“Can I walk you up to your room?” I asked when we arrived at the elevators.
Skylar looked away from me and shook her head. “I can’t,” was all she managed to say. Her hands went to her face, and I knew she was wiping away tears.
I took her by the shoulders and turned her to face me. She was still hiding her face from me behind her hands, so I pulled her into me and hugged her. I rested my chin on top of her head and waited for her to stop crying. It took a while.
Finally, she was able to look up at me. Her eyes were glassy, her nose was pink, and her cheeks were flushed.
“Thank you for everything,” she whispered.
I rested my forehead against hers and closed my eyes. Her fingers squeezed my forearms, and then she let go.
When I opened my eyes, she had stepped back and was in the elevator. She was crying again. Tears rolled down her cheeks, and she didn’t bother to wipe them away.
I wanted to say something to her, anything, but no words came, and I stood there like an idiot as the doors began to close.
She lifted her hand in a small wave and managed to give me a smile.
I wasn’t able to give her one back.
***
I met Meek half an hour later in the security office, once I had myself under control. I wasn’t a crier, and I hadn’t let myself succumb to the grief inside me, but I also hadn’t been capable of human interaction after saying goodbye to Skylar. So I had gone down to my car and sat in it until I was able to go back to work.
Meek looked up at me and grunted his hello.
“Anything?” I asked, sitting down in the open seat beside him in front of the monitors.
“Nothing yet. All the staff is keeping their eye out for him, though. They know what to look for, and they know not to try to be a hero. They’ll do their jobs, and once he’s gone, they’ll call us.”
“Good,” I said.
I knew Meek was looking at me as I scanned the security cameras.
“Do you think he’s actually going to show?” Meek asked.
“He might not,” I said. “But the check will.”
Meek watched the cameras with me. We had been staring at them for at least two hours when a raven-haired girl caught my eye at the checkout counter.
Skylar was really leaving.
I watched as she and the two other girls inched forward in the line. They had their suitcases with them. The blonde had more suitcases than anyone I had ever seen, and she was wearing sunglasses inside. I suspected she had partied a little too hard the night before.
Skylar was hanging back from the other two girls. I could see the slump in her shoulders and practically feel the sadness in her seeping through the screen.
It was their turn, and they all stepped up to the counter. I watched as they were processed, and then they turned and made their way around the fountain.
Skylar paused and stood in front of it for at least thirty seconds. The other girls had already left through the front doors. I watched as she took a coin out of her pocket and tossed it into the shallow water of the fountain.
Then she turned slowly, took her suitcase, and followed the girls outside.
I switched monitors to see them all pile into a black sedan to head for the airport.
“Is that your girl?” Meek asked, startling me out of my reverie.
I nodded.
“Sorry, man,” Meek said. “That’s rough.”
“It is what it is,” I said, leaning back in my chair. The car pulled off the property, and my heart sank. Skylar was gone, and I had no way of ever getting a hold of her again. “I should have taken your advice and stayed away from women, Meek.”
Meek chuckled. “Some women are worth it, my friend.”
“Yeah. She was.”
Chapter 24
Skylar
I was crammed against the door in the back of the sedan. The trunk hadn’t had enough space for all of our luggage—mostly because Nikki had packed for a medium-sized family—so one of her carry-on sized pieces of luggage was on her lap, and the bottom wheels were digging into my hip and thigh.
Had Renee not ignored me the entire morning and spent the first twenty minutes of the car ride staring out the window in stony silence, I might have complained about how uncomfortable I was. There were going to be bruises on my leg from the wheels. I was certain of it. Each and every turn we made or bump we hit in the road felt like someone was wedging their knuckles into my leg.
I grimaced as we took a sharp right, and I tried to press myself even tighter against the door panel. It did no good. As soon as I had given Nikki a bit more space, she shuffled around. The suitcase was wedged up against me once more, this time lower down my leg.
I sighed and rested my head back against the top of the seat. This was the worst car ride I had ever endured.
Not only was I surrounded by two girls who were presently pissed at me, but I was leaving behind a man who I had started to really care for. I knew how abnormal it was to have such strong feelings for someone I had only just met, but I also knew that there was something different about Greyson. I had known it from the first time I spoke to him. The way he made me feel when I was with him had been so liberating. I didn’t worry when he was around. I wasn’t constantly nagged by anxiety or stress that I should be doing something different. I always felt like I was right where I should be.
We passed a turnoff onto the highway. It was the turnoff Greyson had taken to get to Boulder City, and I knew it was also the route to the airport.
I leaned to the side to peer over the driver’s shoulder through the windshield. Perhaps he knew a quicker way to the airport. I considered asking him, but then I would have to knock on the glass partition between us and the front of the car, and I didn’t want to be one of “those girls.” He was the driver. He knew how to get to the airport.
I glanced across Nikki to steal a look at my sister. Her elbow was on the window frame, and her chin was in her hand. I could see the reflection of her face in the window as she stared out at the desert rolling by outside. She sighed, and a little bit of fog frosted the glass.
