But Grace…

I see her life changing before her eyes. Maybe even ruined.

I see humiliation, and fear, and depression.

“Why did you kill them, Grace? Did you kill your brother too? Did they do something?” The media is relentless. They never stop. Once they draw blood, they circle like sharks.

She shuts down, so I swoop her up into my arms and push my way through the crowd, aiming for the valet area. The flashbulbs are going off—so many pictures, that’s all I think about. I don’t even want to imagine the headlines tomorrow. She will be all over the news. Her private life gone, ripped away like it surely must’ve been back when she was a teenager.

History repeats.

“Don’t worry, Grace,” I whisper into her ear. “I’ll handle everything. I have lawyers and a team of PR people who will manage this for us.”

She kicks her feet, twisting wildly in my arms, making me lose my grip and forcing me to set her down before she falls.

“Get off me, Asher!” she screams. “Just leave me the f**k alone. Do you hear me? You ass**le! Ten years I’ve lived a nice quiet life and a few weeks with you unravels my whole world. I f**king hate you!”

“Grace!” a voice yells out from the valet area. “Grace! Over here!”

Grace turns, searching for the voice. And then she bolts off in the direction of a white Mercedes SUV.

The media follow her and suddenly the space around me is empty.

Grace climbs into the car and it speeds away.

She’s gone.

Again.

Chapter Thirteen

“WHAT are you doing?” I ask. Kristi weaves around a camera crew and flips them off in the rearview after barely missing running them over. “We’re gonna kill someone. And you’re supposed to be getting married!”

“No! I can’t do it, Grace. I’m not gonna do it.” She’s wearing a white terrycloth robe and her hair is a bit disheveled from the excitement. “I gotta get out of here, like now.”

I hold on as she takes a corner at a crazy fast speed. “Slow down!” She peels out onto the Strip and we promptly get stuck at a red light.

“Shit!” she says, her little fists slamming against the steering wheel. “Shit, shit, shit.”

Yeah, if you’re trying to get somewhere fast in Vegas, you don’t take the Strip. She honks her horn and then changes lanes, waves her fist at someone behind us, gets over another lane, and then turns right at the first street and then doubles back around behind the Bellagio.

“Where are we going?”

“I know someone here, Grace. We can go stay with him until we figure out what to do.” She reaches over and pats my hand. “We’ll get through this. Don’t worry.”

I settle back in my seat as she gets on the 15 freeway heading south. “I can’t believe that just happened. My life is over.”

And then I realize who I’m saying this to. A pregnant woman who just walked out on her wedding. I reach over and pat her hand and her tears roll freely down her face. “We’ll get through this. Don’t worry.”

She nods at me as she tries to control her sniffles, and then she starts shaking her head no. “What just happened to you back there, with the cameras and stuff…” She looks over at me and I recognize that look on her face. Fear. “That’s gonna happen to me too. As soon as they realize that Johnny and I have been lying about everything.”

I just stare at her.

I don’t ask her anything else.

Secrets aren’t meant to be shared.

Secrets are meant to be buried and ours are perilously close to resurfacing right now.

So we do the only thing we know how to do. The same thing people with secrets the world over do once bits and pieces poke through the surface.

We throw more dirt on top and hope for the best.

Chapter Fourteen

I MANAGE to get back to my room after Grace takes off in that SUV. I don’t even know who was driving, but it was someone Grace knew.

I call Conner and he picks up on the first ring. “I need help, dude.”

“I just saw it, Vaughn. You’re all over the f**king news already.”

“How the hell did they find her? How the hell did they even know we were dating? It was all very discreet. Last night was the first time I’ve seen her in weeks.”

“It was Sam’s dickhead of a husband, Tray. I just got off the phone with him. He’s blackmailing us. He says he’s got a list of your past girlfriends on record about your nondisclosure agreements and he knows what happened to Grace ten years ago.”

“What the… Did he tell you?”

A pause on the other end.

“Conner, dammit. Did he tell you?”

“He told me some. And believe me, V, you do not want this to get out. I think we should pay him. I think Grace might actually be in danger.”

My whole world spins. Just when I think I’ve got it all figured out, bad luck can’t touch me and life is good… it knocks me down and kicks my ass.

“Is it bad?” I ask in a low voice that betrays my fears. “I need to know, Conner, even though I really don’t want to know.”

“It’s bad. It’s so, so f**king bad. I’ve already called Felicity and she’s on her way to Vegas now. She’ll meet you in your room in a few hours. Just hang tight until then.”

I end the call and slump back into a chair that has a view looking out over the Bellagio fountains and I sit for a few minutes. Running last night over and over in my head.

It was so perfect.

Conner was right. Life has been too easy for me. No one should have such an easy life.

But it’s all coming due now. Because last night I did something I will most certainly regret and when Grace finds out, she might never speak to me again.