He blinks, breaking the connection, and grips the back of his neck. “Someone is still paying the bills.”
I wait for Emeric to react, but he stands still and silent like a watchtower, no doubt weighing every spoken word and preparing to expose his relationship with me if Shane does something stupid.
“I won’t leave you homeless.” For now. I send a silent thank you to the man at my side for covering the expenses and making this easier.
“I’m going away for a while.” Shane steps toward us, slowly, arms at his sides, expression sullen. “But I don’t want to lose Dad’s house.”
My head swims. “Where are you going?”
He stops within arm’s reach of Emeric and boldly plucks something from the lapel of Emeric’s jacket.
Tension seeps into Emeric’s posture, his lips flattening in a line. I stop breathing.
Shane holds up one of Schubert’s orange hairs between his pinched fingers.
A smirk twists his lips. “I used to live with a cat. Damn thing shed all over my clothes.” He flicks the hair and levels me with a knowing look. “I miss him.”
Dread swells in the back of my throat, and my skin breaks out in a sickly sweat. He knows. Oh God, he fucking knows.
His gaze touches mine, his tone bitterly soft. “Fuck you.” Shoving his hands in his pockets, he walks away. “Have a nice life.”
I hold my breath as his dark silhouette crosses the parking lot and melts into the shadows of the street. The road that will take him to the bus stop. To wherever he’s going. Hopefully to a place where he forgets all about me and the man at my side.
Emeric’s sharp whisper jolts me out of my breathless stasis. “Get in the car.”
I stretch my gait, running harder, faster, letting the burn sink deep into my muscles. The digital display on the treadmill reads 8.07 miles. I have two more miles to go, but I might cut it short this morning. It’s Saturday, and I’m anxious to crawl back into bed with Ivory.
I’d still be with her if my internal alarm clock hadn’t woken me. Or maybe it was a nightmare. Awake or asleep, I can’t shake this chronic feeling of dread.
It’s been five days since Shane Westbrook disappeared. He walked out of the parking lot, and poof. Gone. After I put Ivory in her car, I drove the streets, looking for him. Then I turned the hunt over to my PI.
There hasn’t been a sign of him at the house—his or mine, at the bars in Treme, or anywhere in New Orleans.
Of all the ways he could expose my relationship with Ivory, I repeatedly ask myself, Why would he? He has nothing to gain from it—except my retaliation. Why bite the hand that pays his bills? Doing so would only cause him to lose his father’s house, which seemed to be the purpose of his surprise visit. That, and to say goodbye to Ivory.
Good fucking riddance.
The pound of my sneakers paces my breaths as my thoughts race ahead to tonight. The Holiday Chamber Music Celebration will be a sold-out event. Ivory is years ahead of her peers and too damn talented for the concertos she plays.
But I look forward to being there. I want to be at her side tonight and every night after, with an up-close view of every moment she shivers beneath the lights of her dreams.
Midway through my cool down, the doorbell rings. I hit the stop button and grab a towel, my pulse sprinting.
The security gate doesn’t encompass the front entry, so anyone can walk right up to the door from the street. Who the hell would be here at seven in the morning?
I jog through the house, toweling sweat from my bare chest and neck.
Ivory stands beside the open front door with her back to me, her silhouette haloed by the flush of dawn.
What the fuck is she doing? She’s blocking my view of whoever is on the porch. If it’s someone from school…
“I’m a friend of Emeric’s,” says a familiar feline voice.
In three strides, I reach the door and meet Deb’s vivid hazel eyes. She spent some time styling her light brown bob this morning, her full tits and shapely legs on display in the skimpy dress.
I suspect this visit is a mix of business and pleasure. “You should’ve called.”
“I thought…” Her smirk reveals her dirty thoughts. It slips when she meets Ivory’s glare. “I didn’t know you had company.”
It’s none of her business who I spend my time with. But she’s good people, and I have no reason to be a dick.
Ivory crosses her arms beneath her chest, her boobs threatening to spill out of her tiny camisole. Then she turns her glare on me. “You know her?”
“Yes.” I grip the muscle on the back of her arm and apply a warning pressure. “This is Deb.”
Ivory sets her jaw and widens her stance in cheeky sleep shorts that reveal more ass than they cover. My dick twitches.
“Ivory.” I wait for her to look at me. “Deb and I have a few things to discuss. Go start the coffee.”
She presses her lips flat, studying Deb from beneath her lashes, then storms off toward the kitchen.
I’m tempted to yank those sexy little shorts down and stripe her fucking ass.