by Alexa Wilder
“What are you doing up?” he asked. “You need to rest. You haven’t been getting much sleep lately, and I kept you up late last night. I thought you could take the day off.”
“You have that meeting in Henderson at one,” I said, stepping to the side to evade his outstretched hands. I didn’t want to kiss him, but I wasn’t sure how to avoid it without raising questions I wasn’t strong enough to answer. Sam stepped back, his hands dropping, eyes confused.
“I can handle that without you,” he said. “Why don’t you just stay here and relax?”
Stalling for time to think, I went into the kitchen to make myself a cup of coffee. I was already dressed for work, but I could change into something else. And it would be easier to leave from here. I went back into the dining room with my coffee and sat in one of the chairs at the table across from Sam, preventing him from coming any closer.
He studied me, his expression cautious. He knew something was up. I've never been able to lie to him very well, not that I tried that often. I wasn’t a liar by nature. But every once in a while, when he asked a question I didn’t want to answer, like ‘who ate the last chocolate chip cookie?’, I’d fib. He always caught me.
“Are you sure?” I asked. I really did have a lot to get done in the office. I wasn’t sure how everything was going to work out with Sam long-term, but it wasn’t fair to anyone for me to blow off my job because my affair with the boss hadn’t gone as planned.
“I’m sure,” he said. “Stay home. Axle’s working on finding Nolan. You can take the day off, rest, I’ll leave my laptop so you can check email and deal with anything that’s really pressing.”
“Okay, if you’re sure.” This was so weird. Only a few hours ago I’d been ready to give Sam everything, now it was all I could do to keep myself from running out of the room.
“Clo, are you okay?” Sam asked, his blue eyes sharp as they fixed on my face. “You’re acting weird.”
“I’m not,” I said. “I’m acting normal in a weird situation.”
“You’re being a goof. This isn’t a weird situation, it’s just different. You’ll get used to it and it’ll seem like it was always this way.”
His words felt like a punch to my stomach. I couldn’t reconcile the way he was being with the things he’d said to Daniel. He was acting like everything was fine. Like we were together. Maybe I’d misunderstood. Maybe I’d misheard and jumped to conclusions. Maybe I just needed to woman up and ask Sam what was going on.
Putting my coffee mug down on the table, I sucked in a quick breath and said, “Sam? What is it that I’m going to get used to?” He gave me a look as if I was a little slow.
“This. Us. You and me being together.”
“Are we? Together?”
Sam studied me, silent, his thoughts hidden behind suddenly blank eyes. “Chloe, so much is going on right now. Can we just be how we are for a while before we talk about it?”
An answer that was no answer at all. My heart sank. It wasn’t, “Of course we’re together, Chloe. What did you think last night was?” It definitely wasn’t, “Of course we’re together, I love you Chloe, and I always will.”
I wondered how many other women had sat at his table and gotten some version of the “let’s just be how we are” speech. A lot. And I was the next one on the list. Pulling together every one of my feeble skills in deception, I manufactured a placid smile for Sam and said, “Sure. We’ll talk about it later.”
I looked at the time and was relieved to see it was after eleven. I’d spent way longer getting ready than I normally did. I must’ve been in the shower for over forty-five minutes.
“You’re going to have to leave soon, unless you brought the specs for the meeting home with you yesterday,” I said, knowing he hadn’t.
“Shit, I didn’t. I thought we’d go into the office this morning.”
“If you leave now, you’ll have time to review everything before you have to go.”
I picked up my coffee and drank. From the hesitant look on Sam’s face I could tell that he wasn’t entirely buying it. Either he suspected I was trying to get rid of him, or he knew I was up to something. At the very least he could tell I wasn’t being straight with him. I thought about making an excuse to go change, since I didn’t need to wear a suit today if I wasn’t going into work, but that might give Sam the idea to join me in the bedroom. If he touched me, I would break.
“Do you mind if I make myself something to eat?” I asked.
