Jaden Read online

  “Take a break over there, but no smoking.” She batted at his arm as he lifted it for another drag. “Too many people can see you over there. Too many big people are here today.”

  He groaned, but snuffed out his cigarette and made a motion for the door. “Okay. Come on. I’m going. Move out of the way, woman.”

  She shook her head again, her eyebrows bunching forward. “I know your mother. Watch your tone with me, or I’ll tell on you.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” His tone was still smart, but it had softened. His head went down as he followed her inside.

  This was my chance. Before the door could completely close, I dashed for it and stuck my hand inside, catching it before it completely closed. It slammed on my hand, and I realized how heavy these doors were made. They were designed to slam shut with force.

  “What the—?”

  He was coming back. I had to think quickly. Looking around, I grabbed his discarded cigarette and held it between the door. Pulling my hand out, at just the right moment, the guy came back and reached for the door. He pulled it shut the rest of the way, and this time it did shut. I heard from the other side, “Goddamn doors. This is the fourth time they haven’t shut, just this week.”

  “Let’s go!” the woman called after him.

  “I’m coming! Jeez, woman.”

  I held my breath, standing frozen until I was sure they had gone far enough away where I could dare to try to sneak inside. I tried the handle. It was still locked, but I pulled at the door.

  It swung open.

  “Thank you, Mr. Cigarette Man,” I murmured under my breath and pulled out the cigarette. It had jammed the door so the lock hadn’t clicked into place, even though the door had shut all the way. Then I moved inside, but a thought struck me.

  I pulled out my phone and sent a text to Denton. The back door can be opened. Can you have someone let this info ‘slip’ to a trusted media source? I need them inside the hotel for this showdown.

  A second later, my phone buzzed. Done. Be safe. They almost caught Bryce opening a door. They’re on the lookout. The media has doubled outside the gate since we arrived.

  Thanks. Then I moved forward, muttering to myself, “That’s exactly what I want to hear.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  I didn’t know where Corrigan had gone, and I wasn’t going to wait. I sent him a text. Inside. I’m heading for her room.

  He replied instantly. Don’t. Wait.

  No. Wherever you are, stay there. I’m going to get in trouble, but it’ll just be me then. Besides, you can be backup if I need help.

  You’ll need help. Wait for me.

  Bryce is with her. He’ll help.

  Sheldon! Stop. I’m almost to your door.

  Sit tight and wait it out. I’m going to head up and bring them to the lobby somehow. I’m not at the door. Already gone.

  Sheldon.

  I didn’t reply, and instead, headed farther down the back hallway. I was in the employee section. As I went past a room, I reversed and backtracked. It was a locker room. Slipping inside, I grabbed a housekeeper’s uniform. I felt a little ridiculous in the gray skirt and top with a black vest, but whatever it took to blend in. Then I started trying the lockers. The first three were locked, but the fourth sprung open and a nice, shiny, ID badge was inside. I snatched it up and clipped it so the picture was facing against me. If someone saw, they’d see the ID badge, and I hoped that was enough for them to keep moving. I didn’t want that extra attention, not until I got to where I needed to go anyway.

  Once I got to the stairs, I sent Bryce a text. What room?

  10th floor, room 1014. I’m inside already.

  Should I knock to get in there? We didn’t plan this part.

  I’ll stand next to the door and let you in. She’s here.

  He didn’t mean Guadalupe. He meant the assistant, but I wanted both of them. I sent one last text, Good, and headed up. I bypassed the elevator and went up the stairs.

  As I ascended each floor, memories came flooding back. First, hearing from an entertainment channel that there were rumors Bryce had been with her. That’d been a nice gut punch. Bryce hadn’t wanted to talk about it then.

  Another floor. Another memory. A reporter stuck her microphone in my face and asked, with a polite fuck you smile as she was hoping for blood from me, “Is this because Guadalupe arrived at LAX two hours ago? I heard rumors that she's going to attend Bryce's first Suns game. Does that concern you at all? Is that why you left Spain, because of her?”

  My jaw was clenched firmly now, and I circled to head up the next set of stairs.

