Falling Free: What happens in Vegas... (The Fall Series) (4 page)

Fumbling though my carry-on, I
dug out my phone. Three missed calls, all from Nina. I smiled. She must have
been holding back, because I expected more like ten. As I sank down into the comforting
softness of the bed, I dialed, and immediately held the phone away from my ear when
her voice came bursting through the speaker.

“Oh my God, Lo, why didn’t you
answer your phone? I’ve been trying to call you for hours!”

She was right. I should’ve
answered, but I was just prolonging the inevitable…the truth. “I’m sorry, Nina.
I made it here just fine. I’m safe.” An audible sigh escaped me. “Shit! This is
so complicated. I don’t even know where to start, and even if I did I’m too
fucking exhausted to go into all the sordid details. So please, just listen to
me, okay? The truth is I’m in Las Vegas,” I paused, “with Parker.” I held my
breath and braced for the wrath of Nina, and I knew I deserved it.

“Lo, are you IN-FUCKING-SANE? Oh,
this is worse than I thought!”

Her voice suddenly seemed far
away, and I knew why. I’d witnessed it a million times, usually when Leslie
called panicking because one of her cats didn’t come home. She was pacing with
her hands absentmindedly at her sides. I could hear her footsteps clicking across
the floor and her rambling in the background.

“Nina, you have to trust me on
this. It’s the only option right now. Can you hear me?”

“Only option? Only option for
what? I can’t imagine how being anywhere with Parker Blackwell is the ONLY option,
Lo! What are you talking about?”

“He’s helping me, save The Grandview,
Nina.”

“How, Lo? And why the hell did
you have to go to Vegas WITH HIM to save The Grand?”

I tried to reassure her. “Listen,
it’s complicated,” I soothed, “Please just trust me for now, and I promise I’ll
tell you everything soon.”

“What am I supposed to say that?
You’re so fucking stubborn you’re going to do whatever the hell you want anyway.
You always do. So, what am I supposed to tell Jake?”

The sound of his name slammed
into my heart unexpectedly.
Jake…
“What does Jake have to do with this? Jake
left, remember? And so far it looks like he’s not coming back.”

“Well, that’s just it, Lo. He
didn’t leave. I saw his truck at Evelyn’s this morning.”

“Evelyn’s? What?”

Evelyn would call from
time-to-time and ask Jake to stop over and fix things around her house. I hated
it, and he knew it, but he said that if he helped her it would “keep the peace”
between us. I guess in a way he was right, but that was before she decided to
pull the rug out from under me and sell her share of The Grand.
Why would he
help her now?

“I don’t know, Lo, it’s not like
I knocked on the door and asked what he was doing there. Could you imagine?
Jake, you son-of-a-bitch, you just ripped my best friend’s heart out, and by
the way, what the hell are you doing at Evelyn’s?”

“Okay I get it, but I don’t want
him to know anything. I mean it! If you run into him just give him the same
story we told the staff. I’m out-of-town working.” I could hear myself talking,
but my mind was spinning in the background trying to make sense of it all.
Jake
knew how much that woman hurt me, so, why? Why the hell would he do anything to
help her, especially now?

“Fine, I won’t tell him anything,
and you’d probably like to make me pinky swear, but you’re in Vegas so I guess
you’re fucked, huh?”

Nina always seemed to know just
what I needed, and a good dose of her famous sarcasm brought me back to the
moment. I was laughing, giggling actually, and a flood of emotions ripped
through me.
Anxiety.
I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.

“Yeah, I’m fucked,” I said when I
finally retorted. “I’m also exhausted. Can we talk more about this tomorrow?”

“Not so fast, Lo. You promised you’d
let Leslie do a reading, remember? Well, it just so happens that I’m at her
house now, and we’ve been waiting for you to call.”

I groaned. ”Nina, I know you’re
worried, but the last thing I want to do right now…” The rustling sound as Nina
passed the phone to Leslie told me I was about to get a reading like it or not.

