Page 239 of That Rush

“Do you believe him?”

“With Ethan, the part before the camera started usually matters most.”

His thumb moves over the screen again.

“Wyatt hired a crisis PR firm,” he says. “Apparently, they’re the best in the country.”

“That sounds expensive.”

“They handle politicians, celebrities, companies caught doing things they definitely did, and rich families who prefer pretending they don’t have problems.”

“That last one seems relevant.”

“It’s practically their specialty.”

Aiden turns his phone toward me. The firm’s website is as polished as I’d expect from people paid to make disasters disappear. There are photographs of sleek offices, serious-looking people in expensive clothes, and a list of clients identified only by industries and outcomes. Every headline promises discretion, strategy, and control.

Aiden opens the profile of the woman Wyatt hired to handle Ethan personally.

She’s beautiful in a precise, intimidating way. Her dark hair is perfectly smooth, her expression composed, and her tailored black suit probably costs more than everything I’m wearing. She looks like a woman who prepares for every possible outcome and has never willingly left anything to chance.

Aiden stares at her picture.

Then he laughs.

“What?”

“Oh, shit.”

“What?”

He hands me the phone. “Ethan is going to love this.”

“You got that from one photograph?”

“I spent years working beside him. That woman looks like she schedules when she blinks.”

“And Ethan?”

“Once entered a rodeo because someone told him he couldn’t rope a steer wearing another man’s boots.”

I look between the woman’s controlled expression and the frozen image of Ethan pinning someone against a truck.

“This seems promising.”

“The firm is sending her to Colorado tomorrow. Ethan’s flight lands an hour before hers.”

“Does he know she’s coming?”

“He knows someone is meeting him for PR training.” Aiden picks up the plates. “I doubt Wyatt showed him the picture.”

“Why not?”

“Because then Ethan might miss his flight on purpose.”

I follow him toward the house. “Or arrive early.”

Aiden considers that.