Hollywood Flirt - Alexa Aston Page 0,79
approached, he could hear scissors snipping. He paused in the doorway. Brenda had her back to him. She tossed the scissors on the desk and started pushing something into the trash. Then she lifted the sack.
“Doing some cleaning?”
She dropped the bundle. Her face turned beet red.
Stepping inside the room, he asked, “What’s going on, Brenda? And don’t start in with the excuses you made this morning. You’re jumpy. On edge. You owe me an explanation.”
She burst into tears.
That was the last thing Dash expected. Brenda was as pulled together as anyone he’d ever met. For her to emotionally collapse like this was totally out of character.
Then it hit him. It wasn’t about her at all.
This was about Sydney.
He wrapped her in a bear hug and let her cry. It was the same thing he did when Herc got a skinned knee or had his feelings hurt. Physical contact and comfort worked wonders, no matter what your age or gender.
Brenda pulled away. She turned and picked up the trash sack she’d dropped like a hot potato and then reached for the scissors. Cutting through the plastic, she yanked it wide.
“Be careful. There’s glass at the bottom,” she warned.
Dash looked inside and tried to make sense of what he saw as the cloying scent of roses hit his nose. The bag had a lot of greenery in it with a mass of white flowers. The stems had all been chopped to a small size and crammed into the sack.
He looked back at Brenda. “I don’t get it. You sliced up a bunch of flowers and jammed them into the trash. I’m assuming the glass at the bottom is a broken vase. Why the hell would you destroy a flower arrangement?”
“I was trying to hide it. From you,” she admitted as she lowered the sack to the ground.
“Hide it? Wait, are these from Sydney? Leo sent me a weird text and told me he’d seen flowers on the porch just like those I’d sent to Sydney. He thought she’d dropped them off for my birthday.” Dash gave his assistant a long look. “I’ve never ordered any flowers for Sydney, so why would Leo think I did? Besides, you’re hiding them. You’ve told me you love the idea of Sydney and me together, Brenda. You’d never hide any gift she sent me. Talk. Now,” he ordered.
She wiped her eyes, smearing her mascara. “Sydney didn’t want you to know. I promised her I wouldn’t tell unless I thought you needed to know. It’s time you knew.” Brenda drew in a deep breath. “Sydney’s ex-husband sent them.”
“Craig’s dead,” Dash responded. “Did he have some account set up in his will to send her flowers on her birthday every year? Why would they be sent here? I’m really confused.”
Brenda sniffed. “Craig was her first husband. The Creep was her second. Wake. Or I should say Wakefield Marshall the Fourth.”
His head reeled. Sydney had been married again after Craig? Why hadn’t she told him? Not that it would’ve mattered. Dash looked at Brenda.
“She married Wake straight out of law school. He was old money, east coast—except the money had dried up. They took jobs in New York at different law firms. He screwed around on her so she divorced him and moved to Boston. That’s where I met her, at the law office she went to work for. Wake couldn’t let her go, though. He’d call and email her. Send her flowers on her birthday and their anniversary. Always white roses. She hated them—and him.”
Brenda began pacing the office. “I think Wake is the biggest reason she moved to the west coast. Oh, she was tired of being a lawyer. I think she missed California and her dad. Most of all, she wanted to get as far away from The Creep as possible. That’s my nickname for him. He’s a worthless piece of shit and she’s better off without him.”
“Somehow he knows she’s in LA. And that she’s with me. Or he thinks she’s with me.”
Brenda nodded. “He sent a bouquet of flowers on their anniversary a few months ago. They were placed on your porch. Sydney found them when she was leaving and Leo was arriving. Wake doesn’t know Sydney’s real last name or anything about her past. She’s already filed with the courts and legally changed her name back from Brown to Revere, in order to put another layer between them so he can’t find her. The only thing we can think of is that Wake