I reach into my cleavage and pull out my cell phone, as I take a glass of champagne from one of the waiters. Maybe if I act like I’m working on my phone, people will start leaving me alone. It works for about five minutes until I see a woman in a dark green dress and low cut neckline walk toward me.
I down my glass of champagne, needing the alcohol to get through whatever conversation is about to happen.
“Congratulations,” the woman says to me in a cold voice, so different from how everyone else has congratulated me so far.
“Thanks,” I say, averting my eyes elsewhere, hoping she will get the hint and leave me alone.
She eyes me up and down. “I don’t understand what Gabe sees in you.”
“Excuse me?”
She shakes her head. “Sorry, didn’t mean to be so blunt. I’m Tonya, I used to attend college with Gabe. I thought we had a future together, but then he found you.”
I sigh. I don’t say that too bad she didn’t succeed in her mission to keep him. That way I wouldn’t be in this mess. I just stay silent.
“I just wanted to say congrats and to treat him well. And if you are ever in the need of some decorating, I’m your woman.” She holds out a business card to me and I take it.
I stare at this woman completely confused at what she sees in Gabe. She either doesn’t know him well at all or likes the monster inside. Either way, I’m not about to have that conversation with her.
“Thanks, I’m going to get another drink,” I say, slipping her business card and my phone back into my cleavage.
Gabe spots me from where he is boasting with his groomsmen. I slip back into the crowd to get another glass of champagne.
I drink glass after glass of champagne, and as the night progresses, I get more and more skilled at staying just out of Gabe’s reach. Whenever he tries to talk to me, I push a woman in front of him, and that seems to do the trick in distracting him just long enough for me to slip further away and get lost in another crowd. But, every time he gets close
r, I can feel the rage surrounding him, exuding off of him. Gabe isn’t into rough sex, but I have a feeling, tonight, he is going to give a whole new meaning to rough sex. But it will be nothing like what Brody and I have done together.
“Skye, the wedding planner had a question about what you wanted to do with the leftover cake,” a man who looks oddly familiar asks me. He’s in a dark suit, his hair is shaved, and his eyes are bright.
I feel like I should recognize him, yet I can’t place him. Maybe I met him earlier today when he helped serve me alcohol or food, although he’s not dressed like a waiter.
“Excuse me,” I say to the crowd around me. I follow the man out of the reception hall. He keeps walking once we get to the hallway down toward the back of the building.
“Where are we going?”
“Just a little further. Repacking the stuff into the back of the car. She wants to know what address to deliver the leftovers to.”
I frown. Surely, Gabe has already thought of all of these things and handled it.
“Who are you?”
He doesn’t answer immediately. Instead, he just keeps walking to the back door and pauses when he rests his hand on the door.
He smirks. “I’m here to kidnap you, of course.”
I open my mouth to scream as he grabs my hand and pulls me outside. But I’m so broken at the moment that I’m not sure whether I should fight to stay or make it easier for him to kidnap me. I can’t imagine anyone worse than Gabe Cole.
He pushes me into the back of an SUV, and my eyes open wide with hope.
“Brody?” I ask even though I know it’s him sitting in the seat next to me. I’m still not sure I believe it’s real. It must be a dream; there is no way Brody is rescuing me right now.
He grins, flashing me his perfect teeth. “We’re here to save you,” Brody says.
He wraps his arms around me and firmly kisses me on the lips.
“No, we are here to kidnap her. This plan will never work if Gabe doesn’t think we’re kidnapping her,” the man who brought me out here says from the front seat.
Another man is sitting next to him and begins driving us off.