I stare at the ceiling and grab my phone. I saw Nico had texted me when I was at the club, but I didn’t want to open the messages yet. I couldn’t.
Nico:I woke up to an empty bed. Where did you go?
Nico:I had plans for you,la mia rossa piccante.
He leaves it at that, but messages again a few hours later when I don’t answer.
Nico:Just want to make sure you’re okay, Cassie. Let me know when you get this.
I release a rush of air and throw my arm over my eyes. I’ll have to message him in the morning, but I don’t know what I’m going to say.
I can’t tell him the truth, while at the same time, I don’t want to lie to him.
It turns out I don’t need to worry about which I’ll do, because when my phone pings with a new message, my stomach drops and my heart twists.
~ Chapter 22 ~
Nico
“Is she home?” I ask Rocco as soon as I answer his call. I’ve been waiting for an update for fucking hours now.
“Yeah, she just got here in a taxi.”
“Did she look okay?”
“I didn’t see anything wrong. She got out and hurried right inside. She had what looked like a gym bag with her.”
“Follow the driver and ask him where he picked her up from.”
“On it. I’ll call you back.”
I don’t want to think about why she left me after everything we shared today and why she’s getting home at three fucking thirty in the morning, because I’m pretty sure I can take a good guess.
I pace the living room of the suite and right over to the desk to pour myself a hefty glass of whiskey. I gulp it down and stand in front of the windows, looking down at the boardwalk.
I thought there was something wrong. I thought I did or said something that was too much for her and she ran. Cassie is the most unpredictable woman I’ve ever met.
My phone rings again, and I answer it quickly. “Where did she come from?”
Rocco hesitates to answer, but ultimately says regretfully, “Pandemonium.”
I hang up on him.
Fuck!
I fucking knew it.
How could she?
She got a job at another strip club. And Pandemonium? Jesus, that place is fucking sleezy. She came to me today. She came to me and said I was what she wanted.
And after what we shared today?
Then she sneaks out and goes to work at that fucking place? Showing her body to men who don’t have the right to even breathe the same air as her on this earth, let alone see her fucking naked.
She played me.
I’m fucking fuming, and I don’t know what do with my anger. This is new for me. I’m not an angry person.