What Happens in Vegas: A BWWM Alpha Male Romance (9 page)

“We need to talk,” he said as he pulled her into what she assumed was a guest bedroom. “There is security outside and around the perimeter of my house, so I’m not worried now that we are here.” He sat her down on the edge of the bed and ran his fingers through her hair. “I’m sorry, I can only imagine how scared and confused you are right now.” He stood up and opened a bottle of water that stood on the dresser, handing it to her to have a drink of it. “That man from tonight, he is from the other family. Like I told you before, we don’t usually have problems but he tends to get riled up more easily than the rest. He feels the only way to assert power and gain respect is through fear. Well, you saw the way he behaved tonight.”

Shauna stood up and set the water bottle back on the dresser. She paced up and down in front of him, wondering what to do or say. Instead of trying to come up with questions, she decided to let him continue talking. She leaned against the dresser and looked at him expectantly. “Apparently there was supposed to be a deal and it fell through. Originally, there were some problems and Marcus bargained with them but then they published that article about me. This made my brother angry; he said it was foul play and ended up calling everything off. That man isn’t too happy about it and now he has decided to blame me because had it not been for my brother protecting my image and me, he would have worked to make everything go through. They claimed it was only fair for them to do that in the first place because there were problems. They won’t ever see it as them doing anything wrong.”

Shauna rubbed her hands over her face and rubbed her temples. “So are they just going to target you now? What does it mean?”

“It means my brother is going to take care of it. I’m not involved in this. That man knows I don’t do this business but he’s bitter and he can’t be reasoned with. The thing that we are worried about is…”

Shauna looked at him with confusion and asked, “What? What are you worried about?”

“You.” He jumped up from the bed and took her into his arms right when she started slipping down. Her heart rate had shot up and she felt sick to her stomach. She knew there was a good reason she felt so uncomfortable about that man so carefully observing her face. He was staring at her to memorize what she looked like in great detail. That was how he would send out whomever to do whatever he wanted to her. That explained why Nick had brought her back to his place. Not only was it more secure and now she knew he had weapons, this would prevent the man from knowing where she lived. At least he would not know for the time being. She was sure he had more than one way to obtain any information he needed or wanted. He probably already knew her basic stats by now and that notion terrified her.

“I’m in this direct danger even though you don’t even deal with them,” she muttered. He hugged her tightly. She wanted to feel the comfort she always did in his arms but it was too hard at this moment.
He
was a comfort but, right now, he was the reason this threat in her life had come up. She did not know what to do.

“I’m going to take care of you,” he said. “Stay here until it cools off. I have something to show you.” He led her back downstairs to another bedroom. It was smaller than the other but was also clearly a guest room. She did not even stop to wonder why he felt the need to have so many guest bedrooms because her mind was too busy thinking of a million other, more pressing matters. He did not turn on the light. He closed the door behind them and made sure the blinds were closed and the curtains shut. He walked over to the nightstand and pulled out a flashlight, aiming it at the floor just to illuminate their path. He slid the closet door open and pulled out some boxes before pulling her inside with him and closing the closet door.

“Pay close attention but don’t say anything,” he instructed her. He dimmed the flashlight and showed her the wall. She was very confused as to why he would be showing her a bare wall in such secrecy, or at all, until she saw him feel along it for something. His hand landed on something she could not see. He nodded to indicate she should touch where he was touching. There was a nub of some sort but she would have just thought it was something from the paint or wall itself. Anybody would unless they knew what they were looking for. In fact, it was not visible even to someone who knew it was there. She admired how well concealed this was and her admiration grew when he tugged on it and a secret door opened to reveal a small panic room or crawlspace.

“Anything ever happens,” he said and he shined the light into it. “Always put the boxes back,” he told her. At first she was not quite sure what he meant but then it dawned on her. Not only was this so well concealed, the boxes right in front of it would throw off anybody even more. After all, who would suspect there would be a place to hide behind storage boxes? Since everything else in the house was so extremely neat and tidy, it was not surprising even his storage was so that it was not a tip off in any way either. She nodded and they exited the closet carefully replacing the boxes and flashlight. When they went to the sitting room, he sat right next to her on the couch and pulled her into an embrace.

He kissed her cheek and then whispered in her ear, “If I’m not here, always have a knife and gun on you. I’ll give you a flashlight. Don’t ever even go to the bathroom without those things.” He kissed down her jaw and then pressed his lips against hers.
He must be doing this in case we’re being watched
, she thought. She felt relatively safe with all the security of the community and his house, especially with Nick there. But the next evening he had to go to a meeting with his brother and she would be left alone in the house. As promised, he gave her weapons and a flashlight. He kissed her fiercely and hugged her tight before leaving. As soon as his car drove off, she began to shake. She had no idea how long he would be gone and worried about what could happen during that time. She turned off all the lights and went to the master bedroom to sit in the dark, just waiting for him to come back. Maybe if those people came by to check and saw all the lights off, they would not know she was there alone. But there was also a chance the house was being watched and fear crept up her spine again.

