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Unable to give up, I pulled out my phone and tried calling again. Nothing. Straight to voicemail, just like every other time I’d called during the last twenty-four hours.

Deflated and with the Italian meal growing colder by the minute, I retraced my steps to the gate and looked up and down the street. I pursed my lips and reluctantly made one last call for the night.

Jethro answered right away. “No need to ask. Sit tight.”

I opened my mouth to reply, but our call ended, and barely ten seconds later, the car came around the corner of the block.

The driver’s window rolled down when Jethro pulled up. “Heading home, little lady?”

The grin and cute remark was meant to make me smile, yet I simply didn’t have it in me. “Guess I am.”

He jumped out and opened my door. “Chin up, Miss Landon. The day will seem brighter in the morning.”

“I know,” I murmured, and slid in.

The drive back to my condo was filled with quiet music playing over the radio, and nothing more. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the concerned glances Jethro cut to me through the rear vision mirror.

While I knew I should let sleeping lions lie, I had a tendency to not be able to let shit go until I got answers. By the time we pulled up at my building, I’d already formed a plan.

“Thank you, Jethro. Take tomorrow off; I won’t be in the office.”

His bushy eyebrows hit his hairline before they pulled low. “You know I don’t pry, but is everything okay?”

I tried to wear my best reassuring smile. “It will be.” I hope, I mentally added.

“Call if you need-”

“I won’t be calling you on your day off, Mr. Pickney,” I stated, as I exited the car. “See you in thirty-six hours.”

He laughed and shook his head. “Have a good night, Miss Landon.”

With a final wave to each other, Jethro pulled away from the curb and headed home to his family, and I took my dinner for one upstairs to my empty condo.

Ten minutes later, with the reheated Italian meal balanced on my lap, I commenced my detective work, starting with finding the whereabouts of Vega Delgado.

Chapter 43

-Raf-

Morning brought the dreaded memories created by last night’s stupidity. Hungover with vague recollections of calling both Tequila and Stevie, racking up a room tab that I now cringed at, not to mention hurting Greer in a way that lashed into me, I slung an arm over my face and groaned.

Running and drowning my sorrows normally worked, but without a woman or two in my bed to round out the trifecta, my burdens hadn’t eased in the slightest.Notthat I wanted womenplural;there was only one specifically I wanted.

I reached for my phone and squinted against the sudden bright light when the screen came alive. My heart dived from my chest to see yet another missed call from Greer yesterday evening. Today, however, there was nothing. Maybe she had finally got the message; that I was toxic and she deserved better.

While I craved her more than anything else, I was glad to be out of reachable distance. I was weak this morning and could easily succumb to desires that would only make our situation infinitely worse.

I ordered a room service breakfast—charging it to the room because, hell, my bill was already colossal, so why the fuck not—then stumbled my way into the bathroom.

The shower spray was too loud for my sensitive ears to handle. Each jet of water seemed to bounce around my thumping head before swirling down the drain. Turning it down as far as it would go, I gingerly stepped under the spray and shivered with goosebumps as my body adjusted to the initial shock of hot water.

I braced my hands on the wall for support and closed my eyes as the tiled cubicle warped and spun around me. After struggling through washing myself, I toweled off and wrapped a fresh dry towel around my waist as I walked back into the suite.

The entry door beeped as a key-card clicked in and out the lock, and, “Room service!” was called when the door cracked open.

I made for the door and grabbed the cart as the guy guided it through the door.

“Thanks, I’ll take it from here.”

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