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Speeding down the interstate, I answer my phone hands-free.
“Cade? It’s Scarlett. I called Jameson for your number.”
“Hey.”
I can’t really talk. I’m focused on the crowded road to Atlanta and what I’ll find when I arrive.
“Hey. Look.” Scarlett pauses. “I hate doing this, but I’ll always help another woman.”
“Yeah?” My stomach twists. Scarlett’s in Atlanta. That much I know, afraid of what I’ll learn next.
“I’m training with HGR Security. I’m shadowing this guy, Wade, and we’re cast security for this film down here.”
“And?”
“The film is Redix Dean’s. You know him, right? Y’all are sorta together?”
“Yeah.”
My foot presses the gas pedal down to switch lanes in lightning zigzags.
“I think you should get down here. He’s not good. That’s all I can say. I’m not really supposed to tell you, but I know trouble when I see it.”
“I’m an hour out.”
“Okay. Good.” She’s quiet. “You need help?”
Tears threaten. Every time I’ve been in the shit, another woman has been there to get my back. From high school on the bus with that Charlie girl, to Mama, to Penny, to Scarlett.
“Can you meet me at the Waldorf?”
“I’ll be there.”
GPS and my fear, they race me there, cursing through Atlanta’s traffic until I drop my keys in the valet’s hand at the front of the posh hotel. Grabbing my bag from the passenger seat, I see Scarlett leaning in the breezeway and waiting for me. Her eyes flick down to my duty belt.
“You come straight from the office?”
“Yeah.” I search for the key fob Redix left me. It’s buried at the bottom of my bag while we storm through the lobby. “Thanks for this.”
“Anytime.”
We don’t say anything in the elevator. I know she’ll get my back. I just don’t know who’ll protect my heart.
Swiping the fob in front of the opulent door with brass handles, I shove it wide open.
“Cade!” Eric jumps up from the sofa in the suite’s living room. “What are you doing here?” He looks like hell collided with crap.
“Where is he?”
His eyes dart left toward a door. That’s the bedroom.
“How long has he been in there?”
How long can I stand here until I’m ready to confront this? I don’t know if I can because it’s in my throat about to strangle all breath away.
What did he do?
Eric shifts. “Since last night.”