  With that, another image came back to me. I opened the door to the Public Relations room, hoping to surprise Bryce, and instead, I’d been the one surprised. He was holding her in his arms. His. Mother. Fucking. Arms.

  The fourth floor. A fourth memory. “He's close to Guadalupe. I know you don't want to hear that, but they're close. They're friends, Sheldon. I know Bryce would be upset if she were upset.” My hand gripped the rail harder, hearing Bryce’s agent’s warning.

  I wasn’t supposed to upset her. Her. Upset. He had been warning me away.

  That fucker.

  I rounded for the fifth floor. I remembered when I found her at the hotel and had booked myself a room. I followed her down to the lobby, only to hear her praises by the front desk staff. He’d been so eager to gush. “She's beautiful, isn't she? I have a friend of a friend to her makeup girl. They're going to have dinner with Bryce Scout right now. Have you heard of him? He's a big soccer star. They both just moved here. She came for a movie, and he followed her here. She could do so much better.”

  Oh yes. I had a good steady boil going as I trekked the sixth set of stairs.

  Images of Bryce and her on television. He’d gone to a movie premiere with her. He wore a tuxedo, and she had been beaming on his arm. She had been his date, when I was in the same city. He could’ve asked me, but he didn’t.

  He had taken her.

  Then at the hospital. I sucked in a breath. The fury raised another notch.

  That had been my time, my territory. Corrigan had been in a car accident. Bryce was there with me. It was our family time, not hers. She had come, trying to take him away from me. Like always. I remembered the look in her eyes when I told her to leave. She had sucked in her breath and she had wanted to fight me. I could tell. I always recognized that look in others, then that assistant. She had come forward, casting her disapproval over Bryce and me.

  He told them to go. I’d felt so much relief, but then that assistant snapped at him, making sure he would call them later.

  Like he needed to check in with her, make sure she was okay. Like she was his girlfriend. He caved, saying he would.

  The betrayal had been solidified in me with that one.

  They left, but he might as well have gone with them. Now, remembering all of it, that had been the time when he could’ve cemented the separation. He said he ended things later, once his little brother’s trust fund was safe and his mother couldn’t hurt Luca. I remembered the whole explanation. Guadalupe had been a mistake, but he tried to end things right after she had teamed up with his mother, the same mother who hated me with a passion. Holding Luca’s trust fund hostage, Bryce’s mother forced Bryce into a relationship with Guadalupe.

  He went along with it, working to find a way where his mother couldn’t hurt his little brother. Somehow he worked everything out. Luca’s inheritance wasn’t held hostage by their mom anymore and that meant Guadalupe had no leverage. He ended things with Guadalupe, but the damage was done. Now, remembering all of it again, hearing his excuses, envisioning her smug look of triumph, how that assistant acted like Guadalupe should’ve been reassured, not me, not Corrigan, not the ones who had really been hurt.

  All of it was coming at me in waves as I covered the last three floors. By the time I reached for the door handle for the tenth floor, the flames had formed a nice fiery rage in me.

  I almost felt sor
ry for them.

  Rolling my shoulders back, I went to room 1014 and knocked. There was a slight pause, then it swept open and Bryce stood on the other side.

  His eyes narrowed, seeing the mask on my face, and he nodded. He knew. He understood what was going to go down, and with that movement, I knew he would stand by my side. No wishy-washy bullshit this time.

  “Bryce?”

  I heard her voice from farther inside the room. Bryce and I were standing in a small hallway. He said to me, “You ready? It’s just the two of them.”

  I nodded and started for where the bedroom was.

  He was right behind me.

  As we passed the bathroom, the door opened and a different voice asked, this one sharper, “What the hell is going on?”

  It was her assistant. What was her name? I stopped and turned my icy stare on her instead. She was the one rumored to have cut the brakes. I couldn’t remember her name.

  I sneered at her, looking her up and down. “I can see how you were able to slip under the car.”

  For a moment, I saw the guilt there. It appeared for a split second, then it was replaced with her own icy look back at me. She asked, with gritted teeth, “What are you talking about?”

