Now there’s a loaded question if I ever heard one.There are so many ways I could take the question, albeit Walker knows about my plan to get my trust earlier.He even offered to float me the cash but I’m doing this on my own.
“Yes.”
“She’s pretty.”He smirks and my expression grows grim, exhausted and wanting him to leave.But for some reason, he’s not reading the signals or not smart enough tonight to leave well enough alone.“I thought the deal was strictly business.Did you work out benefits on the side?”
He isn’t suggesting anything I wouldn’t think to ask if the roles were reversed and he brought his fake partner to his home.Needless to say, his question more than gets under my skin—it burns—and I won’t entertain this conversation.
Uncurling my clenched fist, I hit the elevator button and the doors slide open.“We’re done here.Good night, Walk.”
“Hey, sorry, Zach,” he calls but I don’t give him a backward glance.
A sliver of light peeks from the bottom of the closed door to the bedroom where Paige should be sleeping.Fighting back the urge to check in on her—I don’t want to disturb her if she’s close to sleep—I take a quick shower, change, and then check again to see if the light is now out.It isn’t.
I tap on the door and wait.I do this a few more times and then whether imagined or not, I tell myself there was a faint murmur from the other side.That’s all I need to enter the room, where Paige sits on the bed with her back against the headboard, legs out in front of her, tucked under the covers.Her long hair is bedraggled and she’s staring straight ahead.The light from the bathroom streams through the open door.
She doesn’t acknowledge me, not even when I call her name.She’s not with me.It’s written all over her face.She’s caught up in the spin of her thoughts, a tornado of chaos.
Sighing, I sit beside her, looking directly into her glazed brown eyes.Perhaps it’s the movement since I am so close to her, or that I’m now in her line of sight, but she blinks several times and recognition seeps into her features.It’s as if she’s seeing me for the first time since I came into the room.
“You okay?”I squeeze her knee through the sheets.
“I will be, I just can’t stop the merry-go-round right now.Every time I think of being in the tub, I hear the noise as if I’m there.Except, now I know what it means and then I…”
“You need to try and turn it off.Get some sleep.You must be tired.”
“I know.”She slides down in the bed until her head hits the pillow and I bring the blankets up to her shoulders.
“Do you want me to turn off the bathroom light?”
“No,” she’s quick to say.“And can you leave the bedroom door open?”
“Of course.”I pat her arm before heading to the door.“Night, Paige.”
“Zach?”She doesn’t move, but her eyes open.“Where’s your room?”
I smile even though I shouldn’t.“I’m the next door over.At the end of the hall.I tell you what, I’ll leave my door open, too.All you’ll have to do is call my name, if you need me.”
“Okay.Night.”
Standing at the door, I wait and watch for a while until her breathing slows, and once satisfied she’s asleep, I go to bed, hoping neither of us is wakened by her screaming from a nightmare.
13
Paige
My eyes crack open, burning, at just past eight in the morning and I let out a low groan.My body feels like I haven’t slept in days and my head is pounding.
I peek my head into the hall and listen, but don’t hear a thing.Zach’s bedroom door is open and the morning sun casts bright streaks through the doorway of his room into the hall.He’s up already?
A shower is what I need to clear my head and hopefully erase the aches and pains.The bathroom is fully stocked, and I treat myself to an extra-hot, extra-long shower with water spraying from not only above but all around me.
When I return to the room, wrapped in a towel, there’s a man dressed in what looks like a tuxedo hanging clothes in the walk-in closet.
I grip my towel tighter to my body.“Who are you?”
“Sorry, Ms.Hayes,” he says, exiting the closet with a beautiful sundress in his hand.“I’m JP?—”
“Morning,” Zach says, entering the room.“JP’s my butler and sorry, he should have slipped in and out without you being disturbed.”Zach’s rebuking tone stings even if I’m not the intended target.
