Page 67 of Nothing to Beat

“So what else is new?”Roxie crunched her abs to boost herself back up and reach between her feet for the remote control to turn up the volume.“What does my love have to say?”

Except it wasn’t him talking, it was only a picture of him with a reporter or someone talking over the top of the various images as they changed.

“…with the wedding so close?”

“We have attempted to reach Ms.Kyst for comment,” said another reporter they couldn’t see.

Roxie looked left and right.“They didn’t try very hard, did they?”

“Is your phone on?”

“I’m not even sure it’s in the building.”

The suite door suddenly slammed and in came Tripp at a hundred miles an hour.“What the fuck?”

That was the first thing he said, and for an explanation, all turned to the TV.

“…news of the affair has been confirmed by our sources inside the Rouge camp.”

“Unnamed sources,” Roxie muttered.

“Zairn and Anjelica have been involved, intimately, for months.”

Tripp exhaled a laugh.“Like how they added ‘intimately’ there in case anyone didn’t know what ‘affair’ meant.”

“Behind Roxie’s back?”the first reporter asked.A picture of a stunning blonde jumped to the screen, not Roxie, presumably it was the other woman.“Anjelica is a beautiful woman, is Ms.Kyst worried Zairn might prefer the younger model?”

“Oh, ouch…” On a laugh, Roxie shook her head.“I’m not even thirty and already I’ve aged out.”

“Who is she?Do you know her?”she asked when Roxie muted the TV again.

“Never seen her before in my life.Doesn’t mean she’s not been a part of it.I suppose, apparently, she has been behind my back.”

“My phone’s a fucking control tower.Know how many calls I’ve had?”Tripp said and tossed his phone onto the couch.“Z called too, once.”

“You better be lying,” Roxie said, picking it up to scroll through the call list.“I have no intention of talking to him.”

“Roxie,” she said, stroking her back.“You should at least give him a chance to explain.”

“The call was from his phone,” her friend said to Tripp.“That doesn’t mean it was him.It was probably Tibbs.”

“Why would you—”

“I saw Breck screwing a Laker Girl in the lobby,” Roxie stated.“Two of them actually, might’ve been three.Right there under the chandelier.”Her friend arched a brow.“Believe me?”

Her head tilted.“He would never—”

“Neither would Z and he knows I know that.Trust me, we’ve been through all of this before.One time they accused Astrid of sleeping with him.Can you imagine?Poor girl was mortified.It’s not a huge deal, it’ll die down.”

“They’re only interested because of the wedding,” Tripp said, sitting on the perpendicular couch.“This nix us going out tonight?”

“No!We never let them win.It’s what they want.That younger woman is being exploited and probably doesn’t know it.”

“Oh, she’ll know it by the number of zeroes on her check.Want me to find out?”Tripp asked, relaxing.“Find out where she is and I’ll—”

“Aww, that’s very sweet of you to offer to screw the truth out of Zairn’s fake mistress.I’m tearing up.”Roxie blew out a long breath, fanning her face.“This is not a thing.Let’s just go about our lives as normal.No one has to worry about this.There’s zero truth in it.”

“It doesn’t piss you off that they’re saying these things about the man you love?”