65
Time slows down as I stare through the crowd to the back of the room. I have two thoughts in rapid succession.
Thought one is: What is Rafe doing here?
Followed by thought two: Oh my god. Ethan!
Ethan and Rafe together in the same room are enough to give me a heart attack. I search through the dark until I find Ethan in the audience. He’s looking up at me with a concerned frown, no doubt wondering why my lecture came to an abrupt standstill. He hasn’t noticed Rafe yet. I’m worried that if Ethan sees Rafe, he’ll recognize him from Epcot yesterday. I need to get Rafe out of here before that happens.
But first, my lecture. I clear my throat and stutter. “Excuse me…um…as I was saying, we will continue to…um, monitor.”
I glance up, distracted by Rafe’s grim presence. The scowl on his face speaks volumes. My mouth goes dry as panic hijacks my brain. I stare into the crowd and a sea of unfamiliar faces looks back as I fumble with my computer, trying to advance to the next slide. Too many eyes on me, their weight heavy. Too many of my colleagues are watching me fail.
“Monitor this patient every six months for reoccurrence…” I swallow so loudly that the microphone picks up the sound. Another flick of my eyes shows Rafe hasn’t budged. His arms are crossed over his chest. His wide-legged stance suggests he’s an immovable object.
Warning sirens of alarm blare in the back of my head. I cough into my fist. “That…um, concludes my presentation. I’d be happy to answer any questions.”
A couple of hands shoot into the air, and I mentally curse them. Keeping my false smile in place and deliberately not looking at either Rafe or Ethan, I answer their questions with brief responses.
Once that’s done, I say a hasty “thank you” and take my leave as the audience applauds. I barely hear them clapping, too overwhelmed by anxiety.
Heart in my throat, I rush down the aisle, heading to Ethan. As I approach, he stands with a huge smile and congratulations on his lips. Before he can speak, I mouth “bathroom” to him and veer off toward the back doors of the conference room.
It breaks my heart to see that beautiful smile fall from his face and to watch his arms drop by his side, but I don’t want to draw attention to him. I’m hoping Rafe doesn’t know who Ethan is and doesn’t know he’s here.
Once I’ve walked past Ethan, I look over to Rafe. His expression is openly hostile, causing my stomach to lurch heavily. We make eye contact, and he flicks his eyes at the exit, telling me to follow.
When I push open the doors, Rafe is waiting in the lobby.
“How did you find me?” My voice is suddenly hoarse.
To answer, Rafe grabs the badge from my chest and holds it up for me to see. There it is. My name and the name of the conference. I hadn’t thought about how easy it would be for him to track me down with that information.
Holding my badge, Rafe says, “I called your hospital in Columbus. They said you are here in Orlando for a conference. I didn’t know which one. I was figuring it out when I bumped into you yesterday. This told me the rest.”
“I don’t understand.” I’m confused, attempting to grasp how he ended up here. “What were you doing at Epcot? Did you decide to take a day off from stalking me to go to an amusement park?”
“I have an old contact, one who’s good at hacking into hotel reservation systems. He works at Epcot. I was going to have him figure out where you are staying, but then I saw you and this.” He tugs the lanyard lightly. His laugh is low and gravelly, fingers racked across wet sand. “Isn’t that quite the coincidence, Tiffany? For me to find you there? It’s like fate wants us reunited. To finish what we started.”
I yank the badge out of his hands and look around surreptitiously. Between gritted teeth, I hiss, “What the hell are you talking about?”
Fury grips me. This was supposed to be my moment of victory. I successfully finished my presentation. Ethan and I are together. I was happy for once. Finally letting go of my fear, my pain, my past. But here comes Rafe, set to destroy all I’ve built. Ready to drag me down yet again.
A quick glance around the room shows that only one hotel worker is here, busy cleaning up the remainder of the breakfast buffet. He doesn’t appear to be listening to our conversation, but, just to be safe, I point away from the lobby where we stand. “Let’s talk over there.”
