Vacation (17 page)

Chapter
18

Easton

I was quite disappointed in Vivian running
from me the night before, but I understood it all too well. She was working
hard to keep her heart separated from her body. I was doing the same, but not
nearly as successfully as she was. Her refusal to let me come hang out with her
was a slap to the face that I quickly dismissed. I didn't want the heavy
emotion sitting on me all throughout the night.

My phone buzzed frantically the next
morning, constantly rattling until I crawled out of the warmth of my bed and
answered it.

"What?" I barked, not wanting to
be an ass, but far too tired to hold back.

"Easton,
it's
Vivian. Casey didn't come back to the hotel last night and she's still not
answering my text. I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm scared." Her voice was
strained and laced with exhaustion.

"Have you been up all night?" I
ran my hand over my face and tried to work on pulling on a pair of jeans and
slipping my feet into the closest shoes to me.

"Yes. I kept thinking she would come
back or text." Vivian let out a shaky breath. "I think I need to go
file a report and maybe check around the club area or something."

"I'm coming down. Text
me
your room number and I'll be right there. It's going to
be okay. We'll figure it out."

"I hope so," her voice was
nothing more than a whisper.

I tucked the phone into my back pocket and
rushed around the room, putting myself together as quickly as I was able in the
midst of my haze. I took the stairs, trying to save some time and working hard
to catch my breath as I approached her door and knocked.

She pulled it open after my first knock
and walked out into the hall with me, looking a bit unruly and intensely hot.
Her cotton shorts were more for sleeping in than prancing around the city, her
t-shirt soft looking, and her hair in a cute little messy bun.

"Hey." I moved up beside her as
she stormed toward the elevator. "We're going to find her, okay?"

"Don't be nice to me, please. I'm
barely holding it together. She's been my best friend since I could walk."
Vivian pressed several buttons accidentally, her hands shaking hard.

I pulled her back and reached around her
to press the button for the lobby. Tears welled in her beautiful, albeit tired,
eyes, and I pulled her against me, wrapping her in a tight hug and kissing the
top of her head. "
It's
okay, Viv. We're going to
find her. We'll take a cab to the station, okay?"

"I hope so," she mumbled as she
pulled back from me and pressed her palms to her eyes. "I told her that
this was a mistake. This trip was damned from the get-go. We should have just
stayed home and planned out graduation or hit our favorite places in New
York."

I grabbed her hand as we walked from the
elevator and moved toward the front door. "It's going to turn out just
fine. Casey seems like a wild child. I bet she went home with some good-looking
guy last night and just forgot to call thanks to one too many drinks."

"She could have been taken advantage
of. What the fuck was she thinking?" Viv pinned me with an angry stare as
if I'd been any part of it.

I stopped by the valet. "We need a
cab to the police station please."

"Sure, Mr. Parks. We'll have a driver
take you. One minute." He moved away from us, but not before turning back
to let his eyes run across Vivian. The girl was oblivious to the multitudes of
looks she received, but now wasn't the time to mention it.

"Come here." I pulled her
against me again and squeezed her tightly. "Hold it together for a little
while longer. We'll find Casey, get something to eat and take a nap,
okay?"

"Alright. I guess you're right."
She rested against me and released a deep breath.

I brushed her hair back from her face
rhythmically and kissed the top of her head again. I was starting to think of
her as mine, which wasn't good for either of us, but it wasn't something I
could stop doing. She fit too well against me, caused too many foreign emotions
inside of me,
moaned
my name almost too well.

"Here we go, Sir." The valet
held the door open to the Lincoln Continental and nodded toward us. "I
hope everything is okay."

"It will be. Thank you." I
pulled my wallet out of my jeans and handed him a tip before getting into the
backseat and reaching for Vivian's hand. "She didn't call or text at all
last night? The last time you saw her was at the club?"

"Yeah. I need to call Jackson to see
if maybe he saw her after we left. Remember
she
texted
that she left before we did? Maybe calling him is a waste of time." She
picked up her phone as I pressed my hand to the front of it.

"You do whatever you want, but I'm
pretty sure Jackson left right after we did." I removed my hand from her
phone and shrugged. "Totally up to you of course."

"Maybe you're right. Let's talk to
the cops and then we'll go from there." She intertwined her fingers with
mine and glanced over at me. "Thank you for coming with me. I'm sure you
have a million meetings and such that you need to be at."

"They can come later. I'm good being
with you." I leaned over and brushed a kiss by her cheek. "I'm a
little upset with you not letting me come down last night."

"I know, but you know why I
couldn't." She turned to face the front, her expression locking into
unbendable resolve.

"I get it, but you should have
called. You pacing the floor all night alone sounds heinous."

"I've been through worse." She
shrugged and tugged her hand from mine as her phone buzzed. She let out a sigh
and dropped it in the seat next to her. "Just my mother."

"Do you need to get it?" I asked
in earnest curiosity. I rarely ignored a call from my mom, but then again, she
rarely bothered me.

"I'll call her later. She'll know
something is wrong if I answer the phone right now. That'll just lead to
questions that I don't feel like answering." She shrugged and sunk back
into the seat next to me, closing her eyes and relaxing a little.

I studied her beautiful face, unable to
help myself. The dark circles under her eyes were concerning, but a good meal
and a great night of sleep would take care of that. It was the first I'd seen
her looking so ragged since meeting her. Some part of me liked it because it
acknowledged the fact that she could use a man like me to take care of her, to
protect and comfort her.

"We're here," the driver called
back to us.

