I pulled my phone out of my pocket and brought Skyler’s picture onto the screen. I turned the phone around so Sawyer and Michael could see it. Sawyer reached for the phone, but Michael grabbed it first.
“He’s a good-looking guy. I’m sure you and West will love waking up with that on your dicks each morning,” Sawyer stated. And yes, it was true. I knew without a doubt that West and I would love waking up to seeing the top of Skyler’s head between our legs.
Michael held my phone in his hand and studied Skyler with his eyebrows furrowed.
“What did you say his first name is? Skyler?”
“Yes. Skyler Diego is what he’s registered in the club’s member profile as and what matches his driver’s license. But obviously, the ID is fake.”
“Yeah, it’s fake.” Michael handed me the phone back and his eyes bore into mine. My heart pounded wildly in my chest while the butterflies fluttered around.
“What? Do you know something?”
Michael looked at Sawyer and then back at me. “That’s the picture of a wanted man.”
“What?” Instantly, a chill washed over me. Somehow, West and I fell hard and fast for a guy who had already pissed off the wrong people in life. My stomach dropped, and I felt sick. I was angry at myself for believing that the perfect third was out there, and that West and I had found him.
“I can’t remember his first name, but his last name is Gardner. He’s the son of Steven Gardner?—”
“That piece of shit senator who’s running for president again?” Sawyer asked.
Fuck.
Michael nodded. There were so many things racing around in my head. Too many things to just focus on one. I thought the senator’s wife was worth more than he was. She was an actress with a perfume line. I could picture the billboard ads of her perfume bottle.
“What’s he wanted for?” Sawyer asked.
Michael snapped his fingers and gestured to the phone. “Shawn Gardner,” he said with confidence and nodded. “Shawn is his first name.”
“He was supposed to marry the daughter of Dimitri Bruno.” Michael gestured to the picture of Skyler—Shawn. “He didn’t show up for the wedding and just vanished. That’s why he’s wanted. Dimitri and the senator had some businessarrangement that obviously went south over this. So it makes sense why he’s using fake credentials,” Michael said.
“I wouldn’t want to be married to a Bruno,” Sawyer commented.
“You don’t want to be married, period,” I added. Sawyer grinned.
“But no one had seen Shawn, until now,” Michael noted.
Suddenly, I worried about what Michael was going to do about it. My thoughts must have been written all over my face because Michael tried to put my concerns to rest.
“Relax, I’m not going to hand him over to Dimitri. I’m more interested in making sure you and West are happy.”
I leaned back in the chair and stared at the plates of food being brought out and set in front of us. I wasn’t hungry at all but shoveled the food in anyway.
“Dude, relax,” Sawyer said.
“I can’t. This guy must constantly be looking over his shoulder.”
I thought about how heartbroken West was going to be. Like me, he believed this was right and was going to work out.
The three of us finished lunch and walked out of the restaurant together. While we waited for our SUVs at the valet, Michael looked at me.
“Spencer, if you and West want to pursue Shawn, do it.”
“Knowing that someone could be coming for him would put all of us in jeopardy,” I said. And that was the honest truth. If another family felt disrespected, they would have words, potentially violent words, with any of us associated with Michael Alatorre for sheltering Shawn.
Sawyer’s Range Rover pulled up first, and as he walked past me, he mumbled, “Love makes you do anything for it.” He turned around and slowly walked backward toward his SUV. He gestured with his thumb toward Michael. “I take my life in myhands daily for Taylor,” he said, and disappeared around the Range Rover.
Michael sat in the front passenger seat with the door open and looked at me.
