Free Silver Sparks by Starr Ambrose Page B

landlord, too. But I don’t care about that,” she said, waving it aside. “I was more upset that some reporter called David and asked him about our family, and hinted about how hot I must be in bed.”
    “No!” Maggie stared in shock at her sister. “They called your boyfriend? They already know who he is?”
    “Oh, yeah. But more important, do you know who he is? David is the son of a minister.” She raised her eyebrows significantly. “A nice, conservative minister. His parents get hives at the very thought of sex scandals. They conspicuously avoid talking about their son’s living arrangements, just in case he might be fornicating with me on a regular basis, as he is, and he’s quite happy to keep them in the dark. But he loves them dearly and he’s a bit jittery about their finding out that my sister is a Hollywood Jezebel.”
    “Oh, my God,” Maggie groaned. “I’m so sorry, Sophie!”
    “Don’t be sorry,” Sophie ordered. “If David’s afraid to defend me to his parents, I’d rather know that now. But you need to stick up for yourself! Tell the truth!”
    Maggie scrunched her eyebrows. “I don’t think you want me to do that, sweetie. Rafe is a snake, and his family is a writhing nest of vipers. If you think it’s ugly now, Cal assures me it will get worse if I don’t go along with Rafe’s story of a lovers’ quarrel, and he’s been right about everything else so far.”
    “Who’s Cal?”
    Maggie hesitated, censoring the first words that came to mind, such as smart, stubborn, bossy, arrogant, and sexy as sin . She gave an involuntary jerk. Where had that last one come from?
    “He’s Mystery Man in the stories,” Zoe summarized for her. “A cop from Oklahoma who helped Maggie out when Rafe got aggressive. He says Rafe killed his half sister.”
    Sophie blinked, trying to absorb the information. Her gaze darted back to Maggie. “You can’t let them make up more crap and pretend that it’s true,” she said, her eyes pleading. “You have to fight them, Maggie.”
    Maggie’s stomach twisted at the pain in Sophie’s eyes. This was exactly what she’d tried to avoid, but the story had raced ahead of her like wildfire through tinder. Faster than she’d thought possible. She scowled over the logistics of reporters tracking down her sister, finding out where she lived, who her academic advisor was, and who she was dating. It wasn’t even about Maggie, who was supposedly the star of the scandal. The information had to have been fed to the tabloids, and there was only one obvious source—the De Lucas.
    Hot fury roiled inside her until she felt the heat of it rising off her skin. She’d been ready to play it their way, but the De Lucas had crossed the line. She’d destroy Rafe for this.
    “That son of a bitch won’t get away with this,” she growled at her sisters. “I promise I’ll make him pay, Sophie. If he thinks I’m going to crawl in a corner and lick my wounds, he’s in for a surprise.”
    “Good,” Sophie said grimly.
    Zoe nodded. “We’re both with you, Maggie. What do you want to do, and how can we help?”
    “You don’t need to do anything. I’ll talk to those tabloid reporters. They’re digging around for stories, so I’ll give them one.”
    “About what?” Sophie asked. “Something positive, like your volunteer work at the Children’s Clinic?” She looked doubtful, as if realizing she might not be able to count on Maggie to get this done. Sophie had a lot to learn.
    “Hardly. They don’t want to know good stuff, they want a story with teeth. Scandal. Innuendo. Backstabbing. It’s what they thrive on, the stuff that sells papers.” She sat back, tapping her thumbnail on her teeth as she thought. “If I’m going to fight back, I’ll have to come up with something equally scandalous about Rafe.”
    Zoe raised her eyebrows. “Like what?”
    “I don’t know yet.” She flashed a wicked grin. “But you can bet it’ll be good. Are those reporters