  I stepped toward her. Her straight, black hair had been pulled into a tight bun at the base of her neck and head. She was thinner and shorter than I was. Funny. I didn’t remember her being this tiny. Then I continued sneering at her. It was probably because her crazy overcompensated for her height.

  “You’re nice and tiny. You must’ve fit under my car just fine, you know, when you cut my brakes.”

  I watched her. I wanted to know if she’d react, show anything, but she didn’t. Her face was a porcelain mask of nothingness. There wasn’t even a flicker of her eyelids. The only reaction she gave was a smug grin, but that formed as she delivered, with acid dripping from her voice, “Sorry, but no. My condolences to your friend that drove it instead of you. I’m sure you pissed off whoever had cut the brakes.”

  There was nothing wrong with her statement, but there was everything wrong with it. The undertones were screaming at me loud and clear. Too bad it was your friend, not you. That’s what she meant.

  I hissed and went for her.

  “Hey.” Bryce intercepted me, stepping in front of me.

  I pushed forward, pressing against him, but he held firm and his hand reached behind, resting on my hip to keep me firmly in check.

  I growled. “Let me at her,” I snapped at her. “You put my friend in the hospital.”

  Her eyes narrowed to slits at my words. I wanted her to hear those words. I wanted her to hear the violence there.

  “That’s too bad.” She lifted her lip in a sneer. “Really.”

  Too bad for Corrigan, too bad he ended up in the hospital. I could hear her taunting tone on repeat in my head—that was her message. Yes, too bad. Too bad for her when I would lunge for her and claim that I was only reaching for the phone behind her. Oops. My hand slipped and punched her in the face, but I was really only trying to call the front desk.

  Oh yes. My own thoughts were sarcastic. Somehow, that made perfect sense in my mind, but I was seeing red. I wanted at her. “I’m going to hurt you.”

  “Bring it.” She never faltered or reared back. Her gaze held mine steadily, and I knew it was her. If there’d been any doubt, there was none now. This bitch put Corrigan in the hospital.

  I was going to return the favor.

  A new wave of fury surged in me, and I tried to slip around Bryce, but he checked me again.

  Then I saw her reaction.

  Bryce turned so he was facing me. Both of his hands were on my hips, holding me back, and the same disapproving look she had given me at the hospital appeared again. Her eyes flickered, showing some anger, and her lips pressed together, then curved down at the corners. The lines in her forehead strained as well.

  I grinned. She hated that I was touching Bryce. “You don’t like this, huh?”

  If she had a knife, I wondered if she would’ve used it right then and there. That was how she was looking at me now.

  Oh, honey, you just made this so much easier for me, I thought before my entire attitude switched. I forced myself to relax. A new heat formed in me, and I welcomed it, letting it fill my body. I almost sighed. This was Bryce and me. This was our old connection, the attraction I’d always felt for him. I had kept it locked inside me for so long. It was overpowering, and because of that, it was too overwhelming for me.

  I did bad things when I let my need go free, but that’s what she didn’t want. So that’s what was coming out.

  Bryce felt the shift, and he gazed at me, confused, then I let him see the hunger. His eyes darkened in lust. The response was like throwing gasoline onto burning coals. The flames leapt high in me, filling every inch of me and I wanted him. My blood was humming, the rush building and building, stretching my need for him until I was taking quick and shallow breaths.

  The room started to melt away.

  There were people there, people I hated. I felt a dark sensation in the room and knew that was the assistant. She was saying something behind her, but I didn’t care. I lifted a hand and placed it onto Bryce’s chest. He caught it, pressed it more firmly onto his chest, and I felt his heart racing.

  God.

  I wet my lips. Images of us together were on a constant loop playing in my head. As he kissed up my throat in our school’s closet, as he slid inside me when we skipped class, when we had fought and he shoved me against the wall and kissed down between my breasts, so many times when he was above me, moving inside me, as he pinned my hands above my head. He’d watch me. I’d watch him.

  I felt that primal connection coming back to me.

