Sweet Reckoning by Wendy Higgins Page B

about.

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.
    —Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

CHAPTER ELEVEN—

G INGER AND B LAKE
    A distraught Marna met us inside the Santa Barbara airport. It was the roughest I’d ever seen her look—an off-center ponytail and flats instead of heels.
    We rented a sedan with the darkest windows possible and drove to Blake’s cliffside mansion. I shouldn’t have been surprised to see a news van outside of his closed gates, considering this was major local-celebrity gossip. Blake’s father, a billionaire, had just died, leaving his massive fortune to the city’s extreme-sports star, who just last week had got engaged to a gorgeous girl from a prosperous family. Speaking of Michelle . . .
    “Pull the car over,” I whispered.
    There wasn’t much of a shoulder, but Kai squeezed to the side and we stopped to watch. We were half a mile away, so I had to push my sights out to take in the scene clearly.
    “Just what we need,” Kai mumbled.
    Parked in front of the news van was a sporty red car and a beautiful, pacing blonde.
    “Whoa,” I said when I focused on her aura—an ugly mix of thick forest green envy and dark swirls of gray.
    “Is that her?” Marna asked.
    I nodded and we eyed each other. Michelle was stuck outside, clearly not being allowed entrance, which could only mean one thing. Ginger was definitely in there, and judging by the overwhelming jealousy in Michelle’s aura, she knew it.
    “Can you get us a little closer?” I asked. “I’ll try and persuade them to leave.”
    Kai drove closer, stopping in the driveway of Blake’s neighbor. It always felt wrong using the power of persuasion I’d gained from my double angel parentage, but sometimes it was necessary. I honed my sights on the driver of the news van and silently repeated, “ Nothing is happening here. There’s no story. Leave now ….” He started looking around, nervous-like. Finally after a minute of my nudging, he started the van and drove away.
    The three of us grinned. Now for Michelle. When I started chanting the words to her, she slowly walked to her car, reached for the handle, and then grabbed her temples. She let out a mournful wail and began bawling.
    “It’s not working,” Kai said. “We’ve got to go in. Hope the git hasn’t changed the code.”
    We drove up to the gate, and Michelle ran to the car.
    “Don’t you dare roll that window down,” Marna warned me, but my finger was already on the switch. I couldn’t just ignore this brokenhearted girl.
    “I know you,” Michelle said to me thickly. She still managed to be gorgeous, even in her exhausted-looking state.
    “Hi, Michelle,” I said gently. “Listen, Blake’s going through a really hard time. . . . He’s sort of pushing everyone away—”
    “He let a girl in!”
    Crap.
    “I know,” I said. “She’s an old friend, like me. We’re going to try and calm him, okay? Why don’t you go home and rest. Give him a little time to digest everything.”
    The gates began to swing open, and the car inched forward.
    “No!” Michelle screamed. “Something’s going on! I’m going in!”
    “ Go to your car ,” I silently urged her with my angelic will.
    She ran to her car, prepared to follow us in. When she realized the gate wasn’t going to stay open long enough, she ran back but was too late. She was left crying at the closed gate, even angrier than before.
    “She’s gone mad,” Kaidan said without humor. He sped up the driveway and parked directly in front of the doors. The three of us jumped out, but the door was locked.
    Kaidan banged with this fist. We waited. He banged again. “Open up, idiot! This is bloody stupid!”
    After what seemed like forever, the door opened, and the three of us gaped. Blake wore only low-slung basketball shorts and the hardest expression I’d ever seen. Then his sights slipped down the long driveway to where Michelle stood holding on to the gate, bawling. His