Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
AND IS HE HIDING ALONE?
GREER
Where the hell are they?
Sitting at the chic bar, I tore at one of the black and gold napkins as I scanned the full room.
Contrary to what my phone said, Maddie and Tripp were nowhere to be seen.
I was tempted to ask the bartender if Cohen was there, but I’d only met the owner once.
I would look like an insane person if I dragged him away from work to ask about my boss and my bestie.
I was beginning to suspect that the app was a glitchy waste of a subscription fee.
With one last sip of the drink I’d ordered so I didn’t look like a pathetic woman getting stood up—I’d have to actually be invited on a date for that to happen—I threw in the towel.
Er, the shredded napkin.
I was almost at the spiral staircase that led away from the clandestine speakeasy themed bar when I heard, “Greer!”
Spinning, I watched as Tripp pushed through a mystery door that I’d assumed was for staff members only.
Ohhhh.
They’re in the back with Cohen or his brother… Whatever his name is.
“Hey, I—” I started before cutting off my own words.
When I’d tracked his location, I’d been fueled by indignation.
I’d continued the search out of curiosity.
But now that I was facing him, I felt more than a little foolish.
I could’ve talked to him on Saturday when I went over to set up his calendar.
Or just waited for him to return my stalkerish output of texts.
I didn’t need to literally hunt him down using an app I shouldn’t have put on his phone to begin with.
“I didn’t know you were here,” I lied. “I was looking for Maddie.”
“Let me bring you to her,” he said, not questioning me any further.
Phew.
Returning to the door, he quickly punched in a code and opened it for me. Once he followed me through, he paused to ensure it latched back into place.
The empty hall wasn’t at all what I expected. I assumed there would be a storage room. Break room. Offices. The usual stuff at the back of a bar.
Instead, there was only one door, and it didn’t give me a peek of where it led since there was no window. Just the same matte black with gold as the rest of Golden.
With a hand on my lower back, Tripp prodded me toward it. We paused just long enough for him to unlock that one, too, before he swung it open.
Rather than Cohen’s office like I suspected, it was a lobby.
Ohhhh.
The secret entrance with the phone that’s accessible from the street is for the bar. This must be the restaurant.
I wonder if they have those tiny brie en croutes they served at Tripp’s birthday. I’m hungry.
He nudged me up to the hostess stand and the stunning blonde standing behind it.
She gave a soft smile, aiming it at me even though her question was for the man standing at my back. “A guest, Mr. Carter?”
“Yes.” The one word came out tighter than necessary, and I didn’t get why.
She tapped on the tablet in front of her, likely checking for an available table. When she was done, she said, “Your ID, please.”
I didn’t bother to tell her the scary bouncer in the upper lobby had already checked it. I just handed it over.
She tapped on the tablet some more—way more than necessary to enter my birthdate, making me guess she was auto signing me up for a mailing list. Annoying, but not her fault if it was policy.
When she was done, she handed my license back and turned the screen toward me.
It wasn’t a menu or a list of available dining times or anything else I would expect from a restaurant.
It was a form.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“A guest pass,” she said before smoothly adding, “and a very standard NDA.”
NDA?
Why does a restaurant need an NDA?
“Why—” I started.
Before I could ask my question—and a dozen follow-ups—Tripp gripped my chin and tipped it so I was looking at him. “It’ll be easier to show you.”
“But—”
“Sign the forms, Greer.”
At the authoritative tone in his voice, I did what he said.
After reading them, of course.
The first set was just the rest of my basic information that hadn’t been available on my license. The second set of forms were the mysterious NDA. Like she’d said, it was a standard one, not far from what I’d signed after accepting the job with Tripp.
But it still didn’t make sense.
Not until the woman opened the door as she said, “Enjoy your night at Gilded.”
So…
Not a restaurant.
Though, from the looks of it, people might be eating something…
My gaze darted around, desperate to take it all in even if I didn’t understand what I was seeing.
There was leather.
Lace.
Spandex or vinyl or some shiny pleather that looked unbreathable.
Gold handcuffs, crops, and other implements hung from the wall in decorative patterns. I didn’t know what they were called, but I could guess what they were for.
Despite all that, no one was actually having sex. Or even borderline sex. There were no pleasured moans floating over the low thrum of conversation and sensual music. No body parts exposed.
That last one was a close call because some of the outfits were little more than scraps and strings, but still. They did the job.
That didn’t mean the intent wasn’t there. The charged tension hung in the warm air until it felt like I would choke on it.
Honestly, if not for the change in apparel and the addition of erotic decor, Gilded looked like a continuation of Golden. The same matte black and gold. The same high tops and lush seating. It almost seemed like a VIP room since there were more than a few recognizable faces.
But it did have all that, which left me with a lot of questions.
One more important than the rest.
Why was Tripp there with Maddie?
And Easton?
He might not have been on my tracking app, but it was still a safe bet that if Maddie was there, her man was close by.
For one, I knew my best friend better than I knew myself. She would never cheat. Ever.
For another, Maddie was crazy about Easton.
But he was downright feral for her.
Tripp gripped my jaw, roughly forcing my face away from the scene around me so I had to look at him. His voice was a gruff order. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”
That this is the sexiest bar I’ve been to.
That I’m confused.
That I’m suddenly so overheated, I feel like I could actually light a piece of paper on fire just by touching it.
I answered him with a question. “What is this place?”
“Gilded,” he said simply.
“That’s what the woman out there said, but that doesn’t explain what it is.”
“We’ll stop to see Maddie, and then I’ll give you the tour.”
There’s more to see?
I waited for him to release me, but he didn’t.
Tripp’s face was usually expressive and relaxed, but as he stared down at me, it was the opposite. The only insight into how he was feeling came from his clenched jaw and the furrow between his brows.
Otherwise, he was so eerily blank, it left a sour taste in my mouth.
With an inhale, he said, “Fair warning. You can see Maddie, but you’re not supposed to talk to her. And she won’t talk to you. Not unless Easton says it’s okay.”
My brain wasn’t able to process that before he moved his hold from my jaw to my hand and practically dragged me through the maze of tables and chairs.
We reached the far side of the room, and it took me a moment to even spot my best friend.
Maybe I don’t know her better than I know myself, after all…