I scan the room for Alec again, but he’s not here. He was never here at all. Alec’s been missing for months. Nicole is in jail. I will remind myself of that as many times as it takes for it to sink in.
My life is perfect.
Other than the trauma. I hate that it still invades my thoughts and ruins moments like this one.
“Shall I finish up?” Danica asks.
“Yes.” I smooth my hands over the front of the dress and try to calm myself. With only a couple days until the wedding, we don’t have time to schedule extra fittings. As it is, Rogue will be here any minute and then we’re off to the airport to catch our flight to Heart Ranch.
She tucks and pins and checks every inch of the gown before standing back to survey her handiwork with a critical eye. “You can get changed now. I’ll have the adjustments finished and we can double check everything again the night before.”
“It has to be perfect in case our girl ends up on the cover of a magazine.” Adira’s chest puffs up as he helps me down from the platform. “You know the media are desperate to figure out when and where these two are getting hitched.”
I hurry back to the dressing room with Danica in tow. She helps with the fastenings and leaves me to take the dress off.
My phone buzzes as I lower the dress to the floor.
Private: You need to come see me.
It’s probably one of the wedding vendors or maybe a wrong number, but if that’s the case why does all the air get squeezed from my lungs? Why is my hand trembling?
Everything is fine. The adrenaline is a leftover remnant from the panic attack earlier. That’s what my body is responding to.
Ivy: Who is this?
Private: You dreadful brat, you owe me.
Nicole? How is she texting from jail?
Ivy: Where are you?
Private: You know where I am.
She is still in jail then. Locked up where she can’t get to me.
“Your man is here,” Adira calls out.
My fingers shake as I delete the text string and shut my phone down without reading any further. There’s no way I’m visiting Nicole. Ever.
After everything she did to keep her claws in my dad and his money... after what her family did to mine. She can rot behind those bars for all I care.
But I don’t like the timing. She’s been quiet. Now days before our wedding she chooses to make contact. She couldn’t know. How could she possibly?
Tossing my phone in my bag I pull on the simple sundress I wore to the fitting, gather my belongings, and hurry out to meet Rogue.
Adira is already outside. His luggage is packed into the trunk. He disappears into the passenger seat as I rush into Rogue’s arms. Wrapping my hands around his neck, I press my lips to his. I feel instantly better.
“Everything went well?” He strokes my jaw, smiling down at me.
“Perfect.” I slip past him and into the back seat.
I rub at the aching scars on my wrist as he settles in beside me. They sometimes hurt like they’re fresh wounds, even though they’ve had months to heal.
“Adira said you had another panic attack.” He takes my wrist between his hands and applies firm pressure to take the edge off the pain from the nerve damage.
“I overreacted.”
“No. You didn’t. What you went through...” He lifts my fingers to his lips and kisses them. “You’re safe, baby. I promise. I’ll never let anyone hurt you again.”