“Anything you want, Clo. Make yourself at home. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Sam got up from the table and began stacking the papers in front of him. I stayed where I was, but said,
“Go change. I’ll get your briefcase packed.”
“Thanks, honey.”
Sam left, pausing only briefly to kiss the top of my head. I felt the touch of his lips all the way down my spinal cord. I was desperately glad that as he walked away he couldn’t see my tears.
22
Chloe
I thought he would never leave. I’d wiped my eyes and gotten to work sorting and organizing the papers spread across the dining room table, putting them back in his briefcase so he’d be able to find everything easily when he needed it. By the time he came back, wearing a deep navy suit with a blue shirt and crisply striped tie, I was ready to lose it.
I’d always loved the way Sam looked in a suit. He wasn’t one of those uber-polished men, with perfect hair and buffed nails who looked like they could be a menswear model. Sam was too masculine for that. His blond hair a little too thick and unruly, his jaw a little too square, and his shoulders too broad.
He looked most at home in a pair of tough khaki work pants and construction boots, out on the site with one of his crews. But when you put him in a suit, it always seemed to me like trying to restrain something primal. And now that I knew what he looked like without anything on it all, my fingers itched to loosen his tie and yank it off.
Too bad my heartbreak couldn’t seem to get the message through to my hormones. I ate him up with my eyes while my brain warned me to stay away. I would. I was leaving. But I had a hard time letting him go. I handed him his briefcase and assured him I’d be fine on my own.
When he was gone, I went back to the bedroom to change out of my suit. I wasn’t going to rush, just in case Sam forgot something and came back. Standing in the closet, I hung the suit and plum shell back on the hanger the way Lola had arranged them. I didn’t have a suitcase, but fortunately most of what Lola sent over had come in department store garment bags. My conscience chirped at me, telling me I should leave the clothes. I ignored it. Leaving the clothes would be stupid. Sam couldn’t use them. He’d bought them for me.
He was going to be angry I’d left, there was no question about that. But he’d probably be even more pissed if I left the things he’d bought me. At least, that was what I told myself. Trying to think ahead, I borrowed a small gym bag from the back of Sam’s closet, one I recognized as a vendor giveaway we’d all gotten the year before. I packed it with enough clothes to hold me for the next few days. None of the suits or dresses, just casual wear and a few pairs of shoes.
The rest of the clothes I replaced in the garment bags and carried out to my car, laying them neatly down in the trunk where they wouldn’t get wrinkled or damaged. I checked the clock. Just after noon. There was no way Sam would be back before his one o’clock meeting. He wouldn’t have time.
While I’d been packing I’d worked out a rough plan. I’d stay in a hotel on the other side of town, someplace off the strip which was the last place Sam would expect me to be. Then, I’d call Tim and see if I could get him to meet me. He’d known about Dog and the poker room. He must know more even if he didn’t think he did. I just had to find out what it was.
I almost used Sam’s laptop to book a hotel room, then thought better of it and did it on my phone. I chose one that was low-profile but not run down. Something with a bar and a restaurant, not right on the strip but close enoug
h that it would be crowded. I wasn’t exactly experienced at hiding in plain sight, but it seemed logical that the bigger the crowd, the more I’d blend in.
I changed into a casual sky blue shirt-dress. It was similar to some of the dresses I used to wear to work, except cut much better. My old dresses were boxy, the shoulders padded, hiding my breasts and hips. This one was trim through the shoulders, with cute cap sleeves, a flared skirt, and a wide belt that made my waist look smaller. There was nothing provocative about it. As dresses went it was fairly demure. But with my very curvy figure, it was still a bit sexy. I buttoned up one more button on the bodice to make sure there was no hint of cleavage and slipped into a pair of matching flat sandals. In this I looked like any other tourist.
I felt like a criminal as I backed my car out of the garage and drove through the gates at the end of Sam’s driveway. Whatever was going on between us, I absolutely knew he didn’t want me to leave. He’d be furious when he found out I had. I didn’t see another choice. I needed to find Nolan, and Sam had admitted to Daniel that he was doing everything he could to stop me. I couldn’t live with that.
