Aster squinted into the darkness, but after the scare, she was reluctant to rely on her phone. “Maybe we should get in front of this and call it in anonymously.”
“And say what?”
“That Madison’s car is parked out front, and that this Paul guy not only works for her, but he has a whole blood-collecting kit he keeps next to her file.”
“I’m not sure that proves anything.”
Aster frowned.
“Hey, just playing the devil’s advocate here. Don’t shoot the messenger.”
“Okay,” she said, struggling to make sense of it. “I’m just thinking, either Paul went rogue and harmed Madison, or more likely, he’s still working for her and he helped her disappear. What if they’ve been planning this whole thing for a while? And what if, let’s say, over the course of the last few months, Madison’s been steadily giving blood in order to fake her abduction and make it look real?”
Ryan remained silent, but in the dark, Aster couldn’t tell if it was because he was actually considering her idea, or trying to determine the most polite, most inoffensive way to tell her the whole thing was crazy. A moment later, his phone lit up as his fingers moved over the screen.
“Who you calling?” she asked.
“Arranging for an Uber,” he started, but Aster quickly swiped his phone away and ended the call before he could finish.
“No. No Uber. No electronic record that can prove we were here.”
“So how do we get out of here?” he asked, but Aster was already on it, already moving for the door.
A second later, when an alarm went off, they ran like their lives depended on it.
TWENTY-EIGHT
YOU SHOOK ME ALL NIGHT LONG
Layla was still awake, and she used the moment to roll onto her side and watch Tommy sleep. There was something so intimate about watching a guy sleep. Especially a guy like Tommy, who blazed through life as though he had something urgent to prove. Who he was trying to impress was anyone’s guess. Maybe it was just something he needed to do for himself. Though somehow she felt it went deeper than that.
Looking at his arm casually tossed over his head, lips slightly parted, hair tousled and falling into his eyes, Layla realized just how little she knew about him. For one thing, his concern regarding her reasons for sleeping with him had taken her by surprise.
Was she trying to exorcise the memory of Mateo as he’d suggested? It was entirely possible, and in the end completely futile. Mateo had been her first love. She’d never be fully free of him, and she wasn’t entirely sure that she wanted to be.
While sleeping with Tommy probably wasn’t one of her wisest moves, for the moment anyway she chose not to care. Besides, she didn’t want anything from him, and she was pretty sure he felt the same way. In bed he’d been surprisingly tender and sweet, and just wild enough to thoroughly satisfy her. It was enough. More than enough, really.
She stretched her legs before her and lifted her arms high, unable to remember the last time she’d felt so fulfilled, so relaxed. The movement caused Tommy to stir in his sleep, hovering somewhere on the precipice of waking. Layla rolled toward him and lowered the sheet, taking a moment to appreciate the sight of his body, his lean muscular build probably honed from long days of working as a ranch hand, or maybe running track in high school. She tried to imagine what his life might’ve been like back in Oklahoma. Had he
been the star of his school, always surrounded by pretty girls hoping he’d notice them long enough to write a song about them?
She ran her fingertip over his hip, about to wake him again, when her phone buzzed with an incoming text and she reached toward the nightstand instead.
“Ignore it.” Tommy’s voice was warm and sleepy as his eyes fluttered open. He reached first for her breasts, then her waist, before tugging her arms and pulling her down so his mouth could meet hers.
She returned the kiss, eager to repeat all the things they’d done earlier, along with a few more things they hadn’t yet tried. Only she’d glimpsed just enough of the text to know it was from Aster and that it was urgent.
“It’s Aster.” She fumbled for the phone, struggling to read the words on the screen as Tommy licked his way down her body.
“Aster can wait,” Tommy mumbled, pausing to appreciate the gold-and-ruby ring in her navel before heading due south.
“Actually, she can’t.” Layla sat up so quickly, Tommy’s face hit the mattress. Still, there was no time to apologize. She was too busy plucking her clothes off the floor.
Tommy gazed at her sleepily. “Where are you going?”
Layla stepped into her dress and shoved her feet into her heels. “I know you want no part of this, but Aster needs help, so I really gotta go.”
In an instant, Tommy was up and getting dressed too.