16. Wren

CHAPTER 16

Wren

B lane said there was nothing to worry about, but I watched him pacing on the other side of the room as I considered my options. He looked stressed. Preoccupied. He appeared content to let Zion handle the search for Caria, but was that wise? I didn’t trust the man. Okay, so I’d never actually met him, but he’d sent men to try and kidnap me, and that had to count for something, right? He was hardly an upstanding citizen. But Blane said this was the way it had to work.

Did I trust him ? I didn’t think he’d deliberately set out to hurt me, or Caria, but his judgment sometimes seemed a little off. As if he didn’t quite understand human nature and how vile it could be.

Snippets of conversation floated across the room.

“Are you certain? Cédric Voltaire?” Blane muttered angry words that might have been a curse. “How much is he offering?”

Who was Cédric Voltaire? Not the magician who used to work at the Golden Oyster? The Magnificent Voltaire. I’d waited tables there soon after I moved to Vegas, and he’d gotten fired for groping one too many asses. And before he got fired, he got flattened. Molesting a lady who turned out to be the Nevada ladies’ taekwondo champion had been a grave error in judgment.

“Put in a counteroffer,” Blane said, then paused. “No, more than that. I don’t want to waste time going back and forth.”

He hung up and stared out the window for a moment. The view wasn’t much, but there was a tiny park down below, just a patch of scrubby grass and a few benches where people hung out with their dogs. A fountain. A statue of a stranger. Objectively speaking, the park near Tilt was nicer. The city actually watered the grass there. Grass in the desert. A small oasis of expense representing man’s fight against nature, an exercise in futility. Kayden felt differently, of course, seeing as his life revolved around golf greens, although he was always telling me about new cultivars that required less water.

Blane turned around, and for the first time, I saw him look…troubled. But only for a moment.

“Everything okay?” I asked.

“Yes, everything’s fine.” A pause. “For the most part. Can I ask you a question? I’d be interested in getting a woman’s perspective.”

“Okay?”

Did he want advice on a gift for a girlfriend? A sister? I realised I knew nothing personal about the man, other than the fact that he had a cat named Myrtle and took too much sugar in his coffee. And yet, I’d be sharing his apartment for the foreseeable future. Would I ever feel safe enough to go back home? I mean, I couldn’t stay here forever, but?—

“If you moved halfway across the world to escape your ex, and then it turned out he was trying to buy a business in the city you now called home, would you want to know? Or would you prefer for someone to prevent the purchase while you lived in ignorant bliss?”

I pondered the question. That’s what the call had been about, wasn’t it? Blane had already put in a counteroffer; he was just deciding whether to enlighten the woman in question. Who was she? He must care about her. A bud of jealousy unfurled because nobody had ever fought for me like that, but I pushed it away.

“This isn’t hypothetical, is it?”

Blane shrugged one shoulder, but he didn’t elaborate.

How would I feel if Dominic suddenly upped sticks and moved to Vegas? Giving Blane an honest answer was the least I could do, so I considered the question for a long moment.

“Running into an ex would sure make me uncomfortable, but I guess I’d have to consider the chances of that happening. At work, I wouldn’t have to worry because he doesn’t make enough money to play at Tilt, and where else do I go? He’d never be seen dead in a yoga studio, so that only leaves the grocery store. Okay, sometimes I go out for dinner with Caria or Kayden, but I’d have to be really unlucky to bump into him.”

“That isn’t hypothetical either, is it?”

I returned his one-shouldered shrug. If I knew Dominic was in town, I’d be watching my back the whole time, always on edge. Was that better or worse than being kept in the dark?

“Do your non-hypothetical friend and her ex run in the same circles? How likely are they to bump into each other?”

“Reasonably likely. She saw him going into a hotel on the Strip last month, but he didn’t see her. We figured he was on vacation.”

“So she knows he’s here; she just doesn’t know he’s thinking of staying? ”

“Exactly.”

“Then you should tell her. If there was a super low chance of her finding out he’s in town, then I’d say not to worry her unnecessarily, but she’s going to find out. And if she realises you knew and kept it a secret, she’ll be upset.”

“So it’s okay to keep a secret as long as there’s a negligible chance of the other party discovering the truth?”

Oh, we weren’t going there. I wasn’t giving him a free pass on withholding information.

“It depends on the secret. If you do something horrible like, say, sleeping with an intern just because you don’t think you’ll be found out, then no, it’s definitely not okay. But if you genuinely have the other person’s best interests at heart, and you’re simply trying to protect their feelings, then maybe it would be all right in certain circumstances. Like if a friend asks what you thought of their home-cooked dinner, and the pasta was overcooked, you still say it was delicious. Because it doesn’t really matter, so there’s no point in hurting their feelings, get it?”

“I get it. Your ex slept with an intern?”

Sugar honey iced tea. Even in my head, I replaced the word I actually wanted to say out of habit because Dom hated me cursing. But then I realised… Dom wasn’t a part of my life anymore. I didn’t give even one shit what he thought.

“Can we just not talk about him?”

Another shrug. “As you wish. But for the record, I don’t have an intern. Not unless you count Joseph, and I’m definitely not doing the deed with him.” Blane pulled a face. “Not that he wouldn’t make an excellent partner for the right man.”

“He’s gay?”

“He’s more…gender fluid.”

“And you’re not?” I asked before I could stop myself. Why did this man make me speak before I had a chance to think?

“Definitely not.” Wow, Blane was devilishly handsome when he smiled properly. “I’m only into women.”

I swallowed hard because at that moment, I very much wondered what it would be like if Blane was into me. And the idea was terrifying. Overwhelming. Delicious.

“Right. I’m glad we got that straight.”

His smile grew even wider. “So am I, Wren. So am I.”