Chapter 16
Arianna
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I won’t take up too much of your precious eating and drinking time, and I know the band is due on stage any minute so I’ll make this quick.
Eighteen months ago, I recognized a severe problem here in Las Vegas.
Away from the bright lights and big city, there are hundreds of women, men, and children that suffer domestic violence at the hands of someone close to them.
Domestic violence takes multiple forms, including physical, sexual, emotional and verbal abuse, social isolation and economic dependency.
Anyone can be a victim of domestic violence regardless of age, gender, race, social status or sexual orientation.
It’s a wider problem than you’d think, and more often than not, is well hidden and undetected, sometimes for years.
A woman is beaten every fifteen seconds in an act of domestic violence.
So, by the time I have finished this little speech, twenty women will have been beaten somewhere in the US.
Maybe someone you’re sitting close to in this room are victims, or even abusers.
Not a fact, just a thought. So, after witnessing a particularly vicious attack and realizing there was this immense problem, I started a charity to provide an escape for these victims. It’s called ‘Safe as Houses’. ”
My breaths become fast and shallow in my chest. I’m hot. I’m cold. I can’t process what’s going on here.
He started a domestic violence charity?
He’s talking about women being beaten and trying to help them?
“Ari …” Lottie nudges my arm. “That looks like … is that … Shit. Shit.”
I can’t answer her. I can’t take my eyes from the stage. His voice. Those words. She knows from my reaction to him that it’s Jonny.
“My contacts and connections made it possible for me to source everyone I needed to in order to do something about this growing problem. There are currently four safe houses in the Las Vegas city area, all belonging to the Safe as Houses Charity, and there are plans to broaden the reach and make a difference to victims all across America. But this is only possible with the help from you. I ask you to be generous and dig deep for a worthy cause that really does make a difference. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you in advance for any donations you see fit to give us this evening.
I will be here all evening if you’d like to find out more.
Thank you for your time. Oh, and please enjoy the rest of your evening. ”
He takes a bow and beams that fake smile of his all around the ballroom. He receives a rapturous applause, all except from the few people at our table who know who he is.
Lottie has left her seat and is whispering in Denham’s ear. His face drops. So does my stomach. I should have known it wouldn’t be simple. He was always going to catch up with me. Always tainting the air that I breathe with his evil.
“Arianna? Is Lottie right? James Ellis …Is that him? Is that Jonny?” Denham asks me softly.
I nod because my body won’t let me do anything else right now. “Shit. James fucking Ellis. Okay, we are leaving. I need to make a few calls.”
“NO,” I shout, drawing too much attention from Mr. and Mrs. Steinham. “No, I’m not leaving,” I hiss through my teeth.
“But Ari, that’s …”
“I know. I know who he is,” I say sounding far calmer than I’m feeling, but I’m starting to get it under control.
“I am not leaving.” The more I breathe, the stronger my voice becomes and the more my confidence grows.
I turn in my chair and face Denham, who’s still seated, and Lottie, who’s standing at his side.
“I told you, I’m not running. Las Vegas is a small place and it was bound to happen sooner or later.
We will not leave. We are going to stay here, and we are going to have a great night.
We are going to drink and dance on the table.
And we are going to show that man that he isn’t going to win.
He wants to empower victims of abuse? Well, let’s show him how it’s done.
” I solidify my resolve by picking up my half full wine glass and swallow its contents in one gulp.
Then I bang the glass on the table and stand to catch the last of the applause, clapping and cheering loudly.
Denham and Lottie look between each other as if I’m crazy.
Maybe I am. In fact, I know I am. My whole life has been crazy since the moment I met Jonny.
He saturated everything with his toxicity.
But in Denham’s words, ‘it is what it is’.
My life is going to be what I make it, and I am not running.
When the applause dies down, Jonny walks off the stage and directly to a table at the front of the room. I watch him, with equal amounts of fascination as astonishment. You couldn’t make this stuff up.
“Come with me,” Denham says once I’m seated again and pouring another glass of wine.
“It’s not up for discussion,” I reply without even glancing at him and I take a gulp of my freshly filled glass.
“Ari,” he warns, then sighs.
It’s then that I realize I’m being selfish. But I have to be selfish, don’t I?