“Lo, you’re in Vegas?” Leslie had
two personalities, crazy and crazier. Crazy was her baseline. She was
overdramatic, funny and full of energy, but I’d become accustomed to it over
the years. When she was crazier, she might try to convince you that her
neighbors were aliens. You never knew what you would get from day to day, but
right now I could tell that she was just plain Leslie, and I breathed a sigh of
relief for both Nina and me.

“I hope you’re having the time of
your life, Love! Sometimes I swear you’re just like me!” I could imagine Nina secretly
rolling her eyes in the background. It was hard to believe she could be so
normal having been raised by a mother like Leslie. Sometimes she complained,
but the girl had the patience of a saint, and her sensitivity to the fact that
I no longer had a mother kept her from complaining too much. Besides, we both
loved Leslie, even if she was bat shit crazy.

“Leslie, I’m having the time of
my life.” I told her what she wanted to hear, even if I wasn’t sure it was the
truth. “In fact, I’ve been having so much fun that I’m completely exhausted. Do
you think we could do this reading tomorrow?”

She sounded serious. “Oh, honey,
no, I’ve had a bad feeling all day. Something’s going on around you, and we
need to get to the bottom of it. I’ll make it quick. I promise.”

What did she mean by that?
I could barely whisper, “Ok.” A
gut wrenching flashback hit me head on as I remembered the last time Leslie
told me she had a bad feeling. Three weeks later my mom was diagnosed with
Cancer. Now she had my complete attention. My head started to throb, and I rubbed
my temples as I waited for her to continue.

I heard the familiar sound of
cards shuffling, then swirling around, followed by the smack of individual
cards hitting the table as if they were hammering out my destiny one by one. Then
silence…

When she finally spoke the grave
tone of her voice had me on edge. “Oh. Oh, this is exactly what I was afraid
of.”

“What, Leslie? What is it?” A few
minutes ago I was planning to get lost in this luxurious bed, but now I was hanging
on her every word, ready to catch the next flight to Michigan. Everything
changing in the blink of an eye was becoming the norm lately, but no matter how
many times my world kept getting flipped upside-down, it never got easier. More
cards slapped on the table, revealing my fate.

Leslie finally started speaking,
mostly to herself. “Interesting…The Eight of Wands. That makes sense, because
you just flew to Vegas, but it could mean something more, especially since The
Tower is also present. Swift changes are in store for you, Lo.”

I breathed a sigh of relief.
“That’s no surprise. I just hope they’re good changes this time.”

“Ah. Here’s what I’ve been
waiting to see. We have the Emperor and the Knight of caps, but wait a minute. I
don’t like the looks of this.”

“What?” Now I was pacing. “Please
tell me. Don’t hold anything back. What is it?”

“All swords, my dear. Too many
swords.” She clucked her tongue in disapproval.

“What the hell does that MEAN?
I’m sorry, but I’m hundreds of miles from home, and this is freaking me out,
Leslie. Please translate.”

“I know, honey, I’m working on
it. I’ve never seen so many swords at one time. I’m trying to understand,” she
pleaded and quickly resumed thinking out loud. “Ten of Pentacles. Yes, that
represents The Grandview. Then there’s the Lovers, Six of Pentacles and Six of
Cups, the Wheel of Fortune, and all these damn swords…”

“What do swords mean?” My voice
cracked with anxiety.

“Swords mean betrayal and
deception, endings and loss. Right now I see three men who are close to you,
Lo. Two of them want to protect you, but you’re angry with them. One of them is
trying to reveal the truth.”

“The truth? Could one of them be
my father?” My mind was swirling with questions.

“Yes, I feel strongly that one of
them is your father. He is generous and kind and would give you anything you
needed…and so would one of the others. There are things you need to forgive,
but you’re attachments to things in your childhood are like baggage that you
carry with you into your relationships. Oh, and there’s a reunion. You might be
feeling nostalgic, but don’t let it distract you. Now is not the time to be
thinking with your heart. You have to stay focused and aware. I see someone trying
to betray you. Someone you trust is deceiving you, and he’s not going to stop
until he gets what he’s after.”