“Fine.” Rafe languidly picks up a black backpack that’s been sitting by his feet and throws it over his shoulder. He’s moving too slow for my taste, so I grab him by the upper arm and drag him away. It feels weird to touch him. His arm is so big and muscular that it’s foreign to me. I still think of him as the teenage boy I used to know. This new version of Rafe is disorienting and scary.
Earlier, I had noticed an alcove off the conference lobby, the kind where you go for privacy to make a phone call. This is where I take him. The space is small, forcing us to stand close together. It has two old-fashioned–looking telephones mounted on the back wall, with their cords dangling down.
Once we step in, I whirl around to confront him. “What do you want?” I snap, speaking quietly so people passing by can’t hear. There’s no door here. We can still be seen, but at least we’re out of the line of sight for people entering and exiting the lecture hall.
He doesn’t bother with the niceties. “Money or, more specifically, diamonds.”
“What?! Are you crazy? I don’t have any diamonds.” It’s a struggle to keep my voice down. I’m so outraged. “I’m a resident. I make less than minimum wage.” Rafe is barking up the wrong tree if he thinks he’ll get rich off me. I’ve got more student debt than anything else. After I pay for this trip, I’ll have less than $100 dollars left in my bank account.
He gives me a look like I’m stupid. “Not from you. From Shelly.”
“What do you mean from Shelly?” I glance around, out of my depth. “Is she here?” I wouldn’t be surprised to see Shelly waltz into the room at this point. If one ghost is back to haunt me, why not two?
Rafe runs a hand through his thick dark hair, looking frustrated. “Shelly’s not here, but she had diamonds, ones that we took from Johnny’s place. She hid them, wanted to keep them for herself.”
“Hid them? Where?”
“At the Starlight.”
The Starlight. A place I’ve visited in my nightmares so very often.
Little bird, where are you?
“I thought they destroyed that place. Weren’t there plans to implode it?” I picture the decrepit building in my mind. It was run-down back when I was in high school, so it must be a total disaster by now. How’s it even standing?
“The politicians couldn’t get their shit together. They’ve been battling over it for years, so the Starlight’s still there, just waiting for us.” There’s a greedy glint in his eyes.
I stare at him with bewilderment, trying to wrap my mind around his plan. “How do you know Shelly was telling the truth? If you guys were fighting, she could’ve been messing with you.”
Rafe shakes his head vehemently and says, “No. I saw those diamonds in the duffle bag with my own eyes when we first got to the Starlight before you showed up.”
“Why didn’t you go back for them right then?” I spit out.
“I didn’t notice that they were missing until later. By then, we were so far away it didn’t make sense to go back. But now it does.”
“Why?” I question.
He sets his jaw. “I owe some guys.”
“What does that have to do with me?” I glare at him, angry at how adversarial this conversation has been. So much for “Nice to see you. How have you been?”
“Shelly told me I’d never find the diamonds.” Rafe takes a step closer. “But she didn’t know that I have a secret weapon.”
“What’s your secret weapon?” I fling my hands up in the air.
“You are, Tiffany. You’re my secret weapon.”
I scoff. “How? I don’t know where Shelly put them. I didn’t even know they existed until a minute ago.”
“You know Shelly better than anyone, better than her own mother.” He’s moved during our conversation, subtly angling himself until he’s in front of the doorway. Blocking my only way of escape with his large body.
There’s something menacing about the new Rafe. A hardness to him that goes beyond the massive amount of muscle he’s acquired since I last saw him. “You’re going to go with me and find those diamonds. Right now. We’re running out of time.”
“Like hell, I will.” My voice becomes louder, almost yelling. I can’t believe this man’s audacity. “Why on earth would I help you?”
Rafe puts his hand in his pocket. For a terrifying minute I think he’s going to pull out a gun, but instead he takes out a small square object. “Because if you don’t come with me now,” he says in a deadly serious voice, “I’m going to walk into that fancy conference room. I’m going to rip the microphone out of the speaker’s hands and tell them all about how you used to work the Strip and how you lied and stole. Then I’m going to put this on the projector so the entire room can see exactly who you really are.” He holds up the object for me to see, just out of my reach.
