Chapter 8
Trent left his wallet in my bedroom. I didn’t know if I was moreannoyed that I’d have to see him again, or because I’d have to take time out of my day to drop his wallet off at the showroom which was on the other side of town to the library.
Now I didn’t have a gallon of alcohol swimming through my veins, I’dseriously started regretting my decision to sleep with him. In fact, regret wasn’t a strong enough feeling to describe the mortification and shame coursing through me from the very second I opened my eyes.
The thought of seeing Trent again gave me the ick.
With a new layer of snowfall, and the journey to the part of town Ididn’t want to go to, I begrudgingly spent a couple of dollars and took the bus. Before I knew it, I’d reached the stop and made the short walk to the showroom.
For the entire journey, I wondered whether I should have just postedthe damn wallet to Trent to avoid any more awkwardness. I really didn’t want to see him again.
Nerves fluttered through me, and by the time I reached theshowroom, a lead balloon of dread had formed in the pit of my stomach. Pushing the feeling aside, I opened the door and stepped in, taking a second for the warmth to wrap around me.
The scent of new cars filled my nose, and several flashy models wereon display, reminding me of the Audi convertible I used to drive. When the bailiffs took it away, I vowed that one day I’d own a car like it again.
So much for that.
A suited man with receding hair was talking to a young couple whowere looking at one of the SUVs, the woman lapping up every word he was saying. Behind him were a few more smartly dressed salespeople, but luckily, Trent was nowhere to be seen.
“Can I help you?” A soft voice called, pulling my attention to thereception area where a young, pretty girl was sitting. A sign on the desk indicated she was the receptionist, and her name was Laura.
“I’m looking for Trent McAllister,” I replied, taken aback slightly whenher face fell from a friendly smile into a scowl as soon as I said his name.
“Mr. McAllister is busy,” she replied curtly as she eyed me up anddown.
Relief swamped me. I figured I could leave his wallet with her andescape without having to see Trent, but as I’d previously established, fate had a way of fucking me over.
I pulled the wallet from my bag and opened my mouth to ask Laura togive it to Trent when his voice rumbled from behind me.
“Sav?”
My stomach lurched, and I briefly squeezed my eyes shut to stop thedisappointment from showing on my face. Taking a breath, I turned to face him, but instead of the smile I’d expected to see, his face fell as he nervously glanced from me to Laura.
Understanding dawned, and the shame that plagued meall morning came back with a vengeance.
“What…erm…what are you doing here?” he said, grabbing my handand tugging me away from the reception desk. Heat bloomed in my chest and traveled up my neck when I felt Laura’s hurt-filled eyes on us.
“You left your wallet at mine,” I replied, handing it to him.
“Oh, thanks,” he said, the tension in his shoulders easing. “I waslooking for this earlier.”
The awkwardness that descended last night after Trent left me highand dry fell around us, not helped by the daggers Laura was throwing my way.
“Right. Well, I guess I’ll see you.” I turned to leave, more than readyto get the hell out of there and never look at Trent again, when he grabbed my arm.
“Sav, wait,” he said, his eyes flicking back to Laura before he pulledme further away from her.
With his grip still on my arm, I had no choice but to stop. My gaze darted to her, finding her on the brink of tears and ignoring the ringing phone on her desk.
“What are you doing tonight?” Trent said, his voice lowered as if hedidn’t want to be overheard.
Before I had the chance to reply and tell Trent that I was busy everynight from now until the end of time, the showroom door slammed open, making every head turn to the whirlwind of a woman who’d just stormed in.
“You!” she bellowed, her shrill cry reverberating around the roombefore she marched to where Trent and I were standing.
The woman was clearly pregnant. From the size of the bump hiddenunder her tight black top, I would have said she was six, maybe seven months pregnant. Her black curls bounced as she made her way to us, a snarl contorting on her face.
“Shit,” Trent hissed from beside me. Tearing my gaze away from thefurious woman, I looked at him, finding his eyes wide with panic.
Whack!
Trent’s face whipped to one side as the slap the woman had justdelivered rang out and left a bright red mark on his cheek. By now, everyone in the showroom was watching the commotion unfold.
Even the cleaner had come out of her storage cupboard to watch.
