by Cassia Leo
A swell of emotion rises up inside me, stinging my eyes as I think of the three times I rejected my previous boyfriends’ marriage proposals. Am I really that transparent?
He turns to face me head-on, watching the emotional reaction in every twinge of my facial features. “You have your three rules, Kara, but I only have one.” His gray eyes are fierce as they lock on mine. “You cannot lie to me. I will always know when you’re lying. Remember that.”
I let out a deep sigh. “Time’s up,” I say, turning around to head for the door.
I half-expect him to chase after me and demand an answer to his question, but he doesn’t. He allows me to leave without further inquiry. The moment the valet brings my car and I drive away from the building, the tears spill down my cheeks.
It’s stupid. He doesn’t know me. He thinks I’m easy to read, and maybe I am, but the truth is that no one wants to marry a girl with a price tag on her head. They don’t want to move in with me and my father and deal with nightly alarms when his blood-oxygen level drops too low. They certainly don’t want to have to clean up his vomit. My life is not a fairy tale, and I won’t pretend it is by getting married and planning a life that doesn’t involve my father.
I hastily wipe the tears off my cheeks as I speed away from the Strip. And I certainly won’t allow a rich asshole like Cash Westbrook make me question my life decisions. He doesn’t know what it’s like to go to sleep wondering if you’ll wake up to find your father died while you were sleeping. He doesn’t know what it’s like to have hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt pressing you into the dry, salty Nevada earth.
He doesn’t know me. And as far I’m concerned, he never will.
After spending a few restless hours in bed, trying not to think about Cash and his stupid theories about me, I get a very rude awakening just a few minutes past four a.m. The sound of the glass breaking rouses me instantly. The explosion of glass all over me and my bed throws me into a panic, and I do just about the worst thing I can do: I leap out of bed and race out of the bedroom.
Instinct sends me flying to the living room to check on my dad. It isn’t until I’m standing at his bedside, heart pounding with adrenaline as I check his pulse oximeter, that I realize I’m bleeding. The blood is pooling around my left foot, but I don’t feel any glass or cuts on my foot. Then comes the stinging pain from the back of my thigh. Swiping my hand across my leg, I’m horrified when it comes back covered in blood.
“Oh, God,” I whisper as I watch the viscous fluid drip off my trembling fingers.
I must have rolled over onto a piece of glass when I got out of bed. Holy shit. This is a lot of blood. I hobble back toward my bedroom as my left leg begins to fall asleep. I find my phone on the nightstand where I left it and dial 911. I manage to give the 911 operator my name and address before I begin to feel very woozy. The last thing I see before I pass out is the brick with the Polaroid picture taped to it lying on the floor next to my bed.
I wake in a hospital bed with a parched mouth and my skin enveloped in a warm, woolen sensation. But the back of my left leg is extremely sore, as if I’ve been hit in the hamstring with a baseball bat. The room looks fuzzy around the edges and begins to spin when I try to lift my head.
“Whoa,” I whisper.
“Don’t try to get up,” Suzy says, rushing to my bedside. “Oh, my God. You scared the shit out of me.”
I try to move my hands, but my fingers are so swollen I can’t make a fist. “I can’t move,” I mutter.
“You’re not supposed to move, stupid,” she says wiping away tears.
“Why are you crying?”
She shakes her head. “Did you not hear me say that you scared the fuck out of me? Jacie called me as soon as she got to the house and saw the police and the blood. She said it looked like you’d been murdered. And the fucking police and the hospital wouldn’t give me any details because we’re not family. What the fuck happened?”
I think back and remember the window and the blood… and the picture taped to the brick. I can’t tell her what happened. She’ll freak out, then she’ll try to get involved, and I can’t have that.
“I don’t know,” I reply. “I think something flew through the window. Maybe a bird or a baseball or something.”
“A baseball? At four in the morning?”
“I don’t know. I went to check on my dad, then I passed out before I could check the bedroom to see what it was.” I turn my face to look at her, to see if she’s buying any of this, but she looks a bit skeptical. “Is my dad okay?”
