Page 74 of Octane

“Sawyer, are you there? I’m worried about you. I’m going to go ask the hotel manager to open the door.”

This time, I hear her speak.

“No, Jackson. I’m—I’m okay, I just. I think I got hit with a stomach bug.”

Stomach bug? She was fine an hour ago.

“Let me in, I’ll take care of you.”

“No, it’s too risky. I don’t want you to get sick,” she sounds terrible. “Please, I need to get back in the bathroom now. Go to dinner without me.”

“Sawyer,” I sigh. All I want to do is get in there so I can take care of her, but maybe she’s too embarrassed to let me in. I guess I can understand that. We haven’t made it to the going-to-the-bathroom-in-front-of-each-other stage yet. “Alright. I’ll be by to check on you when we get back. Okay?”

“Okay,” she replies, and I walk back to the elevator.

* * *

As soon asdinner is over, I pay the check and speed back to the hotel. I ordered soup to-go for Sawyer, and I’m hoping she will at least open the door so I can give it to her. It’s definitely getting harder and harder to keep our relationship from the team. They could tell that I was upset about something at dinner. I told them it was business related, but I suspect they all knew I was lying.

I texted her a few times, but she didn’t respond. She’s probably sleeping. I’ll feel bad if I wake her, but I have to see her, just once. I knock on Sawyer’s door when I get there.

No answer.

“Sawyer?” I knock again. “I have some soup for you. Can you open the door so I can pass it in?”

A minute passes, and she still doesn’t answer. She’s definitely asleep... or she’s hurt?

Shit.

No. I’m just being overprotective. Paranoid. Maybe a little selfish. She’s asleep, and that’s a good thing. She needs her rest.

God, Sawyer. Please be okay.

“Just in case you can hear me, I’m going to leave the soup out here for you. I miss you. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Against my better judgement, I slowly make my way to the other side of the fourth floor where my own room is located. At least we’re on the same floor. Somehow it makes me feel closer to her.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

SAWYER

Daniel had us booked on the next flight out of Carolina International Airport, departing at eight fifty-five earlier this evening. Five hours later, we land at LAX, and Daniel orders a car to pick us up. He has the driver drop us off at his parents’ house in Bel Air, even though it is eleven at night. It’s two in the morning Eastern time, but despite the time difference, I’m not tired at all.

When we pull into the driveway, I see Daniel’s car already parked outside of the house. When the driver stops the car, Daniel gets out and walks around to my door. He offers me his hand, but I don’t take it. I don’t even look at him, yet it seems that the more I ignore him, the more attitude I give him, the more he’s enjoying himself.

“What are we doing here?” I ask him as he unlocks the front door to Warren and Sylvia’s house.

“You wanted proof.”

“Yeah, and?”

“It’s on my father’s computer. You want to see it, we need to get into his office.”

“Aren’t they home? Won’t they see us?”

Do I care?

Maybe if we get caught, Daniel will put an end to this charade. After what I heard from the conversation between him and his father on the phone a few weeks ago, how do I know that Warren doesn’t have something to do with this as well?

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