Page 81 of Paging Dr. Hart
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.
“Youare, 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’smoved 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.”
