For the first time all day, I felt something besides dread because it was cake money. It wasn’t much, but it counted. I started typing a response, mentally figuring out whether I could bake after getting off work tomorrow morning, when another glance at the time made me realize my client was running late. I sighed, locked my phone and stood up.
I decided to run to the restroom while I had the chance. The hallway outside was busier than before. Waitresses hurried past carrying bottles with sparklers attached while security escorted another group toward the private rooms. I slipped into the restroom, splashed a little cool water across my wrists, checked that my lipstick was okay, and then headed back toward the VIP hallway.
I reached for the handle to the room and the door swung inward. My whole body immediately froze. E’Levyn Laurent was already inside. His eyes lifted from the phone in his hand, meeting mine with the same unreadable calmness that had haunted me every single day since he pressed a gun beneath mychin. This time neither one of us spoke. For a second, neither one of us moved.
The hallway behind me disappeared but the music was still going, and every bit of exhaustion I’d been carrying from the hospital vanished beneath my panic. My fingers were still wrapped around the door handle, and the first thing that crossed my mind wasn’t why he was sitting in my room. It was that he had found me, once again. Just like he found me in that restroom.
Lev had the same expression he had the night at the club, except this time there wasn’t a crowd around him. Just him, sitting comfortably in the corner of the leather sectional with one ankle resting across his opposite knee, his phone loosely in one hand while a crystal glass of Hennessy sat untouched on the table beside him. He didn’t look surprised at all. If anything, he looked like he’d been expecting me. My heartbeat started pounding so hard against my ribs that I was certain he could hear it. I glanced behind me toward the hallway for half a second before looking back inside the room. Every instinct I had screamed at me to turn around and leave, hell, even run but my feet refused to cooperate. My body remembered that restroom and the cold barrel of that gun beneath my chin and the way he never once raised his voice while threatening to kill me.
I swallowed the hard knot in my throat hurt. Lev slowly slipped his phone into the inside pocket of his jacket before leaning forward just enough to rest both forearms across his knees. His eyes never left mine. They traveled over my face, then lower, taking in my costume, and the heels on my feet that I’d slipped back on before leaving the restroom.
His gaze settled on it for a brief second. Then it returned to my face. “So…” he said calmly. “This what you’ve been doing after work?”
It felt like the two halves of my life had just crashed into each other. “I didn’t know this room was yours.”
“It wasn’t.” His answer came so easily that it caught me off guard. “It is now.”
I frowned as the silence once again settled between us again. I finally forced myself to step inside just enough to close the door behind me. The click of the latch echoed louder than before and suddenly the room felt much smaller than it had a few minutes ago.
“I…” My voice cracked before I cleared my throat. “I was told somebody booked this room.”
He simply nodded. “They did.” He reached for the glass on the table, turning it slowly between his fingers without taking a drink. “I bought the reservation.”
My stomach dropped, of course he did. Nothing about this was accidental. Every part of it had been planned. I looked toward the door again, mentally calculating how fast I could get back into the hallway if I needed to, but the thought disappeared almost as quickly as it came. Running wasn’t going to accomplish anything. If Lev wanted to find me, he obviously knew exactly where to look.
“You’ve been busy.” His said as his voice pulled my attention back to him. “The hospital, and then here.” He said. I didn’t answer so he kept going. “Cakes too. You’ve been trying real hard Navy.” His tone hadn’t it was still calm and very much controlled. Even in these circumstances, the man was fine, I had to give him that.
“I…” I rubbed my thumb against my index finger, suddenly feeling self-conscious. “I’m doing what I can.”
“I know.” He finally took a sip from the glass before setting it back on the table. “For four nights you’ve left the hospital, came here, then went home and baked.”
My body had chills all over it now because he knew exactly how long I’d been there and what I had been doing which was a clear indication that his radars were on me.
“You’ve made…” He paused for a second like he was doing the math in his head. “I’d say a little over eleven thousand dollars?”
I stared at him and every hair on the back of my neck stood up because he wasn’t guessing, it was like he knew. “I don’t understand…” I whispered.
“Nah.” He leaned back against the couch, folding one arm across the backrest. “You don’t.”
The room got quiet again outside of the music. Inside, it felt like the air had stopped moving though. I was trying to ignore the uneasy feeling settling deeper into my stomach. There was only one question I could think to ask. “Have you been watching me?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he reached for the bottle, poured another shot of liquor into his glass, and watched it settle before lifting it to his lips. Meanwhile, my pulse thumped in my damn ears. I shifted my weight, as the heel of my shoe caught in the carpet.
Finally, he set the glass back on the table. “You finished?”
I frowned. “Finished what?”
“Asking questions.” He said in a matter fact tone. He leaned back against the couch with one arm draped across the cushion. His shirt was button halfway down exposing his heavily tattooed chest and a part of his six pack while the damn diamonds in that Empire chain bounced off the dim lights. “Take your shoes off.”
For a second, I thought I’d heard him wrong. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
My eyes dropped to my heels before lifting back to him. “I…”
“You planning on arguing with every instruction I give you?”
“No. I just… I don’t know.”
