-type circle of friends.
And so, when Devereaux came sniffing around, cash poor but with the power of a king in this town—she snatched him up. It was her money that was funding Love on the Range.
It was her money that was keeping Grayson Devereaux afloat.
But while Vivien might sound like a pull-string baby doll and look like a mannequin, Tess swore that she had brains. Or her lawyer did, at least.
She didn’t sign that marriage license without a prenup. And for the first time in Devereaux’s string of marriages, he’d actually gotten the raw end of the deal.
The prenup wouldn’t be such a big deal if Devereaux was a decent guy. The clauses were the usual, apparently—if he was caught cheating, he’d forfeit her money. That sort of thing.
But for a guy like Devereaux, who was used to taking who and what he wanted whenever he wanted, one misstep could mean the end of his cash flow from his new sugar momma.
The only problem, Tess had said with evident frustration—he’d been on his best behavior. At least, where his wife was concerned. So good, in fact, that Tess was starting to think he knew that his wife was having him watched by private investigators.
So, we just have to wait and hope he messes up? Lila had asked in obvious dismay.
Tess had given us the most cryptic look of all time as she’d said, There might be another way...
Lila fidgeted beside me as a waiter came by with a tray filled with something I couldn’t even begin to identify. “She still hasn’t told me what she’s found on my mom’s computer,” she said under her breath.
I gave in to temptation and squeezed her hand again under the table. That was the one part that was still a mystery. With Vivien’s help—and by that, Lila and I assumed Tess meant ‘with Vivien’s money and resources’—Tess had gotten even more inside information on the shadier transactions being moved around in their dad’s accounts.
One payment, in particular. It came out of his account every month like clockwork. It looked like another alimony payment, except that it didn’t go to any of the obvious accounts. Tess had been working like mad to figure out where it was going and what it was for—if he and the person