Her Secret Life. Tara Taylor Quinn

out of her sister’s office in a matter of minutes.

      “Did you get what you needed?” Looking in her rearview mirror, she switched lanes and then, when the road was clear, pulled over to a just-vacated parking spot in front of a tourist shop.

      She wasn’t all that far from her Beverly Hills condo but didn’t want to have to concentrate on Michael and LA’s rush hour traffic at the same time.

      “I did.”

      She tried to read his tone, to know if he was being so serious because this was business or because he had bad news for her.

      “Did you get the email I sent last night with the names you asked for?” She’d turned Bo down for an after-show drink and come straight home to go through emails that were well over a decade old. Reading them had made her smile. And cry a bit, too.

      She and Lacey had been so incredibly close. She’d taken it all for granted. Had thought she’d never be lonely one minute in her life.

      It had never even entered her mind that they’d ever be anything but famous, rich and happy.

      “I saw it this morning. I haven’t been home yet to go through them.”

      Because he’d been in LA. She’d been aware all morning and had purposely kept herself open for lunch in case he’d texted with news.

      “Where are you now?”

      It might be a nosy question, but it was one she asked often enough in the random text messages they sent back and forth.

      “Just stopped home to change. I’m on my way over to my folks’ house.”

      She was beginning to wonder if she would ever meet them. For some reason Michael didn’t seem keen on introducing her to his family.

      “For dinner?”

      “Yeah.”

      “You don’t sound too sure about that.”

      “My kid brother got into a spot of trouble today. I promised him and Mom I’d be there to referee when Dad got home from work.”

      It was more than he usually told her. She knew he had a kid brother. And that he’d gotten a tattoo on his back that Michael didn’t approve of. She didn’t know why, or even what type of tattoo it was.

      “You do that often?” she asked now, picturing him as the big brother, trying to instill calm in the midst of family drama.

      He’d be good at it. Lacey was, too. The best.

      Kacey seemed to create the drama. Not that she meant to. Or wanted to.

      “On occasion,” he said. “This time it’s for a good cause. The kid didn’t do what he’s being blamed for. Tomorrow I intend to help him prove it. I just need the old man to have faith for one night.”

      Have faith. That hit home. She knew what it was like to need a family member to have faith in her when her actions hadn’t done much to inspire it.

      Lacey had had faith, though. “I’m glad you’re there for him,” she said now. “He’s lucky to have you.”

      Michael’s harrumph was about what she’d expected.

      “I just wanted to let you know, before I go, that I don’t have good news for you, Kace.”

      Her heart dropped as she watched a purple-haired, multipierced couple walk by her car, looking at her to see if she was, you know, someone.

      She never left the studio in makeup or wig, and without them, could usually move around without recognition.

      “What did you find out?” she asked slowly. “Who did it?”

      “That’s just it. I didn’t find out who did it. I don’t know. I’ve got a couple of things yet to check, but it seems whoever posted that picture didn’t hack your email account.”

      “That’s good, then, right? But I thought you said they used it to open that account...”

      “It looks like they know your password, Kacey. It seems they went on the server and deleted the confirmation email that was sent to your address, which is why neither you nor Lacey ever received that email. They’d have to know your password to log on to the server.”

      “But...I’ve never given that password to anyone, and I’m positive Lacey hasn’t either.”

      “She said the same.”

      “So where does that leave us?”

      “I’ve got a couple more things I can check. Your password was so personal it’s pretty hard to believe that anyone could have figured it out even knowing you well. I’ll go through the list of names you sent, too. But in the meantime...I’m sorry I didn’t find more.”

      “You’re being a great friend to me, Michael. Don’t you dare apologize.” She just wished she could be as good a friend in return. Wished he would let her get close enough to him to know what she could do to return the favor.

      “Your sister tried to pay me.”

      Shit. She hadn’t thought about Lacey’s penchant for detail.

      “I’m so sorry, Michael,” she said, quickly. “Please don’t be offended. I just... Since you haven’t seemed to want anyone to know we’re friends, I didn’t tell Lacey how close we are. She wouldn’t insult you for the world by trying to infer that you’re no more than a business associate...”

      “It’s all good,” he told her, as though that’s all that was going to be said about it.

      “So...did she pay you?”

      “Of course not.”

      And then it occurred to her—she’d have been really hurt if Michael tried to pay her for a favor, but what if... “It won’t offend me a bit to get a bill, Michael. You know that, right?”

      “You want me to send you a bill.” Statement. Not question.

      Wait. Was that wrong? Oh, hell, again. She just wasn’t good at the nuances. She spent her days pretending to be something she was not in a world where what seemed right one day was suddenly twisted into wrong the next. “Honestly?”

      “Wasn’t that our deal? What you asked me for? Honesty?”

      “Yes.” She’d needed to have someone to tell if she drank too much. Someone to be accountable to so she’d feel like crap if she screwed up. “Honestly, it never even occurred to me that I would pay you for helping me. I mean, if you asked me to do something and then tried to pay me for it, I’d be hurt. But I don’t mean to assume, or impose or...”

      His chuckle stopped her. “You’re fine, Kace. It never occurred to me that you’d pay me, either, and it would have offended me had you tried. I just wanted you to know that the issue came up, because I have a pretty good feeling your sister is going to mention it to you.”

      He’d covered her ass and was still doing it. He knew how important it was to her that she not screw up or look like a loser to her sister. Ever again.

      “Okay.” She watched a group of about four older couples stop and look in the window of the tourist shop. “So...for now...”

      “For now there’s nothing for you to do. I’ll do my checking, but I want you to know that I’m not sure I’m going to find anything.”

      “What do we do then?”

      “There’s not a lot we can do. Except that I’ll keep a tight monitor on that account. If a crime had been committed, we could call the police and try to get a warrant for surveillance video from the internet café for the date and time the photo was posted, but we don’t have any evidence of a crime. One Photoshopped picture of a celebrity is not going to get anyone’s attention in LA.”

      He was right, of course. “Nor should it,”