She nods. “Yeah. In fact, I have to call him to ask him what the hospital said about your injuries.”
“Well, I can tell you that. I had a pretty bad cut on my thigh. Probably nicked a vein or something based on the blood loss.”
She lets out a sigh. “That’s probably why you were in surgery. Shit, I thought you were shot or something.”
I force out a chuckle. “Yeah, right. Who’s gonna shoot me? The hospital for not paying my dad’s bills? I’m fine,” I assure her, though the throbbing pain in my thigh says otherwise. “Damn. I need to call Mick and tell him I can’t make it to work tonight. Can I borrow your phone?”
Mick takes the news fairly well, though I sense a bit of suspicion in his voice. If there’s anyone who would know the real reason behind the attack, it would be Mick. He knows my dad’s history. Heck, he probably even knows my dad’s bookie and how much he owes.
“I might need a few days off,” I add as I motion to Suzy to get me a glass of water. “I’m sorry, Mick.”
“Don’t worry, kid. Your job will be here when you get back. The clients like you.”
I try not to read too much into this statement as I end the call. I don’t think Mick knows about my arrangement with Cash.
Shit! Cash. What reason am I going to give him for not being able to go to his penthouse tonight? His only rule is that I can’t lie to him, but I think I can finesse my way around the truth.
“Did the doctors tell you when I’ll be released?” I ask Suzy as she hands me a waxy paper cup of water.
“They wouldn’t tell me anything,” she groans.
I try to sit up a little to drink the water, but the pain in my leg fires up, causing me to wince.
Suzy’s face contorts with anger. “That’s it. I’m getting a doctor in here now. I want answers!” Quickly changing her tone, she gently places her hand on my shoulder. “I’ll be right back.”
I shake my head as she storms out of the hospital room. As I manage to take a small sip of water, I notice she left her phone lying on the bed next to my thigh. I grit my teeth against the pain as I reach down to grab it, then I quickly dial Cash’s number. He picks up on the third ring.
“Cash, it’s me, Kara. I’m calling you from my friend’s phone.”
“Couldn’t stop thinking about me, huh?”
I roll my eyes. “Listen closely because I don’t have much time,” I begin. “I can’t make it to your place tonight. Something came up, but I should be there in…a few days.”
“A few days? That’s a long time for me to be away from my fiancée. What’s so important you can’t make it?”
“It’s not a big deal,” I reply quickly, my eyes darting toward the doorway, watching for Suzy. “I just need a few days to myself.”
He’s silent for a moment, and my pulse races as I wonder what he’s thinking. “Kara, I told you I only have one rule,” he says, his voice hard with a hint of annoyance. “We have less than three weeks to get to know each other well enough to convince people we’re engaged. I don’t have time to deal with these kinds of delays. I’m a busy man and I made my evenings available to you, to adhere to your need for discretion. But if you expect me to continue to play by your rules, then you have to play by mine, as well. Why can’t you come tonight?”
I let out a deep sigh. “I’m in the hospital. I hurt my leg.”
“What happened?” he asks, and I think I detect a touch of worry in his voice.
“I’m fine. It’s just a minor injury.”
“Kara, minor injuries don’t require hospital stays.”
Fuck. This man is impossible to deceive. I try to think of a way out of this corner he’s backed me into, when the sound of footsteps in the corridor send me into a panic.
“I have to go. I’ll call you back.” I end the call and hastily try to place the phone back where it was on the bed next to my leg, but the sound of the phone ringing startles me and I end up dropping it on the floor just as Suzy enters the room. “Oh, my God. I’m so sorry. Is it broken?”
She races over to pick it up and a handsome Asian man in a white lab coat enters behind her. “The screen is cracked,” she says, standing up and forcing a smile. “It’s okay. I have insurance. They’ll replace it without question.”
“I’m sorry, Suze. I just keep fucking up.”
“Oh, shut up. It’s just a stupid phone.”
