Gavin frowned. “You don’t remember what happened?”
I shook my head, my cheeks going hot.
He glanced around the emptying room, a stormy look crossing his face. “Your douchebag of a husband showed up,” he said, dropping his voice low.
My brain was like a record skittering to a halt.
“Stefan? He was there?” I was in shock. How had he found me? He shouldn’t have been able to track me with my phone turned off.
“Yeah,” Gavin said, disgusted. “Let’s talk outside, in the quad.”
The pieces were falling into place now—not just my recollection of Stefan being at the club, but how he’d acted Saturday morning, how he’d seemed to know there was something wrong with me. Yet he hadn’t said a word about it. Instead he’d sat there, smug and mostly silent, making backhanded comments about me being pale and trying to force food on me.
I felt the same nausea I’d felt that morning as I sank onto a bench, pulling my coat tighter around me.
And if Gavin was calling Stefan a douchebag, something must have happened between them. Oh no. “Wait, what did he do? Did he say something to you?”
Gavin shook his head. “You really don’t remember.” He sighed, and ran his hand through his hair. “Yeah, so everything was cool, you were dancing, having a few drinks, and then yourhusband,” he practically spat the word, “shows up out of nowhere. Just barges in, acting like you’re his property. We had a few words. He was all possessive, very aggro, and then he dragged you out of there. Like you didn’t deserve to be out having a good time with your friends.”
“And that’s…that was all?” I asked.
He nodded. “Your husband has some anger management issues. And he obviously thinks he owns you. I know it’s none of my business, but having gone through this same kind of thing with my mom, I gotta say…it’s the kind of behavior that doesn’t get better. I worry about you.”
“Stefan’s…complicated,” I said. “He’s not normally like that.” But he was, wasn’t he?
Something still wasn’t right. I’d been drugged, I was sure of it, yet Gavin hadn’t mentioned it at all.
He shrugged again. “If you say so,” he said. “You know him better than I do.”
I nodded numbly. I was only half listening, still struggling to make sense of it all. According to my own memory, I hadn’t been having a good time in the least when Stefan had arrived. I distinctly remembered the nausea, the way the ground had rolled under my feet, the way I’d sunk to the floor as the room went black. How had Gavin not noticed?
“Did I seem…” I paused, not sure how to ask if I had acted like I’d been roofied. “Did I seem a little out of it?”
Gavin paused thoughtfully. “I guess you did seem a little off. I just thought you’d had too much to drink.” He laughed. “I mean, but who hasn’t had a night or two out where they couldn’t remember what happened?”
Me. I’d never had a night like that and I never wanted to have one again.
“I don’t think I was just drunk,” I said slowly. “I think I might have been drugged.”
His entire face changed, instantly stricken. “Jesus,” he said. “Who the hell would…” he stopped, his words cutting off as if he was remembering something.
“What?”
“Nothing, it’s just…” He paused. “No, that’s crazy.”
“What?” I demanded. “Tell me.”
He took a deep breath. “It’s just—if you think you were drugged…” he shook his head again. “I don’t know. Do you remember seeing a big guy that night? Really tall?”
My stomach dropped. “Yes. I do. He was over six feet, black turtleneck, shaved head. I thought he was one of the bouncers.”
Gavin looked me straight in the eye. “He didn’t work there. He was the one who led Stefan to you. They left the club together, carrying you. I can’t help wondering if…if Stefan and this guy had something to do with whatever you drank. I mean, dude was checking you out all night. Hovering not ten feet away from you at all times. I figured he just liked the way you looked, but…it’s a pretty big coincidence.”
My blood went cold.
“You think Stefan had me drugged?” I asked, my voice cracking.
“I don’t know what to think, Tori,” Gavin said. “But if you’d seen the way he was acting, how possessive and angry he was about the fact that we were just talking…I just wouldn’t be surprised if he’d sent the big guy out that night to keep an eye on you. Maybe more than that.”
