He shrugs again.
“Reed,” I warn. “I swear, if you don’t tell me what’s going on, we are not getting back together. I can’t handle any more lies. I mean it.”
He lets out a breath. “Right after Mom died, Gideon and I snuck into a fundraiser my dad was supposed to attend but bailed on. He was too busy with Steve somewhere. We got wasted.”
I grumble in annoyance. “What does that have to do with any of this?”
“You wanted to know what’s going on with Gid. I’m telling you.” Reed scowls at me. “Dinah was at that fundraiser.”
“Oh.” I bite my lip. Shoot, maybe I don’t want to know the details, after all.
“Yeah. She’d kinda been hitting on Gid for a while, and she caught him coming out of the bathroom and they…uh, made out for a bit.”
“Reeeeeeed,” I say with a bucket full of exasperation. “Is this where you got your I’m going to screw my dad’s girlfriend idea?”
His guilty expression gives him away. “Maybe.” He sighs. “Anyway, after that, she wouldn’t leave Gid alone. She’d corner him constantly and make these sleazy comments about how she liked fresh, young, ripe things.”
I can’t keep a disgusted look off my face. “That’s really gross.”
“No shit. She wanted more. Like, she was—is—seriously obsessed with him. After that party, she was shameless about trying to seduce him. He told me so many sick stories about it, you don’t even want to know. But he fell for Savannah and wanted nothing to do with Steve’s gold-digger. So then one night she asks Gid to come over, says she has something to show him. My dad and Steve were out of town, as usual. Gid went over to the penthouse.” Reed pauses. “He came home that night and told me he slept with Dinah.”
“Ew. Why?”
“Because she blackmailed him,” Reed says flatly.
“Are you serious? With what?”
“Pictures. She got her hands on Gid’s phone. I guess he left it in the kitchen or something when she was over one time. Dinah snooped around and found all these pictures that Sav and Gid were sending each other.”
“Dirty pictures?”
“Yeah.”
“So?” I’m still confused. “People text dirty pictures to each other all the time.”
“But they’re cracking down on it. These two kids down in Raleigh were charged with seven counts of child porn when the girl’s parents found out they were sexting. The girl’s full ride to UNC was yanked. If it was only Gid’s neck on the line, he probably would’ve told Dinah to go to hell, but Dinah swore she’d drag Sav into it and even release the pics to the entire school.”
I feel even sicker now. “So Dinah blackmailed him into bed with her?”
“Pretty much. It’s been over a year now. He broke it off with Sav and she was devastated.”
I think of Savannah, who’s such a brittle, hard-edged girl. Her smiles are thin and her words are cutting. If she truly loved Gideon, then the pain she’s going through must be horrible. “That’s so awful.”
Reed makes a face. “He’s gonna kill me for telling you all this.”
“I’m glad you did,” I say sternly. “Because now we can come up with a plan.”
“A plan for what?”
“To save Gideon from Dinah. We can’t let her keep doing this to him. Otherwise he’s going to lose his mind.”
“Sometimes I feel like this is some part of a plan that Brooke and Dinah have. Like they divvied us up and decided they’d ruin the Royals, one at a time. Steve included.” Reed shakes his head. “It sounds crazy when I say it out loud.”
“You really think Brooke and Dinah planned this?”
“They’re friends. I think Dad was screwing Brooke before Mom died, but I don’t know anything about them. Steve showed up with Dinah one day and she had a ring on her finger. Marrying her didn’t slow him down, though.”
“What else do we know about Dinah? And where do you think she’s keeping the evidence she has against Gid? Do you think she’s shown it to anyone?”
“I doubt it, otherwise Gid would’ve been arrested ages ago.”
“If we can get our hands on those pictures, Dinah has nothing. No leverage at all.” I think it over. “How do we find it? Would she be dumb enough to keep it at the penthouse? Smart enough to make copies?”
“I don’t know. But you might be right. If we can find all the stuff she has on him and get rid of it, we could put this thing behind us.”
“But what about Brooke?”
“Brooke,” he repeats with disgust. “We need a paternity test. I don’t understand why Dad won’t get one.”
“I don’t either.” I chew on the end of my thumb until Reed pulls it out of my mouth.
“You’re going to gnaw your finger off if you think about it anymore. Can we stop talking about Brooke and Dinah? At least for a bit.”
“Why?”
His gaze heats up. “Because there’re better ways to spend our time right now.”
“Like what—”
Before I can finish, he rolls me over and presses his lips against my neck. “Like that,” he whispers.