It’s a Polaroid photo, worn dim and dirty with age, of two young girls grinning widely with their arms slung around each other, one in a revealing white angel costume and the other dressed as a sexy red devil.
Me and Shelly.
The photo we took the first night we worked the Strip together. Shelly must have kept it, and somehow Rafe got his hands on it. Heart sinking, I stare at the Polaroid. It’s clearly me, and it’s damning. If it’s shown at the conference, I can kiss my career good-bye. Bad enough that Ethan would see it, but I could at least talk to him, try to explain. He’s a kind man who might understand and forgive me.
It’s the several hundred other doctors in that room who are the problem. Doctors who in a few years I’ll need to hire me and to work beside me. If this picture gets out, my reputation will be permanently damaged. No one will want to work with me. I’ll always be known as that show-girl doctor who did terrible things, criminal things, in Las Vegas.
“We’re leaving right now,” says Rafe. “There’s a plane to Vegas in one hour. You’re going to buy tickets for both of us. If we hurry, we can make it.”
“I don’t have enough money.” I back away, with my hands raised, only to run into the wall behind me.
I’m trapped.
“That’s what credit cards are for,” he argues. “And don’t tell me that you don’t have one because I saw you use it in Epcot.”
His words chill me. How long had Rafe been watching me yesterday?
“I can’t do it,” I argue, not yet ready to give in to this crazy scheme. “I have to get back to the conference. People in there are expecting me. They’ll notice if I’m gone too long.”
He huffs, “Who’ll notice? Your boyfriend?”
“He’s not my boyfriend.” A powerful urge to protect Ethan at all costs overcomes me. I can’t let Rafe drag him into this madness. My past mistakes can’t be Ethan’s downfall.
Rafe quirks one eyebrow at me. “Oh yeah? You kiss all your friends like that?”
Shit.
That answers that question. Rafe had been watching long enough yesterday to see me kiss Ethan on the pier. He knows who Ethan is and what he means to me. I can’t let him leverage that knowledge to hurt Ethan. I just can’t.
Rafe takes one step closer to me and then two. “I remember once upon a time when you kissed me like that, Tiffany.” His voice is soft, but his eyes are hard. “Maybe your boyfriend would like to hear about that kiss as well.”
“Shut up,” I snap, which sparks grim satisfaction in his eyes.
“You know what? Now that I think about it, not only will I mention your name when I get up on that stage, I’ll call out your boyfriend, too.” Rafe puts the final nail in my coffin. “What’s his name? Ethan? Dr. Ethan Clark.” A cruel smile at my look of disbelief. “You weren’t the only one wearing a name tag yesterday.”
My stomach sinks into the ground.
“We leave now.” Rafe adjusts the backpack straps on his shoulders.
“No.” I cross my arms over my chest, belligerent.
“Yes. Or else I walk through those doors and spill all your secrets. Oh, and don’t bother trying to call the police or anyone else for help because a good friend of mine is holding a copy of this photo and has instructions to post it all over the web if something happens to me.” He takes a threatening step closer. “I’m not letting this go. Not until I get my way.”
I stand there, indecisive, fear thickening in my throat.
“Come on, Tiffany,” he urges. “A smart woman like you should know you can’t outrun your past. Trust me, I’ve tried.”
I look longingly across the room, at the large wooden doors that lead back into the safety of the conference. The current guest speaker’s voice echoes faintly through the closed doors, but it might as well be in another universe.
It’s agony, having Ethan a room away. I want so badly to go to him. To tell him about Rafe and what I’m being asked to do. For so long, I’ve been on my own. Able to handle my problems with no one else to help. Now, after one night with Ethan, I want nothing more than to burst through the doors and run into his arms. How nice it would be to offer all these problems to him and then solve them together.
But I don’t go to Ethan. My mom taught me that sometimes love is about sacrifice. Giving away parts of yourself to keep the person you care about happy and safe. At that moment, it hits me with crystal clarity.
I love Ethan.
Maybe it’s too early to feel this way about him, or maybe my brain is just catching up to what my heart already knows. Either way, it’s the truth. I love him and will do anything for him.
I book the plane tickets on my phone and leave with Rafe.