Chapter Twenty         

Alice

SHE FROZE and her heartbeat shot up the moment Tim walked in the dining room. His face was a bit more gaunt than usual, or maybe she was imagining it. His usually sparkling eyes were sunken in, like they'd been at the start of the season.

He didn't seem to register her presence. Could she hope that he decided to ignore her? Out of all the scenarios she ran in her mind, she hadn't even dared to hope that indifference would be his choice. Everything she knew about him warned her to expect anger and retaliation. Indifference would come, if she was lucky, years later, after he burned the hatred out of his heart.

She was focusing on chewing and swallowing as if she had forgot how to do it.

"I want you to be with me when I work on Jade's song today," King said.

She took a sip of tea and wished she could go out and have a cigarette.

"Alice?"

"Yes?"

"Did you hear me?"

"Sorry, no. Oh, about working with Jade? Yes."

King looked at her sternly. She waited for his rebuke, but he just pursed his lips. She jumped when TC placed his tray next to hers and sat next to her.

"Good morning, gang," he said, more cheerfully than she ever heard him.

"Morning," she said and took another long sip of tea.

Her sleepless night didn't leave her with any good strategies for dealing with the post-breakup version of TC. She needed more data about this new situation before she could prepare any tactics to neutralize his anger. At the same time, her self-preservation instinct screamed at her to get the hell out of there.

To her surprise, Carter addressed her directly.

"Your help with the paperwork last round was invaluable. Can you give me a hand with this new load they gave us?"

She tried to smile over the cup of tea, but when her lips obeyed the command she was sure it was a grimace of terror, not a smile. Even her eyes betrayed the panic in her soul. She looked away from him and the look on King's face annoyed her. He seemed to say 'See? There was nothing to worry about.' He was completely taken in by Carter's acting.

"Umm, we haven't finished it for our team yet," she said.

She had to hope that Andrew caught the hint and he would help her refuse.

"Excellent!" TC said. "We can meet at lunch and work on it at the same time."

"I'm afraid I have to study for a test."

This was bordering on lying. She had planned her studying schedule around her duties in the House. She had to hope that King wasn't going to comment that he didn't know about this change in schedule.

"That's a pity," Carter said. "Oh, well, I'll just leave it not done, and blame it on one of the interns. They get fired all the time."

She looked at him shocked. How could he be so callous?

The malevolent glint in his eyes pierced her. He would take his anger with her and get some poor guy fired. For some stupid papers that wouldn't take more than half an hour to get them done. He held her gaze, with the calm of a hunter who set a trap and waited for a dumb animal to walk into it.

"Don't be an ass," Andrew said. "Ask them to give you someone from the staff to help you if you really need it."

"They get so pissy about that," Carter said. "Much more fun to blame it on an intern. I have a guy in mind already. You know him," he said looking at Alice. "The guy who let you into my music room that time."

That bastard! He remembered that Mike opened the door to Music Room 3 when he showed her around the House months earlier. He was more petty and vindictive than she imagined him. And to think that she used to worship him as a musician.

"Ok. I'll do them with you during lunch."

"You will? Thank you, Alice."

#

She walked quietly next to Andrew, raking her brain to remember what they had planned for Jade.

"We finished the papers, or am I dreaming?" Andrew asked.

"Yes. I gave them to Kate yesterday. I really don't want to be around him."

"Give him a chance. You might be surprised."

Alice shook her head. She loved Andrew King with the loyalty and ferocity of a pitbull, but she saw his flaws all too clearly. For a guy with perfect pitch, the man was painfully out of tune to human emotions.

"If anything happens to me, I trust you will point the police to the main suspect," she said.

Andrew laughed and slapped her shoulder companionably. He needed to focus on training his contestants, not to worry about her. She was used to protecting the adults in life. She'd done it for her parents for years, and she'd appointed herself as King's personal lightning rod when it came to all things Sing-related.

#

At lunch, she knocked on the door to Carter's music room. He opened the door for her and invited her in.

"Where are your papers?" he asked.

She threw him a quick sharp glance before she could control the reaction. He looked so damn innocent. Sometimes she forgot how good of an actor he was. She would love to see him on the stage again.

"I'm here to help you."

"You're always so generous with your time."

He said it a flat tone, keeping most malice and sarcasm out of his voice, but suddenly she fought back tears of shame.

