Page 130 of Chandelier Sin
I bet he hurt like hell.
“I need to know what they offered her to spy on me,” he said quietly.
“Sorry, buddy.”
I wondered if I should also mention my car had been run offthe road. At least Cole had security trailing his every move. But if Jake knew they’d threatened my life, he’d forbid me from ever coming back here.
I rubbed a hand over my face, reasoning that we were all in the fray now.
Jake stared at me. “I’ll figure out those details later. Right now, Stella’s in trouble.”
The person I was most concerned about was Eve.
If Jewel was right, and there was a session set for Aemon’s wife, she may never recover. I knew this with every cell and fiber of my being. I had to find Eve and get her the fuck out of this place.
Since Stella was a spy, she’d probably be fine. But the puppeteer would come for his prize in a high-stakes game she was too naive to comprehend.
The stakes were escalating toward a breaking point.
Retracing my steps toward the private bar, I found it empty and the door to the cellar open. No one down there, and no time to reminisce about when I’d first met Eve.
Since that day, she’d irrepressibly set my existence on a new trajectory.
Guilt was eating away at my conscience over Stella’s disappearance. Instead of encouraging Jake to discover her motives, we should have just removed her from Pendulum.
I continued to storm the hallways checking the rooms along the way, hating the idea of another man hurting Eve.
She deserved love, and my failure to protect her tortured my mind. Eve may not be mine, but I’d do everything I could to make her safe.
After checking another room with no luck, I leaned against the wall in the hallway, trying to calm down so I could think clearly.
Then,turning, I saw Stella.
I raised a hand to get her to stay. “There you are.”
She turned as though to run.
I pointed a finger at her, ordering her to remain. A warning that between Hell and a hard place, I was the safer bet.
She hurried up to me. “I’m lost.”
“Jake’s looking for you.”
“Can you help me get back?”
Get back to where, was the question.
Voices carried down the hallway, coming from inside the bar. Crossing the hall, I opened the door to an empty closet and shoved her inside.
This time though, I sensed that this closet had another function. Perhaps it was a doorway into another room—if I could just find the secret to opening it.
Perhaps this was the way I’d reach Eve.
Stella started to say something, and I motioned for her to be silent.
I could see why Jake was enamored, with her silky black hair, perfect brows and that pouty mouth, she was his type—on steroids.
Yet she’d betrayed him.
