7. Isla
ISLA
The entire suite was still and silent until the bloody swing bar caught Isla at the door.
Dammit.
She pulled her phone out and dialed Davy, hoping and praying her friend would have her ringer on.
“Hello?” Davy croaked sleepily.
“At the door. Let me in.”
Davy didn’t answer, and the line went dead. But a minute later, the soft metal click of the security lock slid into place, and the door creaked open. She scanned Isla, a mischievous grin on her face. “Have fun last night?”
“Don’t start,” Isla hissed, then hurried into the room. She’d already thrown up once on the way back—right into a casino trash can. The towel from Aiden’s room? Ditched. Like her dignity.
She could not afford to let any of the girls know about this. Thank goodness they appeared to still be sleeping.
Once they were in the safety of their room, Isla shut the door. “Oh my God, I feel so sick.”
Davy hadn’t appeared to have been sleeping after all—her laptop was open on her bed, papers scattered beside it. “I told you to take it easy,” Davy said with a shake of her head. “You need some water?”
“Water. Ibuprofen. Gatorade.” Isla slipped into the adjoining bathroom and clicked the light on. Blinking at herself in the mirror, she cringed. She looked rough.
She tied her hair back and washed her face and neck, desperate to get rid of the smell and taste of vomit.
“Luckily for you, I think Kelsey scheduled one of those mobile nursing units to come give us all IV fluids this morning. She swears by them for hangovers.” Davy leaned against the doorframe to the bathroom.
“Well, that and Adderall. Didn’t even know that was a method of treatment, but according to Kelsey, it’s the only way to go.
Not that I have access to prescription drugs for you. ”
What? God, she really was a foreigner now.
“Mobile IVs?” Isla raised a brow. “I think I’ve been living abroad for too long.”
“I think you’re just a foreigner to the Squad ,” Davy said, putting sarcastic emphasis on the last word.
Isla left the bathroom and changed into pajamas, then pulled out a bottle of water from the mini fridge. She sipped it, stomach feeling sickly, then sat shakily on the bed. “What the hell happened last night? How in the world did I end up with...”
Maybe Davy doesn’t know.
“Aiden?” Davy smirked. “I don’t know. You came back from the bathroom with him after everyone left for the Eiffel Tower.”
“I remember that part.” Isla groaned and curled up on the bed, tucking her knees in and covering herself with a blanket. “But what happened after that?”
Davy shrugged. “I don’t know. You guys sat there talking and drinking, and then I left because I was so excited about the Paris idea.
” She got up, a wide smile on her face. Plopping down beside Isla, she continued.
“Speaking of which, I was up all night working on that. I pitched Antony, and he called me already. He loves the idea, Isla. Loves it. And with you and Aiden on board, he’s completely sold to move forward with a contract. ”
Uh...what?
“Pitched what idea?” Isla blinked up at her, brow furrowing.
“Don’t you remember?” Davy gave her an odd look. “The Paris thing. You and Aiden and I sat talking about it for like a half hour. Then you two walked me back to the hotel so I could work on the pitch.” She touched Isla’s face gently. “My God, how much did you have to drink last night?”
Then they’d never met up with the rest of the bachelorette party?
Isla scanned her memory, the fuzziness of it all now even more alarming. Bits and pieces were at the fringe—like Aiden kissing her—but a complete picture?
What was the last thing she remembered?
Or even the last thing she remembered drinking?
A slick feeling broke out on the back of her neck, a very disturbing thought occurring. “I feel like I might have been drugged last night.”
Davy’s eyes widened. “Are you kidding?” Then her chin dipped. “Aiden? Isn’t he like family?”
“Oh, gross. First of all, no.” Isla squinted at her. “His sister-in-law’s sister is my sister-in-law?—”
“Say that ten times fast.”
“Exactly. But no, we’re not anything. Now, my brother is one of his best friends, but that’s about it. But. . .Aiden? Drug me?” Isla squeezed her eyes shut, trying to think straight.
Would Aiden really do something like that?
He’d been reckless as a teenager—sure. The troublemaker of the Camden brothers.
