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“Devon,” he said. “She took off. She’s gone.”
My spine turned to ice. “What do you mean, she’s gone?”
“When my back was turned, she went into the garage and grabbed the keys to one of Graham’s old cars. She drove off. I didn’t even know those old cars ran.”
Fuck. I’d fixed it myself, with no idea that I was giving Olivia Maplethorpe a getaway car. “The Mercedes,” I told him. “I fixed the engine.”
“I’m sorry, man,” Ben said.
“What the hell did you say to her?”
“Nothing, I swear.” Ben paused. “I can see why you like her. She’s smart. Sexy, too.”
“Shut up.” Why were my friends all such assholes?
“Just telling it like I see it. But she seemed a little overwhelmed right now. That wrist bandage, those bruises on her face—no wonder you went ballistic. I felt like punching someone, myself.”
I closed my eyes briefly. I couldn’t lose it, not now. There was too much at stake. “So she just took the car and bailed?”
“Pretty much. Do you want me to go after her?”
I’d known Ben a long time, and I knew that
tone in his voice. He would do it if I asked, but that tone said You’re an idiot if you tell me to go after her. It was an effective skill for a lawyer, to say one thing while clearly meaning something else.
What I wanted was to get in my own car and go after her. She’d probably gone to her apartment at Shady Oaks, at least as a first stop. I could track her down there. If I missed her, I could make educated guesses about where she went next. I could get her sister’s address, her mother’s address. It would be one of those two. My bet would be the sister. I’d never met the sister, but I knew her name was Gwen and she worked as a strip-o-gram girl. Gwen Maplethorpe, stripper, would not be very hard to find. And my car was fast.
But Ben was right. If I went after Olivia, especially in this mood I was in right now, she wouldn’t welcome it. I would fuck it up. And if I fucked it up now, after our near-fight this morning, I might lose her forever.
I closed my eyes again. Do what my body was telling me to do—go after her—or do what my reluctant gut was telling me to do, and let her go. I couldn’t lose her. Not now, not ever. Which meant I’d have to make the sacrifice.
Besides which, I needed to get to the bank and cash out twenty million dollars in the next two hours, or my good friend from the drug cartel would see my brains splattered on the street. And Olivia would be next.
Fuck. Get it together, Wilder.
Fuck.
“Let her go,” I said to Ben, the words grinding out of my throat. “She’s made it clear what she wants. There’s nothing I can do.”
“This isn’t over,” Ben said, his voice sympathetic. “She just needs time.”
I laughed, and the sound was bitter. “I should take advice on my love life from you?” Ben had been through the worst divorce of all time—his wife had cheated on him, then tried to take him for everything he had. She’d also stomped on his heart, since he’d been blindly in love with her almost right to the end. It was the kind of experience that could scar a guy for life.
“No,” he agreed. “I’m shit with women, you know that. So I don’t have any more advice. Just don’t fuck this up, or you’ll regret it. And whatever you’re doing today—as your legal representation, I don’t want to know—don’t fuck that up either. Or get killed. And don’t ever tell me. Got it?”
When we hung up, I stared at the passing tourists for a minute. Trying not to think about Olivia alone and unprotected. It was broad daylight in a big city, but that wouldn’t stop a man like Craig Bastien. He’d track her down to get to me.
Which meant I had to get to him first.
The countdown was on, and the clock was ticking.
Twenty-Six
Olivia
The Mercedes was a beautiful car. The engine was as quiet as a sleeping baby and the seats were buttery leather. I had no idea what year the car was, but my guess was it was at least twenty years old. It was hard to tell because the lines of the body were so classically beautiful.
I drove to Shady Oaks first. I was almost shaking, my brain in a whirl, but the quiet beauty of the drive in such an amazing car was almost like a therapy session. I had no idea where I was going to go, no plan, but by the time I pulled into the Shady Oaks parking lot I knew two things: One, I wasn’t staying here, and two, I wanted to drive some more. I could see why Devon loved it. I just wanted to drive and drive.
