Page 56 of Ensnared
Gabrielle rolled her eyes. "No doubt that's Stuart."
Eve nodded. And while she had never met Stuart, she had seen enough pictures and read enough stories in the group chat to form a perfect picture of the engineer. Seeing that both Kaylee and Gabrielle were using the brief interruption to check their own phones, she decided to check hers.
Reaching into her purse, Eve froze. Her phone wasn't there. Frowning, she tried to retrace her activity with the phone and groaned. She left it in the car. She contemplated excusing herself to go get it when a shadow covered their table.
All four women turned to look up at the man standing at the edge of their table but only Eve recognized the fiery gaze of her bodyguard, Petr.
Wearing a silver nametag reading "Daniels" and the title of "Security" below it, Petr stood before her, his gaze fixed. An agonizingly long moment passed without a word, leaving Eve on the brink of breaking the silence.
Just as she was about to speak up, Petr finally broke the brutal silence. "This was discovered in the parking lot."
Setting her cell phone on the table, he stared directly at her as they all looked at the phone.
With a shaky smile, Eve grabbed it. "Oh, thank you, I must have dropped it," she lied. She was more than certain she had left it locked in her car.
Petr made a grunting noise under his breath and turned away. Eve was positive the man was cursing her very existence at that moment.
"Oh, wow. I wonder how they knew it was you?" Gabrielle asked, looking at her and back in the direction where Petr disappeared.
Eve shrugged. "Probably just good security footage or something."
There was probably a tracker sewn into her skin while she was sleeping, she thought bitterly. Or worse, Andrey was somehow tracking her across the city. Uneasily, Eve glanced up at the ceiling looking for cameras. As the conversation began to flow again, the phone sat in her lap like a hot piece of coal. She had yet to turn it on and look at it. She knew without a doubt there was a message on there, a message she did not want to see.
They spent nearly four hours at the restaurant and they were all more than a little tipsy when the waiter handed Eve back her card for the tab.
"Don't think we're not going to talk about the new Range Rover and that Amex black card you're wielding," Kaylee said as she stumbled to her feet out of the booth.
Gabrielle nodded. "Hell yeah. She thought she was gonna slip by with that. You will tell us before we leave," she announced. "I don’t care if I have to extend my trip, we will have this conversation."
Swallowing nervously, Eve said nothing, grateful for the interruption of their Uber pulling up to the curb. "Okay, I have got two options," she announced once they were settled in the car. "If you want dancing, we can go to one of the clubs at the Venetian or…" Eve purposely paused until she could see the undisguised intrigue in their eyes. Barely able to keep herself from giggling like an idiot, Eve blurted out the next words. "Or we can go see the Rhythmic Rouges!"
The car filled with squealing laughter as it took off toward the next hotel hosting the famous all-male dance group. From the moment the show came out a few years back, the Rhythmic Rouges had been a running joke amongst them. While it of course looked sexy and had great reviews it also looked corny and cringe. Time and time again, they had all made fun of it while equally teasing the idea of going.
Using the opportunity of their distracted excitement, Eve slipped her phone from her purse and finally summoned the courage to look at her messages.
Dimitri:Have fun with your friends tonight. Tomorrow I will have fun with you.
Excited fear ran through her veins as she quickly swiped away the message. She was beyond fucked.
Two hours later the four of them left the show with cheeks aching from fits of laughter. The Rhythmic Rouges had definitely lived up to the hype. Never in her life had Eve felt so scandalized and giddy like a schoolgirl all in one sitting. Dear God, the things those men had done. Eve couldn't stop thanking God that they had picked Lilly out of the audience for their participant event and not her. From gyrating over her to bending her in every which way and pouring drinks down her body, they were surprised Lilly didn't come stumbling back pregnant.
It had been glorious. They were so blissfully drunk by the time it was over and their hearts light with joy, that they could barely order the Uber between fits of laughter to take them to Eve's grandparents' house. It had always been a long-standing tradition between them whenever they visited Vegas to sleep a night of partying off at her grandparents' house. They used to spend spring break bar-hopping through Vegas and coming back and crashing in her grandparent’s living room.
When the Uber dropped them off at the new townhome, they were all surprised to see Eve's Range Rover parked at the curb instead of the parking lot of the Blue Crescent where they had left it. While they were most certainly drunk, they weren't too drunk to miss that anomaly. Naturally, all three heads turned to look at Eve, giving her no choice but to confess that it was her boyfriend's doing.
Nestled inside her grandparents' spare room, Eve delved into a very curated narrative about Dimitri, sharing only bits and pieces, an intricate tale of half-truths and omissions. The alcohol-laden night sailed on as she spun the carefully edited rendition of Dimitri's persona, carefully omitting the darker shades of the man. In the end, they all smiled and congratulated her for finding someone new and demanded that she show them pictures in the morning.
Eve lay there between Kaylee and Gabrielle staring up at the ceiling with a frown. Did she have any pictures of Dimitri?
Thankfully the next morning, no one had time for pictures. By the time they all scarfed down herlola'sfamous suman covered in thick latik served with coffee, it was time to go. The combination of the bitter coffee paired with the sticky rice loaf of suman that was drizzled in the caramelized coconut cream was absolute perfection and a great caffeine boost to get them moving.
Once they were done eating, they had to run to the car and race across town to catch their flights. Eve spent a little longer than necessary at the TSA station hugging each friend and tearing up, promising them all she would do better and keep in contact more. Waiting until she could no longer see them, Eve let out a happy sigh. She felt a million times better having seen them. Even the thought of having to go back to the mansion and face the music with Petr and Dimitri wasn't so bad, she thought with a smile.
Passing through the sliding glass doors of the airport, Eve squinted at the bright sunlight and began walking back toward her parked car when she caught sight of another car parked right by it. No, that wasn't right. It wasn't the other car that caught her attention, it was the blond fallen angel wearing a suit looking directly at her.
Chapter 31
AshadowfelloverEve's heart as she froze in place. Around her, people hustled back and forth and in and out of the busy terminal with their luggage. Some were meeting family with smiles, others were looking down at their phones as they rolled their luggage behind them. Only she and the tall figure with the golden hair stood perfectly still amongst the moving crowd.