Until she met this man, she had never before screwed up so much when she helped her friends get what they wanted. As far as she knew at least, she never hurt anyone like she had hurt him. Whatever he would do to her, she was going to take it. She owed him to take all the retribution he thought he needed.

She took the papers from his hand, careful, as always, not to touch him, and she sat down at the table and took out her pen.

"Do you know so much about me that you don't even have to ask me anything?" he said, watching her fill in the documents.

She didn't say anything. She expected him to lace his comments with sarcasm a lot more than he had so far.

"They're common questions in this section," she explained patiently. "I'll ask you when it comes to your contestants."

Her writing was stilted, her hand sometimes forgot the shape of the letters. His gaze burned in the back of her head, and when she thought it couldn't get worse, he sat down across from her. The table was narrow, and their knees touched. She dropped the pen, and she pulled back her chair instinctively. She didn't look at him as she rearranged it in such a way as to avoid any other accidental touches. She picked up her pen and took a deep breath before starting to write again.

"Why did you write this date?" he said, tapping the paper.

His long elegant fingers invaded her private space. She heard herself swallow loudly. Why was it so damn quiet in that room?

"B-because it had to be a working day."

"Are you afraid of me?"

"Shouldn't I?"

"What do you expect me to do to you?" he asked.

His voice was deceptively calm. It made her skin crawl. She couldn't avoid looking at him anymore. She raised her head to meet his eyes. She knew that he would see the fear, but she was true to her decision. Whatever he needed to work through his pain and to restore his pride, she was going to give him.

She opened her mouth, not sure what she was going to say. Before she could speak, he reached over to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. Instead of coherent words, a gasp escaped from her lips.

He stood up abruptly and let her work, giving clipped answers to her questions about his team until they finished.

#

She didn't hold much hope that she'd be free of Carter's company at dinner. As an evil spirit summoned by a malicious sorcerer, he entered the dining room as soon as they sat down. He joined them, without as much as bothering to get any food as a pretense for being there.

"I just realized why your hairstyle is so familiar," Carter said, looking at her. "I gave a speech at a high-school last year, and every girl there had this exact haircut."

A week earlier, she might have made a comment about Carter's own eccentric hair style. She held back the funny reply she would have used to defuse the tension by amusing him. He would not be impressed if she told him that she was going to the fanciest hair salon in Orsino either.

She had to hold back a smile when she thought that, had Didier heard this comment about his artwork, he would bitch slap Carter silly.

She ran her fingers through her hair instead, as if trying to mess up the style and erase the supposed outdated haircut.

"It's worrying that you pay attention to high school girls' hairstyles," Andrew said.

"It was a traumatic experience for me," Carter said. "They looked like a clone army."

Alice looked down at her half-empty plate. She stood up and went to refill it, allowing him to believe she was embarrassed on the subject. She smiled back at Tyler who waved at her, and focused on what really bothered her about Carter's words.

She wasn't offended about being compared with a teenager without personality, and it didn't bother her that he thought she followed last year's trend. She was too self-assured about her personal style to be bothered by his transparent attempts to hurt her.

The problem was that he was obviously trying to hurt her. She knew him all too well to have any hope that if he really wanted to get a result, he would stop before getting it. He might miss at first, but if he kept at it, he'd find ways to truly hurt her.

She picked random fruits from the bowl and put them on her plate. She could ask Andrew again to let her go. She would have to make him believe that the matter with Carter was settled, and that she needed time for her exams. She hated leaving King alone here, but it would be better for him if TC didn't break through her defenses in the House.

By the time she got back to the table, she already had the first draft of a plan. Step one - make Andrew believe she and Carter were back to their previous frenmity. Step two - start planting suggestions that she needed more time to study. Step three - wait for Andrew to ask her if she wanted to leave Sing or, if she felt that Carter got too close, she had to ask Andrew to let her go. Step four... prepare for the aftermath of Carter's victory.

When she sat back in her seat, she noticed that she was closer to Carter than before she left. The son of a bitch had pulled her chair closer to his own. Her skin tingled at his proximity. She tried to move the chair away, but she couldn't budge it. She looked down, trying to see why the chair was stuck. His right foot was behind the leg of her chair, holding it in place. She could play it off as a joke, but that would alert Andrew that something was off.

"Anything wrong?" Andrew asked.

"No," she lied.

Everything was absolutely peachy. She looked at Tim from the corner of her eyes. He was a halo and a harp away from looking like an angel.

 

End of book 3