Page 63 of Stolen

“Are you sure?” Jacob pressed. “I just assumed with the roads getting better?—”

“The airstrip guys aren’t as optimistic as the rest of us,” Brent interrupted, shaking his head now. “They’re pretty hard to convince, which, I guess is usually a good thing. But in situations like this, it can be frustrating. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, guys.”

“I need to go—I have to go sit down—I have to—” I was already walking away from the conversation as I struggled to breathe. “Just give me one second?—”

“Leo?” Jacob called my name, following behind me. “Leo!”

My whole world was spinning.

I was pinching the bridge of my nose as I sat on the edge of my bed, trying and failing to calm down, trying and failing to convince myself that everything was somehow going to be okay.

I wasn’t going to get that promotion in Roanoke.

Hell, I maybe wouldn’t even have a place in PR if things went as bad as they could possibly go. All of the athletes and crew had been approved for a week off, so that time away from everything was always part of the plan. But if I kept them past their contract for a week? Especially the athletes?

There was going to be hell to pay. Someone, somewhere, was going to practically demand a human sacrifice, and they’d be all too eager to offer to burn me on the goddamn pyre. Of course, I knew that it wasn’t my fault. It wasn’t like I could control the fucking weather.

But I also knew that no one was going to care. All they’d see is some wannabe attempting to be the next big thing in PR and falling flat on his face. I could already hear the calls coming in from various agents and managers, threatening my life forfucking up their client’s schedules, for taking money out of their pockets, and in turn fucking up their cut of the money, too.

“Baby?” Jacob’s voice was low as he sank into place beside me on the bed. He reached his hand toward mine, gently sliding his fingers across mine. “What’s going on?”

“Everything’s going to shit.”

“Everything? Absolutely everything?” There was a slight smile in Jacob’s tone. “Are you certain?”

“They’re going to kill me, Jacob.” I looked over at him, feeling utterly helpless and hopeless. “I was the one who pitched this whole thing. It’s my fault they’re all snowed in, and it’s my fault that their schedules are going to be fucked going forward.”

“Leo—”

“Do you know how far in advance these guys make plans?” I felt myself trembling, emotion threatening to take me over. “Fuck. Even Tommy has a huge shoot with Nike coming up the day after he’s done here. That’s been on the books for ten months.”

“Leo…” Jacob rubbed a small circle with his thumb across the back of my palm. “I’m going to need you to try and breathe for me, okay? Just take a deep breath?—”

“And what about you?”

“What about me?”

You don’t want me.

You’re going to leave me.

You’re going to break my heart.

“Don’t you need to get back to Wild Woods?” I moved my hand away from Jacob’s and back into my lap. “I know you have Parker and Damon, but they probably want their fearless leader back.”

“You don’t need to worry about me, baby.” Jacob reached for my hand again, but his fingers stopped halfway over. I looked and noticed the tennis bracelet Keith had given me was sittingbetween us on the bed, apparently having slipped out of my pocket.

“What’s that?” Jacob asked, without looking up at me.

“It’s nothing.”

“It doesn’t look like nothing.” Jacob hummed. “It looks like it’s a platinum diamond bracelet, Leo.”

“I didn’t meannothing.” I rolled my eyes, fully frustrated. “I meant it doesn’t mean anything to me.”

“Where’d it come from?”

“Keith gave it to me.”

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