Zoey put a warning hand on his arm. “Graham, not now.”
“I’m just saying—”
“Say it later, okay? Not now. Look, she’s half-out as it is.”
Zoey wasn’t wrong. Lana had started to sway, her eyes glazing. The combination of alcohol and who knew what else was quickly taking her down for the count.
“Should we call a doctor?” he asked Zoey, wrapping an arm around Lana’s shoulders.
“No, she’s done this before when she was upset. I don’t know what she takes, but it helps her calm down.” Voice clipped, Zoey took Lana’s shoes off. “Help me get her to bed?”
“Did I do something to upset you?” Graham couldn’t imagine what, but he wasn’t imagining her teeth clenched tightly together or the way Zoey wouldn’t look directly at him. He chose instead to focus on the woman currently falling asleep against his shoulder.
“We’ll talk about it later.”
Well. That was never good.
Zoey finished taking off Lana’s earrings and necklace, a ridiculously expensive diamond-encrusted set he would have been afraid to touch, let alone stuff in a jewelry box without looking twice. Clearly, Zoey was more used to Lana’s jewelry, moving on to shed her of a delicate tennis bracelet worth more than Graham’s house and land put together.
Watching Zoey wipe Lana’s streaked makeup clean from her eyes with a makeup remover cloth, it occurred to Graham these two made a strange pairing, but their friendship was real.
“She’ll be horrified if she wakes up with mascara on her face.” Her voice was still clipped, but Zoey’s movements were careful. “It always embarrasses her the morning after, when she’s been upset. Okay, she’s ready. Put her on the left side. That’s the side she sleeps on.”
“Carrying around drunken women in this hotel is starting to become my thing.”
“She’s not drunk, she’s sedated. And that wine was more than half-empty when I left today. She couldn’t have had much more than a glass.”
“She had enough,” Graham drawled.
They pulled the covers over Lana and closed her door most of the way, leaving just enough room for Zoey to be able to check on her. Grabbing his arm, Zoey pulled Graham toward the hotel room door, as far away from Lana’s bedroom as they could get.
“What is wrong with you?” Eyes flashing behind her glasses, Zoey’s voice was pitched quiet, but the anger came through loud and clear. “It’s not real? Look around, Graham. This place is getting more real by the minute. And it’s real enough that some local lowlifes hurt my friend. I want you to get Jonah up here right now and take care of this the right way.”
“I don’t need Jonah. East and I will put the fear of pain in them.”
“I don’t want the fear of pain. I want Jonah to arrest them. I want them behind bars for hurting her, all because of this stupid local versus resort bullshit that you are constantly promoting!”
Tightening his mouth, Graham ground his teeth in frustration. “That’s not fair, Zoey, and you know it. I didn’t hurt her.”
“No, but I would put twenty bucks down that you’ve already started riling everyone up to fight the condos being planned.” Busted. She knew it too, because like a spider monkey, she was all over him. “People listen to you, Graham. They follow you. You think I don’t notice how people react when you’re around? You’re an alphahole.”
“Excuse me?”
“Figure it out. Everyone follows the alphahole. But guess what? Alphaholes don’t get to play innocent when innocent people get hurt. You’re not better than her. You’re not better than me or anyone, Graham. We’re all just people. And tonight, your town took this too far.”
Trying to fight his anger, Graham nearly chewed his tongue off to keep from raising his voice. “You don’t get it, Zoey.”
“No, because I’m not a local. So any loyalty I have known in my life couldn’t possibly compare to what you have here. There’s no way anyone will ever be good enough or belong. You have made that crystal freaking clear from the beginning. But maybe if a bunch of jerks down there had thought a little less like you, maybe my friend wouldn’t be in there like that!”
Graham’s jaw rippled. “Tell me how you really feel.”
The angry little bit pulled herself up to every inch of height she had, so furious she was shaking. “Oh, trust me, I’m going to. You’re not the center of the world. You’re not the ultimately wounded, the epically maltreated. You’re people, living in a town, surrounded by mountains pretty enough that other people come to see them. And as funny as it is to watch you bitch and moan about it, the result of your shitty-ass attitude is you still take the money they put in your tip jar while spitting in their faces.”
Well. That was fun to hear.
“Zoey, you’ve seen—”
“Both sides, Graham. I’ve seen both sides. And no, I’m not comfortable around rich people either. I never know what they’re talking about, and it makes me feel small and foolish. And what happened to Ulysses was wrong. I’m sorry about him, I truly am, but what happened to Lana is so far out of control, I’m ready to skin everyone in this town alive. What is wrong with you? Everyone else I’ve met in Alaska has been warm and kind and inviting, but this toxic little town is its own undoing.”
“You want me to call Jonah? Fine. He can have whatever’s left of these idiots when I’m done. You want me to apologize to L? Sure. But I’m not going to stand here and listen to you rip up something that matters to me.”
“You’ve done that to me since the moment we met! You’ve shredded every experience I’ve had here, but it matters to me. This was what mattered to me.”
“It’s a vacation,” Graham drawled, hearing and hating the sarcasm in his voice.
He saw her flinch, and his heart was screaming at him to stop, to shut his mouth and take a step back. Maybe if he wasn’t so angry because he damn well knew he’d been inflaming his town over the condos as they set off fireworks by the lake, Graham might have held back. Instead, like the fool he was, his mouth kept going.
“This is your vacation, but it’s my life. You’re getting on a plane, and you’re leaving me. So no, none of this is real to any of you. It’s only real to us. What do you want from me?”
“All I wanted from you was not to be a coward.”
This time, he flinched. “You know what, Zoey? I think this thing has run its course. Why don’t we save ourselves some heartache and call time of death?”