“You bastard! How could you?” she roared. “I’m pregnant with yourchild!”
Oh, fucking hell.
“Baby, what’s going-” Trent started, but she interrupted him before hecould finish what I assumed was a pitiful attempt at denying whatever it was she was about to accuse him of.
“What’s going on? Don’t try and deny it, you cheating asshole!”
She went to strike him again, but Trent stepped out of her line of fire.As she pulled her hand away, I caught the glint of her wedding ring, and my heart sank, adding to the turmoil of emotions already rampaging through me at my stupidity.
“You’re married,” I muttered, not meaning to say it aloud.
The woman’s head snapped to me, her venom now aimed in mydirection. She looked me up and down in disgust before she sneered. “Don’t tell me you’re one of his whores?”
I closed my eyes as my cheeks flushed the deepest shade ofcrimson. “I didn’t know he was married,” I replied, a hint of desperation in my voice at wanting the poor woman to believe me.
Trent meanwhile, stood silently like a fucking coward, not backing meup in my claim that I didn’t know he was married.
The complete douche.
“Of course you didn’t,” she barked, glowering at me. I braced myselffor a slap to come my way, but thankfully, a new voice interrupted.
“Is everything okay?”
I tentatively opened my eyes to find the man I’d seen talking to theyoung couple earlier walking towards us, his brows pulled together in worry.
“Everything’s fine, Mr. Burnes,” Trent said hurriedly, his eyes wideningin fear as at the same time, his wife yelled, “No, everything is not fine! My husband is a lying, cheating, piece of shit!”
With that, she yanked an envelope from her purse and pulled out astack of photos.
“Who was this one?” Trent’s wife yelled, holding up a picture foreveryone in the showroom to see.
I couldn’t help but look and immediately regretted it.
The photo was of Trent fucking a woman against a wall in a desertedalley. Whoever took the photo either had an excellent zoom lens or they were close enough to capture the tiny love heart tattoo on the girl’s hip.
My heart started racing. I’d been too busy enjoying Trent’s companyat the bar and when he walked me home. Was there a picture of him and me kissing in the pile she was holding?
I suddenly wasn’t feeling well.
“What about this one?” his wife went on, dropping the first picture andholding up another one.
A gasp from behind me pulled everyone’s attention to Laura who wasgaping at the picture being held up.
The picture of Trent fucking Laura over the hood of a car.
“That’s enough,” Trent said, trying to snatch the picture out of hiswife’s hand, and not noticing Laura storm from behind her desk, her cheeks burning furiously with embarrassment.
“You told me you were single!” she hissed, and as Trent turned to her,she threw a glass of water over him, soaking his white shirt enough that his nipples were visible.
Laura burst into tears as she rushed away, her pained sobs followingher. Mr. Burnes, or Alan, as his name badge read, watched helplessly at her retreating figure.
“Laura!” Trent called after her before remembering hiswife was standing right there.
“I want a divorce!” the poor woman snarled. Despite the situation, shewas doing a damn good job at not bursting into tears. “And I promise you, Eugene Trent McAllister, I’m going to make sure I get everything I’m entitled to!”
Eugene. Ha. If I’d known that was his actual name, then I definitelywouldn’t have slept with him.
Trent reached for her, but she knocked his hand out of his way, tellinghim to keep his filthy hands off her. It was at that point I decided I’d heard enough. This wasn’t my fight, and whether she believed me or not, I didn’t know he was married, otherwise I wouldn’t have gone near him with a ten-foot pole.
I stepped away, but the movement caused the woman’s scornful faceto turn back to me. Before she had a chance to throw any more venom my way, or her fist for that matter, I held a hand up, hoping to placate her.
“For what it’s worth, I agree with you. Your husband is a lying piece ofshit,” I paused to give Trent the most disapproving scowl I could conjure before turning back to her. “I know you won’t believe me, but I promise you, I didn’t know he was married or I never would have touched him.”
She must have heard my conviction as her scowl eased, and her lipspursed into a thin line. To my relief, she gave a brief nod of her head.
“Baby, please! We can work this out, they didn’t mean anything,”Trent said as he tried to reach for his wife again.
I rolled my eyes. Trent was an idiot if he thought he could weasel hisway out of this. I hoped his wife did divorce him and took him for every cent she could get.
