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In the quiet of the elevator, I felt the weight of Valentina’s crushed hopes. She had always wanted more from me when we were together, and I was always with one foot out the door.
“Val, I know I ended things…badly.”
“You didn’t end them at all,” she said. No accusation, but her voice sounded bruised with old pain. “You stopped talking to me. And then Acapulco happened, and you were gone.”
God, was that how it was? Did I do that to her?
That’s what Keith did to Charlotte.
The sick feeling ratcheted up. I’d never felt so lost, cast adrift in the black nothing without Charlotte to hold on to.
“I’m sorry, Val. I really am.”
“It’s okay,” she said, and I heard a smile. “This is not the best circumstance, but it’s nice to see that you love someone.”
I do, God help me, I do. I love Charlotte and I never told her…
The doors finally opened, and Valentina took me back through the ballroom. “She’s not here,” she said.
“Deacon?”
“I don’t see him either.”
Oh, Christ.
“Downstairs,” I said. “Maybe Charlotte left.” I hoped she did. I hoped to God she was safely tucked in the back of a cab, hating me but safe. Please, I prayed as Val led me back to the elevators.Anything. I’ll do anything so long as she’s okay.
I thought it was taking an eternity for the elevator to arrive and Val said, “Looks like one elevator is stuck.”
An alarm went off; a loud ringing, over and over, from the elevator shaft. My blood turned to ice in my veins.
“Charlotte.”
chapter thirty-two
“No, no, no!” I shrieked. “This is not going to happen, Deacon. It’snot.”
“Charlotte, calm down,” Deacon said. He’d hit the emergency stop button and was holding out his hands in a calming manner, as if trapping a woman in an elevator was perfectly normal and I was crazy to be upset about it. “I just want to talk to you. That’s it.”
“Liar,” I said. My heart was pounding so hard I thought it would burst from my chest. “You could’ve talked to me out there. You don’t follow someone…you don’tcornerthem…”
Deacon towered over me, as most people did, blocking the door. And he was drunk. Much drunker than I’d noticed before. His cheeks were ruddy, his eyes shining but dull at the same time. For the first time since I’d met him, his loose laugh and smug smile were gone, replaced with a lazy, predatory expression that made my blood run cold.
“You wouldn’t talk to me out there,” Deacon said. “But this is better. Quieter. Away from everyone.”
He stepped forward, and I stepped away; my back hit the elevator wall. “There are security cameras,” I said, clutching my little purse to my chest as if it were some sort of shield. My voice trembled as badly as my hands. “People are watching. They have to be.”
“Let them watch,” Deacon said, moving closer. “We’re just talking. That’s all I want. To talk.”
“I have nothing to say to you, except that if you were ever Noah’s friend, you will open those doors right now.Right now.”
“Noah’s friend,” he snorted. “That was my title: Noah’s Friend. It may as well have been my name, and you want me to go back to that? Fuck no, sweet Charlotte. Not going to happen.”
“Deacon…”
“When he was around, everyone else became invisible. I became invisible. To the managers atPX,always giving him the best assignments. To the women…toValentina. I met her first. Did you know that? She was supposed to be with me, but no… She took one look at Noah and that was it. And he didn’t even love her. I could have loved her. I could have…”
He moved closer, and I darted for the panel of buttons. He blocked the way with his arm, pinning me to the wall, his whiskey breath wafting over me wetly.
