Chapter 35
Once I retrieved my phone, I dodged my family to get downstairs as fast as possible. Leaving a hot woman alone in the cold is not good form. But when I got outside, she wasn’t in my car.
Odd.
I check in with the valet, but she was gone before he returned with the car. Searching my memory, I can’t think of how I could have misinterpreted her saying she’d wait in the car. Maybe she went up to check on me and we missed each other?
“Thanks,” I tell the valet, before I head up one more time. The elevator ride takes far too long for my liking, but it always does. It’s an old building. It’s just frustrating. Feels like every second away from June is a second wasted.
When the door opens, I take a breath and march back to Mom and Dad’s and ring the bell. I doubt anyone will hear me knock—not with the band playing again. As their front door opens, I’m expecting Mom or the housekeeper. Not my younger brother, Cole. He’s still wearing his coat.
He grins. “Holy shit, man, you’re late!”
I laugh. “I was already here before. Pretty sure you’re the late one.”
He takes my hand and pulls me in for a hug, patting my back hard twice. “Get in here, old man.”
“How the hell have you been, kid?”
“Oh, you know. Living life.” He takes his coat off, hanging it in the nearby coat room. “I hear you’re engaged … ?”
Right. The lie. “Uh, yeah. I am. In fact, have you been introduced to June yet? I think she must be around here someplace. She was supposed to wait for me in the car when I came back up to get my phone, but I think she must have come back up here to check on me.”
“Ah, she probably got a load of our family and took off.” He leans in and quietly says, “Not that I blame her.”
“We can be a lot, can’t we?”
He laughs. “Ain’t that the truth? Guess I should show my face a little before jetting out of here?—”
“Why the rush? You just got here. I’m sure Mom would love to see you for a bit.”
He rolls his eyes and shrugs. “You know how things are, Anderson. This isn’t exactly my scene.”
No, it is not. His scene has been the party circuit for far too long. I love my brother, but he is the least reliable man I have ever known.
“How’s work?”
“I don’t want to talk about work.” Translation … he got fired.
“Are you seeing anyone?”
“Pfft. I’m seeing everyone.”
“That sounds,” terrible, “exciting for you. I?—”
“And I hear your fiancée is June, somebody. Didn’t you used to have a crush on someone by that name?”
How in the cocaine-fueled weekend mind of his does he remember that? “Same woman, actually.”
“Really? I’ll be damned.”
Most likely true. “I’m going to see if anyone has seen her, Cole. Excuse me?—”
“Wait, hang on. You don’t have a minute to catch up with your little brother?”
Shit. He wants money. This is awkward. To avoid eye contact, I text June while speaking to him. “I’d be happy to lend you?—”
He laughs and puts his arm around me. “What makes you think I want your money?”
“Experience.”
But he only laughs again and starts walking with his arm still around me, so I go with him. I have a sneaking suspicion he’s building up to something big, and I’m not going to like it. He corners me near the kitchen, and the caterers make a ton of noise there. Ugh. He doesn’t want anyone to hear him hit me up for money.
Cole says, “I’m not asking for a loan, Anderson. I’m done with all of that.”
“Well … good for you. Got your shit together, did you?”
“Yeah. I’ve turned over a new leaf. They told you I passed the bar, right?”
“And that you hit the top one percent of the scores, but that doesn’t mean anything if you don’t do anything with your education, Cole.”
He gives me an overly patient look. “That’s what I’m doing, Blanderson. I’m joining the family business.”
I laugh at first, unsure if he’s serious, but when he doesn’t laugh, I’m flabbergasted. “Childhood nicknames aside, are you serious?”
“I am. It’s about time, don’t you think?”
No. Good god, no. “Uh, wow. I suppose so. That’ll be,” a disaster, “great.”
He grins. “Knew you’d be on board. Can you help me convince Dad not to throw me in the mailroom?”
“You know our father. He’ll do what he wants. But he’s not going to stick his son in the mailroom.”
“Guess we’ll see.”
“Yeah, so help me find June, will you? She’s the prettiest brunette you’ve ever seen wearing a beige dress with knee boots.” Checking my phone, she hasn’t texted me back. My message isn’t even read.
He glances around the room. “Don’t see her.”
“No shit, Sherlock. She’s not a caterer. She’s a lawyer. Come on.” I drag him with me through the soiree, but he gets snagged when some of our family gushes over him. With Cole being MIA for most family gatherings, I’m not surprised.
He’s the fun one, the one everyone loves to have around for weddings and birthdays, because he’s usually tanked and eager to be the life of the party. They don’t know about his stints in rehab or the times we’ve bailed him out of trouble. We keep that sort of thing within the family. Hell, I’m sure there are times my parents have helped him I don’t know of, because the reverse is certainly true. They don’t need to know about the time in Ibiza when I had to get him out of trouble with a DJ and his drug dealer. But that’s the kind of thing you do for family.
All of that gets shoved to the side in my mind. I need to find June. My message is still unread, so I truck through the apartment fast. There’s a limited number of places she could be. When I ask, no one has seen her since we left. I shouldn’t be so worried—this is an obnoxiously safe neighborhood. In fact, part of me feels like I’m being ridiculous about it. But she hasn’t answered my text, and that’s not like her.
Did she get cold feet about us? Is there an us to have cold feet over?
Funny how insecurity creeps up at the worst imaginable times. It’s terrible to think about it, but I’d prefer she had a family emergency over breaking things off. No. That’s not true. I don’t want anyone in her family to be in any kind of trouble. But that would be easier to swallow than the idea that she just ran off. Or that my family ran her off.
She didn’t seem unnerved when we were outside, though. The kissing—that was real. So was everything in the library. There was no faking that. Maybe she’s in the library, hoping for another rendezvous in there. The thought thrills me, so I jog down that way.
But she’s not there.
This is getting worrisome. She’s not the type to just bail. Unless …
Unless this has all been her revenge for what I did to her. Could she … no. She couldn’t possibly … but it would be one hell of a punishment. A very deserved punishment. All those years, me acting like I hated her, only for her to make me care and then vanish on me?
Vengeance is best served cold, isn’t it?
No. She isn’t that person. She will be in the library, bedroom eyes and wearing nothing but her knee boots. I’m sure of it. I open and close the door behind me, just in case she’s naked in here somewhere. “June? Are you here?”
A stifled “Oh my god,” is giggled in a far corner beyond the stacks.
Swiftly, I walk in. “June, are you okay?—”
“Not June,” Jessalyn says as she comes around the bookshelves. She’s straightening her skirt. Her hair is the least neat I have ever seen it, and her lipstick is smeared. “Um, Anderson, I haven’t seen June since you left. Everything okay?”
“Uh, sorry.” I can’t help but chuckle at her predicament. “No, I can’t find her. I’ll be going now.”
“Don’t um, don’t mention this to anyone. Please. I beg you.”
“I didn’t see a thing, Jessalyn. Have a good night. Sorry to bug you.”
She smiles, and I dip out. I’m ten feet into the hall when I recall her fiancé wasn’t at the party. Doesn’t matter. Not my problem. I?—
My phone buzzes with an alert. I got a text. Thank god—it’s from June. But when I open it, it’s a picture of her, tied to a chair in some place that looks like a basement. What in the fuck is going on?
-