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On the plane, Juliet and Ryan sat side by side in first class, and Chad and I sat right across the aisle from them where we'd be close enough to intervene if needed. I was relieved to see Juliet pull out a little pillow and go immediately to sleep while McDonnell flipped through a magazine he produced from his bag. I couldn't help eyeing him, trying to understand more about the man who'd just had his hands all over the woman I was pretty sure I was falling in love with. He seemed completely unaffected by the kiss they'd shared. Not that I'd expected him to pass out or anything, but the dude did not look like a guy getting ready to score. He wasn't paying much attention to Juliet really; his focus seemed totally absorbed by the—was that a cooking magazine?
We landed at Dulles and repeated the LAX scenario almost to a tee. McDonnell groped Juliet again while I struggled to keep myself from murdering him, and soon we were back in two town cars, driving south for what felt like centuries before finally pulling up in front of a huge white house lit up by spotlights where it perched on a riverbank looking like something out of Gone With the Wind.
"Who. Is. That?" Chad asked in an appreciative voice as we peered out the windows. There was a woman standing on the front steps, gazing out toward us. Chad let out a low whistle as he took in what had to be Juliet's sister. Annoyance flared in me. We were here to work, not to ogle Juliet’s sister. Or Juliet, for that matter. The woman on the steps had long dark hair and a pretty face, and she smiled as Juliet emerged from the car and moved to embrace her. Jack stood on the porch just behind her, and there was something moving around at his feet, flapping and jumping. Was that a chicken?
Once introductions had been made, and Jack had explained that the chicken was a pet who had taken a liking to him, Juliet's sister Tess waved us into the house. "I've set up a few rooms this way for your security," she told Juliet.
Juliet glanced back at me with those big green eyes, and I thought there was some kind of apology there, though it was hard to see in the low light of the front parlor. McDonnell stood at her side, and I stopped myself from cringing visibly as Tess motioned to a stairway, telling them their rooms were that way. We wouldn't even be sleeping in the same part of the house, I realized, disappointment landing like a stone in my gut.
"Perimeter security is non-existent," Jack said, stepping close. "I did a check of the house, and the structure is secure enough, no vulnerable ingress points as long as we keep watch front and back. The night of the party will be a little more complicated, but I've got the CONOPs set up here." He handed me a sheet of paper as Juliet and McDonnell disappeared up the stairs, leaving us in the front room.
"Yeah, okay," I said to Jack as the chicken I'd seen on the porch let out a loud shriek, making me jump.
"What the fuck is this?" Chad asked him, pointing to the bird, which was now standing on Jack's shoe.
Jack sighed and rolled his eyes, rubbing a hand through his hair. "Dude, I don't even know. This bird like adopted me or something. It won't leave me alone."
Chad burst out laughing and I elbowed him in the ribs. It was pretty late, and I knew Juliet's grandmother was probably sleeping somewhere nearby.
"Did you set up a watch schedule?" I asked Jack.
"Yeah. Chad and Christian on first watch," he said.
"Thanks a lot," Chad muttered.
Jack ignored him. "You and me on second."
That meant I'd have a couple hours sleep, which I was glad for, though I wasn't sure sleep would be possible, given the furious rush of my blood at the moment. Jealousy didn't look good on anyone, I knew, but I couldn't stand the fact that Juliet had just disappeared up the stairs with McDonnell. Were they sleeping in the same room? How far were they going to take this farce?
"Yeah. Good."
"I'll show you the rooms," Jack said, leading us into the east wing of the house, the chicken dancing at his feet as he moved.
Chapter Nineteen
Juliet
Ifollowed Tess up the stairs with Ryan, every tiny cell in my body screaming to go back down, to go wherever Jace was going instead.
But we were basically onstage now, and I needed to follow through with the plan. We were here for a reason—to offer the press something besides my messy divorce and scandalous sex tape—and if we pulled it off, it would work well. But if we screwed it up and somehow revealed that this was actually a ruse, it would just give the media more fodder to use in their efforts to paint me as a sad, desperate star on her way to financial ruin, rehab, mental collapse and cinematic obscurity. We'd raised the stakes by taking on this act. And now we had to go through with it and do it convincingly.
And that meant staying away from Jace for the weekend. My heart surged in protest as I thought about it.
As Tess pointed us to our (thankfully separate) rooms, Ryan said he was hungry, and Tess agreed to help him find something to eat. But before she'd gone downstairs with him, we'd had a few minutes together as she helped settle me in my room.
"So this thing with Ryan," she said, smoothing the duvet as she talked. "Is it pretty ... uh ... serious?" Her voice was a little bit unsteady, and I wondered if she could possibly still be entertaining the crush I knew she'd had on Ryan a few years ago, whenCharade of Stoneshad just begun and he'd been in some silly movie calledMeet me in Manhattanthat Tess had loved.
I hated having to lie to my little sister. It definitely wouldn't do anything to help us close the distance that had grown between us over the past few years. "I don't know," I said, a nervous laugh escaping my mouth.
She was giving me a look like she was trying to figure something out, tilting her head to one side and squinting at me. "What aren't you telling me?" she asked.
Oh shit. I’d been here five minutes and Tess was about to figure it all out. "There's nothing to tell, Tess," I said, forcing my voice to be light. "Zac was a shit, and now I'm seeing Ryan." I turned away from her, unzipping my bag. "I'm exhausted. I'm going to bed. We'll talk tomorrow."
I wanted her to stop asking questions. My mind was churning over how I might be able to go to Jace without the rest of the security team catching me, but I didn't even know which room he'd be in, and Chessy seemed to be hovering around the security team that had come earlier. She wasn't a quiet house chicken and I didn't need her throwing up some kind of alarm if I went down there.
"Good night," Tess said, leaving my room and shutting the door behind her.
I picked up my phone and texted Jace.