With everything I’d learned in the past few days about my brother, I was growing more and more aware that he was in deep shit. So deep, I doubted I could save him. I had to try. No matter how much of a mess Nolan might be, I would never turn my back on my brother. Never. And Sam was wrong to try to make me.
I drove to the hotel on autopilot, running through different scenarios in my mind. Was Nolan really hiding? Or was he out there somewhere fucking around and playing cards? Maybe I could get Tim to tell me some of the other places Nolan played and go look there.
Checking in was quick. The hotel didn’t have valet, which was easier, and I was parked and done with the front desk ten minutes after I got there. The room was nothing to get excited about. It was clean, and the hallway was quiet. That was all I cared about.
Fatigue dragged at me. Sam had been right, I hadn’t been sleeping well and the few hours I got in the night before weren’t nearly enough. I stared at the bed and thought about laying down, just for a few minutes. Not a good idea. I needed to keep moving. Needed to talk to Tim.
I called him from my cell and was relieved when he picked up on the second ring saying, “Nolan?”
“No, Tim. It’s me, Chloe.”
“Oh, sorry. I guess I was hoping it was Nolan again,” He said, sheepishly.
“So you haven’t heard from him?”
“No, I would’ve called if I had.”
“Listen, Tim, do you think you could meet me? I just want to ask you some questions about Nolan. I’ve learned some new things and I’m just wondering if maybe you know things you don’t know you know. If that makes sense.”
“Um, kind of? It kind of makes sense. What did you find out?”
“I don’t want to talk about it over the phone,” I said. “Could you meet me for coffee or a drink or something? I haven’t had lunch yet.”
“Sure I could meet you for lunch,” Tim said easily.
“Great.” The restaurant at the hotel looked good enough. I told him where I was staying and he agreed to meet me there in half an hour. I killed time by checking email on my phone, handling a few things that had popped up at work and watching the clock as the minutes ticked by.
Tim was waiting for me outside the restaurant when I got there. Unlike the day before, he didn’t look like he’d picked his clothes up off the floor. He wore clean jeans, white sneakers, and a gray zip up hoodie with the company logo on the left side. His hair was clean and brushed, his eyes bright but clear. Too late, I remembered what Sam had said about him acting like a tweaker, but he seemed completely sober, to my relief.
“I’m starved,” he said when I walked up. “I was at work late last night finishing up a project and I missed dinner. Feels like I’ve been living off vending machine junk for the last week.”
“I’m hungry, too,” I said, leading the way into the restaurant. I glanced at the menu, not really caring what I got, and ordered a ruben when the waitress came by. Tim ordered more food than I could imagine he could stuff in his skinny body. A double cheeseburger, onion rings, and a milkshake. More worried about Nolan than food, I leaned forward and said in a low voice,
“Did you know Nolan was working for Tsepov?” I asked. Tim’s eyes widened almost comically, and he looked around as if to assure himself no one was listening.
“Where did you hear that?”
“From a guy named Feliks at a pool hall,” I said watching Tim carefully. His shock seemed genuine, but was he surprised to hear what Nolan was doing? Or surprised that I knew? It was impossible to say.
“No, I didn’t know. I knew he got into Tsepov for some money. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you that yesterday but I didn’t want to freak you out.”
“It’s okay,” I said. I was lying, but so was Tim. I could see it on his face. He’d known Nolan was in with Tsepov over more than money lost in a poker game.
“He’ll turn up, Chloe. I’m sure he will.”
“I can’t stop looking, Tim. He’s my brother. What if he needs my help?”
“I’m not trying to scare you, Chloe. But if he’s running from Tsepov, he needs more help than you can give him.”
The waitress came and dropped our food between us. Tim grabbed an onion ring the second the plate hit the table and shoved it in his mouth. Not waiting to finish chewing before he spoke, he said “What happened to the guy who was with you yesterday?”
