AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I stare at him incredulously, blinking slowly as the consequences of the move worm their way into my brain. “No. The ball cap does a piss-poor job of hiding who you are. Did you know that?”
“Not here, Vincent,” he hisses. “Certainly not right now. Get in the fucking car with your brother, and let’s go.”
“I don’t wanna,” I complain, but then I hear it myself, how childish I sounded just there. Sighing as I throw my hands up to my sides, I trip over my foot on my way to the closest car. “I’ll just get in here. So long, then. Buh-bye, freedom. It was fun knowing you. See you never.”
“Don’t even start with that shit right now.” Maxim grunts as he takes my arm and walks me over to the SUV, opening the door and piling me in before getting in himself. “What the hell were you thinking?”
I glance toward the front of the car where the driver and guard in the passenger seat are, both Mike’s guys. “Can’t tell you right now.”
He frowns, but he lets it go until we pull into the parking lot of the hotel a surprisingly short distance away. When I realize how close I got to making it back to the hotel before I spotted that bar, I glance at him.
“How did you guys find me?” I ask. “And why did it take you so long?”
Sending a pointed look at the front of the car himself, he gives his head an almost imperceptible shake. Once we’ve stopped, he leans forward. “Can you guys give me a few minutes alone with my brother? You can stay right outside the car, but I guarantee you he won’t be going anywhere. Just tell Dad and Mike he’s with me for a few.”
The driver nods, but he doesn’t look happy about getting out of the car and leaving me in it.Jesus, they really are like prison guards.
My insides suddenly rebel, and I slap my hand over my mouth before I get sick all over the rented SUV. Maxim waits it out, lips pursed in disapproval as he stares at me fighting to control the wave of nausea.
“Fuck, Vince. It’s been weeks. Why today? Why the fuck didn’t you even tell me where you were going?”
“Did Olivia tell you I was gone?”
“No.” He frowns. “I told her you were gone. She said you were supposed to be in a meeting with me, so I assumed you lied to her because I didn’t have a meeting with you today. I actually went to your room to ask you if you had time to come up to my room to talk wedding stuff, but then…” He shoves a hand in his hair and shakes his head. “You were just gone. I think you made us all age twenty years in the last few hours. So I repeat. What. The. Fuck were you thinking?”
He punctuates the words carefully, his jaw working and his eyes shining with tears. “And it better be fucking good.”
“It’s, uh, it’s not good, but it is a good excuse,” I say lamely. “Would it help if I told you I did it for Olivia?”
“Olivia?” His chin drops, and he narrows his eyes. “No, actually, it wouldn’t, but this isn’t the time when you blame her for something like this. She’s in a fucking state, Vincent. She blames herself for not realizing you were lying or keeping an eye on you while the others were in the meeting. She offered to resign from her position. This is the second time something has happened while it’s just been you and her, and she feels like she’s failed. She’s crying, so if that’s what you meant when you say you did it for her, then well done.”
“Crying?” My mouth feels dry, chest tight. “No, that’s not… Why is she crying and offering to resign? It’s not her fault. I didn’t mean to blame it on her. I left so I wouldn’t do something she doesn’t want me to do to her.”
“She’s crying because her job is her whole life, and you made her feel like she failed at it. She offered to resign for that reason. Also, I think she’s worried about you, but that can’t be right. Unless…” He groans. “God, no. No. Tell me you didn’t fuck her. Please tell me you didn’t fuck Olivia.”
“I didn’t fuck Olivia,” I reply dutifully. “I wanted to, though. That’s why I left.”
He drops his head into his hands and groans some more, muttering curses into his palms while he’s at it. “She’s the last person you should be fucking around with. You seriously couldn’t just be happy with your hand for just a few fucking weeks? She’s not like us, Vince. You know that. To quote Dad when I started fucking around with Emma, she’s not the girl you fuck. She’s the girl you marry.”
“Yeah, I know,” I say. “I think I’d like to do that with her. Marry her, I mean. Not fuck her. Well, I want to fuck her too, but that’s not why I want to marry her. Actually, do you have to marry someone if you’re in love with them? How does that even work?”
My brother stops moving. He even stops cursing and breathing. “What did you just say?”
“I said that I’m in love with her,” I grunt. “See? I told you there was a good reason I left. I want her, Maxim, but as mine. Like you have Emma. I want Olivia. What the hell am I supposed to do now?”
Slowly lifting his head, his gaze swings to mine, and he’s dead serious when he says, “You leave that girl the hell alone until you’re sure—that’s what. Telling her you love her and sleeping with her aren’t things you can take back. You hear me? Go to Mom and Dad’s room, sleep off whatever distillery you drank, and then take the next few days while you earn your own room back to really think about it. Don’t even look at her until you know. Don’t fuck her around, Vincent. You’ve done some pretty shitty things recently, but that…”
He inhales deeply. “Just don’t hurt her, and before you even speak to her again, when you think you’re sure about what you know, come find me first. I’ll run through it with you, and then you can do whatever the hell it is you’re going to do anyway. We clear?”
“Yep.” I try to give him a salute, but my hand hits my nose instead of my forehead, and I sigh. “I’m going to go sleep it off now. If Mom and Dad kill me, you’ll tell her eventually that I loved her, right?”
He nods, but the beginning of a smile starts to form on his lips. “Olivia, huh? Fuck, you really do know how to keep things interesting. I’ll tell her, but they won’t kill you. Just apologize profusely and ride it out. They had a huge fright today, so it’s going to be a while until they let you out of their sight again.”
“I know,” I admit. “How did you find me anyway?”
“We tracked your phone until the signal went dead.” He frowns. “What happened to your phone? When the blip went out, I thought Dad was going to have a heart attack. We had your general vicinity, but that’s about it. We had to search on foot from there. You’d already been gone a couple hours by the time I went to your room, but we were surprised you were that close to the hotel. Anyway. What happened to it?”
“What? Nothing happened to it. It’s right here.” I slide my hand into my pocket, but it’s empty. “Fuck. I must’ve been pickpocketed. I was pretty caught up in my own world there while I was walking and figuring it out.”
