Chapter Two
T wo Years Earlier
Lowen opened her eyes and glanced around.
The cloying scent of gardenia floated in the air, the Las Vegas evening still blistering despite the moon high in the sky.
Her thumbs touched each fingertip, trying to determine if she was dreaming or not.
Her pale pink chiffon dress floated around her legs.
The one and only time she wore this dress had been at her engagement party to Scias Mailliard.
Many things seared through her mind, but the obvious was the fact she was alive.
Had her married life been a dream?
No. She remembered every miserable moment in excruciating detail.
Her wedding night, when Scias had told her to disrobe and lie on the bed, only to climb on top of her and force himself into her body.
The first time she burned the morning toast and he backhanded her.
He made her scrape off the blackened section, then lick up the burnt crumbs that had fallen.
The first beating when she’d gotten her period, proving she wasn’t pregnant.
Had her prayers been answered? Some divine intervention?
“Here, please take my handkerchief. A beautiful woman should never cry.”
Startled, she spun too quickly and lost her balance. Strong arms came around her, gently enfolding her against a muscular chest. She looked up, into brown eyes surrounded by the lushest lashes she’d ever seen. Rich chestnut hair held a slight, barely tamed curl.
She knew him. Remembered him. Evren Grenier.
In her other life, they had only brushed fingers as she accepted his handkerchief, so being in his arms was a new sensation.
A spark of sensation traveled along her nerve endings and caused her heart rate to speed up, surprisingly not out of fear but with something different.
Something unsettling. Whatever it was, she didn’t trust it.
“Thank you, Mr. Grenier.”
He didn’t say anything at first. Just offered her a smile as he studied her face. “You know who I am, so may I have the pleasure of knowing your name?”
“I’m Lowen Hayes. The unfortunate fiancée of Scias Mailliard.”
He frowned. “That explains why you’re crying.”
She gave him a wry smile. “Thank you for catching me, Mr. Grenier.”
“Please, call me Evren.”
“Evren,” she murmured.
He made sure she was steady on her feet before his arms slowly released her.
In her alternate life, she’d written about this man.
About the kindness she saw in his eyes, and how she wished he was the man she was marrying.
Through the two years of her unhappiness, she’d often remembered this very night and wondered why she never had the backbone to ask him to rescue her.
Now, she had her chance. She knew what would happen if she did nothing, and she refused to let history repeat itself.
“Would you...” She thought about how she should word things. “Would you like to know something fantastical?”
His eyes twinkled in the moonlight. “I love fantastical secrets.”
She leaned close. “I know the future.”
“Because your fiancé is an asshole? Sorry, I’m afraid that’s not that big of a secret.”
“He is, isn’t he?” She shook her head. “But that’s not what I meant. You see, I’m going to die.”
He tilted his head as he regarded her. “We all die.”
“Not all are murdered by their husbands.”
Curiosity laced his voice. “Is that metaphorical?”
“It is not,” she replied. Something came to her. “Do you have a brother named Jeremiah Delance?”
“Yes,” he replied cautiously.
“Does he have a scar on his face? One he got when he left a place called the Jade Grove?”
“He has no scar, but how did you know about the Jade Grove?”
“I came downstairs to get a glass of water, and I overheard Scias talking to Rexx.”
“Rexx Lackey? His right-hand man?”
“Yes. He mentioned how he had scarred Jeremiah’s face.”
He didn’t say anything for a moment. “I’m confused. How did you hear Rexx mentioning this when that meeting is tonight?”
“Like I said, I know the future.”
His brow furrowed as he studied her. “I don’t believe you’re a psychic, but I’m finding it difficult to reconcile that you know something you’re not supposed to know.”
“When your brother departs the Jade Gove, he’ll be attacked by Rexx, who slices his face.”
“You’re not kidding,” he said slowly, as if trying to dissect her motive.
“Why would I kid about that?”
“Are you crazy?”
“How would a crazy woman know about that meeting?”
She could feel his analyzation. Then, he pulled out his cell phone and placed a call, all the while staring at her. Lowen made sure she maintained eye contact to show she had nothing to hide.
“I just got word Jeremiah is going to be attacked by Lackey after the meeting. Yeah, okay. Thanks, Saxon.” He hung up.
“My brothers are at a meeting right now, which is why I’m the one at your engagement party.
Jeremiah was supposed to attend but a client set up a meeting at the Jade Grove, so he sent me here. ”
“Doesn’t that mean it’s a setup?”
He had a strange look in his eyes, like he was trying to figure her out. “That is a logical deduction, yes.”
“If my knowledge is true, would you get me out of here?” she asked.
“I can’t marry Scias because I’ve already lived two years in agony from his fists and his words.
In my last life, you offered to rescue me, but I was too scared to take hold of what you offered.
Now, however, Saint Rita gave me a second chance and I’m not going to be that docile, stupid woman anymore. ”
“Okay, I’m rethinking the crazy theory, but I’d get you out of here even without knowledge of the future. In my opinion, no woman should marry Scias Mailliard. He’s a cruel sadist.”
“Then you’ll help me?”
“Of course.” Evren glanced around. “We can escape around the side of the house that’s out of the moonlight. My car isn’t too far away. Do you have anything in the house? Purse? Change of clothes?”
“There’s nothing in that house I want. Everything belongs to my asshole father or my evil fiancé.”
“You’re quite different than I expected.”
“You have no idea.”
He held out his hand, and she slipped hers into it, holding tight. Then he led her into the dark, away from her nightmare.
****
E vren kept glancing down at the woman by his side.