Something about the way he looked at me when he asked struck me as odd. I wasn’t going to share my personal issues with Tim, who wasn’t exactly a friend. Again, I lied, kind of.
“He has a meeting right now, otherwise he’d be with me. Can you think of any places Nolan might be hiding out? Any friends he might be with? Is it possible he’s just out on a bender or playing cards?”
“I don’t know Chloe. I really doubt he’s out there partying.”
“But why? How do you know he’s in trouble? Maybe he paid Tsepov the money he owed him and he’s just messing around.”
“I don’t, I guess. I mean, I got the impression he was in trouble from you.”
Had he? That didn’t make sense if he knew Nolan owed Tsepov money. I’d only just learned who most of the players were in this situation, but even I knew owing a Russian mobster money put you right in the middle of a lot of trouble. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something about Tim felt off.
Making me even more uneasy, he reached out and took my hand in his. Meeting my eyes, his own insistently sincere, he said, “Chloe, don’t worry about Nolan. I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
As gently as I could, I took my hand back, saying “I can’t help it, Tim. He’s my brother. Please, if you can think of anywhere he might be, will you tell me?”
“Let me think about it,” Tim said, picking up his burger and taking a huge bite.
I tried not to sigh in annoyance. Clearly, the conversation was on hold until Tim had filled his stomach. I was hungry too, so I went ahead and ate my reuben while Tim inhaled his significantly larger meal. He was done in record time. It was shocking, to be honest, how quickly such as skinny guy could eat that much food.
When he had sucked down the last dregs of his milkshake, Tim sat back and folded his hands over his stomach.
“I can take a long lunch today,” he said. “I’ve been working late every night this week, so they’ll cut me some slack. I really don’t know where Nolan is, but I can take you around to a few of the places we play cards and see if anybody’s heard from him.”
Relief washed through me. I wasn’t wild about going off with Tim, especially after he’d grabbed my hand like that. We didn’t know each other well enough to be holding hands. But this felt like progress. At least with Tim I’d be out there, talking to people who knew Nolan.
Maybe we’d get lucky. With every hour that went by I was more scared for my brother. I was willing to admit he was kind of a fuck-up, but he was mine
. I’d raised him. I loved him. I’d do anything I had to to get him back.
23
Chloe
I shouldn’t have been surprised when Tim let me pay for lunch. It was only fair; I guess. I had invited him. We left the restaurant and went out of the hotel by a side door, headed for the parking garage and my car. Tim was on the phone with someone, checking around to see if anybody had seen Nolan more recently than Saturday. It didn’t sound like he was having any luck.
I was so focused on listening to Tim’s conversation; I wasn’t paying attention to our surroundings. The parking garage was above ground, but I had parked on the first level so it was a little dim out of the bright afternoon sunshine. Maybe that was why I didn’t notice the shadowy figures closing in on us from both sides. I wouldn’t have seen them at all if I hadn’t spun around at the last second, worried I’d led us past my car.
By the time I registered what was happening, it was too late. I saw Tim hit the ground, his phone spinning out of his hand when he hit the pavement. I was lifted up and back, my arms wrenched behind me and secured with the click of handcuffs. I tried to turn my head and see who had me, but all I got was a glimpse of dark hair before a black bag fell over my head. I was lifted and dropped into a stiff seat, something tight drawn across my chest and fastened with a click. A seatbelt?
Doors slammed, an engine started, and I swayed in the seat as we took off out of the parking garage. I fought against my rising panic. As much as I tried to get myself under control, I might’ve really lost it if the black bag hadn’t been whipped off my head, leaving me staring at a familiar face. A very angry familiar face.
Axel.
“Let me go,” I said. “What the hell are you doing? You can’t kidnap me.”
Axel laughed. “I just did,” he said. “And you’re not going anywhere until Sam gets here. And then only if he agrees to keep a handle on you.”
