Page 68 of Off Limits (Alpha Billionaire)

And every time I hit the brakes, it was a full stop, slam on the brakes situation. My driving progress was jerky and haphazard. Iwas lucky I didn’t get pulled over. Then again, there were enough bad drivers and tourists in the area that I just blended right in.

I didn’t know where to go. I was running away from Dylan and not toward anything.

Without any better ideas, I drove to the Valley Verge. I don’t know why I picked that place. Maybe I figured it would be the last place Dylan would look for me, I don’t know.

I limped my way into the lobby and up to the front desk.

“Checking out?” the desk clerk asked.

“No, I’m checking in. I just got here.” I was confused.

“Sorry, it’s early and most people I talk to are checking out. Do you have a reservation with us?”

I shook my head.

“Not a problem, we have several rooms that will be available,” she said as she typed into her computer system.

“Do you have something close to the front? I can’t walk very far,” I admitted.

“Let’s see… Yes, I do. Uh, so check-in isn’t until two P.M. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be able to have your room before that, and I don’t have any availability for an early check-in.”

I fought back tears. I really just wanted to get into a room and go back to bed and cry and sleep and forget the world as I knew it existed. And I really didn’t want to cry in front of this woman. I needed to get off my feet. “Two? Could I, I don’t know, sit in one of the lounge chairs by the pool until my room is ready?”

“Yes, of course. Let’s get you into the system, then once the room is ready, it will be a simple matter of getting you a key.”

I gave her my credit card and waited while she did her hotel management stuff to get my room booked.

She handed my card back. “You’re all set. I’ve got one of the rooms close to the front reserved for you. Housekeeping will have everything ready by two. If that changes, I’ll be sure to let you know.”

“Thank you,” I managed before I limped away.

I winced and said ‘ow’ with every step I took. Walking across the lobby and out to the patio was a slow, painful process. I shouldn’t have been on my feet, and I definitely should not have pushed myself to walk this much.

The sun hadn’t warmed up the patio area yet, and it still had that chill of morning clinging to it. I practically collapsed on the first lounge I encountered. Later, I could move to one under an umbrella, but right now, I just wanted to lie down. Hopefully, I would pass out from exhaustion, and then I wouldn’t be stuck here overthinking whether I had made another stupid mistake.

I thought Dylan loved me. How could he have agreed to do the project with Ryan, and why had I blindly trusted him?

31

DYLAN

Once I had the numbers in hand, I didn’t understand why the guy at Managed Spaces had made such a big deal over providing us with numbers. They were good, really good.

I scanned over the spreadsheet Robertson had finally managed to get. I didn’t even need to do a data analysis. I could tell these were the kinds of figures we wanted.

The kill-switch in the pre-contract wasn’t even going to be needed. Thompson was going to be pleased with this new deal.

I called Robertson. “Unless you have any concerns with this data, I’m going to have my assistant populate the proposal with the information.”

“You don’t have any areas you need clarified?” he asked.

“None. Their data is super clean and clearly presented. I wish everyone had such clean numbers. As far as I’m concerned, we are good to go.”

“Fantastic. I’ll let my contact know. How long do you think Thompson will sit on this?” he asked.

“Until it hatches. He really dragged out the Carmichael situation,” I said.

“Yeah, but didn’t that end up being a good thing?” Robertson asked.

---