The man arrives at the other side of my bed and tilts his head as he smiles at me. “Good morning, Kara. I’m Dr. Lee. How are you feeling?”
“Is it still morning?” I reply, then I shake my head. “I’m…a little woozy, but I’m okay, I guess. When can I leave?”
He lets out a sexy chuckle. “So eager to leave us. Well, I’m afraid you’ll be here at least for the night. That was a pretty deep puncture wound, and glass is not the best kind of sharp object to be stabbed with. It’s quite messy. But the good news is that the glass missed all major arteries and veins. We were able to repair some minor damage to your hamstring muscle and subcutaneous tissue. You should be on your feet in three to four days. And you should be able to perform all your previous activities in ten to fourteen days.”
I look up at him, a desperate plea in my eyes. “I work on my feet. Can I go back to work in three days?”
He looks a bit concerned at my desperation. “Hmm… I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to spend more than a half hour at a time standing on that leg until you’re fully healed. Can you take breaks to sit down for at least ten minutes every half hour?”
I shake my head with frustration. “No, I can’t do that. I’m a blackjack dealer at a very exclusive club.”
“Maybe your boss can provide a stool for you to sit on while you’re dealing?” he offers this solution tentatively.
I stare at the perfect symmetry of his facial features for a moment and note his gentle bedside manner. “You’re a very nice man.”
He smiles. “Thank you, but I sense a qualification to that statement coming.”
“I can’t lose my job. I need you to write a very detailed note to my boss asking him to allow me to deal while sitting on a stool and all that jazz. I mean, it needs to be iron clad because I cannot get fired. Please help me.”
His brow furrows with worry, then he nods. “I can do that.”
I sigh as I lean my head back and look up at the ceiling tiles. “Can I go back to sleep now?”
“Not yet,” says a deep voice.
I whip my head to the left and watch as a policeman with a bushy blond mustache steps into the doorway.
“May I come in?” he asks.
I turn to Dr. Lee and his face is serious as he rounds the foot of my bed toward the officer. “She really needs her rest. Can we do this later?”
“I’ll make it quick,” the officer replies. “You can stay here if you’d like.”
Lee glances at me. “I have to check on a patient next door. I want her asleep by the time I get back.”
He nods at me before he leaves and Suzy takes a seat in a chair at my bedside.
“Uh, ma’am. Do you mind?” the officer addresses Suzy and nods toward the door as if to imply that she should leave.
“No, I’m staying,” she insists, crossing her arms and legs defiantly.
He shrugs as he approaches, taking out a notepad and a pen as he stops a couple feet from the foot of the bed. “I need to ask you what—”
“Wait!” I stop him as I turn to Suzy. “I need you to wait outside.”
“What? Why?”
I try to swallow my nerves, but my mouth is still too parched. “Please.”
She glares at me and I know it’s going to be a matter of time before I have to tell her all about Benny and his escalating threats. But until then, I need to keep her out of this. The less she knows, the safer she’ll be.
She shoots out of the chair and shakes her head. “I don’t keep secrets from you, Kara. You’d better tell me what the fuck is going on here soon because I love you, but I swear to God I’ll kick your ass if you start keeping secrets from me.”
“Ma’am, please refrain from making threats,” the officer says as Suzy storms out of the room.
I try not to smile at the ferocity of her words because I know she’d never kick my ass. She just wants the truth. Like Cash wants the truth. And I can’t give it to either of them. I’m so fucked.
The officer turns back to me. “I’m Officer Lawson. I’ve been assigned to take your statement. Do you know who threw the brick through your window this morning?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know.”
“There was a picture of you taped to the brick.” He pulls a plastic evidence bag out of his back pocket and steps forward to hand it to me. “Does this mean anything to you?”
My blood stands still in my veins as I stare at the photo. It’s a picture of me dealing blackjack at the Billionaire Club. With this photo and the brick, Benny’s trying to send a message that he knows where I work, which means he knows I’m getting paid well, and he’s getting impatient.
I hand the picture back to Lawson and shake my head again. “I don’t know. Maybe I have a stalker.”
