Sin City Lights (Sin City #1)

Chapter 23

Eve

Eve dropped her clutch in the entry and made a beeline for the bathroom, kicking off her stilettos before she even slammed the door behind her.

She made quick work of the hidden zipper along the side of her dress, then tossed the sparkly garment to the floor, grimacing at the throbbing pain in her feet from being in spiked heels all evening.

Trudging to the shower, she turned on the water, adjusting the temperature to extra hot.

She quickly removed the thigh-high stockings, then the panties. They’d been the last clean black ones, and she’d been in such a hurry, she’d put them on without even looking.

She stared at the fleur-de-lis fine lace dangling from her fingertips.

“I brought you something.”

“What did you bring this time?”

That slow, seductive smile. “Open it.”

She took the gold box, lifted the lid, and parted the delicate white tissue. “Ah, how nice. You bought yourself gifts.”

That deep, low chuckle. “I guess I did. I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

He came to stand behind her and swept away her hair to press his warm lips to her neck.

She shivered under his mouth. “They’re black.”

He usually preferred white.

“They were displayed in a window of a shop by my hotel. Every time I stepped out to go to breakfast, I looked and thought of you in them.”

She checked under the tissue, but the box was empty. She turned and smoothed her hands over his chest. “Just panties?”

His grin was wicked. “What I imagined only featured those.”

She grasped his tie and pulled him down, bringing his mouth a breath away from hers.

“Care to describe what you imagined?”

“I’ll do even better. I’ll show you.”

He swept her up, kissing her the whole way as he carried her to the bedroom.

The sound of spraying water jerked her to the present. The panties slipped from her numb fingers, and she headed for the shower, covering her mouth to hold back sobs. If she cried now, she didn’t know when she would stop.

That she’d worn his sweet gift for another man’s viewing made her feel as if she’d defiled something precious. The old guy had commented and talked dirty incessantly as he’d ogled her, making it impossible to let her mind transport her somewhere else.

She stepped under the scalding stream, not caring that it nearly burned her skin. Grabbing the soap, she scrubbed and scrubbed.

She missed Adam. Missed his touch, his voice, his smile. She missed their conversations and their laughter and his solid body, holding her tight at night. She missed the feeling of being cherished and protected.

Eve longed for him.

And she had grown to hate her job, no matter that most elderly clients were polite and kind and paid a tidy sum just to see her model lingerie. Tonight, even that had made her feel unclean.

She stepped out of the shower, the cold air raising goose bumps, not knowing if the water still running down her face was mixed with tears. Not a moment had gone by without constant reminders of Adam. Everything she did or saw went back to him. The other day, she’d found one of his T-shirts that had slipped in with her laundry. It still held a faint trace of his scent. She’d pressed it to her face, inhaling deeply, then placed it on her pillow so she could smell him as she went to sleep.

What she wouldn’t give to have him beside her, to cuddle with at night, to see that beautiful face of his… To see him look at her as no one else ever had.

She grabbed a towel, wrapping herself in it, but still, she shivered. What she knew for sure was that she could no longer stand to be without him. She had to see him. Talk to him, at the very least.

Eve found her phone and lifted it to life, thumbing through her contacts quickly, wanting to do this before she lost her nerve.

Her heart kicked up in a wild rhythm. She found the A’s, and him. Gooseflesh raised on her nape as she tapped send.

It rang only once. “The person you are calling is currently unavailable,”

a nasal female voice said. “Please leave a message after the tone.”

Her heart sank. Maybe he’d blocked her? Why wouldn’t he, when she’d blocked him? She couldn’t bring herself to leave a voicemail, so she ended the call.

Her gaze circled her apartment, remembering the joy of having him here. Living in this space grew more excruciating every day, the silence and the loneliness so intense, it almost hurt to breathe.

I never even told you that I love you.

Perhaps there was a way to make things work, somehow. Married or not, she had to see him. Quickly, she found the number for LarsAir.

“Thank you for calling LarsAir, this is Robert speaking. How may I direct your call?”

The voice on the other end was unfamiliar.

She cleared her throat. “Good afternoon. May I please speak with Mr. Larssen?”

“I’m sorry, but Mr. Larssen is unavailable right now.”

“When is a good time to call back and reach him?”

