Her nods are small, and she looks down at her hands in her lap. “I’m sorry.”
Facing the road once more, I grind my jaw as the fresh wounds gape within. “I don’t like talking about it.”
“I can tell,” she whispers again. “I just . . .” She sighs. “I like you, Nix.”
“You shouldn’t.”
“I just want to get to know you,” she adds as if I didn’t just warn her away.
“Don’t.”
“Why?” she demands.
“I’m not someone you should like, let alone get close to.” I narrow my gaze at the windshield, and I just can’t help myself when I say,“I have many secrets, something I’m sure you’re familiar with. But unlike your secrets, Charlie, mine would make you run.”
She’s quiet for a second before she asks, “Do you want me to run, Nix?”
I swallow thickly and answer honestly, “No.”
“Why?”
We’re touching on another subject I don’t want to cross. I can’t let her know the grip she has on me, so instead of answering her, I say, “End of conversation,” as we pull up to the gala.
She doesn’t buck me on it. Instead, she looks up at the mansion we pull up to and breathes out, “Holy shit.”
I’ve only been here a few times for business, but the shock of it all has the same effect on me as the first day I laid eyes on it. I don’t actually know who owns this house, but whoever it is has deep pockets. I suppose every client we have has deep pockets.
I glance over at Charlie and watch her take it all in as I pull up to the valet. The awe on her face needs to be wiped clear because she has no idea what she’s walking into. No idea about the monsters inside. No clue how they’ll eat her alive.
“When we get inside,” I begin, and my voice draws her attention back to me. “Stay by my side. Do not leave it for a second.”
She laughs, but when I don’t laugh with her, she scowls. “What if I have to pee?”
“Then I’ll be going with you.”
“Oh come on,” she hisses.
I shake my head and reach to grip her jaw. Touchingher is a mistake, but I need her to hear me. “If you want to live, you won’t leave my side. Understood?”
She searches my gaze, and she must find the sincerity in it because she eventually nods. I release her as a man in a suit opens her door and guides her out of the car.
That impending doom that settles heavy in my gut? It’s suffocating.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Charlotte Mitchell
Everywhere I look, I’m in awe. I thought I was well off before when Nathan was alive, but it was nothing like this. This is money I can’t fathom, money I’ll never be able to hold in my own two hands.
What the hell does this person do for a living?
I already asked Nix who owned the house, and I look at the side of his face now as he grabs two champagne glasses from a server’s tray. Do the servers have special names? Do they call them something else at fancy parties like this?
Nix didn’t have an answer for me about who owns the house. I had been so busy talking with Nix about things I shouldn’t when we pulled up that I didn’t get an address, but I do know that it was well out of the heart of the city.
Out the back window, under the pale moon, is a large man-made pond. Even from here, in the great room I stand in, it glistens. I can see it past the trees and the largeand beautiful landscaping, and my attention keeps getting drawn to it, despite how many people are here.
Most everyone is in masks except for us and some other people. I asked why only some men and women don’t wear masks, and he whispered in my ear that they’re porn stars and employees. Anyone who works for the business shows their face. It went without saying that the rest hide their face to keep their identity a secret, just like who owns this place. I’d bet my last dollar that, even if I had gotten the address, I’d reach a dead end on who actually owns it.
