Page 40 of Unleash You

“No, but I can read his sad puppy eyes. He finally told you. You guys a thing now?” He beamed at us.

Wesley held me tighter. “We are. So back off.”

“Oh man, I can’t wait until Mom finds out. She finally gets her wish.”

Shit. I forgot about Lilly. “No, she can’t find out about us. At least not yet.”

“Why not?” Both Wesley and Zack asked in unison.

I gave Wesley a meaningful look. Without a doubt, the minute we told Lilly about us, she’d call Josh’s mom and then our plans to get him to help us would be ruined. I wasn’t an idiot. The congressman had only offered to help to get a date with benefits out of me. Not that I had any intention on making good on those benefits. Sex with Josh was out of the question.

What we needed was a plan to get those visas from him. That would be assuming he didn’t lie about getting them this soon. Apparently, he’d gotten to work on them the day we met. Had he been holding on to them hoping to exchange them for a date sometime in the near future? Who would do that?

“Oh right.” Wesley rubbed his face, peering at Zack.

Zack rolled his eyes. “You need help, but you can’t tell me why. More Rebecca stuff?”

“Yes and no.” Wesley really didn’t know how to lie, so he’d opted for a vague truth.

“Fine. I’m in. What do you need?”

“Wait,” I said. “Should we even be doing this tonight? I mean, what about Valentina and Derek? We can’t be entertaining while she’s still missing.” Maybe Josh could wait a bit longer. But what about Charlie hiding in some hole in the jungle?

“There’s not much we can do.” Zack stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “Tyler and Derek just left for Savannah. I think they got a good lead. All we can do is wait. If you’re thinking about entertaining, you should definitely bring Mom in. She’s going out of her mind with worry. She feels guilty for how she treated Valentina when she first got here.”

“I feel the same.” My chest tightened. In trying to make Valentina happy, I ended up putting her life in danger.

“Don’t do that.” Wesley cradled my cheek. “Valentina did what she thought was right for her and her son. With or without your help, she would’ve gone out.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

“So what’s going on?” Zack asked.

“I invited a friend over for dinner tonight. He’s helping me get a visa to fly to Venezuela.”

“Fuck me. Are you serious?” Zack glared at Wesley as if he had a say in any of this.

“Have you met Anabelle? I tried to stop her, and now we’re here.”

“I need to get to Venezuela, and Josh is my ticket in. Are you going to help or stand there and talk about me like I’m not here?” I braced my hands on my hips, then realized the top button of my blouse was missing.

“Sorry about that.” Wesley pointed at my chest, while Zack did nothing to hide his grin.

“We’ll talk about that later.” I smiled at Wesley, before I turned to Zack. “Please tell me you’re in because I really don’t want to have dinner alone with the congressman.”

“Of course, I’m in.” Wesley reached for my hand.

I smiled at our intertwined hands. Even if we couldn’t tell people about us, Wesley and I were finally together. Holy shit. Wesley Cole was officially my boyfriend. “And you?” I glanced at Zack.

“You know I can’t say no to you. I’ll go get Mom.”

“Thank you.” I wasn’t alone in this. I had Wesley, and I had the Coles on my side.

“Can you also invite Rebecca?” Wesley asked Zack before he turned to me. “Are you okay with that?”

“Yeah, the more people between Josh and me, the better.” In a way I felt as if I owed Rebecca an apology. Last night, I’d acted like a total brat when I saw her with Wesley. How did I turn into a jealous girlfriend so fast? “I kind of want to talk to her too. She’s all alone here.”

“If Zack weren’t staring at us like a creep, I would kiss you right now.”

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