“Hey, you gonna do that to my car, you can walk.”
“Sorry.” She pushed her hands through her hair and sucked in a calming breath. Realized she’d knocked her glasses askew and straightened them with as much dignity as she could muster. “I just caught the man I love cheating. Again.”
The driver’s expression softened. “Lotta that around here, unfortunately. People get drunk off booze and island life and lose their minds.”
She straightened the hem of her lightweight jacket, which had bunched up around her belly during her tantrum. “That implies he had a mind to lose in the first place.”
“Ah-ha. Good point. A man would have to be mindless to cheat on you.”
Since the driver was at least as old as her grandfather, she took that as a compliment and not a come-on. “Thank you. You’re very kind.”
He shifted the car into gear. “Where do you want to go? I imagine away from here.”
“Far away,” she agreed. “The airport.”
The driver left her to her thoughts after that, and she watched the party atmosphere of Duval give way to quiet, residential neighborhoods. She should tell the driver to change directions so she could go back to the house and pack. Maybe even leave a note for Jude because despite him cementing his spot as the King of Assholes tonight, he would worry if she just up and disappeared.
Libby scoffed at herself. What did she care? Let him worry. Served him right and, although she regretted not being able to say good-bye to Sam, she couldn’t go back to Seth’s house. She might break something—like Jude’s thick scull if he decided to come home tonight after his dalliance with the brunette. She’d just have her father send someone for her things and catch the first available flight back to Miami. From there, it was only a two-and-a-half-hour flight home.
Oh God. Her father. Why hadn’t she listened to him in the first place? She just hoped that he didn’t resort to his father-knows-best speech, which was essentially a long I-told-you-so. She didn’t think she could handle that now.
Libby leaned her head against the cab’s seat and shut her eyes, blocking out the passing scenery, sick to death of palm trees and beaches and ocean.
This vacation was officially over.
…
The moment Jude stepped into the house and heard the particular echo that only came with emptiness, panic roared through him like a tsunami. Still, he checked every room, found the bed still rumpled from their earlier lovemaking, her clothes still in the dresser, toiletries still in the bathroom, her book still on the coffee table in the living room.
What if…?
No. He shut down the thought before it completely formed. Burke was in prison. With the stalking charges, Pruitt’s abduction, and after his confession to K-Bar’s murder, he was never getting free. The danger to her had passed.
Tell that to his heart, which was trying to pound out of his chest. He grabbed his cell phone from his jeans pocket and dialed Camden, who answered groggily after a handful of rings.
“What the hell, Jude? It’s two o’clock. I just got to sleep.”
“Libby’s gone.”
“Gone?” he repeated.
“Yes, gone, goddammit! She’s not in the house! I can’t find her!” Some distant portion of his fear-drenched mind realized he was screaming into the phone, but he didn’t give a fuck.
“Whoa, relax.” Cam sounded wide-awake now. “Take a breath.”
He couldn’t. For real this time, he couldn’t breathe. He sank to the couch as his legs gave out and dropped his head forward between his knees. “She’s gone. Did Burke…? Is he still…? Fuck.” His voice broke. “What if she’s in trouble?”
“She’s not.”
“You don’t know that. We need to get the cops back out here. We need to make sure Burke’s still locked up. She’s gone!”
Silence stretched for eternity on his brother’s end of the line. Finally, Cam sighed. “Are you drunk?”
“No, I’m not drunk!”
“Jude,” Cam said evenly, “you need to calm the fuck down and listen to me, okay? Libby is not missing. She’s on her way back to D.C.”
“What?”
“Yeah, I thought you knew. Her father called Reece an hour ago and asked for travel arrangements for her from Miami. She should be in the air, on her way there now.”
Jude opened his mouth, but his vocal chords seized. Why would she just up and leave like that?
And then he knew, the realization like a sucker punch to the gut. She’d followed him to the bar, had seen Sienna proposition him and…
Yeah. Given their past, that would make her bolt for sure.
So much for his second chance. Angry with himself, Jude hung up the phone and pulled the ring out of his pocket. He stared at it for a long, long time, turning it, watching the light play through the tiny gem. No sense in keeping it now, but…he folded his fingers around it and returned it to its home in his pocket so it could continue to torture him for the rest of his life.
He should have figured he’d fuck it all up. That’s what he did best.