He really didn’t believe her about knowing the future, but a little delusion never hurt anyone.
Case in point: his brother Saxon. Not that he was going to take advantage of her “crazy” because that wasn’t who he was, but she was gorgeous and asked him to save her so he said yes.
There was no way he would turn his back on someone needing help. Besides, no woman should be subjected to Scias Mailliard. The man had already put one wife in the ground.
Evren held her hand as he led her to his car, making sure to stay in the shadows. Just in case. Scias was a paranoid bastard and Evren wouldn’t put it past the man to have snipers trained to take out any escapees.
Now he was glad he didn’t use the valet service at this fuck-awful shindig.
Once they reached his bulletproof Lamborghini SUV, he held open the passenger door and helped her into the vehicle before heading around to the driver’s side.
So far, so good. Starting up the engine, he carefully maneuvered around other vehicles and got the hell out of there.
“Do you have a plan?” he asked.
“Plan?”
“Yeah,” he said, glancing at her. “Where you want to go. What you want to do. You know. A plan.”
She stared out the side window and he wondered what was going through her mind. He wondered if she had even thought about what she was going to do once she left her engagement party. If she went back now, she’d probably be beaten, and no way could he allow that to happen.
“I have no plan,” she murmured, almost absently. “No ID. No money. No clothes. But I’ll figure it out.”
“How?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Better than being dead, though.”
He had to give her that one, and wavered if he should feed into her psychosis. “Do you feel like telling me how you, uh, died?”
“I overheard Scias being angry at Rexx because he thought your brother Jeremiah was at someplace called Direridge, when it was actually you. Then he threw me over the balcony and I broke my neck.”
There was a sharp intake of breath. “What did you say?”
“I said a lot of things. Can you clarify which part?”
“How do you know about Direridge?”
“I don’t,” she answered. “It’s just what I heard that night. Or this night. Tense is going to be confusing, I see. Anyway. Scias was pissed that I eavesdropped, and like I said, he tossed me over my bedroom balcony. What’s Direridge?”
“Direridge is the business at the Jade Grove. It’s a location acquisition no one was supposed to know the details of.” It seemed they had a mole , he thought. “And then what happened?”
“When I was dead, I stared down at my body,” she continued in a soft voice, seemingly lost in the memory. “I had two options. One, go to Heaven. The other was a chance for a do-over.”
“I guess you chose the do-over.”
“I wasn’t ready to die.”
“None of us are.”
He drove a bit more, trying to figure out where to take her, but then decided to just head to the Monarque. Like Jeremiah and Saxon, he had a penthouse there. It was close to midnight and since he had no idea where to take her, he decided they’d tackle that question in the morning.
“I have a spare bedroom you can use for the night,” he told her. “After breakfast, we’ll talk more.”
“Okay,” she replied, stifling a yawn. “Now that the adrenaline is crashing, my eyelids want to close.”
He drove down Las Vegas Boulevard toward his brother’s casino.
When they were kids, each brother had their designated roles.
Jeremiah, since he’d been the oldest, was leader.
Aera lived to get under his skin. Evren was the peacemaker, and Saxon, well, whenever they needed something completely idiotic done, they asked him.
“Do you live in a casino?”
“My brother, Jeremiah, owns the Monarque.”
“Oh. Did you grow up in it?”
“Nah,” he replied as he turned into the private parking section.
“There are four of us. Actually, there are six, but Georgie and Cricket exist in a fentanyl and heroin haze so... Anyway, at one point or another we’d all been stepsiblings.
Even though our parents never stayed married for long, we stayed together.
For the most part. Aera moved away years ago. ”
“Oh, I’m sorry about Georgie and Cricket.”
He shrugged. “It is what it is. Come on. You look ready to drop.”
After exiting the SUV, he walked around to the passenger side, opened the door, and held out his hand.
She placed hers in his and he led her to the private elevator.
During the quick rise to the top, she leaned against the mirrored panels.
Unlike most women, she didn’t talk, and he liked the quiet between them.
Reaching the top, he escorted her to his door and bypassed the security measures.
She stepped inside and the low lighting immediately responded to motion.
Evren preferred warm, darker tones, as opposed to Jeremiah’s penthouse which he felt was cold and sterile.
Lowen looked around before heading to the large floor-to-ceiling windows that had a breathtaking view over Las Vegas.
“It’s beautiful,” she said.
“Most things are from a bird’s-eye view.”
She looked at him, and it was the first time he saw her properly.
Delicate features were framed by her long wavy hair, so dark it almost looked black.
Long, thick lashes surrounded the most unusual eyes he’d ever seen.
Pale blue rims with an amber center. Although innocence radiated from them, they held an underlining measure of sadness.
“Thank you for everything you’ve done tonight,” she murmured.
“I’m glad I was there. Would you like some clothes to sleep in?” Just then his phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket and immediately connected the call. “What’s up, Sax?”
“I don’t know how you knew about the surprise attack, but we got the sons-a-bitches.” Saxon chuckled. “And guess who I had the pleasure of putting out of his misery? Rexx Motherfucking Lackey.”
Evren blinked as he turned to stare at Lowen. Disbelief filled him.
“Rexx Lackey is dead?”
“Deader than my mother’s corpse.”
“And Jeremiah is okay?”
“Oh, yeah. Don’t know how you foretold the future, but thanks to you, our big bro is A-okay. Jones never showed so Direridge was a wash, but we’ll tell you about it later. Peace out.”
The call ended and Evren lowered it.
“How did you know?” he asked in shock.
“I told you. I know the future.”