Kian’s voice sounded again. “She wasn’t rich. She had no family. Her home was her prison. She dated Justin Cavers because of one thing. He took her away from that hell. My life is no more important than hers. Who my father is doesn’t matter when compared to the lack of hers.”
Jake snorted, folding his arms over his chest. “Easy thing for him to say. He’s got a privileged future ahead of him, no matter what he does.”
Erica held a hand up. “Shh.”
Kian continued, “My future would have meant nothing if I had done nothing. She wouldn’t have had a future. I believe that. She wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t stepped in. I know everyone is asking where she is, but it doesn’t matter. She’s safe. Her life is as important as mine, and honestly, I think her future is more important than mine. Who am I? I grew up rich. I grew up spoiled. I was given all the blessings in the world—looks, charisma, personality, intelligence. Everything.”
Jake rolled his eyes. “What a douche. Girls fall for this shit?”
Erica fixed him with a glare and paused the recording again. “Do you mind? I need to get all this information before Susan realizes it’s gone.”
I gritted my teeth. Press Play. Press Play, Erica. I needed to hear what he had to say.
Jake stood, raking a hand through his hair. His shirt lifted from the movement. Seven months ago, I would’ve salivated at the little peek, but now, I was transfixed by the screen.
Even when Kian was paused, his eyes were mesmerizing. He wasn’t looking at whoever had asked him the questions. He was gazing right into the camera. There was a somberness in his eyes, and it was like he was speaking to me. I knew millions of other girls would feel the same way as I did. That look from him dug deep into my chest. It was like he was burrowing a place for himself right inside my chest.
“This is unreal. Females are dumb.”
“Dude.” Erica smacked his arm. “Shove it. This is journalistic gold. He’s right. The only reason his story got national attention is because of his face and his family’s wealth. That’s it. There are a lot of murders that happen, but none get the accolade he’s received. And so what?” She shrugged again. “Who cares if he’s feeding us bullshit? For what it’s worth, I do think he meant what he said. He cares for that girl.”
“Then, where the hell is she?”
“That’s the point of our story. He’s opened up about her, and he’s never done that before. That’s the big question. Where is Jordan Emory? He’s not really the story anymore. It’s her. People want to know about this chick, and she’s missing.”
“Can you blame her?” Jake threw me a frown as he said to Erica, “I’d hide, too, if I had to deal with this guy.”
“Well.” Erica lifted the remote again. “And the media. I mean, seriously, the girl’s going to get her ass ripped apart whenever they find her.”
“You think she went into Witness Protection?” Jake was still studying me.
“Who knows? It’ll all come out eventually.” She pressed Play. “It always does.”
Kian continued, “I couldn’t have survived what she did. She persevered…”
Jake moved closer to me, tugging me further from the television. He lowered his voice, bending close to me. “Hey, you okay?”
Erica was right. It was going to come out. I had to stop hiding and face it. My jaw was trembling. I felt wetness on my cheeks, and I raised a hand, feeling the tears there.
“Hey, hey.” Jake caught my face and lifted it. He was peering down at me. “What’s wrong? Talk to me. Wait, aren’t you supposed to be at work? I was going to come and take your break with you.”
Erica glanced over, but she was distracted by the interview. A small frown marred her face before she resumed taking notes.
I sucked in a hasty breath. If Erica noticed something was wrong, she’d dig into me and demand to know what it was.
Turning my back so that she couldn’t see my face, I looked toward the floor, keeping my voice low. “I’m fine. I…wait, if you were going to come to my work, what are you doing here?”
Jake straightened abruptly and jerked back a step. “I came here to look for you.”
“No, he didn’t,” Erica called over. “He’s not telling the truth. He was at the paper to see Susan. I made him feel like shit for that, so I asked him to bring the DVD here.”
“Why?” I frowned. “They don’t frisk you, do they?”
She snorted. “Susan would love it if they did. Nope. I incriminated your boyfriend for two reasons. One, he owes me, and two, when Susan asks me if I took the DVD home for any reason, I can honestly say that I didn’t.”
“Are you serious?” I couldn’t tell sometimes with her.
She grunted, turning back to the television. “As a heart attack. I need as much extra advantage over Susan as possible. I’m in the battle of my career…before my career has really started.”
There was a break in the conversation as Kian’s voice carried over. “She didn’t persuade me to do it. She didn’t brainwash me to do it. She didn’t blackmail me. She didn’t even ask me. She did nothing.”