“If you’ll excuse me,” I muttered before stepping away from thewarring couple.
The right thing to do was to walk out with my head held high. It wasn’tlike I’d wanted to start a relationship with Trent, but was I pissed that he’d lied so callously to me? And for the last three months?
Yes, yes I was.
That’s why I paused several steps away from the door, before callingout and interrupting him from begging for his wife’s forgiveness.
“Oh, Trent? Or perhaps I should say, Eugene.” He looked at me, adeep scowl forming on his brows. “Just so you know, you were really shit in bed. It’s amazing how you got so many women to sleep with you when you have zero clue on how to find the clit.”
His mouth dropped open in disbelief as a grin spread on his wife’slips. From around the showroom, chortles echoed.
Feeling a bit better, I walked out of the showroom, leaving the chaosbehind, and done with the drama for one day.
The rest of the day was a disaster. I made it to the library to find thecomputers were all in use. I had to wait two hours before one became free, and with nothing to do, my mind kept wandering to Trent’s wife.
The poor woman was facing raising a child on her own because herselfish husband couldn’t keep his dick in his pants. I knew all too well how hard raising a child as a single parent was.
My mom never showed it in my younger years, but as I got older, shespoke about how at times she thought she was doing a shit job raising me. Often, she’d lay awake worrying I was going to hate her for not remarrying and giving me a father figure.
By the time I finally logged onto a computer, I was riddled with guilt.Although I didn’t know Trent was married, it still didn’t stop me from feeling like I’d played some part in ruining their marriage. The thought kept circling in my head and distracting me from applying for jobs.
When 6 pm rolled around, and Mrs. Wade came to tell me the librarywas closing, I begrudgingly left, hoping that there would be no more nasty surprises in store when I got home, and tomorrow would be a more productive day.
Making a mental note that in the morning, I needed to contact mybank and find out why the hell my account was $300 over my limit when I knew wholeheartedly I hadn’t spent the money, I started the walk home.
Lost in thought, I failed to notice the black SUV with dark-tintedwindows pull up alongside me until it came to a stop. Two men in suits got out before stepping in my path and stopping me from going anywhere.
“Miss Miller?” one of them said. He was the elder of the two, with saltand pepper hair, and a hard face.
“Yes,”I replied, anxiety spiking as I looked between the two. The other man appeared onlya few years older than me, but his face was just as mean.
“I’m Agent Peterson,” the older guy said, flashing an FBI badgebefore he snatched it away. “This is Agent Lawes. We’re going to need you to come with us.”
My heart started hammering against my chest as all manner ofthoughts began to race through my head.
Was this to do with Liam and the fraud?
Did they think I’d made it up and had somehow scammed the bank?
Why would the FBI be involved?
“Erm…what’s this about?” I stuttered, my mouth drying up. Iwondered if I stood a chance of outrunning them, but as I took in their athletic frames, I knew it would be pointless to even try. Besides, I’d only end up face-planting in the snow.
“We have some information about Liam Olsen’s whereabouts. Ourboss would like to talk to you.”
My brows shot up as hope bloomed in my chest for the first time inmonths. Did they know where he was? About damn time someone found him. Now all they needed to do was arrest his no-good ass, and I could get my life back on track.
“Oh my gosh!” I exclaimed, unable to keep my excitement in check.The hope blooming had now taken root. “Where do I need to go to meet your boss?”
“We’ll take you,” Agent Peterson said while the other Agent openedthe rear door to the SUV.
Not hesitating for a single second, I climbed into the back, lettingmyself dream that come morning, things would start to look a little brighter.
A nervous excitement coursed through me during the drive toPortland, not helped by the minimal information the agents were giving me. I’d long since given up asking them questions, all I got in return was grunts from Peterson.
When the car came to a stop outside a very grand hotel calledAurora Casino Hotel, another question joined the hundreds already running through my mind.
Why were we here?
Staring up at the bright lights of the casino, a memory flashed in mymind. I’d been here once before. It was about six months ago.
Liam had brought me here thinking it would be a great date night. Iremembered that night vividly because I’d spent the night being ignored by Liam who was too engrossed in trying to win money in poker games.
