Page 97 of Cocky Prince
I growl in frustration and stare at the ceiling. “That was your plan? To go unrecognized?”
“And to gather evidence,” she says. “I even brought my phone to take pictures. But, aside from kinky sex stuff the casino isn’t licensed for, I didn’t find much.”
“Oh there’s plenty of illegal shit.” Her gaze is questioning. “I’ll tell you about it later,” I say, as the elevator dings for our floor.
The doors open and I grab Hayden’s hand. I look both ways down the hall, and catch a guard exiting one of the stairwells, his chest rising and falling on heavy breaths. “Fuck.”
“Who’s that?” Hayden says.
“Vido. Ex-military, petty theft—we gotta go.” I pull her in the opposite direction, practically dragging her.
Between her tight skirt and five-inch heels, we’ll never outrun him. “Take those things off!” I gesture at her feet.
She stares at me like I’m crazy, so I reach down, lift her foot, and pull off the damn shoe, along with its mate, shoving them in the pockets of my suit jacket. I grab the side of her skirt and tear it down the seam. “Run!”
The guard is almost on us, and this time, Hayden does as I say. We run for the opposite end, and enter the other stairwell. After flying down a flight of stairs, I pull her through the door to the next floor and we run for an elevator that’s blessedly open.
I punch the button for the bottom level, and lean over once the doors close.
“Why are they after us?” she asks, her breathing heavy.
“Because you were right.” I straighten and pull out my phone. I type out a quick text and tuck my phone away. “The Bliss venture is not legitimate, and the people providing Blackwell with drugs and illegal women are very bad news.”
“You mean undocumented women?”
“I don’t support that, Hayden. I never have.”
Her beautiful face contorts in anger. “You supported it by going along with it!”
The elevator doors open and I lead Hayden away from one of the main exits and toward a back hallway. We pass through a kitchen behind a restaurant. Workers look at us, and I check over my shoulder to make sure no one is following. I open a door to the outside, and the scent of rotten meat hits us from a garbage bin the restaurants uses.
A black Escalade rounds the corner and screeches to a halt a few feet away.
Hayden tugs on my arm. “Hurry! We have to go back.”
“It’s okay.” I guide her to the Escalade. “It’s my security detail. I hired them after I decided to take Paul’s warnings seriously.”
Hayden climbs in the backseat barefoot, and I tuck in beside her. The driver tears out of the back alley. “You’re not going home tonight,” I say. “It isn’t safe.” She stares ahead and nods, seemingly stunned. I wrap my arm around her shoulders. “It’s going to be okay.”
She looks up. “How? I thought it was only Blackwell. That I’d find something at the casino I could take to the police. But the women…and from what you just said…”
“There are others working with Blackwell who are much more dangerous.”
She twists to face me. “Then we need to go to the policenow. Before Blackwell and the Blue Stars get away with everything like they did last time. They know how to make it look as though the suites don’t exist.”
My phone vibrates, and I recognize it as an incoming call. I reach inside my pocket and check the caller ID, noting two missed calls from the same contact.
My forehead furrows. It’s one in the morning. Why is the family lawyer calling? “I’ve got to take this,” I say.
“Adam,” Bill Stevens says into the phone, sounding tired. “I apologize for the late phone call.” He pauses. “It’s your father… You need to go to the hospital.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Hayden
Adam answersthe phone and I swear the color drains from his face. And we were high on color to begin with after running through the casino in a matter of minutes.
He rattles off directions for the driver to take us to the hospital, and I reach for his hand. “What happened?”