She heard a car door slam shut off in the distance, very faintly, and her breath caught in her throat. This was the moment she had feared since Nick had warned her she might be in trouble. He had tried his best to prepare her and now was the moment of truth; it was now she would finally come to know if she was cut out to be with him. If she survived this, she would have the answer. A voice inside her screamed she should have gotten out earlier, from the moment she found out who Nicholas Verraud truly was, that she should not even be wondering if she would be alive in an hour’s time. This should not be a decision she had to make or a situation she should have to face. She shook her head and tried to drown out the voice in her mind because, by now, it simply did not matter. She had chosen to stay and now she had to fight. Now she had to fight for her life and, after, she would have to fight herself to come to a decision.

She dropped to the floor on all fours as silently as she could and crawled, pressing her body as close to the floor as possible, quickly swiping the gun and knife Nick had placed for her under the coffee table. She slipped down the stairs on her back as quietly and quickly as she could, scanning the windows within her line of vision and listening carefully to her surroundings. When she reached the first floor, she heard the footsteps running around her house and murmurs of men whispering instructions to each other. There was even less time to get to safety than she had anticipated. She carefully slid the closet door open just enough for her to slip inside and closed it behind her. She moved the boxes over and crouched in the small space between them and the wall. She took the small flashlight from her pocket and turned it on, placing it between her teeth to touch along the wall for the marker Nick had previously shown her. Locating it, she worked to open the disguised trapdoor and immediately crawled into the space, taking care to pull the boxes close to the wall before closing the door behind her and hoping with all her might it was just as disguised as before. She reminded herself multiple times it was near impossible to find it unless you knew where to look especially with boxes stacked right in front of it.

She turned off the flashlight and put it back into her pocket, placing the knife into a small holster on her belt and holding her gun at the ready. She shut her eyes and made a conscious effort to steady her breath, irrationally fearing her rapid heartbeat was audible to anyone who entered her house. It was only a few seconds later she heard the front door creak open and light, careful footsteps fall onto the tile of her entryway. She heard more footsteps follow and knew the people had fanned out, some heading upstairs immediately. The door of the bedroom she was in opened almost silently and the footsteps were so light she could not hear them on the carpet. She covered her mouth and willed herself to breathe as silently as possible through her nose, fighting every natural urge she had to cry out in complete fear. She had no idea what would happen to her if found but she definitely did not want to find out.

The person in the room was shuffling about, opening drawers and rifling through them, until a second person entered. She could hear her pulse pounding in her ears as she fought the light-headed, spinning feeling threatening to take over her when the second person opened her closet door. Whoever it was had opened the door on the other end and was moving everything about in search of her. They then moved to the other side, where she was hiding and opened the door. She held her breath, deathly afraid of being betrayed by any tiny sound coming from her body. She felt her heart jump to her throat and her stomach drop, feeling like she was choking, when she heard the boxes in front of the trapdoor move and scrape against the wall. She slammed her free hand over her mouth because she felt a cough coming at any moment if she did not pass out first, hearing the person continue to rummage in the closet separated from her by mere inches of a trapdoor.

“Hey,” a gruff whisper called out to the other person in the room, making Shauna shake from head to toe and break out in a cold sweat. She placed her other hand over the one holding the gun in an attempt to keep it steady. If this was it, if she had been found, she needed to be as efficient in her escape attempt as possible. This meant she had to stop shaking but was finding that was much easier said than done. She could feel the tears welling up in the corners of her eyes and every fiber of her being told her she had made the biggest mistake of her life. Who knew what horrors awaited her now and for what? Did she even truly
love
this man and was that worth this kind of life?

“What is it?” The other person had moved closer to the man rummaging through the closet. They were both harsh sounding men despite speaking in whispers.

“This looks interesting. Think we should take it back to the boss?”

The other man must have nodded because they pulled out one of the boxes and she soon heard their footsteps retreat. She let out a breath and immediately covered her mouth, her entire body paralyzed. She heard footsteps back around the door and more voices. Had she been too loud? She held her breath again and felt deafened by the pressure in her head. After what she imagined to be a couple minutes, she only heard footsteps from upstairs. She was not in the clear just yet but they had at least moved on from the bedroom. She crouched and pressed her ear to the top of the small area she was in, trying to hear more of what was going on upstairs. It felt like an eternity in the cramped and warm space before she finally heard steps run down the stairs and a voice say, “He’s gonna be pissed we didn’t get her” before the front door shut.

She leaned back and allowed her body to relax, extending and stretching her limbs as best she could in the space. She was not foolish enough to think it was already safe for her to get out. She pulled her phone out and dimmed the screen before sending Nick a text about what had just happened and assuring him she was okay, for now. Not a minute later, her phone buzzed with his reply. It was a simple
I’m more sorry than you can imagine
. She tapped her screen, not knowing what to reply. Was now the time she was supposed to tell him it was over? Should she have decided to leave him the moment she found out about his true identity? Why did she not
want
to end this relationship despite everything she had just experienced?

All the logical responses pointed to a clearly marked and well-lit EXIT sign but she was refusing it with her entire body. She felt foolish and worried she would very soon regret not ending this but she only placed her phone on her lap and leaned her head back against the wall. Her phone soon buzzed again, the sudden vibration against her leg sending a jolt through her body. She picked it up and read:
Stay hidden for a while longer. I want to come for you but it’s too dangerous, they will probably be anticipating it. I will text you what to do next when it’s time
. She gulped and replied with only an
okay
before leaning her head back against the wall and allowing her eyes to close. She had no idea how long she would have to stay in here and after the terrifying experience she had just survived, she felt the exhaustion began coursing through her body.