Page 77 of Wrecked By You
At last, his lips curved. Only a minuscule amount, but I’d take it.
“If I’d known that, I’d have egged her on. I’d pay good money to watch you go into battle to save my honor.”
I laughed and held out my wineglass to him. “To keeping your honor intact.”
To my relief, he picked up his glass and touched it to mine. “And to me stripping you of yours.”
Chapter25
Johannes
Enough lies. It’s time for the truth.
Ella breathed steadily beside me,the lights from the city that never stopped casting a faint glow across the bed. I lay on my side, watching her for a few moments, Nolen’s smug certainty that I’d fallen for her echoing around in my head.
I hated the thought of it, but he might’ve been closer to the truth than I was ready to admit. Before that obnoxious woman had interrupted us this evening, I’d considered telling her about Sadie and what had happened to me. I hadn’t been a hundred percent sold on it, but depending on how the night unfolded, I’d seen it as a possibility. I’d concocted a fantasy of how she’d react, her deft fingers removing my sweater, tracing my scar with her hands and her lips. Telling me it didn’t matter to her. That she’d make it all better.
Then her own secrets had unraveled, and I’d galloped into retreat.
Ella or Eloise? Maybe Ellawasher middle name, but she’d lied to me about her reason for choosing to use it as her given moniker. It had nothing to do with preference and everything to do with her hiding something.
Or hidingfromsomeone.
I’d originally bought the story about her parents. Not everyone was lucky enough to have parents like mine. Lots of families were estranged. But after tonight… nah.
She’d lied.
She’d lied about escaping her parents, and she’d lied about her name.
What else had she lied about?
Prickles crept up my neck, a horrible sense of history repeating itself crawling over my skin. Whatever Ella was hiding, I intended to find out. If she couldn’t even trust me with the truth of her name, then I was right not to trust her with the truth of my past. With the ugliness of my scar.
On most occasions, I relished being right. On this occasion, it was up there with one of the worst things that had ever happened to me.
I eased back the covers and slipped out of bed. Grabbing my phone off the nightstand, I padded across the wall-to-wall carpeting and into the living area of the suite. The drapes were open, the dazzling lights of the Las Vegas Strip throwing enough illumination in the room to fool some into thinking it was daytime. I checked my watch. One oh five in the morning. Late to call Seattle, but not excessively so. Ash often worked into the night.
I dialed his number, pacing as it rang out.
“If you’re ringing for anything other than to tell me you’re in jail and you want me to bail you out, you can hang up now.”
“Has marriage turned you old before your time, brother?”
Ash sighed. “What do you want, Johannes? I’ve got a six o’clock start in the morning.”
I plowed straight in. Ash wasn’t fond of beating around the bush any more than I was. “I need the name of a private detective. A good one. And I thought you might have a contact.”
“Why would I know any private detectives?”
“Didn’t you hire one to watch that sleazeball Forster? The guy who felt up Kiana at her interview?”
He sucked in a breath. “How do you know about that?”
“I know everything.” Dad had told me in passing one day, but why tell Ash all my secrets?
“What do you need him for?”
I thought about lying, or just refusing to answer, but for some unknown reason, the idea of offloading and having someone else validate my concerns loosened my tongue. In hushed tones, I briefed him on Ella, from the moment she’d arrived at my club, her face awash with relief at both the job offer and remuneration in cash, to what had happened tonight at Fiore.Ash listened without interruption, waiting until I’d finished to offer his opinion.