Page 66 of Wilde Nights in Paradise

“Whoa, relax.” Cam sounded wide-awake now. “Take a breath.”

He couldn’t. For real this time, he couldn’t breathe. He sank to the couch as his legs gave out and dropped his head forward between his knees. “She’s gone. Did Burke…? Is he still…? Fuck.” His voice broke. “What if she’s in trouble?”

“She’s not.”

“You don’t know that. We need to get the cops back out here. We need to make sure Burke’s still locked up. She’s gone!”

Silence stretched for eternity on his brother’s end of the line. Finally, Cam sighed. “Are you drunk?”

“No, I’m not drunk!”

“Jude,” Cam said evenly, “you need to calm the fuck down and listen to me, okay? Libby is not missing. She’s on her way back to D.C.”

“What?”

“Yeah, I thought you knew. Her father called Reece an hour ago and asked for travel arrangements for her from Miami. She should be in the air, on her way there now.”

Jude opened his mouth, but his vocal chords seized. Why would she just up and leave like that?

And then he knew, the realization like a sucker punch to the gut. She’d followed him to the bar, had seen Sienna proposition him and…

Yeah. Given their past, that would make her bolt for sure.

So much for his second chance. Angry with himself, Jude hung up the phone and pulled the ring out of his pocket. He stared at it for a long, long time, turning it, watching the light play through the tiny gem. No sense in keeping it now, but…he folded his fingers around it and returned it to its home in his pocket so it could continue to torture him for the rest of his life.

He should have figured he’d fuck it all up. That’s what he did best.

Chapter Twenty-Six

If one more person asked her if she was okay, she was going to scream.

Libby thought she couldn’t wait to get back to work and dive into her normal life, and now she wanted nothing more than to go home and forget about all the whispers and pitying stares from well-meaning coworkers. Maybe curl up in her air-conditioned house with a book and a glass of ice tea. Even a week later, her body still hadn’t acclimated back to D.C.’s changeable weather, and the windless summer day made the air soup-like. Her blouse stuck to her spine as she left her office building.

She double-timed it across the parking lot to her car. No doubt about it, the words “air conditioning,” “book,” and “ice tea” were synonyms for heaven, especially in this kind of weather. The only thing that could possibly make her night better would be a cat curled up on top of her feet.

The thought brought on a sharp stab of longing. She missed Sam.

Maybe it was time to think about getting herself a cat. It would mean less time in the office, but maybe it was time for that, too. Maybe she needed to focus on something other than work.

She hit the button on her key fob to unlock her Subaru’s doors, and as she reached for the handle on the driver’s side, she sensed movement behind her. Not Kenneth, she told herself. Still, her heart tripped, her fingers slipped off the door handle, and she dropped her keys.

Not Kenneth. Not Kenneth. Not Kenneth.

But what if he’d gotten out…?

Working up a horror movie scream just in case, she whirled—and found her father.

She swallowed the scream with some effort and took the time to reach for her keys on the pavement at her feet before facing him. “What are you doing here?”

“I was driving by,” he said in a light, casual tone. “I saw you coming out of the office and thought I’d stop.”

He was so full of bullshit, and it ticked her off that he felt the need to gloss over his true intentions. “You’re checking up on me.”

“I’m your father.”

“And I’m twenty-nine years old!” Libby wrenched open her car door, threw her briefcase inside, jammed the keys into the ignition, and started the engine. She’d been meaning to have this conversation with him but hadn’t had the energy since returning home. Nevertheless, there were things that needed to be said, things that she couldn’t put off any longer.

With the car A/C blasting, she straightened and turned back to him. “Dad, this has to stop.”

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