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This was her reality now. Happiness and fun and work and friends.
And Ryan.
Nothing from her past could touch her. Her uncle had ensured she could make a clean break. He had contacts all over the world and ways of pulling strings to ensure Marco and the men who did his dirty work couldn’t get close to her. Added to the steps that she’d taken for protection, she was safe. Memories couldn’t harm her, no matter how much they still stung.
Now she needed to put it all behind her once and for all.
She gripped the bottle and shifted to grin at her best friend. Just like hers, his mouth was wet from the moonshine. After a while, it didn’t burn so much going down.
Neither did leaning over to kiss him while her friends laughed and clapped.
Tomorrow she might regret this. Tonight she was going to live.
Chapter Sixteen
Grueling.
It was a word. One that she’d chisel into every bumper she’d stared at for the last three hours of the drive into Vegas. The trip from Chicago to Vegas was brutal anyway. The GPS lied like a fourteen-year-old with their first hangover.
Three-day drive her ass. It had been stretched to nearly four. Thank God they’d left the morning after the Keith show. Her liver still hadn’t forgiven her for the moonshine. It actually hurt.
It was probably all in her head, but seriously, the pang lived on. As did the cotton mouth. And she had a tension headache that she could only partially blame on the drive.
No, it was more about those purple mountains in the distance.
She curled her fingers tighter around the steering wheel. Five years should have been long enough for her to get her head together about Vegas. Then why was her belly seizing like she hadn
’t eaten in seventeen days?
Because he was there.
No. No, Marco wasn’t there anymore.
Ghosts lived in Vegas.
If nothing else, she kept tabs on him. Well, as much as she could without tipping him off as to where she’d gone. But it was amazing what a Google search could bring up. Especially when her ex had climbed the ranks to become one of the most notorious men in New York City.
This was not New York.
Hell, she hadn’t been nearly as freaked out in Manhattan. But then again, her life had changed here, not in New York. And her zen at the Keith show about putting it all behind her had lasted that night and into the next day when she’d climbed back on the bus. Knowing all the while she was driving them to the place where her world had imploded.
A green sign came into view.
100 Miles to Vegas.
Her heart slammed harder until there was nothing but white noise around her. The blare of a horn snapped her back into the moment. To the road and the fact that she was fucking driving.
Goddammit.
She dragged in a breath and forced herself to blow it out in a slow exhale. She was responsible for lives on this bus, and those around her on the road. The next sign for an exit came up and she immediately hit her signal to move over. A Mexican restaurant. Shocker. Arizona was nothing but national chain restaurants and spicy food, but it would have to do.
She wasn’t fit to be on the road at the moment. She needed to get her damn head on straight. This trip wasn’t about her. It was about the band. They were up for a big award and Ryan didn’t need her being a headcase.
There was nothing to worry about. She was getting worked up because she hadn’t been back since she’d—
No.
Not going there.