But drug me?
She’d woken up in his bed.
That had been shocking enough.
How well did she really know Aiden?
Her palms grew clammy as she tried to think harder. He’d rescued her from that creep and then?—
Isla’s eyes flew open.
“He walked me back to the table, and then we sat and had those drinks Kelsey and Blair brought before the Eiffel Tower thing. I gave one to Aiden since no one drank any...” Isla made a weak attempt to sit and peered at Davy. “Did you drink any of those?”
Davy shook her head. “But, I mean, Kelsey and Blair got them. They wouldn’t put anything in our drinks, and I sat with them the whole time.”
“Yeah, but they didn’t drink them either, did they? They left for the Eiffel Tower right away, while I was gone.”
Concern frosted Davy’s expression. “You think it was those drinks?”
“That’s the last thing I really remember, Davy. Sitting at the table with you, drinking those drinks. Then. ..nothing. I don’t remember talking about any Paris thing with you at all. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
A crestfallen look came across Davy’s face, but she flicked it away. “That’s not important right this second. It had to have been Aiden, Isla. No one else came near those drinks.” She lowered her voice, then touched her hand gently. “Did you have sex with him?”
Isla curled her arms around her waist, a heavy feeling of violation roiling her gut. “I don’t remember. And he says he doesn’t either. We just sort of...woke up together.”
How could I let this happen?
I feel so dumb.
“Do we need to go to a hospital?” Davy’s voice was soft and comforting, grounding her.
“I just don’t ...” Isla shook her head.
“I don’t believe Aiden would do something like that.
” She rolled off the bed and unzipped her suitcase, hands trembling.
Grabbing a pair of flip-flops, she slipped them on then, left the room, and headed back into the main area of the suite, glancing around at all the closed doors.
Davy was at her heels. “What are you doing?”
“Which one is Kelsey’s room again? I want to know where she and Blair got those drinks.”
Davy led the way, and Isla followed, shaking. They entered the darkened room, and Davy went toward the bed, where Kelsey was sleeping with a sleep mask. “Hey, Kels,” Davy said, bending at her side.
Kelsey rolled over and tugged the mask off. She blinked at them in the dim light. “What’s going on?” she asked in a rough voice.
Davy nodded toward Isla, who hugged her arms to her chest.
“Just a quick question about last night. Those drinks you got before you all left for the Eiffel Tower... where did you get them?” Isla asked as calmly as possible.
“You woke me up for that?” Kelsey scowled and sat. “Don’t think I didn’t notice that you guys didn’t ever meet up with us. Megan was really hurt, you know.”
“Isla thinks she might have been drugged, Kels. That’s why we need to know where the drinks came from.”
Kelsey’s expression changed immediately. “Oh my God.” She tucked her blond hair behind her ears. “Are you okay? What happened?”
Isla moistened her lips. “I-I’m fine. I think. Just feeling really sick at the moment.”
Kelsey blinked, clearly still processing. “Um, those drinks? There was a guy. He had like a cowboy hat and a hockey jersey...he gave them to us.”
Oh...fuck.
Isla sat on Kelsey’s bed shakily. “Oh no.”
He’d given them the drinks before Isla had gone to the bathroom.
Before she’d run into Aiden.
“That was the guy who was harassing you, wasn’t it?” Davy bit her lip.
Isla nodded. “Yeah.”
Kelsey’s eyes grew even wider. “D-did he hurt you?”
“No, a friend of mine from London just so happened to show up and chased him off.” And thank God for that. What in the hell would have happened if she hadn’t run into Aiden?
Then again ...she might not have sat at that table and had those drinks. She would have gone to the Eiffel Tower with her friends.
A part of her wanted to scream at Kelsey for taking drinks from a stranger—but what was the point? They’d all been doing it. The whole night had been a parade of free drinks from random men, and no one had thought twice about it.
And she didn’t want to have to admit to Kelsey what had happened afterward either.
“Let me see if I can get that mobile nurse thing to show up faster and take care of you.” Kelsey grabbed her phone off the nightstand. “But you’re okay otherwise? My God, that’s so scary. I’m so sorry—and here I was thinking you guys blew us off.”
