Chapter 2

Shane's POV

I remembered her name. Lucy. She had told me at the party and it stuck. That was the only reasonable thing I did other than standing like an idiot while her picture was being taken.

My phone buzzed from somewhere in the room. I didn’t move. My brain felt like it was wading through fog laced with static.

What the hell happened last night? Did I force her? Had I done the worst?

I shut the door and leaned against it, then started to rub my face hard enough for it to hurt. I could still taste the wine. It was bitter and off, like it had been laced with something metallic. I remembered drinking it with her at the bar. I remembered laughing.

And then…

Nothing.

Not how we got here. Not if anything happened. Just her in my bed, and this dull throb in my skull that hadn’t let go since sunrise.

The buzz came again. This time from the table. My phone lit up with messages. Dozens of them.

I opened the first notification:

TMZ: “Unknown Woman Leaves Shane Wilson’s Suite in Last Night’s Dress — Billionaire’s Wild Morning Surprise!”

Another:

Page Six: “Tech God’s New Flame: Who Is She?”

And then…

#GoldDiggerLucy

#ShaneScandal

#MysterySuiteGirl

Lucy’s name was trending. The internet had already found her. Someone had pulled a still of her face from the chaos outside and the vultures did the rest. A college internship profile. An old high school cheer photo. A blurry pic of her leaving the hotel with her head down, looking like the poster child for humiliation.

Jesus.

The guilt hit me like a punch.

“Nice headlines,” Dwayne’s voice said behind me.

Dwayne was my step brother and a devil incarnate. He prevented me from ever having a moment to myself.

All of this seemed to be part of his strategy to me.

I looked around. With his phone and coffee in one hand, he stood at the doorway as if he owned it. No knock. Just smug timing.

He raised an eyebrow and stepped further inside. “Didn’t know you were entertaining last night. She’s cute. Kinda... messy. But that’s your thing lately, right?”

I ignored him and poured water into a glass. My hands were still unsteady.

Dwayne took a sip of his drink and nodded toward the phone. “They’re ripping her apart online. People are calling her everything but innocent. Sucks, man. For you too.”

I looked up. “You think this helps me?”

He shrugged, like it wasn’t his problem. “It’s messy. But maybe that’s the point. Maybe it’s time to clean house. Restructure your image. These things have a way of...redirecting public attention.”

I narrowed my eyes.

He just smiled. “Bad press can be...strategic. With the IPO coming, drama sells.”

“Get out.”

His smirk faltered. “I’m just saying…”

“Now, Dwayne.”

He held up his hands like I’d hurt his feelings, then strolled out slowly, finishing his coffee like we hadn’t just shared a wall of suspicion between us.

I waited until the door clicked shut before pulling up my secure line.

“Eli,” I said the second he picked up. “I need everything. Hotel hallway footage. Private security feeds. I want to know who had access to the room, to the wine, to the press. Someone staged this.”

“You think she was in on it?”

“I don’t know,” I said tightly. “That’s why I need you.”

Eli was the best PI I’d ever hired. If someone planted something, he’d find it. And if someone had used me or her as a pawn, he’d burn the entire plan to the ground.

I hung up and dropped onto the couch, scrolling through the chaos again.

A photo of Lucy with her eyes half-closed, her shoulders bare and looking panicked, was used on almost every news outlet. They were accusing her of being a gold-digger, a social climber, a one-night stand who had foxtrotted her way onto the world stage.

She wasn’t built for this. You could see it in the way she looked directly at the cameras, stunned. Most people in her position would’ve hidden. She hadn’t even known to flinch.

And then it hit me…

She had no idea this was coming.

None.

I’d seen enough setups to spot one when I was in the middle of it.

This wasn’t a fling-gone-wrong. This was a trap.

And Lucy got caught in it right alongside me.

I ran a search. It didn’t take long to find her. Her digital footprint was small, mostly academic stuff, one internship at a publishing firm, tagged photos with a friend named Melissa, and a cheap apartment in Brooklyn. Nothing that screamed scandal. Nothing that deserved this circus.

I grabbed the key, stood up and wore a clean shirt.

If someone had set me up, fine. But they made the mistake of dragging her into it.

And I don’t let people burn on my behalf.

~

Her apartment building looked like it hadn’t seen renovation since the eighties with cracked steps, rusted railing, paint flaking from every surface. The kind of place people walked past fast.

I buzzed 3B.

I got no reply.

I hit it again.

Still nothing.

A female wearing a hoodie snuck out with headphones in her ear when the side door creaked open just as I was ready to go. It wasn't until she caught me in her corner and paused in her tracks that she looked up.

It was her.

Lucy.

She looked like she had just seen a ghost. My heart raced as her dark eyes stared into mine.

Her red hair made me dreamy of the sun.

I took a step forward. “Lucy…”

Her expression shifted instantly from shock to rage.

“You have got to be kidding me,” she snapped. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“I came to talk…”

“You should’ve thought of that before you let me walk into a wall of flashing lights like your morning entertainment.”

“I didn’t know they’d be there.”

“Right,” she scoffed. “And I suppose you didn’t know they’d find my name, my face, my job, my friends…”

“I didn’t.”

Her eyes were glassy now, furious and humiliated. “You know what they’re calling me? A gold-digger. A slut. They’re tearing me apart. I don’t have a team of lawyers or PR people. I have student loans and frozen pizza and a roommate who’s now afraid to go outside.”

“I’m sorry.”

She laughed once. It was sharp, angry. “You’re sorry? Is that supposed to fix this?”

“No,” I said. “But maybe the truth will.”

She narrowed her eyes. “What truth?”

I took a breath. “I think someone set us up.”

She froze.

And for the first time…she really looked at me.