Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 80283 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80283 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
“Is everything all right?” he asks, his voice a deep rumble in the silence following my gasp of surprise.
“Y-yes.” I take a deeper breath and yank the charger cord from my cell. “At least, I think so. Zan wants me to call her.”
“Now?” he asks. “In the middle of the night?”
“It’s okay.” I wave a hand, hoping that, in the near darkness, he can’t see the way it’s trembling. “We’re both insomniacs. She’s used to me being up all night. I’ll just pop down to the lobby and see what she needs. Go back to sleep.”
“You can call here. It’s fine. I’m already awake.”
“But you’ll be even more awake if you have to listen to me blab with my sister for half an hour,” I say, shrugging into my gray dress and pulling on a sweater as I step into my clogs. “I’ll call from the office in the lobby where I won’t bother anyone and be back soon.”
“Seriously, Lizzy, I don’t—”
“Sleep. I’ll be back in a few.” I blow him a kiss, grab the key from the desk, and start for the door with my phone clutched tight in my sweating palm.
23
Elizabeth
Downstairs in the cozy, couch-filled lobby, a pair of sleepy-looking delivery boys are unloading crates of milk and juice by the front door and the night clerk is arranging flowers behind the desk.
When she sees me padding down the carpeted steps, she smiles and steps away from her work, “Good morning, miss. How can I help?”
“I just need to make a quick call and didn’t want to wake my friend,” I say softly, motioning to the phone in my hand. “Is it okay to use the business center?”
“Of course.” She extends her arm toward the glass door on the other side of the lobby. “It’s just there. Or if you’d like more privacy, feel free to step into the back garden. We won’t start setting up the tables for the breakfast service until half past six.”
“That’s perfect, thank you so much.” I smile and start toward the exit to the garden, passing my phone from hand to hand as I wipe my clammy palms on my sweater.
What on earth is Zan going to say at three in the morning?
I have no idea, but Zan isn’t the type to send a message like that unless she has serious suspicions and evidence to back them up.
Outside, the air is cool and quiet, the darkness broken by three softly glowing gas lamps that flicker at the edges of the brick patio. The café tables and chairs are stacked against the garden wall to my left, leaving the entire space open to pace as I tap Zan’s contact number and lift the phone to my ear.
She answers in the middle of the first ring, her voice humming with tension as she says, “Tell me you’re alone.”
“I’m alone,” I whisper, crossing my free arm over my chest and continuing to pace. “I’m in the hotel garden. Jeffrey’s upstairs in the room. What is this all about?”
“So you’re still with him.” She sighs. “I was hoping you’d gone your separate ways. What on earth are the two of you up to?”
“He’s helping me with something,” I say vaguely, and immediately regret it. Zan isn’t the type to be satisfied with vague, especially not when she’s in mama bear mode.
“With what?” she demands, as I expected.
“We’re looking into something I want to learn more about.”
“What kind of—”
“That’s all I’m going to say about it,” I cut in firmly. “But I will say this—Jeffrey’s been nothing but sweet and supportive.” I bite my bottom lip before adding, “And occasionally overbearing, but even that comes from a good place. He’s become a good friend and has given me no reason to doubt that his friendship is sincere.”
I leave out the part about being addicted to his penis.
Zan doesn’t need to know that part. No one needs to know that part. That’s private, just between Jeffrey and me.
And his penis.
“Maybe it is,” Zan says in a tone that infers it most certainly is not, “but I know beyond a shadow of doubt that his younger brother, Nick, isn’t the easy-going party boy he pretends to be. He’s mixed up with some very bad people, Lizzy, and there’s a chance Jeffrey is involved.”
I frown. “What kind of people?”
“Bad ones.”
I roll my eyes and spin to pace back in the other direction. “Can you be a little more specific?”
“I don’t know. Can you? What are you doing with this man that you can’t talk to me about? I’m your sister. I know we don’t talk as often as we used to, but I’ve been on your side since day one, and I still am. Always. I would do anything for you. No matter what you’re struggling with you can always come to me and I’ll make time to help. You know that, right?”