Page 67 of Inside the Maelstrom: Part One
“Leave me alone, Evan. I want to be alone.”
He caught up to me easily, basically because he wasn’t running in a bodycon dress barefoot, and his stride was twice as long as mine. He grabbed my arm, pulling me to a stop. “I’m not leaving you out here alone.”
I huffed, because I did feel better with him here, despite my words. And he hadn’t done anything to me, not really. “Fine. But I don’t want to talk about it.”
He grunted. “What part of my personality makes you think I’m a talker? Bottle that shit up, Chaos.”
“Why do you call me Chaos?”
He was staring at my bare feet with distaste. “That’s what I call you in my reports. All of the guys have code names, and that’s the one that fits you best.”
A surprised giggle broke past my lips, but then I remembered Hendrick’s sneer as he basically called me a whore. Every sliver of mirth left me in an instant. I didn’t want to go back there. Didn’t want to sleep in a suite with the guys. I was so hurt, because Hendrick had been right. I did expect him to wait for me, yet I was fucking both of his friends. We weren’t in a relationship, so what right did I have? From what he said, that had never been his endgame anyway. Just a warm hole, like all those other girls. I was so fucking stupid, thinking I was different. Just like the rest of them.
But that didn’t change the fact that watching him dance with that girl had made jealousy course through my veins like acid.
“Probably apt,” was all I said as I walked along the promenade. I still wanted to run, but my blood had cooled. “Do you have a room in the hotel?” He nodded. “Are you sharing?”
He shook his head. “Yolanda and Steven are married. They share a room.”
My eyebrows shot up. “They’re married? But I thought they hated each other.” They sniped constantly, always trying to one up each other.
Evan shrugged. “Love is weird.”
“A-fucking-men,” I grumbled.
We were silent again, watching the people wandering through the street merrily, and the odd fight breaking out on grassed areas. Made sense. No one wanted gravel rash, even if you were drunk off your ass.
“Do you love them, then?”
I stiffened. “I thought you weren’t a talker?”
He looked at me with his soft brown eyes that shone with the bright neon lights of the Cosmo wheel. “Just a yes or no question.”
“No,” I said automatically. While the look on his face said I was full of shit, he didn’t contradict me. “Can I stay in your room tonight?”
He hesitated, but nodded. “I’ll have to tell Sampson where you are.”
I wanted to say no, but stressing out Sampson would be punishing the wrong person. “Okay. But tell him I want space.”
He nodded again, but didn’t move to grab his phone. Instead, he was looking at the footpath in front of us. “Someone smashed a bottle. Put your shoes back on.”
I winced, finally feeling the blister bubbling up on the ball of my left foot. “Can we go around? I don’t wear heels enough, especially not brand new ones and, well…” I lifted my foot and showed him the big blister brewing. He heaved an inconvenienced sigh and came to stand beside me, squatting down awkwardly, while I stared. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Get on my back, Chaos. Fuck me, how have you survived this many years?”
Part of me wanted to be indignant, but the other part of me hadn’t had a piggyback ride since I was six. I took a bit of a run up and leapt onto his back. He caught me easily, his hands under my thighs. I wrapped my legs tightly around his waist, trying to ignore the fact that the world could probably see the bottom of my asscheeks.
“If you don’t want me to moon the entire city, we might want to make this quick.”
“Hang on,” he said, and started to jog. I wrapped myself around him like a backpack, clinging tightly. I pressed my cheek between his shoulders, the burn of the alcohol in my system starting to wear off, and sadness rushing up to fill the void.
I should’ve known better than to think that Hendrick was actually beginning tolikeme. I felt so fucking stupid for forgetting who he was for a moment. For forgetting that he was a selfish, spoiled, rich boy who was used to getting what he wanted, and I was just the last in a long line of girls who thought they were changing him.
But I’d been so convinced. Otto had convinced me. Were they in on it together? Let’s break the fucking crazy girl? Sounded sporting.
The pity party bus had arrived, and I was all aboard apparently. The tears came back, and I tried to swallow them down, but I learned another very valuable thing tonight. Sake made me a sad drunk. Once the waterworks started, there was no stopping them.
The message in Nemo’s book had been even more desperate today, but I’d ignored it so I could enjoy my time with the guys. Served me right. He was calling to me, telling me to come, and I was busy being pretty for men who saw me as a temporary challenge and nothing else. His message insideIn Search of the Castawayswas rambling, about no man being an island, and that perhaps no one was searching for him at all.