"Come on. Let's see if they can help
us." I opened my door and helped her out before taking her hand and
walking into the busy police station. Someone gave us a number at the front,
and we made our way to the large waiting room where only two seats remained
open. I asked an elderly couple to scoot down so that I could sit by Viv, and
they were more than willing to accommodate us.

I sat down and reached for her, pulling
her down beside me and cuddling her against my chest as she curled up and
closed her eyes again. Within seconds, she was sound asleep.

I watched from above her, memorizing the
perfect slope of her eyebrows, her long eyelashes, and regal nose. But it was
her lips that captivated me, and I couldn't help but think back on our night
together, her body a playground of delights that I wanted to experience over
and over again. It would be better to just help her with Casey and disappear.
That's what Vivian would want to happen, but I knew I wasn't capable of being
so callous.

Our run-in was to be blamed on fate
perhaps. But everything after that was all by choice. She might not appreciate
it much, but I chose to stay beside her for the rest of the week. The thought
of contacting her in New York rolled around in my mind as I pressed my lips to
the side of her head. She groaned and lifted her face a little, pressing her
nose to my neck and whimpering sensually.

I had to focus on the thugs around us not
to get completely turned on by her simple nearness.

"Vivian Hall?" A large Hispanic
cop called from the other side of the room while staring down at a clipboard.
"Vivian Hall?"

"Viv. Is your last name Hall,
baby?" I shook her a little as she came to and sat up.

"Huh?"

"Is your last name Hall?" I
stood and pulled her up with me.

"Yeah. Is it our turn?" She got
up and looked around in confusion.

"Yes." I moved toward the cop
and held on tightly to Viv's hand. I wanted her to know that she wasn't alone,
no matter how worried she might feel.

"I'm Vivian Hall." She walked up
to the cop and squeezed my hand. "I need to report a missing person. My
best friend disappeared from a night club last night, and I haven't seen her or
heard from her since."

I released her hand and wrapped an arm
around her shoulders as she got a little choked up.

"Has it been twenty-four hours?"
The cop pulled out a pen and flipped through several pages.

"No, only twelve, I guess."
Vivian glanced over at me.

"Then I can take down the
information, but you have to wait until your friend has been missing for
twenty-four hours to file a report. Lots of people appear to be missing, but
have simply gotten drunk and gone home with a lover for the night." She
glanced at us. "Give me the info and if she's not back by late tonight,
come back up here and ask for me. I'm Officer Milly. Okay?"

"Alright." Vivian let out a soft
sigh and gave the officer the information.

After they wrapped up their conversation,
we got back into the car and drove back to the hotel. Vivian was a bit shaky,
her legs not seeming to want to hold her up any longer. I helped her sit down
in the lobby and walked to the front desk.

"Hi. I'm Easton Parks. I wanted to
see if the penthouse was open for tonight. I know I stayed in there Sunday
night, but I'd like to revisit a few things if it's available." I hardly
ever twisted the truth, but I wanted something nice to treat Vivian with as she
waited to hear back from Casey. It was about all I had to offer.

"It's available until Sunday. We'll
move you in there now, Mr. Parks. Would you like your things delivered from
your previous room?" The woman gave me a caring smile.

"Yes. Thanks for your help. It's
appreciated." I took the key she offered me, turned and walked toward
Vivian.

She glanced up and reached for me,
standing with my help as she let out a long, tired groan. "I feel like
I've been beaten with a baseball bat."

"You're just tired, Viv. Come on.
Let's go up to my room and rest. We can take a nap and get back some of your
energy. I bet that we'll hear from Casey soon and can put this madness to
bed."

"Okay. I guess I'm out of options
anyway." She wrapped her arm around my lower back and moved with me toward
the elevator. "I don't know what I'm going to do if something has happened
to her."

"Nothing has happened. Stop thinking
like that." We got into the elevator and I pressed the button for the top.
"I'm back in the penthouse, so we can raid the mini-bar or order something
if you're hungry. They have a special menu up there with extra goodies on it. A
foodie like you will be in hog heaven."

"I'm starving, but I feel like an ass
for eating when Casey could be lying dead somewhere." She shuttered, and I
pressed my hand to her lower back, urging her to get off as the elevator
opened.

"Let's check out the dessert bar they
advertise all the time. It's the only thing I don't think I've tried. Sound
good?" I typed in the code and inserted my key, pushing the door open and
ushering in the beautiful girl beside me. Just having her close to
me
left my heart beating a little harder than seemed
necessary, but I was falling hard. I prayed I wasn't the only one.

Her phone buzzed and she yanked it from
her back pocket, lifting it to her ear as her eyes filled with tears again. She
turned her back to me as her shoulders curled in tightly.

"Where the fuck have you been?"
Her voice was tense and filled with hard emotion.

I moved to the phone in the living room
and ordered a few dishes as well as the dessert sampler bar. She needed a few
minutes of privacy with Casey, and I didn't want her holding back. It was a
shitty move on Casey's part, though something told me that the girl would never
willingly hurt Viv. It had to be a potent combination of liquor and sexual
attraction to the right guy.

I glanced up as Vivian walked into the
living room, her cheeks stained with tears, but an air of resolve to her.
"She's okay. She got toasted and went home with some guy. She's headed
back to the hotel now. I told her I would find her later this afternoon. She
needs a shower and a nap."

"And a good ass whooping from what it
sounds like?" I smiled. "You can go if you need to. I don't want you
to feel any pressure from me."

"I don't want to, unless you need to
be somewhere." She stopped in front of me and pressed her hands to my
chest, sliding them up to cup my neck. "If you have meetings that you need
to attend to, then go. I know I used up your whole damn morning. I'm
sorry."