Page 98 of Wicked Beautiful (Wicked Games 1)
“And after that?”
In a husky whisper I reply, “She likes to be fed.”
Electricity crackles through the phone. “I hope she likes churros, because I’ve got a big one fresh from the oven that’s ready to go. I can be there in ten minutes.”
High from the need I hear in his voice, I laugh. “Why, Mr. Maxwell, how generous of you! My kitty does indeed like churros!”
“Churros in general, or mine in particular?”
The smile flees my face. I lower my leg to the water and sit up, my heart beginning to beat a little faster. “Yours in particular,” I say softly, letting him hear the truth in my voice.
There’s a long silence in which I can hear him breathing. Then: “I need to see you.”
The rawness of that, the way he puts everything he feels into those five simple words, takes my breath away. “I…I have to work early in the morning. My schedule over the next few days is crazy; I’m not free until the weekend.”
“All weekend?”
There’s a sudden shift in his mood, from sexy to sharp. I hear it in his voice. It’s almost as if something has occurred to him.
“Why? What did you have in mind?”
After a short pause, he says, “A surprise. I know how you love those. When should I pick you up?”
“After five on Friday. I have a seminar—”
“Text me the location. We’ll leave from there—pack an overnight bag.”
Taken aback by both his sudden intensity and what he’s just said about the overnight bag, I frown. “Where are we going?”
This time the pause before he speaks feels intensely fraught. Or maybe I’m just imagining it because all my nerves are squealing like piglets at the thought of seeing him again.
“To a place of no secrets,” he says quietly. Without another word, he hangs up.
I stare at the phone in my hand for a long time, wondering what those cryptic words could mean.
TWENTY-NINE
~ Parker ~
After I hang up with Victoria, I turn my gaze back to the computer screen I’ve been staring at for the past thirty minutes.
I’m in my office at Xengu. It’s hours until closing. I should be on the floor overseeing business, but tonight, for the first time ever, I’m incapable of conducting business.
I’m in too much shock.
Because after leaving Connor’s, I decided to look up that story about Victoria on the Drudge Report website that Bailey had told me about. It was short, only a few sentences long. But one word stood out to me like a glaring neon sign, the afterglow seared into my retinas:
Laredo.
I stare at that name—the name of the city where I grew up, the city where I lost my soul and buried my heart, the city where once upon a time I fell violently, irrevocably, fatally in love—and feel the first, faint tremors of anger stir in my gut.
It’s not a coincidence. I’m sure of that. Especially considering Victoria’s initial story about California omitted any mention of Laredo. It wasn’t until I brought it up that she said she’d been to Texas…and now her tale about visiting the grave of her ex-boyfriend is in question, too. So is what she said about her mother being sick.
I don’t need to ask myself if she could be that good a liar, b
ecause I already know the answer.
But why? What’s her end game?