Only, he kept losing, and by the time the night came to an end, we’dleft with him in the foulest of moods. When we got home, we had a blazing row, something we never did, and for the first time since knowing Liam, there was a little part of me that was scared of how he’d behaved.
The next day though, he came home from work with a beaming smile on hisface, and a huge bouquet of flowers. He apologized, but after that night, something changed between us. I didn’t know what, maybe I’d lost a bit of trust in him, or maybe I’d seen a side to him that I didn’t like. Either way, the argument lingered in the back of my mind for months after.
Before I had the chance to voice the question as to why we were hereof all places, the agents were out of the car, quickly followed by Agent Peterson opening my door.
“This way, Miss Miller,” he said impatiently.
“What are we doing here?” I asked, battling against my thick coat toget out of the car. The freezing air hit me, and I pulled my coat tighter around me, having gotten used to the warmth of the SUV.
“Boss wanted us to bring you here,” Peterson replied, slamming thedoor behind me.
“Why here? Why not a police station? Or an FBI office?”
“You’ll have to ask him that,” Peterson huffed before heading towardsthe glass doors that opened up into the foyer of the hotel.
Lawes, who was still yet to utter a single word or grunt, raised hishand and indicated to me to follow his colleague. Whether it was intentional or not, I didn’t know, but as he lowered his arm, the gun tucked in his holster flashed from underneath the material.
The sight was enough to get my ass moving. Not that I was asuspect, at least, I didn’t think I was a suspect, but getting shot by an FBI Agent for not complying with their request wasn’t on the top of my to-do list, especially as my medical insurance had lapsed.
Following Peterson, with Lawes shepherding me from behind, myeyes widened at the magnificent foyer I was led through. The last time I was here, Liam had rushed us straight into the casino so I didn’t get a chance to look around.
The place was stunning.
Ginormous crystal chandeliers hung from the high ceilings. Pristinewhite walls were adorned with gold furnishings, and cozy couches and chairs were dotted throughout where people sat drinking champagne or expensive spirits, and eyeing me as we passed through.
Not that I blamed them; I stuck out like a sore thumb to the peoplestaying in this hotel. Men were dressed in smart suits, the women dressed in designer dresses, and there I was in my grubby sneakers, stained jeans, and oversized coat that had seen better days. It was clear as day that I didn’t have the money to stay in a place like this.
Ignoring their curious stares and trying to push away the feeling ofinsecurity, I followed Peterson into the elevator. Once Lawes was inside, he tapped in a code on the panel, and the three of us stood in awkward silence as the elevator made its way to whoever the hell we were going to see.
When the elevator came to a stop and the doors slid open, Lawesindicated for me to step out. I did as I was told, my gaze darting around, as my confusion grew. The doors hadn’t opened into a hallway lined with offices or conference rooms like I’d expected, but had openeddirectlyinto a suite
Taking another step forward, trepidation ran through my body, andsomewhere in the back of my head, a little alarm bell started ringing, telling me that something was wrong.
A ding sounded from behind me. Spinning around just in time to seethe elevator doors close with Lawes and Peterson still inside and grinning at me like I had stupidly walked into a trap, the feeling of trepidation changed to one of fear.
I ran back to the elevator and jabbed my finger on the button to callit back, but nothing happened. As I tried to tamp down the fear beginning to grip me, I shoved my hand into my coat pocket to fish out my phone.
Only it wasn’t there.
I checked the other pocket before patting my jeans butno matter where I searched, the damn phone was nowhere to be found.
I was pretty sure it had been in my coat pocket when I’d left the library. Maybe it’d fallen out when I was in the car, but that little alarm bell was screaming at me, telling me to stop being such a dumbass and accept the truth that was staring me in the face.
One of the agents must have taken it.
Fear now had me in a chokehold. Realizing I had little choice butto find out who was waiting for me, I tentatively crept through the hallway, my heart racing like I was expecting the ghost of Christmas past to appear at any moment.
The hallway opened into a lounge area which had a leather L-shapedcouch in the middle, and an enormous flat-screen TV on the wall. On the other side of the room was a bar, stocked with bottles of spirits.
My mouth dropped open when my eyes landed on the man standingbehind the bar, pouring amber liquid into two tumblers.
The last man I expected to see.