Page 103 of Double or Nothing

“All the more reason he needs me.”

“Trust me, Kat, just let me get him out of here and back to the hotel. I promise you, once everything is settled, I will call you.”

“No.”

“Let’s just head back to your place until Mac gets everything settled,” Liz says, wrapping her arms around me. “Then we can go to the hotel and—”

“This isn’t the end,” I say, though I’m not sure who exactly I’m directing the statement to, but I think I’m saying it to myself. I want to say it to Sutton, tell him I’m not going anywhere, that I’m unwilling to let this go, let us go, without a fight. Not when we just found our way back to each other.

“No one said it is, Kat,” Mac says, his words not reassuring me.

“You tell him…” I choke down the sob that threatens to escape. “You tell him this isn’t over.”

When Liz and I arrive back at my place, Callum is sitting on my porch.

“What the hell is going on?”

“This isn’t a good time, Callum,” Liz tells him, pushing open the door and helping me inside.

“No shit.” Callum grabs my arm, turning me to face him. “What happened, Kat?”

“I don’t know,” I say, the tears I was holding in finally falling.

Callum wraps his strong arms around me and holds me until the tears subside, then leads me to the couch and sits me down.

“Jack is furious. Not with you, obviously, but Sutton’s little outburst doesn’t exactly look good for the casino.”

“I don’t give a damn about the casino. My life is imploding, and I don’t even know why,” I sob.

“Nothing is imploding,” Liz says, her voice soft as her hand strokes my hair.

Like hell, it isn’t. I saw the look in Sutton’s eyes. It was the same look he had when he left that night. After I made my decision. The wrong decision in his eyes.

“Are you kidding me right now?” I’m screaming and crying and on the verge of a complete meltdown. I don’t need to hear the words to know what’s happening.

My phone rings and I answer it immediately.

“Mac? Is he okay?” my panicked voice shouts into the phone.

“No.”

“I’m on my way.”

“No, Kat. He… he doesn’t want to see you.” I protest, but Mac stops me. “You know how he can get, Kat. I think it’s best if you just stay away until tomorrow. Once he’s calm, we can talk through all this.”

“But Mac…”

“I’m sorry, Kat. This is for your own good and his. Just trust me.”

With a loud scream, I throw my phone across the room.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what’s happening.

Sutton changed his mind. He’s getting ready to leave Vegas. The promise he made that he could handle his shit with his dad was a lie. Maybe it wasn’t intentional, but it was still true.

Chapter 47

Sutton