“You don’t seem very concerned about that,” he replies as he tucks the evidence bag into his pocket.
“What do you want me to do? Break down crying?” I reply fiercely. “Whoever did this, that’s exactly the kind of reaction they want out of me, and I won’t give it to them. Are we done here?”
He cocks a bushy blond eyebrow at me. “For now. If I have any more questions, I know where to find you. Take care now.”
As he walks out of my room, the wall around my emotions begins to falter, and the tears fall freely. Suzy re-enters the room a few minutes later with a couple of Jamba Juice smoothie cups in her hands.
“Found a Jamba Juice cart near the gift shop.” She sets mine down on the nightstand. “Look, Kara, I don’t know what’s going on, but you can’t hold the weight of the world on your shoulders all by yourself. It’s okay to let people help you sometimes.”
I wipe the tears away with the bed sheet. “How’s my dad?” I ask, eager to change the subject.
Her shoulders slump as she realizes this conversation, and her quest for the truth, are going nowhere. “He’s fine. Peter’s bringing over a bag of your personal stuff that Jacie put together. Your phone too, which I’m told needed a good scrubbing due to all the blood.” She shoots me a glare. “Then you can call Jacie and talk to her yourself.”
“I’m sorry I broke your phone,” I say, though inside I’m actually kind of relieved that Cash wasn’t able to call me back.
It really is true that a single lie can turn into a tangled web of deceit in no time. As I look up at the disappointed look on Suzy’s face, all I can think is that, for her sake, I need to untangle this web before she does.
The soft click of the hospital door closing wakes me, but the room is so dark I can’t see if someone has entered or exited the room. I blink to try to focus my vision on the doorway, when the silhouette of a hooded man begins to materialize against the soft crack of light shining through the frame of the door. My heart races as he takes a step forward. I should scream, but I’m frozen with fear.
Finally, I manage to open my mouth and force out a sound. “S-s-stop,” I whisper. “Don’t come any closer or I’ll scream.”
He shushes me and the sound makes my heart thump so hard, I can hear it echoing inside my skull. He reaches behind him and I
realize this is it. Even if I manage to scream, no one will get here fast enough to stop him from killing me.
“Please don’t kill me,” I whisper. “Please I swear I’ll—”
“Kara, I’m not going to kill you.”
The man’s voice sounds so familiar, but I’m still a bit groggy, I must be hearing things.
His hand comes forward and I brace myself for a gunshot. But he’s not holding a gun. It’s a phone. He presses a button and holds the glowing screen up near his face. It’s Cash.
“You asshole!” I shout.
He shushes me again as he approaches. “You need to be quiet. No one can know I’m here.”
“How the hell did you find me?” I demand, making no attempt to lower my voice.
“Kara, please,” he whispers. “You’re the one who didn’t want anyone to see us together. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have walked in here with a fucking hood over my head, using a fucking cell phone as a flashlight.”
I take a deep breath and let it out slowly. “You scared the hell out of me.”
“I’m sorry, but you gave me no choice.” His gaze slides down all the way to my feet, then he pulls it back and his voice softens as he looks me in the eye. “You worried me. What happened to you?”
I try not to get emotional at the thought that this man I hardly know was out there worrying about me for the past few hours. “My house was attacked,” I whisper through the knot in my throat.
It’s not a lie, and it’s certainly more truthful than the explanation Suzy got. If no one knows I’m seeing Cash—am I seeing him?—then there’s no risk in being a bit more honest with him.
“Your house was attacked?” he says, his brows furrowed, though I can’t tell if he’s more worried or disappointed with my explanation. He reaches forward and my body relaxes a little when he lays his hand on my cheek. “If you don’t feel you can talk to me about this, then I’ll let it go. But I can’t let anything happen to you.” He smiles as he gently tucks a piece of hair behind my ear. “You’re my million-dollar investment.”
I shake my head as I push his hand away. “I can’t do this anymore. I’m… I’m in way over my head, and—”