Page 15 of The Last Dance You Saved
But I wouldn’t. I didn’t need to because I’d never see him again.
Thank God I hadn’t slept with him.
Except, it wasn’t relief that washed over me at that thought. Instead, it was an unspeakable sadness I didn’t understand. As if I’d lost something that had never been mine.
Chapter Six
Rafe
DEVIL YOU KNOW
Performed by Tyler Braden
As I watched Sadie storm throughthe tables without once looking back, the betrayal I’d felt upon finding her dining with Lorenzo Puzo rose its furious head and beat against my rib cage.
When I’d first seen her on the patio, my heart had leaped with pleasure. Watching her in the warm sunlight, cast in the rainbow from the misters, I’d been overcome with a craving I’d thought long since buried. Ridiculous needs and wants flooding me and making me think of all the ways I could make it right between us after sending her from the penthouse the night before.
Those thoughts, those cravings, were confusing and unwanted, just like every emotion I’d experienced in her presence. Emotions I’d sworn I’d never have again for any woman. Only my child was going to stake a claim on my heart. And yet, Sadie had whispered things to my soul that had it dragging itself out of the locked box I’d exiled it to, clamoring to come alive.
I’d just taken an involuntary step toward her when I’d realized who was sitting across from her. Acid had burned through me, and any thought of finishing what we started had disappeared in a howling rage, screaming of her deception. I hadn’t felt so double-crossed since I’d seen the ring on Lauren’s finger that wasn’t mine. Or maybe since I’d felt the slice of a knife in a dark alley.
The damned devil inside me laughed. He’d warned me, hadn’t he? Or had he provoked me? Either way, it was clear what I’d thought she’d felt wasn’t real. It was clear Puzo had put her up to it. I wasn’t sure what he’d thought he’d get out of sending her into my bed, but he had something up his sleeve. Otherwise, he would never have met with her in my place, just like I’d never meet with someone in his.
When I’d confronted them, it had taken everything I had to throttle back my emotions and hide them behind the blank wall I was comfortable living behind. I refused to give them more than they’d already received from me. But my conscience had twisted at Sadie’s shocked expression when I’d slammed my accusations at them. Doubts had wiggled in more when Puzo had looked entirely too pleased at the realization I knew Sadie, as if he’d received an unexpected benefit.
Unease settled in my chest as the hurt and anger on Sadie’s face replayed in my mind. Had I overreacted? But what other business could she have had with them? How would a small-town bar owner who lived across the country even know Puzo? It could all have been some twisted coincidence, but I didn’t believe in coincidences. Not like this.
What pissed me off almost more than seeing them together was the fact that, in giving him my anger and letting the doubts about her eat at me, I’d allowed him to step beyond my walls to mess with my head once more.
I pulled my phone from my pocket as I made my way through the restaurant, eyes lingering on Sadie waiting for the elevator. In jeans and a plaid shirt, she looked as equally enticing as she had in her sparkly dress. The curves of her body were still on display, this time in a way that made me want to toss her on a pile of hay instead of up against glass.
The head of my security, and my best friend, picked up on the first ring. “Steele.”
“Puzo just left the café. I want you to trace every step he made inside my casino.”
“We didn’t get an alert,” Steele said, irritation and concern laced through his words. Jim Steele had been at my side through the worst of my experiences with Puzo and understood just what it meant that he’d been in my place.
“I want to know why. Now.” I hung up before he could respond.
Sadie got into the elevator with another couple, and my teeth ground together so hard pain shot up my jaw. The betrayal I felt should have left nothing but disgust in its wake, and instead, every damn nerve was still alive from when I’d yanked her to me on the veranda. My body yearned for the release I hadn’t gotten the night before. Hungered for the sweet taste of her lips that had bled into me like an addiction. Honey and bourbon and fire. A flavor I’d never forget.
I tugged at the sleeves of my suit jacket before heading to the elevators, punching in the code that would take me to the executive suites and my office. I’d barely closed the office door behind me when my phone rang.Lauren. I debated sending it to voicemail for the third time that morning, but putting her off wasn’t going to prevent us from having the conversation we needed to have.
My words were clipped as I answered, “I’m busy.”
“Damn it, Rafe. At least tell me she’s safe.” Lauren’s voice shook with fear and anger.
It took me too long to realize the truth—that Fallon hadn’t called her mother. And more emotions I loathed bled in. Frustration. Remorse. “I didn’t realize she hadn’t called you last night.”
“I didn’t even know she was gone until this morning! And then she didn’t pick up.” Panic wafted through the ire. “I finally pinged her phone in Vegas. You should have called me as soon as she arrived!”
And maybe if I hadn’t been so shocked to find out my fourteen-year-old daughter had flown herself to Vegas from California, if I hadn’t been drowning in desire that I couldn’t shake, I might have thought to do just that. More likely, I would have texted her, because hearing Lauren’s voice was always a prick to my conscience. To my soul. Something I avoided at all costs. But now, the accusation in her tone just added to the rage I was still feeling over Puzo being in my hotel, over seeing Sadie seated next to him, chatting away with a damn smile that lifted higher on one side than the other.
“Why the hell didn’t you know she’d left?” I demanded. “She took the goddamn plane, Lauren! Flew by herself, landed, and got a CarShare to the hotel like she’d done it a million times. Do you know what could have happened to her?!”
My fist hit the top of the black lacquered desk, leaving fingerprints on the shiny surface.
“Oh my God! She took the Cessna?” A sob broke over the line, and I immediately felt like an ass. Five months. Spence had only been gone five months, and Lauren was still drowning in grief. But we could have lost Fallon. We could have lost our little girl. My heart contracted at the mere thought.
