Heat - Book 2 of the Bad Boy Vibes series

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Anna glanced around, trying not to be too obvious.

"Can't you be any more obvious?" Pat snorted, as he too looked around, taking in the gathered crowd with some surprise.

"I think we may have some gate crashers about here," he murmured, unperturbed by the finding. "I have it on good authority—the little blond maid who popped into our room earlier—that it was meant to be a select guest list of no more than thirty."

"Thirty?" Anna looked around her again, using any excuse to do so in the hopes of catching sight of Rafe. "There looks to be more than a hundred already."

"And counting," agreed Pat, nodding toward the unmanned front door that seemed to open and close at will, letting in what appeared to be more uninvited guests.

"Do you see Aunt Bella?"

"Good to know you're finally attuned to why you're here in the first place," Pat muttered under his breath. "It would be a shame if all you did was waste the night away searching for Rafe."

Anna merely grunted a response to that, for her eyes had indeed picked out Aunt Bella in the crowd. Only she was not alone. Her digestive-illness-inducing-fiancé was right there by her side.

"Preston alert—three o'clock," she muttered drily, and Pat all but snapped his neck turning to look.

"There's no need to kill yourself for a glance of him." She tut-tutted mockingly at Pat. But he only grinned at her in return. The light-hearted banter served to hide a grimmer undertone they were unwilling to let on.

"Right. This calls for a plan of action," said Pat, drawing in a deep breath before pouncing in with it. "I will head over first to offer my congratulations and divert Peter Preston's attention while you head for Aunt Bella. Grab her aside, and shake some sense into her if you have to."

"Uh-uh." Anna shook her head. "I am not putting you in jeopardy. You are not going within two feet alone with any Preston... or Dayton either." Anna nodded at the latest of guests to walk through the front door, to everyone's mutual horror. Eric Dayton. They watched him make his way to where Aunt Bella stood with Peter Preston, receiving congratulatory messages for their pending nuptials.

"I really need to get down there and put a stop to all this," murmured Anna, temper already gnawing at the bit.

"Right. You run on down there. I'll run intercept."

"No!"

She turned to blast Pat with what she thought of that stupid plan when the dinner gong rang out. The buffet-style meal was ready for the taking. Suddenly, a more pressing need had them both turning away from the Daytons and Prestons to eye up the line that immediately started forming at one end of the buffet table.

"Right. You run intercept on that side, while I..." began Pat, unfolding a new course of action.

"And we will meet up in the middle," finished off Anna, suddenly grinning at Pat. Pat shot her a wicked wink before he abruptly turned to disappear into the crowd. Anna set off to her appointed location, hunger for a good dinner suddenly overriding all other concerns. That was until she found herself up close and personal with one Jason Preston.

"Brings about some warm memories, us meeting up like this," said Jason with a snide smirk playing on his lips. Anna didn't bother to glance around, figuring out what he meant. She knew exactly what he referred to—that night at the rave concert when Jason Preston raped her in the very midst of a crowd far greater than this.

Anna blinked the thought away almost as soon as it appeared. She knew the game they played. The reminder served only to confuse their victim with painful memories, no doubt a technique he'd used before and obviously mastered. But Anna was no longer a victim. She chose not to be one ever again, and that meant snatching back any glimpse of power in their court.