Page 137 of Reveal

And there’s something about his tone that doesn’t have me bristling at being ordered around and silences me immediately.

“Stuart?” So much is loaded in his name, but I already know.

Vaughn.

It has to be Vaughn.

I lay on my horn and cut across traffic as best as I can. A cacophony of horns explodes in response, and if I had ten fucks to give I still wouldn’t give any.

Five blocks away.

“She was in a meeting in the hotel. Dressed in the wig. I watched her for a bit and ran to use the head when she was wrapping up. I need it now!” he orders someone on the other end of the line and then sighs out a Fuck when all I hear is an I’m sorry, sir. “The manager. Get him.”

“Stuart, what the fuck is going on?” Visions fill my head of some bastard manhandling her. She was dressed as Vee.

“I caught a glimpse of her getting on the elevator. Carter slid in right before the doors shut.”

Dread drops through every part of me.

Four blocks.

“Where the hell are they, Stu?”

Thoughts. Visions. The worst. All fill my head, and I can’t even venture to think that I’m the one responsible for this. That I’m the one who threw her to the wolves for a client who was playing games with me somehow from the get-go.

“I don’t know. I’m trying to get a manager to let me know if either of them has rented a room. It’s not exactly the easiest fucking thing to do here.”

“Bribe them. I don’t care how fucking much. Do your goddamn job and bribe them!” I shout the words even though I know it’s not his fault.

There are muffled sounds on his end of the connection as he tries to bargain with the desk clerk.

Three blocks.

“They’re looking through their database right now.”

“Tell them to go fucking faster.”

He has her.

My fucking God, he has her.

I swerve the car into the first valet podium I see and throw a hundred-dollar bill at them before taking off down the street in a full-on sprint.

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

Vaughn

“The FBI knows I’m here,” I lie as I try to move left and then right, but I know my back is against the wall, and that’s the worst place it can be.

His eyes are dark, his body unimpressive but definitely more powerful than mine as he closes the distance.

A smile plays at the corners of his lips as his eyes devour every inch of me. My stomach churns.

And then he lunges.

I cry out as he grabs the front of my dress and yanks it down. My immediate reaction is to punch out, but he has my wrists in his hands, my attempt more than pathetic, my fear stronger and more potent than anything I’ve ever felt before.

“No wire here, sweet Vaughn.” My breath hitches, and my head jerks from side to side as he leans in and licks a line up my cheek.