Onslow grinned broadly. “Absolutely. Let’s get this show on the road.”
They walked together into the hotel, through the lobby, and made it to the hotel ballroom. The ballroom was already full of board members, investors, and senior staff. The security detail was milling around, men and women dressed head to toe in black, speaking discreetly into walkie talkies as they made the rounds around the room. Dover’s most important staff members were here, yet somehow she had ended up being a guest of honor.
The sound of loud applause filled the room as the crowd spotted them stepping in. Her stomach tightened as anxiety flooded her. Crowds sometimes set her on edge, and that was only made worse by the fact that the everyone in the room was looking directly at her.
Agnes Morton pushed her way through the crowd and approach
ed them, her elegant shawl trailing behind her as she walked. “You all look smashing.”
Heather forced herself to smile through the nausea. This was a celebration, she reminded herself. Nerves were normal, and once they got into the swing of things she’d get her bearings. “Thank you. You look lovely, Agnes.” Agnes waved at someone in the crowd and suddenly Theo Nowak, the documentary producer appeared, a cameraman behind him.
She felt the cameraman focus the camera on her, and she forced herself to look as expressionless as possible. This documentary was about Simon, and she wasn’t going to ruin it by being anxious on camera.
Taking a deep breath, she greeted Theo and listened as he went over plans for tonight’s shoot.
“We won’t be asking you or Simon too many questions since tonight is your night,” Theo said. “We’ll just get some candid shots of you guys enjoying the dinner, and also do interviews with some senior staff members to get their thoughts on the work you guys do.”
“That sounds pretty standard,” Simon said. “It’s a far cry from the drama you seem to want.”
Theo flashed a grin. “Oh, don’t worry. There’s always drama when you get rich people in a room together.” With that, Theo nodded at the cameraman and they disappeared into the crowd to do their interviews.
“Is that cameraman going to be here all night?” Simon demanded through gritted teeth.
“Do try to be nice to them, Simon.” Agnes paused. “And try to have fun, for once.” She swept away before Simon could retort.
Heather caught Jake Perry, Dover’s security head, approaching them, so she gestured to an elderly gentleman in the crowd. “That’s one of our new investors. Why don’t you go over and say hello to him and the group he’s talking to, Simon? I can speak to the security head in the meantime.”
He exhaled a loud sigh but walked across the room to mingle with their guests, leaving her behind with his father.
Jake walked up to them and she introduced him to Onslow.
“Anything new to report?” she asked the security head.
“I’ve got your cell phone.” Jake reached into his jacket pocket and handed over her cell phone. “We tried tracing the phone call, but nothing helpful came up. The trace just led us to a disposable phone, which won’t be of much use to us.”
“Is the hotel secure?” she asked as she put her cell phone into her clutch.
Jake nodded. “This place is locked up like a fortress. Nobody is going to be getting in tonight. Plus, we’ve got some of our team monitoring social media for any chatter.”
His confidence was starting to put her at ease. The anxious weight began to lift from her shoulders. “Thanks so much, Jake.”
“No problem,” Jake said. “It’s my job and I’m glad to do it. Will you excuse me? I need to have a discussion with some of the hotel’s staff.”
“Of course. We can talk more later.” She waved goodbye to Jake and then turned to Onslow. “So, how are you doing? We can go find a seat and wait for Simon.”
Onslow narrowed his eyes. “You can cut the act now.”
She gasped in surprise, her heart starting to race at his unexpected accusation. “What are you talking about?”
“You don’t like me,” Onslow muttered. “You weren’t very nice to me in the beginning, but when that backfired you decided to be nice to me.”
“Onslow, we’re at a dinner to honor your son,” she said. “We can be civil for the evening.”
“I’d believe that if you hadn’t been playing nice all week.” He narrowed his eyes. “When you jumped to my defense after Simon didn’t want me to come to the dinner, I knew what you were up to. You couldn’t fight me in the open because Simon didn’t like it, so now you’re pretending. Well, it isn’t going to work. You don’t fool me.”
“Lower your voice,” she hissed. “Tonight isn’t about our hurt feelings or misunderstandings. We’re here to celebrate Simon.”
“And you,” Onslow said, his lip curling into a cruel snarl. “They’re celebrating you, too. I guess your plan to seduce my son is complete, now that you’re getting accolades from the company he started.”