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What, Saige? Having dirty thoughts about a man you haven’t even met yet?
I snort.
Aden holds his wrist up and points at his watch, mouthing twenty, just before he disappears into the hallway that leads to the manager’s office. And to Dariel, the other hound who seemingly never leaves it.
After shooting him a grin, I spin around and continue cutting across the seating area toward the staff changing room which has a bathroom just for us to use. I’m reaching for the keypad to enter the code when something catches my eye.
I turn and my gaze hits a mirror in the entryway.
But it’s not the mirror that makes all the blood rush from my head and panic flood my body.
It’s the profile of the dark-haired man in a pair of black jeans and a denim shirt, his hand curved around the cell phone he’s talking into.
Nathan.
As if he feels my gaze on him through the mirror's reflection, he darts a glance toward me.
25
SAIGE
Idrop to the floor like a stone.
In the seconds it takes for me to land, I’ve stopped thinking. Or breathing. Or… anything.
The terror coursing through my veins is almost drugging, making my skin icy cold despite the sweat I feel forming under my arms.
My knees burn with the speed I crawl across the floor. Someone calls out to me. Sam, I think, but I ignore her and crawl as if my life depends on it because right now you can bet it does.
Sweat slides from my armpit, down my side, and into the waistband of my skirt.
I pass more tables and keep going, my breath wheezing out of me as I propel myself faster and faster.
Surely there has to be a fire exit this way or…
And then it hits me: there isn’t a way out. Not in this corner of the room. Only the dancefloor on my left, and then the bar itself.
Laughter breaks out from somewhere behind me. Female, and I’m almost positive a man laughs too.
A familiar laugh.
Is that Sam? With Nathan? Is he flirting with her to get her to talk?
I pause, straining to hear over the music.
Was that my name?
Did Nathan just ask Sam about a girl who works here?
I’m almost positive I hear my name. Not Lily. My real name. But then the DJ changes the record and a deeper, richer beat floods the space. After that, I can’t hear anything.
“Hey, you okay down there?”
I nearly give myself whiplash with the speed I jerk my head to the right. Leaning across from his table is a guy with a drink in hand, his dark eyes wide with confusion as he stares down at me.
“Did you drop something?”
I whip my head back to the bar, trying to peer around the tables and chairs to see if Nathan is there because this guy is doing nothing but drawing attention to me.
