Page 25 of Settling the Score

‘No one but you guys, now,’ Sienna agreed.

‘Oh, God.’ Bella stalked towards Sienna, putting her hands on her friend’s arms. ‘I hate him, too, now.’

‘Me too,’ Paige added.

Astrid, perhaps out of loyalty to Blake, didn’t pile onto the hatred, but she came to stand beside Sienna, putting a hand between her shoulder blades and rubbing slowly.

‘Anyway,’ Sienna said into the silence. ‘The way he’s just moved on, the way he talked about our town – my town – like it was some kind of shit on his shoe, the fact he just cut me out of his life when I could never do that to him…’

‘Yeah,’ Bella said on a low whistle. ‘What a piece of work.’

‘We have to take him down,’ Paige murmured.

‘Paige’ – Astrid’s voice held a warning – ‘what have you got in mind?’

‘Nothing that will ruin the wedding, I promise,’ she swore.

‘On red velvet cakes and just dessert?’ Sienna asked and then, despite the heaviness of the mood, they were giggling.

‘Fuck this tea,’ Bella muttered. ‘Let’s have some bubbles.’

‘Yes, let’s,’ Sienna agreed.

‘Because if we know anything, it’s that we do our best work over a bottle,’ Bella chimed in.

‘And Aiden Carter is worthy of our very best work,’ Paige said. ‘This time, no one’s going to fall in love with him to save his sorry ass, either. He’s going to be the first successful victim of the Karma Club.’

‘But not the last,’ Sienna promised Paige, whose Horrible Harvey was the worst of the worst, in all their opinions. Frustration at her inability to penetrate his cast-iron defences bubbled to the surface anew, but she put it on hold. For this week, her focus was Aiden – and Astrid and Blake, of course. When she got back to Ashbury Falls, she’d resume Operation Make the Scumbag Pay Big Time.

‘Okay, members, come to order,’ Bella said, lifting the bottle of champagne in the air. ‘All those in favour of settling the score with Aiden the Asswipe, say “aye”.’

‘Aye,’ they said in unison, laughing a little as Bella filled up three of the glasses and they set to work, coming up with some foolproof ways to get under the skin of the man who’d not only broken Sienna’s heart, but failed to support her when her whole world came crashing down.

6

The Plan: Part One

Make Him Green-Eyed with Jealousy…

Make Him Suffer.

Guest Appearance: Chuck Daly

Also, Sprinkler System.

It was Astrid who set it up, texting Chuck to let him know that Sienna would be going for an early morning jog and might be looking for a running buddy. It was only a slight stretch of the truth. While Sienna loved to run early, she always ran alone. It was a time to clear her head and listen to the political podcasts she was obsessed with. But for the purposes of making Aiden pay, she supposed she could put up with a bit of Chuck Daly on the side.

And it wasn’t like he was bad company, anyway. If anything, he was genuinely fun, and funny. Charming, like he’d been practising since he was knee-high to a grasshopper, and despite the fact he’d been out of professional sports for more than five years, fit AF.

They ran non-stop for three miles, but as they rounded the bend of the cove, Sienna stopped, hands on hips, cheeks flushed.

‘Don’t tell me I’ve worn you out. And here I could have sworn you’d have better stamina.’

She poked her tongue out at him. ‘Is everything with you an opportunity for a pervy comment?’

He grinned. ‘Apparently.’

She held up a hand up in mock surrender. ‘I’m fine, anyway. I just wanted to admire this.’ She gestured to the view out over the Mediterranean, which sparkled in the early morning light. Each gently rolling wave showed a lattice of silver across the top, half knocking the breath out of Sienna with its beauty.