I paid for it when she froze stiff, terror filling her eyes, pulling her lips back from her teeth in a horrified grimace.
“Sorry,” I mumbled, releasing her, but I had already seen enough to know I’d been right all along.“Just tell me the truth,” I urged as gently as I knew how.
“What truth?”The girl had the nerve to glare defiantly at me even now.“And why do you care?”
Damn good question, one for which I couldn’t find an answer right away.“You owe me that much,” I decided, knowing how weak it sounded but unable to come up with something better.
“I don’t owe you a damn thing,” she retorted, tossing her head, sending a fresh wave of knee-weakening fragrance my way.
“Are you sure about that?”I countered.“See, I’ve done a lot of thinking these past couple of days, and I finally figured something out.”
Her head cocked to the side, she asked, “You’ve been thinking?No wonder you look so exhausted.”
What the fuck is her problem?I would’ve had a better time going out in the middle of the desert and wrapping my hands around a cactus.“Yes, Oxford, I’ve been thinking.And I finally figured something out.You didn’t know anyone at that wedding, did you?You were a crasher.And when I caught up to you, you looked scared out of your mind.I didn’t register it as clearly as I should have at the time, thanks to a generous bartender,” I added.“But I see it now.And here you are, ready to run away, all because I asked you a simple question.”
“A simpleloadedquestion,” she corrected.I noticed she didn’t correct me on the wedding-crasher accusation.“You don’t need to know anything about my personal life.”
That was the thing.I felt like I did.If the woman standing in front of me was my sister, and I suspected someone was hurting her, would I stop at anything to protect her?Hell no.Granted, my feelings toward Nova weren’t exactly familiar, but she was now my wife, according to the State of Nevada.
I wanted to tell her that too.I wanted to explain myself.How if she needed it, I had the resources to help her out, though why couldn’t her wealthy father be the one to protect her?
The impulse to ask that question was almost too strong to ignore, stirring in my chest, opening my mouth to let the words out.Who was I kidding?She didn’t need to know how much thought I’d given her.She only would have scoffed if I offered my assistance, anyway.No doubt scoffing was her major back at Oxford, the self-important pain in the ass.
“Fine.”I took one backward step with my hands raised in surrender.“Have it your way.Walk around looking like you’ve seen a ghost.Remind me not to care.”
“With pleasure,” she replied with a sickeningly sweet smile.“In fact, I’ll schedule a text to be sent your way every day, just in case you forget.”
“Very thoughtful of you, though I thought you were anti-texting.”She needed to leave now, or else this was going to get uglier than it already had.At the moment, I wasn’t sure that was possible with the two of us locked in a staring contest like a couple of bickering kids in the schoolyard.
She blinked first, as it turned out, her gaze darting away from mine, catching something over my shoulder.When I followed the direction of her stare, I found nothing but the usual gamblers and casual visitors milling around, oohing and aahing over the spectacle of a flashing, noisy casino floor.
“What’s the matter?”I asked, turning back to her in time to watch her disappear in the crowd, rushing toward the glass doors leading onto the Strip.“Oxford!”I shouted before cringing at myself.
Who the hell was I?Calling out to a woman as she fled from me.
What happened to my pride?It had taken a vacation, along with my good sense, considering how much I wished we had done much more than sleep in my hotel room whenever I remembered her flashing, dark eyes.
6
NOVA
Mistake.
Huge, massive mistake.
What the hell was I thinking, going to his casino?Then again, what was the alternative?Texting him everything and risking the messages being intercepted?
It wasn’t like I had anything but suspicions.Paranoia, probably.At least, that was what I tried to convince myself I was wrestling with as I fled yet another casino.This was what my life had evolved into.What a joke.
I had no proof, either.No way of showing Vaughn or anyone what was happening.
It had started Sunday night in my group chat with the girls.Monica, Laura, and Holly had been my best friends since high school, and the three of them had moved on to colleges closer to home while I went out to Columbia and beyond to Oxford.Our group chat was how we had kept in touch, like a lifeline I often used to keep myself tethered.Grounded.
Never, in all the years we had been exchanging text messages in that chat, had any of our messages disappeared.Yet when I had scrolled back up to the messages we exchanged Saturday night, before we went out, one thing had been glaringly obvious—the messages I sent were gone.Like I had never typed them out.Like I didn’t exist.
It was as though somebody hacked my phone somehow or at least my messages.The girls couldn’t have done it.Only I or somebody digging around in my account could have.
That was why, instead of sending the text to Vaughn, I had thought twice before hitting the button.Was it possible Nico or one of the goons he was associated with had been able to break into my phone?Was he already concocting the narrative of my whereabouts Saturday?