A lump sat at the back of my throat. It was permanently lodged there.
“She did nothing.”
Erica’s voice added to his. “The girl’s going to get her ass ripped apart whenever they find her. It’ll all come out eventually.”
An image of Kian holding me flashed in my mind.
“They’re going to crucify me, aren’t they?”
He had pulled me tighter to him. “Not if I can help it.”
“I have to go,” I choked out.
“What?” Jake asked.
Erica paused the tape again. She didn’t say anything.
I turned back for the door.
“Wait. Jo, come on.” Jake was right behind me.
“No.”
His hand came down on my shoulder.
I shrugged it off, opening the door. “I have to go.”
“But—”
Erica was standing up from the coffee table. She was frowning at me, but she wasn’t as concerned as Jake. A ripple of fear started inside me. What if she was starting to piece it together?
I blocked Jake from following me. “Don’t. I have to go.”
“Where are you going?”
I started down the hallway. He was coming right behind me.
“Stop, Jake!” I yelled over my shoulder. “I mean it. I…” Think, Jordan, think. “I have to go and do something. I’ll be back later.”
I didn’t think.
I ran.
Grabbing a cab, I didn’t think again when I told the driver where to go. When he pulled up outside of The Maston, I caught sight of a car heading to the back of the hotel. “Follow that car.”
“You sure?”
No. “Yes.”
And I was right. The car pulled up to a back door. A driver got out, went to the side, and opened the rear door. The hotel door then opened, and Kian walked out.
I dug out some money, tossed it to the driver, and said, “Thank you.” I was outside then and hurrying forward. “Kian.”
He handed his bag to the driver and bent down to climb into the back, but he paused. Seeing me, he straightened back up. He didn’t say anything until I was right in front of him. His dark eyes raked over me, but there was no reaction to seeing me.
I hesitated then. Maybe I shouldn’t have come?
His head lowered a fraction of an inch. His eyes became lidded. “What are you doing here?”
I flushed. His tone was quiet, but he didn’t seem upset. He sounded worried. The lump in the back of my throat was swallowed, and I felt like I could breathe easier. “I’m going to be found, aren’t I?”
He didn’t answer. That mask was so unreadable.
I wanted him to give me something. “Kian?”
He sighed, his shoulders dropping. “Probably.”
“I want to come with you,” I blurted out. What the hell?
I should have regretted my words.
I didn’t. They were true. If I was going to be discovered, I needed to be with someone who had endured everything before, too.
“We can be a team, you know? If you’re supporting me, maybe they won’t destroy me, or as much as they would’ve if you weren’t with me. It could work.” I winced, hearing a twinge of fear in my voice. I couldn’t mask it.
“Jo…”
I shook my head. “I’m scared, Kian. It’s going to happen.” I echoed Erica’s words. “It’ll all come out eventually.”
He looked behind me and frowned. His hand came to my shoulder, and he urged me to the door. “Get inside.”
When I started to, he didn’t move to follow me.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
His frown deepened. “I’ll be right back.”
Scooting over to the far side of the car, I twisted around, so I could see out the back window. It was shaded black, like all the windows. No one could see in, but I could perfectly see Kian. He approached the cab, his hand in the air in a greeting. The cab driver rolled his window down, and Kian gestured to the dashboard.
Shit.
There was a dash camera, and it had been aimed right at us.
My hand curled into the back of the seat as I waited.
The cab driver nodded, and then Kian reached inside his pocket. He took a wad of money from his wallet and handed it over. The cab driver pulled off the dash camera and handed it to Kian. My hand let go of the seat, and I started to relax again, but, no, Kian didn’t leave. He pointed inside the cab again. The cab driver shook his head. Kian didn’t move. The driver continued to shake his head, and Kian leaned further down. The driver went stock-still, and he didn’t look away from Kian. Slowly, the driver reached down and then handed something to Kian. Taking it, Kian put it into his pocket and came back.
When he got inside, he touched a button on the door. “You can go, Emile.”
Our car slid forward.
Something about his exchange with the cab driver sent chills down my back. I waited, wondering if he would share what was in his pocket. He didn’t. He rested back and closed his eyes. In that moment, Kian wasn’t the guy I had met on the roof. There was no outward change to his appearance, but a sixth sense reared up in me. The promise of violence clung to him. Butterflies kicked up in my stomach again, but caution was in there, too.
