Page 14 of The Merger

“About an hour after I dropped you off. You were going to try and catch your friends, and tell them about us. Then we were going to meet at nine the next morning in the hotel restaurant.”

“Why didn’t you come up to the room if you dropped me off?” she asked.

“I did. I knocked for several minutes. Long enough that someone came out of their own room and told me they’d seen you all leave a little before I came up.”

Her hands went back to massaging her temples as if she could force the memories to break free. “Right, we went to the doctor.”

My fists clenched. It was years ago, I reminded myself, but it didn’t do much good. The idea she was hurt or ill and I wasn’t the one to take care of her didn’t sit right with me. “Why?”

“I need to go back to that night to explain that. After they left the club they walked around for a while. Kasey got one of those fruity drinks from a tiki bar on the strip. The giant kind that hangs from a lanyard around your neck. They told me that Kasey shared it with me. Courtney and Allison were each sharing one as well. They thought we were all drunk and didn’t think anything of the fact Kasey and I passed out not long after. In the morning they tried to wake us up for breakfast and some last minute shopping. Except, we were still out of it.”

“And?” My heart raced. I suspected what she was going to say, but I still wanted to hear the words.

“Allison and Courtney managed to get Kasey and me into a cab and to an urgent care clinic. The doctor thought we’d likely been drugged. Since we had been safe in our room and our vitals were strong we chose not to go to the hospital. Somehow, someone slipped something into Kasey’s drink. Allison said Kasey had been talking to a guy at the bar. They’d planned to stay there for a bit, but Courtney got a bad feeling and wanted to go home.”

“Are you okay? You’re shaking,” she asked me.

My hands were still clenched tight, and I was shaking. I could feel my entire body vibrating with rage that had no outlet. I couldn’t track down some faceless asshole in a city full of assholes that came and went whenever the urge to engage in hedonism hit them.

“I could have lost you when I’d only just found you,” I whispered. The words tumbled out of my mouth without thinking.

Sabrina shook her head. “You don’t have me.”

“Yet,” I promised her.

ChapterSix

Sabrina

Isat in stunned silence. I wanted to ask him what he meant by the insinuation he didn’t have meyet. Surely he didn’t expect us to pick up wherever we left off five years ago, especially since I couldn’t remember where that was.

I had to admit, there was a familiarity. It was more like a tingle, or itch in my mind. I remembered dancing with him. I remembered him making me laugh, but like most of that night, the memories disappeared into a fog. But, a part of me wondered if the reason I wasn’t able to connect with a man for the last five years was because somewhere deep in my mind I knew he existed.

Finally, I gathered the courage to say something. Not sure what would spill out of my mouth when I started talking, but not speaking wasn’t going to resolve what was lingering between us. I opened my mouth to speak, but my brother stole my opportunity by walking into the room.

“Dinner is ready,” he said, watching us with a concerned gaze.

I nodded and followed him over to the dining area. Their apartment wasn’t overly formal. Unlike other penthouse apartments, there wasn’t a designated dining room. The only rooms enclosed behind separate walls and doors were the bedrooms and the bathroom. The rest of the apartment was a large open space with sprawling views of the city.

Jana set the last of the serving dishes down on the table. Her eye for design led her to lay out a beautiful table setting. The lights were dimmed and candlelight added to the ambiance.

An awkward silence stretched between us as we all sat and filled our plates. I didn’t really want an audience for the conversation Stryker and I needed to have, which left me at a loss for what to say. Jana, thankfully, broke the silence.

“Are you still living at the hotel?” she asked Stryker.

He nodded as he brought his fork up to his mouth. After he swallowed he replied, “Usually my assignments are temporary.”

“Where do you live?” I blurted out. It wasn’t that I was thinking of the two of us living together, but we were married. The fact he’d done nothing about that in the last five years meant he must have wanted to stay that way. How would that work if he was bouncing all over the country?

Stryker set down his fork and focused all of his attention on me. “Most of the assignments I take are here in Seattle or Portland. I prefer to stay in the Pacific Northwest, but I have taken the occasional job in New York and Chicago. That’s all in the past now.”

“Because of me?” I slapped a hand over my mouth. “Forget I asked that. I’m just rattled.”

Jana chuckled. At least someone was finding this amusing. “He’s no longer the interim CEO. I’m stepping away from the company permanently to develop my app with Hans Schneider.”

“The head of that car manufacturer in Germany?” I asked.

Colt scowled while Jana nodded. “Doesn’t he already have a full-time job?” I asked.