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“Hi,” I reply as someone comes into the bathroom, filling the room with louder music as the door swings open and closed again.
“Oh, are you out?” he asks.
I sigh as I remember where we are. “Yeah. We’ve kind of gotten ourselves into a bit of a bind.”
“Everything okay?” he asks.
“Just trying to get home. Unsuccessfully, so far.”
“Where are you?” I look around and read the name from the top of the fancy mirrors.
“Harlow, that’s a Guards bar!”
“We figured that out, thanks. We’re trying to get out of here.”
“How are you getting home?” he asks.
“I’ve put in a request on the app but there’s no cars in the area. I guess we’ll just wait for one to become free.” I hear shuffling and jingling in the background.
“No, I’ll come and get you. I’ll call you when I’m a minute away and pull up opposite the front entrance for you to get in.” Relief and guilt fill me. We can get out of here—and soon—but once again, Nico is doing me a huge favor for no return, and he didn’t seem massively happy about it the last time.
“Are you sure?” I ask.
“Five minutes,” he replies curtly before he hangs up. Guess he’s sure.
“Nico’s coming,” I tell Fleur, but she probably got the gist from my side of the conversation anyway. We settle in the seating area to wait.
“Oh yeah, he must live around here. What was he calling for?”
“I have no idea.” I’m just thankful he was.
We wait quietly and nervously in the bathroom for Nico’s call. The Guards have never started anything with women—that we know of—but I feel so antsy being surrounded by them in an area I’m not familiar with. The last thing you want is to get on their radar, whatever gender you are. He calls less than five minutes later, and I grab Fleur’s hand and lead her back to the entrance. Before we get there, she tugs my hand and pulls me to a stop. When I turn, she’s looking through the crowd of people behind us.
“What is it?” I ask.
“I could have sworn I just saw Lee,” she said, standing on tiptoe and trying to see through the throng of people. “It must be a mistake,” she says. “I’m sure he wouldn’t be caught dead hanging out with the Guards.”
I pull her the rest of the way outside and exhale a huge sigh of relief when we pull away from the curb.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Nico asks.
“We got swept up in a hens party,” I tell him, flashing Fleur a look in the rearview mirror to not tell him more than he needs to know. I don’t want to tell anyone about Eli just yet, not until I know what I’m going to do about him.
“That’s so irresponsible, and on your own, too. Do you have any idea what could have happened in there?”
“Alright, Nico, we know. We didn’t mean to wind up there. It was a mistake. Thank you for coming to get us.” He doesn’t say anything else, but I can tell he’s seething.
We drop Fleur off, and he’s still tense when we pull up outside my place. His jaw is doing this ticky thing, which would be weirdly sexy in a more appropriate situation. It’s like he’s having trouble holding himself back, and it’s a side of Nico I’ve never seen before. Seeing as I’m pretty sure he’s angry at me, I really shouldn’t be finding it this attractive.
“Sorry you had to come out this la—”
He scoffs, cutting off my apology.
“As if that’s why I’m angry, Harlow.”
“Why are you—”
“You should get some sleep.” His hands have a white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel, and he hasn’t looked at me this whole time. I get out without saying anything else, but I turn back and see Nico watching me walk in.
