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“She left. Ordered a car to pick her up, I think.”
Sutton turned toward a group of women sitting nearby and the one that had spoken to him. “She left the club?”
“Yes. A few minutes ago. She seemed pretty upset, too.”
He narrowed his gaze at the unfamiliar brunette. She seemed pleased and perhaps all too eager to tell him what happened. He had no clue who she was or why that would be the case. Ignoring her, he rushed over to the front door and flung it open to see if he still had time to catch her.
He saw her standing on the curb as a white sedan with an Uber sticker in the front window pulled up to her. “Lauren!” he shouted as he ran down the stairs to her.
She didn’t turn his way, instead scrambling to get into the car before he could reach her. He was able to reach out and grasp her wrist, tugging her back to her feet.
“What’s going on?” Sutton implored. “Why are you leaving?”
Lauren looked up at him with eyes near overflowing with tears. He could see hurt and conflict dancing across her face. She opened her mouth to say something, then shook her head. Leaning in to Sutton, she pressed a heated kiss to his lips. There was a finality in the way she touched him, and it made his chest ache.
“You need to let me go,” she whispered against his mouth and pulled her wrist from his grasp.
Sutton stood, confused and heartbroken, as Lauren got into the car and it drove away. He watched the Uber disappear down the highway and wondered what the hell had just happened.
Picking his phone from his coat pocket, he dialed Lauren, but it went immediately to voicemail. He didn’t understand how things had soured so quickly.
The sound of those same men laughing in the far corner of the room caught his attention as he hung up and stepped back into the club’s lobby. “I hope he looks good in orange!” one of them said to another loud round of laughter.
They were belittling him and his family again. They didn’t even try to pretend like they weren’t. He was used to it, even before the scandal people were always talking about his family. But it was new to Lauren. Maybe she’d overheard their ugly jokes while he was away from the table. He’d told her everything there was to know about the situation with Wingate Industries, but perhaps being here and having to face his scandal head-on was too much for her. It was one thing to say he was being investigated and plead his innocence. It was quite another to hear men joke about the man she was dating going to federal prison. Who wanted to carry on a relationship that might consist of Sunday afternoon visits through Plexiglas and parole hearings?
His declaration of innocence didn’t mean he wouldn’t end up in prison anyway. He wasn’t that naïve. They had good lawyers, expensive lawyers, but whoever had set them up had done a thorough job. With the evidence they had and the right jury, Sutton, Sebastian and countless other executives at the company could spend the next year or so behind bars.
The idea bothered him, of course. No one wanted to go to prison. But now the thought of it really ate at him knowing he would have to leave Lauren to build her new restaurant without his help and support.
All of that was a lot to process and might be hard for her to face. And more trouble than she needed right now in her busy life. He didn’t blame her for running, if that was what she’d done. She was an up-and-coming star in Royal, whether she knew it or not. She didn’t need Sutton’s drama dragging her down and tarnishing her reputation before she’d had a chance to build one.
That didn’t mean it wasn’t a punch to the gut he wasn’t expecting. He didn’t think she was the kind of woman to run out when things got tough.
Without glancing back at the men he’d once called friends, Sutton let the door swing shut behind him and walked to his car. He drove back to his rental house faster than he should’ve, inviting more trouble with the law, but he didn’t care. He just wanted away from the club. Away from those people he’d defended to Lauren, but now, wondered why. Perhaps she was right to avoid them all. He might need to take a page from her book and let his own membership lapse for a while. It was one less expense piling up with the others.
Once back in the safety of the house, where he could stick his head in the sand and ignore the troubles he’d had to face today, he threw his keys down on the kitchen counter. Sutton pulled a beer from the fridge and popped off the top with enough angry force to send the metal disk flying through the air.
It landed at his brother’s feet.
“You’re back early,” Sebastian said as he came around the corner into the kitchen and looked down at the silver disk on the tile. He stopped short when he looked at Sutton, the beer in his hand and the scowl on his face. “Uh-oh. What happened?”
Sutton relayed his experience at the club as briefly as he could. “She ran out on me.”
“Did you try calling her?”
He pulled out his phone and dialed again, only to have Lauren’s voice mail announcement tell him to leave a message. Again. “She’s not taking my calls at the moment.”
“I wonder what happened while you were in the restroom.” Sebastian settled into a barstool with a thoughtful expression on his face. “Whatever it was, it happened fast.”
“It’s got to be about the investigation. The Kennedy brothers and Mark Swenson were being jackasses about it when we were there. Joking about us in orange jumpsuits.” He shook his head. “As much as I hate to say it, it was probably best that she left. I would’ve bailed if I was her. No one w
ants to be in a relationship with a criminal if they can avoid it. Maybe she decided to make a run for it while she still had the chance. Things haven’t gotten too serious yet.”
“For one thing, you’re not a criminal and I’d like to think Lauren knows that. For another, if you think things aren’t too serious, you’re blind.”
Sutton swallowed his sip of beer and set the bottle down on the granite countertop. “What are you talking about?”
Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Really? You don’t think that what you two have going isn’t serious? It’s the most serious relationship I’ve seen you in, Sutton. Like, ever. You’ve fallen hard for that woman, whether you’ve admitted it to yourself or not.”
