Page 13 of Twisted Hearts

At my confused look, she said, “Elizabeth is Jaxon Hayes’ sister, and she’s married to Gage, one of my clients. Jaxon runs the firm providing security here for tonight.”

I nodded in acknowledgment. Jillian could make friends anywhere she went, but I didn’t want to stand around and listen to her talk about people I didn’t know, even if it made me a bad friend.

“Say!” she said, brightly and in a tone that made me want to slap her silly. She turned back to Shawn. “How about you make sure my friend gets to her room okay? Would hate for something to happen to her.”

“Jillian…” I all but growled.

Me? This guy? Alone in an enclosed space? I might pass out.

“Happy to.”

“No.”

We spoke at the same time. I still had my keycard in my hand and my phone in my side pocket. Whoever invented deep hip pockets for leggings is a genius. “I’ll be fine.”

“You sure?” Jillian asked, and I hated the look in her eyes—pity, sadness. Where was the strength and comfort she’d given me earlier?

“Yup. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I spun on my heels and double-timed it to the elevator. I didn’t give a crap if it looked like I was running away from the two of them.

I was.

* * *

I woketo a pounding inside my head that seemed to come in beats that alternated with the pounding on the door of my hotel room.

“Ugh,” I groaned, pressing my fingertips to my temples. The floor beneath my feet went topsy-turvy, and it took me a moment to regain my bearings while pushing off the bed. “Hold on,” I called out, and then I cringed from the throbbing caused by my own voice.

After I fled the lobby, I stayed tucked away in my room. It took two glasses of white wine to stop my frenetic pacing, another glass to sit down and turn on the television where, thankfully, I foundFriendsrerun episodes on a six-hour repeat cycle.

After another glass, I was finally able to pull out my notebook and pen and scribble down my thoughts.

My greatest fears.

My steps for what to do next.

At the top of that one was finding a job and place to stay. I wondered if I should go back to Charlotte with Klaus and Jillian. Until she told me about them being in Raleigh for the weekend for the previous night’s event, that had been my first plan, but was it still the smartest? She’d said I could stay there, but it’d most likely be the first place Daniel came looking for me. Jillian’s parents were friends and in the same circles with both mine and Daniel’s. Would going there cause problems for them? For Jillian?

Maybe I could keep traveling? It was only a matter of time before Daniel was able to hunt me down, but when he did find me, I needed to be settled. I needed to be prepared to fight back because there was no way in hell he was ever getting his hands—or any other part of his body—on me again.

If I’d known more about what trouble my dad was in, I could make a more informed decision. I should have asked my mom more questions, forced her to tell me what was going on.

I dropped my face into my palms and scrubbed before reaching for the door handle. I squinted through the peephole, confirmed it was Jillian, and opened the door, laughing at the sight of her.

“Late night?” I asked, stepping back as she tried to fluff her hair with her fingers. She still had mascara smeared beneath her eyes. They were bloodshot, too, probably matching my own, and her hair looked like it’d been scrubbed with a static cloth.

“Too much champagne,” she groaned. She wore loose-fitting sweats and a sweatshirt that fell off one shoulder, no bra. She went straight to my bed and collapsed onto it, fluffed the pillows, and settled them against the headboard.

“How are you today?”

“Hungover,” I admitted, “but in better condition than you, I think. Don’t you have your own bed?”

Jillian yawned loudly then shivered, pulled up the covers on the side of the bed I hadn’t moved so much as an inch, and patted the mattress next to her. “Come talk to me.”

I climbed in next to her and dropped my head to her shoulder. “I don’t want to talk.”

“Tough cookies. I’m glad you’re here, but I know you, and I know your mind is racing. So unload it all on me. Daniel, your family, what’s next…you’re thinking of it all. Give it to me.”

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