I looked around the room for the hundredth time. “I don’t think he’s coming.”
I didn’t have to use Dimitri’s name for Jagger to know who I was talking about.
“I’ve started to think the same thing,” he said. “But it’s okay. We have Alina now.”
A murmur moved through the crowd and everyone started heading for the terrace doors on the ocean side of the villa.
“What’s happening?”
“Fireworks, I think.” Jagger’s gaze was on Alina, making her way to the terrace. “It’s the finale to the night.”
He wrapped my hand around his arm and we headed that way, following her blonde head in the crowd.
“Where are Hawk and Vigo?” I asked as we stepped through the terrace doors.
The cool night air calmed my stomach, queasy from the champagne I’d been sipping.
“They’re around.”
We gathered with everyone else around the stone railing and a few minutes later, the first burst of light exploded over the water, an arc of gold and green that mimicked Maison Valmont’s new collection.
The crowdoohed.
I glanced at Alina, standing at the edge of of the crowd and saying something to one of the three men who’d rotated around her all night, watching her like she was one of the precious jewels inside that might be stolen at any second.
The security guard departed down a set of stairs at the side of the terrace, and my gaze was pulled into the sky as more light exploded across its inky darkness.
It was pretty but I was distracted, and I glanced back at Alina just in time to see her head for the terrace stairs.
“She’s on the move,” Jagger said, pulling me toward the edge of the crowd.
Alina disappeared a second later, and we had to force our way through the throng of people, staring as if hypnotized at the sky.
I trotted after Jagger, down the stairs and out onto the lawn at the side of the villa, and almost ran into Bram.
“That way,” he said, tipping his head toward the front of the villa.
We raced over the shadowed lawn, Bram leading the way, and spilled out into the front of the villa in time to see Alina stepping into the back of a black SUV.
One of the guards, shut the door and got into the passenger seat.
“Fuck,” Bram said.
“We need a car.” Jagger pulled me toward the cars parked in the gravel at the side of the property where several security guards leaned against the vehicles, smoking and chatting, waiting for their clients to emerge from the party.
A black SUV screeched to a stop next to us.
The passenger side window retracted.
Vigo grinned from inside the car. “Get in, losers.”
We piled into the back seat.
Hawk was in the driver’s seat, and he took off, careening down the mountain road that led to the water.
“Whose car is this?” I asked.
“No idea,” Vigo said.