  I wanted to feel that. I wanted to feel him again.

  “Bryce,” I murmured. It’d been so long.

  “Stop,” a voice snapped, and I was pulled away. Rough hands gripped my arms, tightening their hold. I felt nails against my skin, and I was shoved backward. Then a face was in front of me, and she snarled, “Get out. Get out of this room,” she said over her shoulder. “Call security, Lupe.”

  Wait. I blinked. My chest was rising up and down, almost gasping for air. What was going on? I’d been trying to do something. My focus came back, and I saw the assistant glaring at me. Her hands were still on me, holding me back against the door. Her entire tiny body was writhing now. I could feel the suppressed anger from her, then my own came back, shoving whatever else had been going on with me out of the way.

  I swallowed over a lump in my throat and shoved everything down.

  Fuck. I’d been messing with Bryce to piss her off. It worked. Too well.

  I gritted my teeth. All of that clicked in my head in one heartbeat, then I wrenched my arms up and around, unlocking her hold from me. I snarled, “Get off me.” As her hands fell away, I shoved her back. One good push. She hit the wall by the bathroom.

  “Hey!” Bryce shouted from behind me.

  I tuned him out, tuned out all those other feelings about him too, and zeroed in on my target. I came in there for a fight—this was it. I wasn’t going to let it get away now.

  “Bryce!”

  That voice. My anger went up as I recognized his ex-lover calling to him. She sounded panicked, stricken.

  She was weak. But she wasn’t my target. The assistant lifted her hand in the air, her fingers were spread out, and I knew a resounding slap was coming next.

  I ducked her arm. As she swung through, hitting only arm, I twisted my arm up and around her. Pulling her head down, I cemented my hold, wrapping my other arm around her neck and latching onto my arm. I had her in a headlock.

  Her feet, though. She was going to kick at me.

  “STOP!”

  Guadalupe was next to Bryce, her mouth hanging open. Her hair was up in some up do, and a brief thought to pull it out popped up in the back of my mind. I skimmed a hard look over her and saw the green dress she wore. The cleavage was loos
e, hanging low so there was a good eyeful of her breasts. Only the nipples remained covered. A string of pearls swung down in the cleavage as well. She held a phone in one hand and her purse in the other.

  I wanted to rip those pearls from her neck, then I wanted to grab her phone.

  Think, Sheldon! I barked at myself, struggling as Guadalupe’s assistant was trying to break free from my hold. She kicked out, landing a good whack at my leg, and I almost buckled. She got the side of my knee. If she hurt my knee, she could really do damage to me, but I wanted Guadalupe’s phone, too.

  “Sheldon, what are you doing?” Bryce started toward me.

  “Get back!” I maneuvered us so that I was against the wall, still holding the assistant in my headlock. While she kept trying to kick me, I applied pressure and lowered her to the ground. She couldn’t kick as much now.

  “STOP!” Guadalupe shouted, both of her hands, phone, and purse included, flew into the air. “What are you doing? This is insane.”

  It was. And it’d result in a restraining order. I hadn’t thought everything through, but I needed that phone, and I needed this to go to the hotel lobby. I wanted the showdown to happen there, where people could hear.

  My eyes darted to Bryce’s, and I nodded at Guadalupe. He frowned. “What?” he mouthed at me.

  I jerked my head in sporadic motions, widening my eyes dramatically. The phone. The effin-loving phone. Get the phone.

  His eyes narrowed. He scratched behind his ear.

  I rolled my eyes from frustration, then I felt teeth sink into my arm. I felt blinding pain first, then heard a scream rip out of my throat. The assistant bit me. I glanced down, and she was still biting me. Her teeth were fully embedded into my skin.

  “Get off!” I rasped out, the scream had left me hoarse. “OFF!”

  “Let her go!” Guadalupe rushed to my side and started to pull at my arm.

  Her assistant’s teeth sunk farther in, and my skin ripped from being pulled by Guadalupe. Batting her away, I clambered out, the pain slicing me, “You’re making it worse.”

  “Let her go. She’ll stop biting.”