I almost said something. The words were right on the tip of my tongue. Then I thought better of it and leaned back in my seat, clasping my hands in my lap. I felt Nikki look over at me.
I supposed she was in an awkward spot. Renee would have told her everything going on between us. Nikki would agree with Renee, of course, not that I thought she shouldn’t. Now she was sitting between us. She had the worst seat in the car.
We took a left turn down a two-lane road lined with old fashioned light posts that hung over the street.
My stomach rolled as my brain screamed a very simple fact at me: we were not going to the airport. The airport was in the opposite direction.
I leaned forward and knocked on the glass between us and the driver. He didn’t even look at me or react to the sound. I knocked harder.
“Hey,” I said. “You’re supposed to be taking us to the airport.”
Nikki and Renee were both looking at me now. Renee spoke first. “What’s the deal, Sky?”
I glanced over at her. “This isn’t the way to the airport. I don’t know where this guy is taking us.”
Renee’s eyes widened, and she looked down the road in front of us.
Nikki leaned forward, the wheels of her suitcase digging into my knee, and slammed her open palm on the glass partition. “Hey, driver!” she shouted before promptly banging on the glass repeatedly. “We have a flight to catch, and you’d better not be trying any funny business. Pull over and let us out.”
Brown eyes flicked to us in the rear-view mirror. His stare was hard and made something in my chest tighten. He didn’t answer us.
“Please let us out,” I said, hoping a gentler approach might get him to see reason. “We’re frightened. We know you don’t want to hurt us. We can just catch another cab and find our way to the airport on our own.”
Those brown eyes slid to me. I couldn’
t see his mouth, but the corners of his eyes wrinkled, and I knew he was smiling at us.
“You must be Skylar,” he said. He sounded far away, but I knew it was just because he was on the other side of the partition. His words made me instantly nauseated.
Nikki and Renee both swung their heads to stare at me.
The driver chuckled deeply, and his eyes slid back to the road. “Just sit tight back there, ladies. I’ll get you to where you’re supposed to be.”
“And where is that?” I asked. I didn’t want the answer. I was afraid. I hadn’t been afraid in a long time, but this was soul-gripping, heart-wrenching fear. It was clawing at my gut.
“I don’t owe you any answers,” he said.
“Yes, you do,” Nikki snapped as she banged on the glass again.
“Hey!” he yelled, looking back at us over his shoulder. “Hit that glass again, and I will pull over. You hear me? Now settle down. Nobody’s going to get hurt if the three of you just play your parts.”
“Play our parts?” I asked, my stomach now performing somersaults.
He turned back to face the road and nodded. I watched his eyes in the rear-view mirror. “Yes. Your parts. My boss needs you. That boyfriend of yours owes him a lot of money. You can thank him for the position you’re all in now.”
Someone had kicked me in the gut, and I couldn’t breathe. Nikki and Renee were both staring at me. My palms were sweaty. I felt lightheaded. “Greyson owes someone money?” I whispered.
Those brown eyes fell on me again in the mirror. The driver nodded. “A lot of money. Sorry, sweets. The three of you are just a means to an end. But like I said, as long as you all just go along with it, no one will be hurt. Got it?”
“What if he doesn’t pay the money?” Nikki asked beside me. Her voice was shrill. Her hands were shaking.
“We will cross that bridge if we come to it.”
“He’ll pay it,” I said, trying to sound more confident than I felt. Had I even known Greyson at all? Were there signs I had missed? How could I have been so blind as to let something like this happen?
“How can you know that?” Renee hissed, leaning forward to peer at me over Nikki’s suitcase. “You barely know the guy. I told you to be careful! I told you the men here were different than in Houston. How did you manage to find the one guy who could put us in a situation like this?” Her eyes were wide, and there were tears building in them.
“I’m sorry,” I said, fighting back my own emotions. “There was no way I could have known. Greyson’s not like that. He couldn’t be. I don’t know. I’m so confused.” I buried my face in my hands.
“Keep it together ladies,” the driver said. “We’re almost there.”
There? Where was there?
The car pulled up in front of a massive set of gates. The driver rolled his window down and flashed some sort of identification in front of a camera. Then the gates began to open, and the car pulled through.
We drove down a narrow driveway lined in brightly colored flowers and palm trees. We stopped in front of a Spanish-looking mansion made of white stucco. The dozens of windows were trimmed in dark brown that matched a massive front door.
Two men in suits were standing at the top step by the door. When our car stopped, they descended and came to open my door and Renee’s.
Neither of us moved until the men reached in and took our arms. The one who had me wasn’t rough. In fact, he was rather gentle. He eased me out of the car and then offered a hand to Nikki.
“Leave your bags here, miss,” he said.
Nikki did as she was told and stepped out of the car. The driver took her arm, and all three men escorted us to the door.
When we were at the bottom step, I dug in my heels. I knew going in the house was a bad idea. What if we could never get out once we were in?
“I don’t want to go in there,” I said. My voice was fluttery with nerves. My mouth was dry. Panic gripping me.
