“I don’t know, a car? Call delivery? Pretend you’re a normal person for once in your life?”
He let out a long, dramatic sigh. “Yes. You can use the helicopter. The pilot said he’d be at the bowling alley. Apparently, he was going to go pro, but then he had some kind of butt cheek injury that screwed up his ability to put spin on—”
“Cade,” I said. “Thanks.” I hung up the phone.
Unfortunately, I got the tail end of the butt cheek story from the pilot himself while I walked him up from the bowling alley to the field where he’d parked the helicopter.
Flying cross country in a helicopter was hardly practical, so I used the flight to arrange for an airplane to take me the rest of the way. I wasn’t sure how I’d find Miranda if she didn’t want to be found, but if I got to LA before her, I’d at least know where she’d turn up eventually. All I’d have to do was wait.
Chapter 21
MIRANDA
The woman beside me on my flight gave me the third death glare in five minutes. I smiled tightly and squeezed my knees, hoping to keep my legs from shaking, but it was no use. They were shaking so badly that the little tray table in front of me kept getting jostled. I was a nervous wreck. It had finally seemed like my life was starting to fall into place, and now I was sneaking away on a last-minute flight to LA so I could grovel for a job from my ex-boyfriend. It sounded so far fetched it could’ve made me laugh, except all it made me want to do was cry.
I’d gone back and forth on telling Nick what I was doing. Ultimately, I decided I just needed a day’s head start. I wanted him to know what was happening once it was too late for him to talk me out of it. He’d make some argument about how he and his brothers could easily survive this or how it really wasn’t going to be a big deal.
I was surprised by how much the idea of leaving Bark Bites stung. Part of me had resented the job. I knew what everyone must’ve been thinking when they found out I’d been let go from Crawford and ended up there. The great Miranda Collins must not have been so great, after all. Now she’s so desperate for work that she’ll sign on to that joke of a business. But despite all that, I enjoyed working there. Sure, Nick was probably a big reason, but I thought it was more than that. My contributions at Bark Bites mattered, and I still had big ideas I was never going to get to see through.
I hated admitting it, even to myself, but I knew there was one other reason I’d decided to run. Nick had proved before that he’d let obstacles come between us. I never knew if it was that he enjoyed the flirtation with me but not the idea of a real relationship, or maybe something else. All I knew was that it had almost broken me the first time. Feeling that much for him and then watching him disappear from my life had been one of the hardest things I’d ever done. Except this time, I had the chance to walk away before he could do that to me. If it wasn’t for the blackmail and all the other circumstances, I knew I wouldn’t have ever gone through with it. But it felt like fate was pushing me toward it already, and maybe this was the only way to protect my heart from the inevitable—to leave before he could leave me.
I let my forehead thump against the little oval window to my side. I didn’t know why I had done this. When I found myself in a situation that might wind up taking control from my hands, I always ran from it. Except I ran in a way that let me keep the illusion of being in control. I couldn’t kid myself. I wasn’t leaving Nick. My feelings weren’t going to evaporate just because I put half a country between us. Deep down, I think I knew the same was true for him. No, I hoped it was.
When Nick had asked out Kira, I was the one who had pushed for us all to swear an oath to stay away from the King brothers. A bitter realization settled in on me like noxious fumes: I cared so much about being in control of how I appeared to everyone else that I would have sacrificed anything to maintain my image.
The only thing I had really stood up for myself on was Robbie. He was exactly the guy people thought I deserved. But for once in my life, I’d put my foot down and said no. All those confusing emotions I’d felt were the sense that I might finally be carving my own path. And now I was riding a plane back to Robbie. It was exactly the path that everybody would’ve expected me to take. Worse, it was the path that protected me from Max’s story, because I knew how eagerly people would jump headfirst into believing it.
I glanced at the text Nick had sent for the hundredth time.
Nick: Please tell me where you are. Whatever you’re thinking, we can talk about it. Let’s figure this thing out together. Please call me. I just need to hear your voice.
I pressed the phone to my chest and closed my eyes. I just had to believe I was doing the smart thing. After all, it was only a job. I was a big girl. Whatever Robbie thought he’d be able to pull by having me come work for him wasn’t going to matter.
By the time I arrived in LA, it was in the early hours of the morning. I had wanted to get straight to Robbie’s office and settle this whole thing right away, but I had to get a hotel and wait until he’d actually be there. Even the thought of looking at him after knowing what he’d resorted to made me feel sick to my stomach. I was still trying to wrap my head around how it was possible to have missed his darker side after all the time we’d spent together. Except maybe it wasn’t so shocking. I’d thought of him more like a business partner or a convenience than a romantic partner. All I’d cared to see were the parts of him that lined up with the image I was trying to protect. And look where that had gotten me.
The receptionist at the hotel gave me a strange look when I told her my name, but I made it the rest of the way to my room without any incidents. I tossed down my small bag of luggage and collapsed onto the bed.
What the hell was I doing?
Chapter 22
NICK
I got a call just after three in the morning. I’d paid off every receptionist at every hotel within twenty miles of Robbie’s building, and one of them called to let me know Miranda had checked in.
I drove my rental to the hotel as fast as I could and stopped at the front desk. “Hey,” I said, handing over $500. “This is for you. Can you tell me what room she’s in?”
The girl—a dark-haired college-age kid with glasses—frowned. “Don’t you think that’s a little creeperish?”
I gave an exasperated sigh. “Haven’t we already crossed into creeperish territory by now? I just paid you five hundred dollars to tell me when someone checked in. What if I was a hit man? You didn’t have a problem with any of that.”
“Yeah,” she said. “But I didn’t tell you her room number, so . . .”
“For Christ’s sake,” I said. I dug in my wallet and pulled out another couple of hundred-dollar bills. “Does this help?”
She took the money. “Room 212.”
I took the stairs and found her room. It was only when I was finally standing just outside that I had the first moment of hesitation. Everything until now had been driven by pure adrenaline. She’d gone off without me to make this decision on her own. The only thing that made sense was finding her as fast as possible.
But what if she was right to come here? If Max ran that story, it could ruin her career as well as mine. Some old part of me was afraid of that, but I was surprised to find it didn’t matter to me anymore.