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Denial isn't just a river in Egypt. It was a wide expanse of my brain.
I wished I could erase it entirely. I wished I could go back and do that night over again. I would have stayed inside the ballroom and suffered the stifling heat, press of bodies and smell of sweat. All of that was better than this. I could have lived my life in blissful ignorance of what happened to that man that night. He still would have died, but I wouldn't have seen it. I wouldn't have known.
I shuddered.
I forced a smile onto my face and stepped out of the office, closing the door behind me. I had to stop thinking about it, at least for a while. Focus on my class and enjoying myself.
The memory would come crashing back in soon enough.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Kennedy
"This is insanity," Ares commented. He leaned against the door frame, arms crossed.
He looked good in a suit. Too good. The earthy, leather and spice smell of him flooded my senses and heated my core.
"That's one name for it." My bridesmaid dress brushed the top of my feet. The neckline plunged down between my breasts, showing off a bunch of cleavage. The back was lace, decorated with tiny green flowers.
We stood back and watched as a team of chefs and other staff prepared food for the handful of guests. Every so often, someone would run in looking for something and run back out again.
"Do you think we should help?" I asked.
"Nope," he said simply. "It's more fun to watch. Besides, if you try to help you going to trip the fuck over that dress."
I glanced down. "Yeah, you're right, I would." Before he could say anything I quickly added, "That's the one and only time I'll ever admit you're right about anything."
"No, it won't be." He smirked at me.
I rolled my eyes.
"I'm going upstairs to make sure Mum is doing okay." I carefully picked up my skirt in both hands and stepped lightly up the stairs. I didn't need to look back to know Ares watched my ass the whole way up. I didn't give him the satisfaction of glancing back to check.
I reached the top of the stairs without tripping the fuck over my dress and headed over to the room where Mum was getting ready.
Before I could knock on the door, the one on the opposite side of the wide hallway opened. Ice stuck his head out.
"Hey, Beautiful, can you do Mannix a favour and grab his bowtie? He forgot to bring it in here." He made a playful face and shrugged. "It's in the top drawer in his walk-in wardrobe. He's currently in his underwear and doesn't want your mother to see him, or he'd get it himself."
"Of course," I said before Ice disappeared and shut the door behind him. Chaos might be a better word than insanity. It seemed like Ares and I were the only ones ready.
I shook my head to myself and hurried into Mannix's room.
Like all the other rooms here, his wardrobe was enormous. Almost as big as the bedroom itself. It was stuffed full of clothes and random items, like a snowboard, which leaned against the wall. What looked like the end of a snorkel stuck out from under a pile of dirty clothes. Or were they clean clothes he hadn't put away yet? Either way, I wasn't going to start tidying up after him.
There was only one set of drawers in the wardrobe. A stack of four long ones that stretched almost from one wall to the other. Any longer and the snowboard would fit inside it. If the drawer wasn't crammed full of stuff, that was. If the floor was any indication, there wouldn't be a spare centimetre, much less a metre and a half or so.
I stepped over to the drawers and opened the top one. Just as I suspected, it was jammed full.
"In the top drawer," I muttered to myself. Ice made it sound as though it should be easy to find. Instead, I was forced to rummage around for anything that looked like a bowtie.
I moved some superhero boxer shorts aside and froze.
A face looked back at me.
No, not a face.
A mask.