The driver paused and turned back to us. Nikki turned with him to look at me with wide, terrified eyes. “Like I said, Skylar,” the driver said calmly. “Play your role, and no one gets hurt. Come on. Hopefully, you won’t have to wait long.”
The man who had me pulled me up the stairs with him, and we all went inside.
The house was beautiful. It hosted white marble floors that were so shiny I was sure they had been waxed that morning. We crossed the foyer to a door that led down a flight of winding stairs into a basement. Down there, we went through another door, and the men let go of us.
The room they left us in had two leather couches and one table full of sealed bottles of water. They closed and locked the door behind them without another word to any of us.
The three of us stood in the middle of the room and looked around.
There were blankets and pillows on the couches. A plush area rug beneath our feet gave the space a cozy feel. There was a fireplace set in the wall that burned behind a clear glass cover. The space was dimly lit with a chandelier above our heads.
It was definitely not what I had been expecting.
“We’re going to die here,” Nikki breathed, running her fingers through her hair.
“No, we’re not,” I said.
She nodded up and down frantically. “Yes, we are. They’re going to come back in here, and they’re going to kill us. Or they’ll keep us around until they get tired of us, and do who knows what to us. Oh my God. I can’t believe this is happening. I can’t believe this is happening.”
“Nikki,” I said, grabbing her shoulders and forcing her to sit on one of the sofas. “Look at me.”
She did. Her teary eyes lifted to mine, and she sucked in a shaky breath.
“Good,” I said. “Now, listen. We are not going to die here. They don’t want us for anything. They don’t want to hurt us. They just want their money.”
“And you think Greyson will just hand over his cash for us?” Renee asked behind me.
I looked back at her over my shoulder. “Yes,” I said, trying to sound more confident than I felt.
Renee sat down beside Nikki, and the two of them pressed their shoulders together.
I sighed. “Greyson won’t want any of us to get hurt. He has a lot of money to spare. Trust me. He will get us out of this.”
Nikki rested her head on Renee’s shoulder. Renee looked at her hands and took a deep breath. “I hope you’re right about him, Sky.”
So did I.
Chapter 25
Greyson
I hadn’t even bothered to change into my suit after Skylar left. I was still in my jeans and black T-shirt, and I was finding it difficult to gather the nerve to leave my office. In here, no one could ask me what was wrong if they managed to see through the cracks of my foundation. I never liked to talk to people about personal things, and the hole that had been blown through my heart after Skylar left was definitely not a topic up for conversation with anyone.
Not even Meek.
He had been smart to leave it alone. We had bigger things on our plate at the moment, and he was keeping his focus on the potential arrival of Luccio or one of his paid goons. I was trying to channel that same focus, but thoughts of Skylar were more than distracting.
If I closed my eyes and remained still, I could still feel the softness of her cheek on my chest that morning. I could still remember the way she sounded when she slept. Her soft breaths and content sighs. I ached to have that back, and she had only been gone a few hours.
I had a long day ahead of me.
Meek knocked on my door and let himself in. I greeted him with a nod and stood.
“Come on, boss,” Meek said. “Let’s go for a walk. You shouldn’t wait around all day for that check to show up. He may have been bluffing. Besides, our eyes on the casino floor are better than anyone else’s. We know Luccio’s face and how he moves. We have a better chance of spotting him.”
“You’re right,” I said, walking around my desk. We both made our way out into the hall and caught the
freight elevator up to the casino floor.
When we emerged, the ringing of bells echoed in my ears.
The casino was the same as always, despite the impending threat looming over it. I wondered if I was doing the right thing. Perhaps waiting for Luccio was a bad call.
“What’s eating at you, Greyson?” Meek asked as we took up our posts by the casino entrance once more.
I shrugged. “Where should I start?”
“Wherever feels right.”
“This is a disaster, Meek. My casino has the attention of the mob. This is not the kind of business owner I want to be. I’m constantly going back and forth between thinking that we’re right to keep everything under the radar, and thinking we’re wrong and that I should just shut the place down and call the authorities. If someone gets hurt because of me…” I couldn’t finish the sentence.
Meek nudged my shoulder with his. “No one is going to get hurt. The mob doesn’t want that kind of attention, either. Luccio is an ass, but he’s not stupid. There’s a reason they’re all so wealthy and not in prison.”
That was all true. It still didn’t ease the tension I felt in every square inch of my body. “People make mistakes, Meek. That’s all it would take. Luccio comes in here, and things go sideways, and someone innocent gets caught in the crosshairs.”
“You seem to think you’re in this alone,” Meek said.
I looked over at my friend.
“I have your back, Greyson. It’s not all on you to make sure nothing goes wrong. I want the same things you do. We will keep these people safe. No one will know anything ever happened. We’ll take this as it comes, and if we have to, we will get the police involved.”
I still didn’t like it. I didn’t like it at all.
“Add this to a broken heart, and you’re having a pretty shitty day, huh?” Meek asked, giving me half a smile.
I looked at the obsidian floors at my feet and shook my head. “Is it that obvious?”
Meek shrugged and looked around the casino. “Obvious enough to a friend.”
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