Chapter 30

chapter

thirty

As Gage studied the crowd, Nia grabbed his arm and pointed to someone across the room.

“I can’t be certain,” she muttered, “but isn’t that . . . Cormac?”

Gage had only seen the guy’s picture on social media, but he was hard to miss with his fiery red hair and six-foot-five build.

That man did look like Cormac. But the guy they watched didn’t seem to be here for fun. Based on the way he weaved through the crowd, he was searching for someone.

And Cormac—if that was him—was supposed to be out of town.

So what was he doing here at Avenue 12?

Gage took Nia’s hand. “Let’s go find out why he’s here.”

His eyes still on Cormac, he moved through the crowd, winding between people dancing to robotic, pulsating music.

They reached the other side of the club and paused.

Where had Cormac gone?

A group of people had moved in front of Gage and Nia, dancing obnoxiously, and he’d taken his eyes off Cormac only for a few seconds.

In that amount of time, the guy had disappeared.

“He can’t be too far away,” Nia said above the music.

She was right. But . . .

A huge bar lined with stools stretched against the far wall, and an alcove leading into the bathrooms wasn’t terribly far away.

Could Cormac have picked up his pace and gone that way?

There was only one way to find out.

Gage led Nia toward the bathrooms. They seemed like the best bet. Unless Cormac had ducked behind the bar, there was nowhere else for him to hide.

They reached a short, dark hallway.

Several people lingered in the space . . . but no Cormac.

Gage would check inside, but that would require leaving Nia out here alone.

That wasn’t what he wanted to do.

Instead, they could wait for a few minutes.

But Gage’s suspicions about the man continued to rise.

They definitely needed to talk to him .

Gage stood to the side with Nia as the minutes ticked by.

Cormac didn’t emerge from the bathroom.

Other men had come and gone.

Maybe Cormac wasn’t there.

“Do you think he saw us and slipped away?” Nia looked up, her eyes widening as if she hadn’t expected him to be so close.

His throat went dry as he stared into her eyes. As an unexpected flash of desire pulsed through him.

He wondered what it would be like to kiss her. To lean down. To press his lips onto hers.

The impulse was startling. He’d been trained to remain focused at all times. To resign himself to a life of singleness.

So why were these feelings rearing up now?

He swallowed hard and remembered her question. Do you think he saw us and slipped away?

Gage knew it was a possibility.

But if Cormac had done that, that definitely meant he was hiding something.

Nia didn’t know how they’d lost Cormac.

It was almost as if he’d disappeared into thin air—which clearly wasn’t a possibility.

But if he wasn’t down this hallway, that meant he’d probably headed to the bar .

Maybe he’d ducked behind it, trying to throw them off his trail.

They didn’t come all the way out here just to be waylaid again.

Could Cormac still be here?

Gage seemed to be on the same wavelength as she was. Still holding her hand, he pulled her back toward the dance floor. She tried to ignore how nice his hand felt against hers. Tried to ignore how much she liked the calloused toughness of his palms. To ignore the strength in his grasp.

Midway across the dance floor, they nearly collided with someone.

Nia sucked in a breath when she saw the face in front of her. “Brittany?”

Brittany stared at her, her eyes orbs of confusion. The woman wore a nearly nonexistent beige dress. Seriously, Nia had seen bikinis that covered more skin. The woman’s hair flowed around her shoulders in oversized curls and black mascara framed her eyes.

As she glanced at Gage, recognition filled her expression. “Gage? I didn’t expect to see you here.”

Gage remained standoffish—probably remembering the way the woman had clung to him earlier. “You’re actually just the person we were hoping to talk to.”