“No.” He shakes his head, and his full lips draw down into a frown. “Setting up with Hazard Anthem and running through the set. Then, I’ve got a few more things to take care of. Won’t be back until right before it’s time to get you tonight.”
I try not to think about if Terra will be there, considering her late-night party invitation. “Okay, well, I’ll text you if I need anything,” I say. When he cocks an eyebrow suggestively, I groan. “That’s all you think about.”
“Your ass is too good not to.”
***
I’m still feeling the effect of his words as I sprint down the stairs to the lobby.
Once Heidi sees me, she pops up from her chair and meets me halfway. “What took you so long?” She looks me up and down, examining everything from my clothes to my messy hairstyle, before she cocks an eyebrow.
“What the hell is wrong with me?” I ask breathlessly. When she shrugs, I release a frustrated moan. “It’s Wyatt. He touches me or talks to me, and I’m a total wreck.”
“Yikes, I thought we weren’t supposed to touch the subject of Wyatt touching you with a giant pole,” she reminds me, her voice lowered to a whisper. As we take the revolving door to the outside of the hotel, she glances over to me. “Something’s happened since yesterday morning.”
“I’m batshit insane.”
“He wants a second chance?” She points her finger to the right toward the restaurant next door. As we walk across the hotel parking lot, she asks another question before I have the chance to answer the first. “And you’re seriously thinking about it?” Heidi’s soft voice is full of amazement.
I slide my hands up the front of my jeans, wiping off the perspiration from my palms. “He doesn’t want to give me up.”
“Because he’s not stupid, Kylie,” she says as I hold open the restaurant door for her. She dashes inside and then smiles at the hostess, holding up two fingers. Lowering her voice as we follow the woman to our table, Heidi says, “He’ll fight for you, but if you decide you don’t want to be with him, what then?”
I wait until we’re alone to answer her. “If I’m happy, he won’t pursue me.”
Her pink lips press into a thin line, and I know she’s calling bullshit. “Did he tell you that?” When I nod, she shakes her head. “Do you think that’ll actually happen? He’s addicted to you.”
Our waiter, a skinny guy with tattooed wrists peeking out from his long-sleeved button-up, stops by our table to take our order. I point to a random spot on the menu that turns out to be the western omelet. I barely even notice the way the waiter’s eyes scan over me as he takes our menus and promises to return shortly with our drinks.
Heidi sighs. “And you’re obviously too addicted to him to notice anyone else.”
I trace back and forth over the corner of the napkin wrapped around the silverware, my finger skimming the prongs of the fork. There’s no point in denying what she has just pointed out now and so many other times before. I’m addicted to Wyatt on so many levels that it’s apparent to anyone who sees us together and who knows what we’re like apart.
We hurt each other.
Then, we mend ourselves.
And then, we do it all over again, only more violently.
Wyatt and I are our worst enablers. We always have been. If I didn’t go to New Orleans, I probably would have been fine. If I had gone to him instead, this wouldn’t be a conflict.
But I didn’t go to him. I didn’t meet him halfway.
He came to me—something he’s only done a handful of times since we had started this twisted thing.
Our waiter returns to the table, and a dimpled grin slides easily over his features as he sets my orange juice down in front of me. “Need anything else?” he asks.
Heidi covers her mouth and coughs.
I ignore her. “Thanks, but I’m good.”
He asks Heidi the same but with a little less enthusiasm, and when he leaves, she eye-humps him until he turns the corner. “I swear, Kylie, you’re like sex on a—”
Chevelle blasts loudly from the inside of my pocket. I scramble to grab my phone as several people around us turn in our direction, their eyebrows gathering together at the noise. Pressing my thumb to the button on the side of the iPhone, I manage to silence it. I flip the phone over and wrinkle up my nose when I see Unknown flash on the screen.
“It might be Officer Townsend calling about our stuff.” I stand up, and Heidi bobs her head enthusiastically as if she truly believes that all our belongings have been recovered and aren’t currently in a New Orleans pawnshop. “Be right back,” I promise, leaving her at our table.
I accept the call, but I wait until I dart out of the front double doors to say hello.
“I’m trying to reach Lucas Wolfe,” a crisp female voice says.
If someone is calling this number for my brother, it’s no doubt a business call. I turn on my professional voice, smiling widely to sound more pleasant. “This is his assistant, Kylie. I’d be more than happy to help you.” As I pace back and forth in front of the bench that’s beside the cigarette receptacle, I hear the sound of the woman’s fingers rapidly flying over a keyboard. A moment later, she asks me to verify the last four digits of both my and Lucas’s social security numbers. Once I do so, she tells me who she is—a representative from his business banking account.
And then, she delivers news that I just know is going to bite me in the ass.
“Due to the most recent transaction, Mr. Wolfe’s checking account is currently overdrawn by $1,347. Would you like to transfer money from one of his other accounts to cover the overdraft?”
Chapter Twelve
“It’s going to be alright,” Heidi reassures me twenty minutes later as we hurry through the door of the room she and Cal are sharing. She’s been telling me the same thing since I sat back down for breakfast. Each time, she gives me her soothing voice that I’m sure she uses on her phone sex customers. Still, I only manage to down half of my western omelet before my stomach starts to pitch violently.
All I can think about is how Lucas will react once I break the news to him that Shiner Bock had somehow managed to break into his bank account before I canceled my cards.
“Kylie, I swear, it’s fine.” Heidi puts the small handbag she bought in the hotel’s gift shop into a compartment in the closet.
I sit down on the floor by the mini-fridge and start pulling up the bank’s website on my iPhone. “He’s going to flip the fuck out.”
She kneels down in front of me, taking my chin in her hands. “Relax. Banks fix this kind of thing all the time. Especially since you’ve got a police report. Just take a deep breath and get it figured out.”
I start to nod, but then my phone beeps three times. I drop my gaze, letting out a curse when I see the low battery indicator flashing across the screen. “Do you have a charger I can use?”
“I think Cal does.” I watch as she goes to the queen bed on the right side of the room. She glances around until she finally spots what she’s searching for on the side closest to the wall. As she brings me Cal’s phone charger, I realize that both beds look like they’ve been slept in.
When I’m not freaking out about my job, I’ll mention that to her.
Plugging my phone into the wall outlet, I log in to Lucas’s bank account, using the username and password he set up for me a few years ago. Almost immediately, I receive an error message—Incorrect Username or Password.
“Calm down,” I tell myself although my voice sounds anything but cool and collected. The last thing I want is to fumble with the keyboard so many times that I’m locked out for the next twenty-four hours.
“Yes, keep calm, babe,” Heidi says as she fishes a cigarette out of her luggage.
She hasn’t smoked in days, and I feel bad for stressing her out to the point where she needs to temporarily pick up the habit again.