So I turn to him and he leans into me across the chair. “Please?” he asks, worry marring his handsome features. “I just need to speak with you without the whole table hearing.”
I relent. He takes my hand and leads me out of the ballroom. I probably look nervously back to the ballroom at least five times before we turn down a quiet hallway.
“Ari …”
“I know what you’re going to say.”
“I just think … I know you don’t want to leave …”
“Denham. I want to leave more than anything in the world. It’s taking every scrap of strength to stop my legs from carrying me as far away from here, as far away from Jonny, as I can be.
But do you know what? If I go, I go for good.
I may as well run from the whole world, for the rest of my life and never, ever come back. ”
“Ari …”
“Please. What’s the worst that’s going to happen? Is he going to beat me in front of a room full of people?”
“Ari,” he scolds, clearly disturbed by the thought. “I don’t … I just don’t want you to have to endure that man any longer than you already have. It’s my instinct to keep you safe and—”
“Then do just that. Be my strength. Be by my side, and let’s show him that he’s messed with the wrong army. Yes?”
Denham looks at me for long minutes, searching my eyes for any chance that I might change my mind. “You’re crazy,” he mutters.
“I know.”
“And strong.”
I shrug.
“And amazing.”
This makes me look to my feet, which shuffle on the ground beneath me, and Denham places the length of his forefinger under my chin and tilts it gently up until I’m looking directly at him.
“You want to dance?” he asks, smiling but with a hint of sadness.
“Are you askin’?” I look up at him through my lashes with a silent plea to make the best of the situation we have.
He chuckles, a deep throaty laugh and the look in his eyes softens, “I’m askin’.”
“Then I’m dancin’,” I whisper, and kiss his smiling lips.
“Guys.” Lottie’s voice comes from the end of the hall. “Are we leaving or what?”
She’s standing there with her hands on her hips, her face tight and scary, and looks ready for a fight. Spike has his hand at the middle of her back, wearing a serious expression.
I slide my hands down from Denham’s chest and cross the distance between me and her. Placing my hands on her shoulders I say, “Lottie, babe. I love you. We are not going anywhere, okay?”
“But—”
“No.” I shake my head. “If I were to leave now, I’d never come back. I don’t care if he’s in there. We are going to drink, we are going to dance, and we are going to have a damn good night. Got it?”
She takes a deep breath and wraps both arms around my waist. “I love you, Ari.”
“I know,” I say, kissing the top of her head. Even with heels on, she only just reaches my chin.
“We’re ready to go back in, then?” she asks.
“Yup,” I reply, taking a deep breath and linking my arm in hers.
“Thank fuck for that. They’re just about to serve dessert, and I would’a been pissed if I had to miss it.” If you didn’t know Lottie, you would miss the little smirk that creases the corners of her eyes. God, I love this girl.
For the next hour, the ballroom is a sea of people mingling.
Once the tables and chairs are cleared back to make way for the dance floor, and everyone is standing it’s pretty much impossible to see over the hundreds of heads.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t edgy, if I said my adrenaline wasn’t running on an all-time high.
It is. It’s the strangest feeling knowing that someone you’ve been running from for so long is in the same room as you.
Possibly only two or three people away. But he can’t do a damned thing to me here, and with that thought, each minute that goes past gets easier.
Denham doesn’t leave my side, and Lottie and Spike don’t go far either, so I feel safely cocooned in between three of my favorite people in the world.
It takes a while for people to start to dance, but when they do, there’s a little more room to move around on the perimeter.
“Okay, guys. You said we’d dance. So I want to dance. Who’s with me?” I drain the rest of the champagne in the glass I was given on my way back into the ballroom and place it on the bar just a few feet away.
“Okay!” Lottie answers, doing a little bounce on the balls of her feet. “Sambuca. Then we dance.”
“Yes!” I reply.
“I’m not sure—” Denham starts.
“Look, King,” I say, pointing a finger in his chest. “If you’re going to tell me it’s not a good idea to get drunk, then think again.
We are doing shots. Then we are dancing.
Got it?” I sound fiercer than I feel and instantly feel bad about being so sharp.
But it quickly fades when I see the smirk on his face.
“I was going to say, I’m not sure they will have Sambuca, but I’ll happily go and check for you.”