“I’m afraid I can’t say. I’m sorry. He’s out of state, and he’s unreachable. If you like, I could connect you to Conrad Hill. He’s running operations.”

She had no idea how she managed to end the call politely.

Fingers clenched around her phone, she stared at the dark screen.

Adam was gone.

?

Adam

It was the nights that were the worst.

Adam tossed on the bed, punching his pillow in a useless attempt to find a comfortable position. Another sleepless night like this, and he would lose his mind.

He now lived in what felt like a constant state of jet lag. Sleep had evaded him since he’d gone to Eve’s apartment, determined to get her to talk to him, whether she wanted to or not.

Only to find an empty place, no contact information, no forwarding address. Intelius had yielded nothing. Ian was on the case, but it was taking him forever. It was as if she’d vanished into thin air.

He checked his phone—4:00 a.m.

He stared up at the ceiling and heaved a heavy sigh. Might as well give up on sleep again and start the day.

Making quick work of showering and dressing, he put on a pot of Colombian dark roast. Placing a mug at the ready, he ambled to the kitchen window and stared out at the Alaskan evergreens, unseeing. He inhaled the rich fragrance. Listening to the gurgling coffee maker, he passed a hand over his stubbled face, recalling how Eve used to bring him a fresh cup as he shaved. She would perch on the tub’s edge to watch him with bright eyes, sipping out of a LarsAir mug.

Out of sight, out of mind was bullshit, he decided. He couldn’t get Eve out of his head, no matter how far away from Vegas he ventured.

His phone vibrated, and Adam swiped to talk to Ian. “Hey, Buck.”

“Finally! I’ve been trying to get you on the phone all week. Where the fuck have you been?”

“Spotty service here.”

Ian grunted. “And nonexistent when you turn off your phone.”

He paused for effect. “How’s the wilderness?”

Adam poured coffee into his mug, ignoring Ian’s accurate comments about him shutting off the phone. “As good as I remembered. You should get out here and fly with me.”

“I would, but unlike others, I can’t just pick up and take off whenever I feel sorry for myself. How’s the flying up there?”

“How do you think? Wish I could move out here and just do this.”

“No, you don’t. Seventy-minute flights over the best scenery in Alaska in a small aircraft can only be fun until you get the itch to fly something with turbines. You’d go stir-crazy in less than a month and start conversing with the wildlife. Go home, man. You’ve been up there for over two weeks.”

Adam sighed. “Yeah, yeah, I know.”

He did miss flying jets but not the mountain of work he knew awaited him.

“How’s Howard?”

Ian asked.

“Happy to have me take a bunch of flights so he can stay home and bang his wife.”

His brother chuckled. “And how are you? Have you managed to sort it out yet?”

Had he? “Somewhat.”

“Well, suck it up. They’re getting antsy at the office. They haven’t been able to get ahold of you, so Devon called me. They want your ass back in the real world, bad.”

“Devon is the one who told me I was getting dangerous and should take time off to decompress.”

“He didn’t think you’d disappear into the wild like fucking Sasquatch.”

“Is that why you’re calling? To bust my balls?”

A long pause. “I found Eve.”

Adam straightened so abruptly that coffee sloshed onto his hand. “Where is she?”

“You won’t believe this, but she’s been right under our noses all this time. She’s living with a Lauren—”

paper rustled “—yeah, Lauren Parker.”

Adam’s heart kick-started as if resuming beating after merely existing on life support. “In Vegas?”

“Boulder City. She’s also working.”

Adam’s jaw clenched. “Really.”

“Yeah, she’s working at a place called Optimum Physical Therapy in the same town. She’s the receptionist for them.”

Receptionist. Eve was no longer doing escort work.

Adam blinked. Air filled his lungs in a rush, and he expelled it slowly.

“Thanks, Buck.”

He took a long swallow of coffee, which suddenly tasted very good.

“No problem.”

Ian paused. “There’s something else I need to talk to you about. They have a trip lined up for Saturday that only you can fly. A big group of whales wants to be picked up from LA, but they requested you, specifically, and it would be a big income loss if you don’t take it.”

Adam barely registered what his brother was saying.

They’d found Eve. And so would he, very soon.

“What do you want me to tell them?”

Ian pressed.

Adam set down his mug. “Tell them yes.”