Flynn plastered on a grin and said, “Don’t worry everyone. Our guest had a little too much to drink, and we’re letting him sleep it off. Please go back to enjoying your evening.” He signaled to the bandleader who started playing a lively number, and the guests milled back to their seats.
He gestured to me, and we walked to the bar. Lacey was manning it—Jake must have left to be with Alia. “Send everyone a free drink,” Flynn said to her.
“I’ll help,” I volunteered.
“Lacey can handle it. You’re not working tonight.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the club and into the hotel lobby.
“I can’t just leave. What about Ash? I ditched her in the club—”
Without appearing as though he’d heard me, he took out his cell phone and pressed a button. He put the phone to his ear. “Barrett’s friend is still in the club. Escort her to the lobby and wait for my call.”
Flynn hung up and then dragged me across the floor to the private elevator. We rode in silence.
Flynn was terrifying, but I felt a thrill of desire. Fear, too. But desire first and foremost. When the elevator doors opened, he held them and let me step out. I slowly walked past him into the living room and plopped down onto the couch.
He went to the bar and poured two glasses of scotch, bringing me one, and sitting so close that his pants brushed against my bare thigh. Bare, because my emerald colored dress was slowly riding up.
“What happens now?” I asked faintly, clutching my glass and trying to tug down my dress.
“Brad will take care of it with the help of someone who is good at cleaning up messes. No one will know the truth.”
“Does this happen often? Stupid question. Of course it does. Why else would you have a man whocleans up?” I finally took a sip of whisky. “I didn’t expect this. Naïve of me, probably.”
“People are monitored. People who look suspicious are watched. He didn’t have anything on him.”
“You think someone slipped it to him?” I asked.
He nodded.
“Someone who worked tonight?”
“Yes.” Flynn’s cell phone rang. He took it out of his pocket and answered it. “What is it? Okay. Thanks.” He clicked off. “A doctor is with Alia now. The guy clipped her cheek, so it’s a bit swollen. Otherwise she’s fine—physically. She’ll stay at the hotel tonight.” He slammed back his scotch, and I did the same.
“I can’t believe I just left Ash in the club with Shawna.” I put my head in my hands. “Everything happened so fast, I didn’t even think—”
“No, I’m glad you followed me. I needed you to see.”
The adrenaline poured out of me, causing my limbs to feel achy and tired. A slight headache was forming at my temples and I suddenly wanted to be curled up in bed. “I need to get Ash and then get out of here.”
“Stay here tonight.”
“What?”
“Not here in my suite,” he said. “I mean the hotel. You and Ash.”
“That’s ridiculous. We can just go home.”
“Please, Barrett. Let me do this for you.”
His tone was earnest, and I realized something about Flynn. He hated being out of control, of not knowing information. Though most people were like that, some dealt with it better than others.
I smiled tremulously. “Let me talk to Ash, but I think I know what she’s going to say.”
He grinned. “If she gives you any lip about wanting to leave, just tell her breakfast room service comes with mimosas.”
Chapter 10
“I’m starting to feel like a kept woman,” I said to Ash the next morning. We were wearing matching hotel robes, lounging on the couch after finishing our room service breakfast plates.