Thanking Kelsey, Davy helped Isla back to their room and Isla curled up on the bed again, mind spinning. She wanted to sleep, but she was also too agitated for that.
“Do you want to go to the?—”
“Hospital? No.” Isla squeezed her eyes shut. “If that creep did put something in the drinks, then Aiden is no more responsible about what happened than I am. Like I said, he couldn’t remember what happened either.”
“And you’re sure you believe him?”
Sure?
Mostly. He had seemed pretty confused.
But why had Lola been at his door when she’d left? Just minutes earlier, he’d said they weren’t together anymore. Yet Lola had been carrying a suitcase. And she knew where he was staying. Had Aiden lied about that? If so, what else would he lie about?
This wasn’t what she wanted to deal with right now.
Not ever. If she could erase last night, wipe it clean from her brain— the parts she remembered anyway —she would.
“We might want to contact the casino, too. If that other guy did put something in our drinks, their security team will probably want to know about it.”
Ugh.
Isla shook her head. “Maybe. I can’t think about that right now. What was this Paris thing you were so excited about?”
Davy sat on her bed and shut the open laptop. “It’s nothing?—”
“No, don’t do that. You were excited. I want to know.”
“Um, considering what happened, it’s really nothing in the grand scheme of things.”
Isla shot her a mock glare. “It’s clearly not nothing. Now tell me. I need to think about something else. Please.” She fluffed her pillow, then sat back against it.
Davy tied her hair back into a ponytail, then sighed.
“You had mentioned that tour of Paris thing, and I spent the night researching the different Parises. I pitched a travel program to Antony about it—a six-episode program exploring six different Parises and ending in France, of course—and he loved the idea.”
“That’s amazing, Davy. See? I told you it would all work out.”
“Mm-hmm,” Davy said, her lips pressing together in a smile that didn’t meet her eyes.
“What’s that look for?”
Davy looked away, gathering the papers and stacking them on the laptop. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Davy Mehta. Don’t you dare.” Isla sipped at the bottled water she’d opened. “Tell me.”
Davy clasped her hands in her lap, hesitating.
Then she gave Isla a careful smile— the kind you wear before you deliver unwelcome news that used to be good .
“Well, last night—I guess after you and Aiden had those drinks—you had volunteered to host the whole travel show. And Aiden had agreed to sponsor it. I should have known it was too good to be true. But I told Antony?—”
Oh shit.
Isla bit her lip, the full realization of Davy’s predicament crashing down on her. “I’m sure you could get a different host,” she said softly.
“Maybe,” Davy said, not meeting her eye. “Though Antony took a look at your old acting reels and résumé, which I sent him, and thought you were perfect for it. But the funding. ..”
The weight of Davy’s words pressed against Isla’s chest. A different host would be inconvenient.
Finding a sponsorship so quickly? Even if it were possible, it wouldn’t make Davy look reliable—or paint her in a favorable light.
What was Davy supposed to do—tell her boss that she’d taken the word of two drunk and drugged people?
That may have been exactly what she’d done. But it would probably cost her more than the pitch. She’d likely lose her job.
Davy sniffled and wrung her hands. “I can’t believe I’m so stupid.”
“You’re not stupid. Maybe a little overly enthusiastic, but not stupid.
” Isla tucked her knees in closer to her stomach.
“I’m the one who possibly got drugged and ended up waking up in the bed of one of my brother’s best friends, so if stupid awards are being handed out this morning, they aren’t going to you. ”
“Oh God, Isla. I’m so sorry. You see? This is why I didn’t want to say anything. This is nothing compared?—”
“No, no, no.” Isla gave her a steady look. “We’re not playing the comparison game. We’re going to tackle both these problems. One thing at a time.”
Davy nodded, eyes dark with worry. “What now, Isla?”
“I’m going to take a shower and think.” She gulped a deep breath, trying to wrap her head around the daunting tasks ahead of her today. “Then I need to talk to Aiden. As soon as possible.”