Page 81 of Wrecked By You
I showed him my palms. “No. Now you tell me what’s going on, right here, right now, or I’m getting Chloe and Ginny and I’m going home.”
His nostrils flared, hands clenched into fists by his sides. “Come up to the suite.”
“No. I’m not going anywhere with you when you’re in this state. Now either spit out what’s gotten you all riled up, or I’m leaving.”
He jutted his chin forward. “Fine. Just when were you planning to tell me you’re married, Ella? Or should I say ‘Eloise Fernandez’?”
My blood ran cold, and my heart thudded.How had he found out?The phone call. It had to be the phone call. But who was on the other end? Mateo? Oh God, maybe Johannes’s nightclub business had ties to Mateo somehow. I’d thought that once, because of the drug connection that a lot of nighttime venues seemed to have, but when I hadn’t seen any sign of it at Level Nine, I’d put the fear to the back of my mind.
If there was any chance that phone call had been from Mateo, then I needed to go. Now.
“Where’s Chloe?” Why was I asking that when I knew the answer? By the pool. With Ginny. “I have to go.” I sprinted across the lobby toward the recreational areas at the back of the hotel. Why the fuck were Vegas hotels so goddamn big? I hadn’t gotten very far when Johannes hauled me to a stop.
“Wait. Fuck, Ella, just wait.”
“I don’t have time to wait. I have to go. He’ll be coming for me.”
“Who? Your husband?” His anger had morphed into confusion. “Just tell me what’s going on.”
“Who were you on the phone with?”
“A private detective.” His cheeks reddened. “I hired him to look into your background.”
It wasn’t Mateo. He hadn’t found me. My shoulders sagged, and air pushed out of my lungs in a rush, flattening them. I pitched forward, bracing my hands on my knees, panting as if I’d sprinted up a flight of stairs.
“Oh God.”
“Ella.” Johannes took hold of my hands and helped me to stand upright. “Please, just fucking talk to me.”
As my panic subsided, outrage moved in. He’d hired aprivate detectiveto spy on me.
How dare he? How fucking dare he!
“You asshole,” I hissed. “How could you do that? What has my personal business got to do with you?” I prodded him in the chest, conscious that we were drawing odd looks from passersby. I didn’t care. “How long have you been snooping into my life? A week, a month, since the day I came for an interview?”
“Since this morning. After the whole name thing last night, I grew suspicious, and so I asked a business contact to see what he could find out.”
My jaw dropped. A few hours. That was all it had taken to uncover the truth about me, about where I came from. About whom I was married to. Dear God, I’d been so stupid. So naïve. And if this private detective could find things out about me so easily, then Mateo could, too. I thought I was safe living in a big city, but I wasn’t. Nowhere was safe. The only thing I could do was keep moving.
“He’s who you’re running from, isn’t he? He’s Chloe’s dad.”
“Go away.” I shoved at him. “Just leave me alone. I need time to think.”
“Please talk to me.”
“No!” I shoved him again. “You could have just asked me, but instead you went snooping behind my back.”
“Ididask. And you lied to me. Ella isn’t your middle name. And your real name is Eloise.”
“My name is Ella Reyes,” I insisted. “That’s who I am now.”
He showed me his palms. “Okay, okay. Ella it is. But please, come upstairs with me and we can talk.”
I shook my head. “I’m going nowhere with you. You betrayed me.”
His eyes hardened, and he flexed his jaw. “I betrayedyou?How the fuck do you think I feel knowing that you didn’t trust me enough to tell me this? And to think I almost trusted you with—” He broke off, his lips sealing shut.
“Almost trusted me with what?”