“Who? Why? Please, Leslie, can
you tell me anything else?”

“Honey, this isn’t meant to upset
you. Remember, these things aren’t set in stone. You have choices, and the
Wheel of Fortune card tells me that luck is on your side. You’re at a turning
point. When the truth is revealed it might hurt you, but it will change your
course for the better. Just keep your eyes open, and don’t let your heart cloud
your judgment. It’ll all make sense soon enough.”

After the ominous reading was
over, Nina was even more determined to persuade me to come home immediately. It
took a full ten minutes to convince her I’d be okay, at least for now, but even
I wasn’t sure. Leslie’s comment about never seeing so many swords bothered me
more than I cared to admit, and who would want to betray me? And why?

Maybe the cards described the
arrangement between Parker and me. In a way it was a betrayal, or at least a
form of extortion, but deep inside I didn’t believe that. Parker wanted
something more. I could see it in his eyes every time he looked at me. He
wanted something that I wasn’t sure could ever work, no matter how tempting it
seemed. I was angry that he blackmailed me, but I knew he did it for the right
reasons. Besides, if that meant having hot kinky sex with him for the next five
days and returning home with the money to get The Grand in the clear then I was
a willing victim.

So who then? Could Jake be the
one plotting to betray me? He already had as far as I was concerned. The minute
he made me choose between him and The Grand he betrayed me. So, maybe the worst
had already passed. Either way, I had luck on my side, right? And it was
comforting to believe that my dad was still watching over me in some way, too.
My heart thumped in my chest at the thought, and I realized this was actually
the first time I thought of him without feeling angry.

I looked at my reflection in the oversized
mirror as I brushed my teeth. I was wearing one of the thin, silky camisole
nightgowns purchased for me courtesy of “Mr. Blackwell”. I smiled. The shopping
spree, the spa, I had to admit they were thoughtful gestures. Gestures that I
didn’t even have a chance to thank him for, but that was hardly my fault. From
the moment I walked into his lair he wanted to dominate me, and every cell in
my body wanted to let him. It scared me. It excited me, but I was helplessly drawn
to the cocky, confident, hard bodied Mr. Blackwell and all his manipulative
pheromones. They did things to me like shut off the logical part of my brain
and ignite the naughty, sexually impulsive part that I never even knew existed.
Before tonight, I thought the time we shared on the beach was the hottest sex
I’d ever had, but as dirty as it sounds, this arrangement has added a whole new
dimension to things.

I got in bed, pulled the smooth
silky sheets up around my body and let my sleepy thoughts drift to Parker
Blackwell. I wondered how much more there was to know him. Aside from the
knowing that he lived a life of luxury, played poker for a living and hired
escorts for company, the last seven years of his life were a mystery. I still
didn’t understand the escort thing. He was practically a celebrity. He had good
looks, a fabulous body and money, lots and lots of money. Women threw
themselves at him everywhere he went. My stomach twisted as I wondered how many
he’d slept with and how I compared.

I’d been trying not to think
about it since that night on the beach, but the fact that he had sex with
professionals, women who could do things to him that I couldn’t imagine in my
wildest fantasies, was more than a little intimidating. Parker was a man who knew
what he wanted and demanded it without hesitation, took it even. I had a
feeling he could extract it out of any woman of his choice. Even me. I felt a
little ashamed as my thoughts drifted to the shower and how I touched myself in
front of him. I’d never done that in front of a man before, and that’s exactly
what I feared. He brought that side of me to life, and there was no telling how
far she might go for him.

As I rolled over and shut my eyes
I decided not to get too caught up in what the cards predicted. Besides, I
would never let the charming playboy anywhere near my heart. The thought of
having a long distance relationship with an ultra-rich celebrity sex god had
disaster written all over it. I was here on a mission, and I had to be careful
not to let myself believe it could become anything more.

EPIC FAIL