“What did you take from that guy?”
He didn’t look at me, but he reached inside his pocket and held out a flash drive. He held the dash camera to me, too. “So, there’s no evidence of you with me.”
“You bribed him.”
“At first.” His eyes found mine.
I was wrong. This was the Kian who had killed Edmund. He was right next to me. All of that same cold intent was packed in his eyes. The shiver wound its way through my body again, but there was something else. The fear was gone. That shiver was a different kind. It was intoxicating.
“At first?” My voice was hoarse.
“If I only paid him, he would’ve sold something else—what you look like now, where you live, that you had him drive you behind my hotel to meet with me.” His jaw clenched, and he turned to look out the window. “I did what I had to do.”
He’d threatened the driver.
I waited a beat, but there was no fear, no judgment, no warning. Nothing.
He looked back to me. “Are you okay with that?”
I said the truth, “You protected me.”
He held my gaze. He was testing me, seeing if I meant what I’d said. I did. I would’ve been discovered and because of a cab driver. I’d made the mess, and Kian had cleaned it up for me.
I leaned back to him. “Thank you.”
He didn’t reply. He didn’t need to. The tension in the air lifted.
As his car drove us to his new place, for once in a really long time, I felt like I wasn’t alone. It almost felt just right.
She came to me.
That realization reverberated deep within me. I was too scared to say much. I didn’t want to scare her off.
That cab driver…I’d recognized the look in his eyes. It was opportunity.
What I’d told Jordan was correct. A bribe wouldn’t have worked. I’d asked for his name. I’d asked if he knew my name. I’d asked if he knew the name of the hotel, the name of my family’s company, the name of my father. I’d waited once he answered every single question. It hadn’t taken long until he began to connect the dots. I could get to him—through his work, through his boss, through his home. I could get to him. That was the bottom line, so no real threat had been issued. It was just the knowledge that there could be a threat.
It was enough.
He had given me the USB cable along with the reassurance that he wouldn’t say a thing. It was enough—at least until I could call my private investigator.
When we got to the other hotel, we drove to a back entrance. It had been discussed before Jo came to me. We would be taken through a back maintenance shed and through a tunnel that led underground and opened to a far loading garage. From there, an elevator to a penthouse was off to the side. The hotel manager was waiting for us, just to show us the way. There were two elevators for the floor, and this side one was the more private. No cameras were present once near the elevator, but I took a page from Snark’s book.
I gave Jo a sweatshirt to wear with the hood pulled low over her head. Dark sunglasses hid her face, covering most of her cheeks. The hotel manager glanced at her a few times, but didn’t say a word. I was there for privacy and exclusivity. If my presence were leaked, I would sue.
It was one massive floor with a large living room, a kitchen with a dining room that extended against one wall of the floor, a balcony wrapped around the entire floor, one office, three bedrooms, four bathrooms, and our own pool. The walls surrounding were made of glass but tinted so no one could see inside.
Jo’s hand grabbed mine at the sight of the pool. I glanced down, but she had been captivated by the water. She didn’t know she reached for me.
This meant something. It had to mean something.
I struggled against squeezing her hand. Fearful she’d realize what she had done and pull away, I let our hands dangle loosely. And I felt like a schoolboy with a crush. It was ridiculous. It was her effect on me.
When the tour was done and the manager got our orders for food and beverages, Jo wandered through the place. She kept looking up and down. She kept biting down on her lip, trying to hide her smile, but I caught it. I wasn’t surprised.
“I have no idea what to do now.” Jo had wandered back, still hugging herself.
The elevator buzzed.
“Those are my bags. One second.”
Emile brought the bags in, placing them right inside the door. He paused, his gaze sweeping to Jo. “Is there anything else you need, Kian?”
“No, thank you.” I clapped him on the shoulder. “Take the night off.”
“Um…” Jo surged forward but stopped herself. Her hand covered her mouth. “Sorry.”
Emile frowned in her direction. He was wondering if he’d need to drive her home later or not.
I explained for both of them, “She can stay here, if she wants, or I can drive her home.”
His gaze snapped to mine. “Kian.”
“It’ll be fine.” I patted his shoulder again. “Go home. Go see your little granddaughter.”
My driver shook his head, giving me a rueful look. “I’m too young to have grandbabies, but—”