Page 21 of The Rented Bride

Chapter Five

Cassie sat across from Blakely at her desk off the kitchen. She glanced to the clock. Eight-forty. Hopefully the lobster tails and sea bass were being served. Chef Ace Raines was more than competent, but she preferred to oversee every task during an event. Not this time. Nothing about this job had gone as planned. And the sooner she could leave, the better she’d feel. Nightmare over.

“Look. It’s best if I just go,” she told Blakely. “Mr. Weston fired me. I accept that. Let’s just end this before there’s any more drama.” Emotion welled within her. She hadn’t cried since her aunt’s death five years ago, and she’d never cried on the job. At twenty-seven, she was well-educated, financially comfortable, despite a hefty student loan and the hundred and fifty thousand dollars she owned Maryanne as a buy-in for Daley Enterprises. But she wasn’t sure she could halt the flood of tears that pressed against her eyelids like a dam about to break.

How had she mistaken one of the richest men in the world for a deliveryman—and a waiter? She choked back anger. She was sure he’d had a good laugh at her expense. Then he’d fired her. She couldn’t get the picture out of her head of him lying on the carpet. His eyes had remained closed for several seconds, then he’d opened them and stared up at her. He hadn’t expected her to kick his ass when she threw him over her shoulder in a sukui nage Judo move.

What if he decided to bring suit against her? Damn, if he’d just been reasonable and let her explain, she would have been able to finish the job. They could pretend as if nothing had happened. Hell, she was even willing to beg, so long as Mr. Weston didn’t hold her mistakes against Daley Enterprises.

But no, he’d fired her and sent her with a security escort. Now she waited…for what?

The door burst open. “Cassie?” Meg glanced around the room. “Thank God I found you.” She closed the door and hurried across the room.

“What’s wrong?”

“You are not going to believe this.” She grabbed Cassie’s arm. “Come with me.”

“Wait a minute,” Blakely said. “Mr. Weston instructed me to remain with her.”

“Sorry. I’ll take responsibility. Come on,” she said to Cassie. “Hurry.”

Cassie followed Meg from the room. They rushed into the corridor. The two-way radio strapped to Meg’s belt crackled, and a voice said, “Another limo just drove through the gate.”

Meg twisted the knob on the radio and squelched the sound, then said, “Cassie, we’re in real trouble. One of the maids claims she saw an iguana on the second floor.”

Cassie blinked. “What?”

Meg nodded. “You heard right. An iguana.”

Cassie couldn’t help it. She laughed. “Does Mr. Weston own an iguana?”

Meg shook her head so vigorously that she looked like a cartoon character. “No.”

“Then what is an iguana doing here?”

“What do you think?” Meg said.

Cassie shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“I am not a conspiracy theorist, but it has to be Gallagher.”

She halted. “Gallagher set an iguana loose in Brettonwood?”

“Who else would do it?”

Cassie started laughing.

Meg stared. “Are you crazy? This is bad.”

Cassie nodded. It was bad. Even worse—maybe—than her laying Trent Weston out flat on the floor.

Cassie couldn’t stop laughing.

Meg frowned. “Don’t you care that this might ruin your party?”

“I-I care a lot,” she managed to get out. “But you—” she shook her head in an attempt to control her laughter “—you must admit it’s funny. An iguana. Who would have thought of that?”

Cassie laughed harder and Meg’s mouth twitched.