Page 76 of The Love Destroyers

“I don’t like this. I should go check on him.”

“Oh, he’s fine. He’s in the exact place he should be. What are you going to do about an injury? Tie a bow around it? But it’s going to take a long time. There are like, fifty people in the waiting room. I’m sure his sister and brother would be there, but he didn’t want me to tell anyone, even though, let’s be honest, there’s no way Rosie wasn’t watching that livestream. It was a doozy. I’m hoping Jeffrey tuned in, too.”

Damien had driven all the way to Charlotte to track him, but Jeffrey’s car wasn’t at his house or his office, so he’d struck out.

“I don’t like this,” I admit.

I’m in Ellie’s hotel room right now, wearing all black and feeling like a bit of a pervert. Because I just opened one of Ellie’s three bags and found only lingerie. Oh, and a bagel, thrown in there for reasons that make sense to anyone who’s seen her house.

I sandwich the phone between my ear and my shoulder as I start on the second bag. “This feels wrong,” I continue.

Thatisaccurate. What I’m doing feels intrusive and bad.

It also feels…

Well, I like the adrenaline pumping through my veins, reminding me that it’s better to act than to sit still. At least I’m doing something, trying to take back my life.

I rummage through some clothes, finding nothing unexpected.

“Please,” Nicole scoffed. “The concepts of right and wrong are meaningless. They’re a construct created by people who want to control us.”

“I’m pretty sure we can all agree it’s wrong, and certainly illegal, to break into someone else’s room and—”

“Did you break in? Because I’m pretty sure I gave you a key. That’s on me. So is the phone thing. And Ellie’s the one who’s all up in your hot piece’s business.”

“He’s notmyhot piece,” I murmur, thinking about Seamus in the shower, his hand flexing on the glass as he used his other hand to work himself. The thought is enough to make my whole body ache.

“And you only have yourself to blame for that. I practically gift-wrapped that man for you. You think I didn’t notice the way you two were making eyes at each other at your brother’s wedding? I—”

I stop listening, because there’s a rustling outside of the door. I have only half a second to react—my blood boiling in my veins. The bathroom’s too far. The bed…

It’s lifted up off the floor but with a skirt encircling it.

There are probably primordial life forms down there—almost certainly someone’s unwanted bodily fluids. But it’s my only option, and I don’t overthink it. I practically vault myself under it, my heart thudding in my ears, my nose twitching from thedust. The movement’s so quick I nearly graze my face on the wooden bottom of the bed. I didn’t drop my phone, thankfully, but I end the call. Everything in me is attuned to the sound of the knob turning, the door opening.

But who is it?

Ellie is in the emergency room.

Seamus is with her.

Nicole is…

Actually, I don’t know, and I definitely wouldn’t put it past her to set up some Machiavellian test of my reflexes, but the heavy footsteps suggest a man. Damien would have given us a head’s up, right?

Seconds later, I hear the thump of a suitcase being opened. Probably the one I was searching before I slid under the bed. Maybe it’s hypocritical for me to feel umbrage over someone else breaking into Ellie’s room and going through her stuff, but a feeling of righteous indignation bubbles up inside of me.

Or maybe that’s because I can sense what I don’t yet have enough evidence to conclude—

The intruder is Jeffrey. The feeling I have hardens into certainty when I hear him sneer, “Always a fucking mess,” under his breath as he combs through her things.

He’s going through her things.

This confirms she might have something that could implicate him.

And he’s about to find it and take it.

He’s about to win, again, because he doesn’t play fair and only cares about upholding the rule of law if it doesn’t apply to him.

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