The English Billionaire

Chapter 51

Emma's POV

The tour had finished, leaving us three blocks from the hotel. Gerald had seen one more store he had wanted to check out, and since we had eaten one of the biggest lunches I had ever had an hour before, I was happy to casually follow along.

I was dreading when the news of the story would break in our group. I had been too nervous to look it up to see if it was published or not when I had woken up, the fact that all four boys were not present at breakfast was as much of a sign as I could take that everything was still not good.

We entered the tourist shop, a small bell sending a ding throughout the small room. Alison had three bags full of trinkets she had picked up so far. There were plenty of small landmark memorabilia and t-shirts. I didn't have the heart to get anything and Alison and Gerald had stopped trying to ask me what was wrong when I continued to blame Landon's arrest for my mood. I mean, I wasn't entirely lying.

The shop door dinged again and I unconsciously looked towards the noise.

And there she was.

The pretty girl I had seen talking with Forest in the hallway. 

She scanned the shop and landed on me. A smug look spread across her full lips and she began to make her way across the shop towards me. Alison and Gerald didn't notice the girl had joined our little group until she spoke.

"Oh my gosh!" She said with venomous happiness grabbing one of my hands and shaking it vigorously. "Emma, it's so great to see you again!"

I didn't know how to react to that.

"Oh, uh--" I tried to say something intelligent but Megan steamrolled over my failed attempt at communication.

"How are you?" She asked. Her smirk had seemed to register to Alison and Gerald who had been a little intimidated by the intense greeting. Their eyes flickered between Megan and me questioning.

"Oh, I'm-- I'm alright," I said unsuredly, trying to maintain the steady eye contact Megan had me stuck under. "What have you been up to recently?" I tried to ask the question in the jabbing manor that she had asked me, but I wasn't sure my mask of being 'alright' was completely intact.

Her smirk widened and there was an evil glint in her eyes as she let go of my hand to reposition her hair. "Oh, you know, working all over." Her eyes shifted to take in my two friends. "Megan," she said dismissively, "You're Alison and Gerald, Forest's fake buddies." The venom that had only been in her smile had seeped into her voice.

Alison's eyebrows shot up and Gerald frowned slightly.

"Just thought I'd come and say hi," Megan said cocking her head to the side as she looked back over at me. "And just let you know that there's always something to worry about when you start messing with the people I've put I claim on already." Her eyes narrowed at me then in a flash she was smiling a perfected smile at me and tossing her hair over her shoulder. "Hope you liked the worry-rats, if this," she waved her hands around at the three of us, "experiment keeps going on you'll always be looking over your shoulders."

She turned on her heels and started back to the door.

"Do give dear Forest my best, remind him he's got an image to protect, don't want him to start interacting with the riff-raff," she laughed a humorless chuckle and left the store leaving the three of us staring at the door.

"What the hell was that?" Alison blurted out after a few seconds of stunned silence.

"Oh, uh, she's a uh--" my hands twisted together in front of my stomach. "She's a reporter."

"You mean she's a female dog," Gerald said his frown deepening.

I gave him a slight smile, "Yeah, something like that."

"Is this the real reason you've been all weird today?" Alison asked.

 I nodded slowly, "Yeah, I didn't know what was going to happen..." I trailed off and shook my head. "We should head back, I need to tell Forest that she was here."

"What's her deal?" Alison asked as we made our way out of the store and down the road to the hotel again.

"Some old beef with Forest or something," I shrugged. I didn't know how much information I should tell my friends and for some reason I didn't want to let them know everything about what I had learned last night.

When we got to the hotel the three blacked out SUVs we had been driving around in were idling out front. Chris was talking on the phone outside the entrance. When he saw us he ended the call abruptly and made a beeline to us.

"What's going on?" Gerald asked curiously, nodding towards the cars.

Chris gave a strained smile, "We're heading to the airport."

"But we're supposed to be here for a few more days," Alison said frowning.

Chris' jaw clenched, "That's not possible right now." He was really only looking at me, something that both Alison and Gerald picked up on immediately.

"Okay, what the heck is going on, Chris," Alison said, angrily. "First a mentally unstable-model looking chick corners us in a tourist shop and now--"

"What?" Chris' eyes snapped to Alison and then he frowned deeper. "Nevermind, we'll explain later, you need to go get packed." The three of us didn't move. "Please." Chris said with a sigh. "I promise we'll explain on the way to the airport."

Gerald was the first to move, Alison sent a glare at Chris then followed him. I was going to follow after Alison, but Chris grabbed my arm and gently pulled me the opposite way down a hallway, and into a closed room.

When the door opened I was met with a exhausted looking Forest. Our eyes locked and he gave a tight smile.

"Hey," he said, running a hand through his hair.

"Hi," I responded, looking over at Chris confused. "What's going on?"

"The article wasn't published," Forest's voice made me return my attention to him. "Instead she gave us an ultimatum." He slumped into one of the chairs in the room.

"She seemed smug just a few moments ago," I said, both boys looked at me with concern. "She came to gloat, I guess. She told us to remind you about your image, and that we would always have to look over our shoulders if this thing kept going on." I explained quickly.

Forest let out an unamused laugh. "Well, she got that wish granted."

"What?" I asked, confused.

"We're shutting everything down."