Page 93 of Shadow Redemption
He brushed her mouth with his. “I’ll be back after I make a call.” Ben glanced at Joe and inclined his head toward Ruth. After his teammate nodded, Ben rose and left the ballroom.
“Where’s Ben going?” Autumn asked.
“To make a phone call.”
An unsteady Sapphire stumbled and staggered to their table. The model steadied herself with one hand on the back of Autumn’s chair, a drink in the other hand. “I hope you’re happy, Roxanne.” Her speech came out slurred. “You’re blocking everybody else’s success to fatten your own purse and bank account. What about the rest of us, huh?”
“I’m sorry you feel that way, Sapphire. You and Tom are terrific models. I hear photographers and designers compliment you all the time.”
The model frowned. “But they give you the contracts. It’s not fair.”
“You’re drunk,” Autumn said flatly. “Go sleep it off, Sapphire.”
“Oh, shut up. You don’t count anymore. You have Tito’s money. You don’t need these contracts. We do.” She turned bleary eyes still sparking with anger and jealousy toward Ruth. “What are you going to do about it?”
“I don’t control the offers. Talk to Rich. He has more pull than I do.”
“That’s not good enough. You’re the industry darling. Rich said so. You could do something good for the rest of us, but you won’t. You’re too selfish.”
Tom hurried to Sapphire’s side. “Come on, baby. Let’s go. You’re causing a scene and not in a good way.”
“We deserve the top jobs, not her. Look what she did on this job. Gone all the time and pretending to be sick. We deserve top billing and nothing we did the last few weeks made any difference.”
Nothing they did? Did that mean Sapphire and Tom were the stalkers?
Joe straightened. “What does that mean?”
“Nothing. Can’t you see she’s drunk?” Her boyfriend paled, sweat beading on his forehead. “Shut up, Sapphire. We need to go.”
“You shut up! I’ve got one more thing to say to the great Roxanne.” Sapphire lifted her glass and threw the liquid contents into Ruth’s face.
Autumn gasped.
“Get her out of here,” Joe snapped.
“Sorry, man. She didn’t mean any harm,” Tom said.
Ruth lifted her napkin and blotted her face dry. She stared in dismay at her shirt. Sapphire’s frou-frou drink was pink and quickly staining her white shirt.
“Come on,” Autumn said and tugged on Ruth’s hand. “We have to rinse that out before the stain sets.”
Sam stood. “I’ll go with you. I’ve got this, Joe.”
Her husband dropped back into his chair. “You have five minutes before I come looking for you.”
She waved and followed Autumn and Ruth toward the restrooms.
“I hope there isn’t a line at the sinks.” Autumn pushed open the door to the women’s restroom and tugged Ruth inside. Surprisingly, the room was empty. “Fantastic. Take off your shirt. If Joe was serious, we’ll have to hustle to finish before he arrives.”
“Oh, trust me. He wasn’t kidding. He’ll bang on the door at the five-minute mark.” She handed Autumn her shirt. “Please tell me you aren’t planning to soak the whole shirt. I refuse to walk into the ballroom looking like an ad for a wet t-shirt contest.”
“No sweat. There’s a hand dryer in here. We’ll use that to dry the material.”
Not convinced that would work, she figured Sam would ask one of her teammates to sacrifice a t-shirt for the sake of Ruth’s modesty if the dryer didn’t fix the problem.
She glanced back at the door. Where was Sam? She hadn’t been far behind them.
“The stain is gone.” Autumn lifted the wet shirt to show Ruth. “Now all we have to do is dry the material before Ben or Joe burst in here.”