Page 69 of Fake It For Him

After sucking in a few more deep breaths, I finally strode over to my phone and picked it up again. Then I headed to my kitchen and put on a pot of coffee, my mind racing with ideas of how I could help. Maui was a ten-hour flight away, at best, and that was only if I could charter a plane and fly out there direct.

Ten fucking hours from the moment my ass hit the seat was too long. By then, they might all be dead—or God only knew what else might’ve happened to them. I sure as hell didn’t want to think about it.

My parents would take even longer to get there than I would. They were upstate at the compound, as far as I knew. I didn’t know where Jim was, but Freya hadn’t called her fiancé for help. She’d called me and I was going to figure this out.

As I watched dark espresso filling my cup, I opened my web browser and did a search for the hotel I knew they were staying at. Hitting the dial button straight off the search results, I gripped the phone and waited for the front desk to pick up.

“This is the Maui Grand Paradise,” a friendly female voice said. “How may I direct your call?”

I cleared my throat, trying my best to keep my rising panic out of it. “Hi, this is Calan Reid. My sister and her friends are in the Presidential Suite for her bachelorette party. I need you to send someone to the Wailea Wailer Club. I just spoke to her and they need help.”

The tone of the woman on the other end changed instantly. “Our driver has been in touch with us about this group. They’re drunk, sir. Drunken women on a bachelorette party are not our responsibility.”

“They’re guests at your hotel,” I snapped. “What did your driver say?”

“I’m not at liberty to discuss that, sir. Our shuttle was waiting for them at the club and they failed to report at the arranged hour. We cannot be held accountable for their actions or whereabouts.”

“Just tell your fucking driver to bring them back to the hotel. He can round them up one by one himself. Just make sure he does it. I’ll reward him generously when I get there.”

I hung up before the woman could say no, frustration nearly choking the damn life out of me as it tore up my insides. I tried Ella again, but she still wasn’t answering, and Freya wasn’t either.

I put in a call to a club owner I knew out there, but he couldn’t do much either. Then again, it was the middle of the night over there and it wasn’t his club or hotel in question. Eventually, though, he offered to send one of his bouncers out to check if he could find any of them, but they’d already been chucked out of the Wailer and I didn’t know where else he could look.

“Thanks,” I said with a deep sigh. “I appreciate it. I’ll be there as soon as I can. They’re staying at the Grand Paradise. If he finds them, let me know.”

“Will do, brother,” the guy responded before he hung up.

With panic, frustration, and flat-out fear coursing through my insides, I gritted my teeth and called the only other person I knew who would drop everything for Freya.

I called Finn.

36

ELLA

The pounding in my head woke me up. Before I’d even opened my eyes, the first wave of nausea rolled through me, and considering the taste of something dying in my mouth, I knew this was going to be a hangover from hell.

Moaning out loud, I finally wrenched my eyes open, relief trickling through me when I recognized that at least I’d made it back to my own hotel room. As I sat up slowly, I searched my brain for memories of last night, but I ran dry after that awful conversation I’d had at the bar.

What the hell happened?

I groaned and scrubbed my hands over my face. Then I tensed when I realized I wasn’t alone. Someone was in the bathroom and I froze up completely. Oh, no. Oh, God. Please don’t let me have brought someone home from the club.

Another wave of nausea rolled through me as I glanced at the queen bed next to mine. Polly’s bed. The bed of the girl who was the sister of the man Freya was marrying. If I had brought someone home, she had been sleeping right there when it’d happened.

Whatever it was that happened anyway.

The fact of the matter was that she was Jim’s family and he was marrying Freya, who was Calan’s family. If I had slept with someone else, Freya and Calan would both be finding out about it. With the pain in my head now echoing in my heart, I stared at the bathroom door, thinking the worst and instinctively checking in with my body.

It didn’t feel like I’d slept with anyone last night, but I couldn’t remember a damn thing, so it wasn’t impossible. With Calan, I always felt it the next day but he was huge and he always gave me a pretty good workout.

Anything less impressive or enthusiastic, and it was possible that I might not feel it this morning. The door handle started turning and my aching heart leaped into my throat. I almost cried with relief when Polly was the person who emerged.

Wearing an oversized T-shirt and last night’s makeup all the way down to her chin, she looked almost as bad as I felt. Both of us groaned in shared sympathy as our eyes met.

“There’s some water and painkillers for you if you want them,” she said, her voice husky and hoarser than it had been yesterday.

At the sound of it, a vague flash of a memory appeared in my brain. Singing. Lots of shouty singing. And vomiting. Sooooo much vomiting.