Page 26 of Bitter Desire
“Not a clue…” I turned, craning my neck to see that there were still more partygoers coming into the ballroom. There was something new now that I hadn’t counted on. Masks. “Orthat it was a masquerade.”
“Oh my god, this is so exciting!” Honey clapped her hands and then pointed behind us to the archway we had just passed through. “It looks like they are handing them out there. I’ll go get us masks!”
“Honey, wait,” I made to grab for her but she darted away before I could stop her. “Fuck.” I moved, pushing through the crowd that had seemingly moved to swallow up Honey’s body. The red dress she wore vanished in a sea of suits and ball gowns, but none of them were the color she wore. I swore again and a woman beside me gasped, but I didn’t give a shit because Honey was in the crowd and I didn’t have eyes on her. Something felt off. I didn’t know what it was just yet, but I had learned not to ignore my intuition. My gut feeling had saved my ass more times than I could count.
“Honey?” I called out, moving through the crowd, but I still didn’t see her. I growled in frustration, eyes sweeping the room again as I kept walking towards the archway. The staff giving away the masks were nowhere to be seen now. That didn’t track. Where had they gone? Why had they vanished from sight the second Honey had gone to them? More people flooded into the mansion, all of them making for the ballroom at my back as music swelled, filling the space as surely as the new bodies did.
My chest went tight and the familiar feeling of adrenaline filled my veins. I didn’t like this for a hundred reasons. Why the fuck hadn’t I grabbed her arm? How had I lost sight of her this fast? She was wearing a goddamn red dress, for fucks sake. I should be able to spot her from across the room. This is what I got for letting my guard down in a new place. I should have kept her close—why had I relaxed anywhere beyond the cabin, I was to blame for it and now I’d lost her.
The crowd moved and the back of Honey’s dress was in front of me. Her dark hair spilling down her shoulders, the familiar curve of her shoulders, hands gesturing excitedly while she talked to a woman. I saw two masks, one in each hand, a gold one and a black one, and felt my body relax, but not by much. My girl was chatting with another party goer who was fastening their own mask and laughing along with whatever Honey was telling them. I walked forward, not stopping until I was at her back.
“Well, hello there,” the woman Honey was talking to greeted me.
I nodded at her. “Hello.” I put a hand on Honey’s back and leaned in close to her. “I lost sight of you. What happened?”
Honey turned to look back at me, ignoring the question, and waved the masks in her hand at me. “I got two! Obviously you will wear the black one.”
I took the mask from her and pulled her to me. “Obviously,” I agreed, but then glanced around the ballroom. “You need to stay close to me tonight, Honey.”
“But I thought-”
“Something is wrong. Stay close to me. I was calling your name for a while looking for you.”
Honey swallowed hard and then nodded. “Fine,” she jerked a thumb at the woman beside her, “I got distracted talking to my new friend. I didn’t hear you calling. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine, princess. Just stay close.” I took the mask she held out to me and then looked at her “new friend” who was watching us closely. “Nice to meet you.”
“Back at you, handsome,” she said and then flicked a finger at us. “You are an absolutely beautiful couple, but I’m sure you’ve heard that before. Shame these masks are going to hide that from everyone.”
“Thank you, but,” Honey waved a hand, “a masquerade is so much fun!”
The woman nodded, her lips curving in a smile. “I agree! Well, I better let you two love birds enjoy the night. Have a good time!” She waved at us and then turned back into the crowd. I frowned, staring after the woman. There was something off about her as well.
“She was so nice,” Honey told me, reaching up to secure her gold mask over her face.
“She was...odd,” I replied, still looking after the woman. She’d been tall, in a green dress with a blunt blonde bob, the mask she’d been wearing had been silver and I made a mental note to tell Taylor these details in case the night went sideways. The prickly feeling at the back of my neck intensified and I swallowed hard. I had a bad feeling about tonight.
Honey laughed. I knew she was rolling her eyes at me even though she was now off to my side and out of my line of sight. She held up my mask in front of me and bumped me with her hip. “Come here, I’m going to put this on you.”
“Honey…”
“I know, don’t wander off.” She sighed and continued on, still dangling the mask at me. “I’m sorry, I did. I know I did the thing you hate, okay?”
She was right. I hated losing sight of her in a crowd. Hated it even more when it was in a place we weren’t familiar with.
“But, Law, I was so excited. I promise to stick close for the rest of the night. But I wish you’d tell me what’s going on.” I heard the change in her voice, the dip in her tone at the end. “Please, what’s going on?”
“Don’t know yet,” I admitted, leaning down so she could tie the black mask over my face. “Can’t put my finger on it, but something is wrong. I’m going to call Addie and confirm that-”
She made a strangled sound in the back of her throat and leaned to the side, looking up at me. “Oh, please don’t. I know this isn’t a show and that you don’t like when things are a surprise, but maybe Addie just got confused when she bought the tickets?” Honey shot me a hopeful look and I faltered. I knew she didn’t want me to press this, she wanted to enjoy the night as nothing more than a happy mix up and that meant me not calling Addie. I looked at my watch and saw that it was nearly nine. Honestly, I didn’t want to call Addie at this hour, not when she had a full schedule with me on the road.
“Fine, I’ll let it lie.”
“Thank you, Daddy!” Honey threw her arms around me and hugged me tight. “This is going to be such a fun night.” She grabbed my hand and led me back towards the ballroom where the dance floor was filled, couples enjoying the music, sweeping across the room in a parade of suits and expensive dresses.
“Can you dance?” Honey asked, and I nodded.
“Of course.” I’d learned to dance taking classes at the Y three times a week when I was eighteen. The classes had paid off in spades when it came to the work I was doing. Being a bodyguard or blending in long enough to carry out a hit meant being adaptable. It meant doing what you had to so no one noticed you and being invisible meant a lot of different things at different times. Sometimes it meant standing quietly in the shadows and sometimes it meant dancing at the cotillion as the debutante you were charged with was making her grand entrance to bullshit society.
