I look at my watch. "We're only thirty minutes late," I reply.
"Yeah, but you're never late!" Aubry retorts.
Blake laughs and tugs my hand. "He's not very happy that I made him late," she says, looking up at me, her huge gray eyes sparkling in amusement.
I smile at her and dip my head to kiss her. "Oh yes he is," I reply against her lips.
"You two are sickening," Aubry says in faux disgust before taking Aimee's hand and placing a kiss on it.
I roll my eyes and let them lead the way to where Colleen is standing with a group of people. We wait until she's finished talking and she turns her attention to us, smiling brightly when she sees me, which I return. Now that I'm here in front of her again, my heart feels lighter, and I want to kick myself for not wanting to see her again. Her eyes move from mine to Blake and her smile disappears. She stares at Blake with an open mouth, and as she steps forward, she extends her hand and brushes Blake's face with it, her eyes swelling with unshed tears. She takes her hand back and covers her mouth, blinking a couple of times, unable to stop tears from trickling down her face which she wipes away quickly.
"It's so nice to meet you," Colleen whispers. "I'm sorry. It's just...you look exactly like your mother. I knew you would, but seeing you..."
Blake lets go of my hand and takes Colleen's hand in hers and placing a kiss on her cheek. "It's okay. It's nice to meet you, Colleen. Did you know her well?" she asks quietly.
Colleen nods her head. "Very," she whispers back. "We were great friends for a long time."
They smile sadly at each other before Blake drops her hands and steps back to my side. Colleen turns her attention to me.
"Thank you for coming, Na...Cole. It means so much to me," Colleen says quietly as she leans up to greet me with a kiss, which I return.
"Thank you for inviting me. It's a good cause," I reply.
"It is," she says with a bright smile before looking at Blake again. "I hope we can all catch up and get to know each other."
"We'd love that," Blake responds cheerfully.
I look at her and she looks at me with pleading eyes that I can't argue with, so I let out a breath and nod in agreement. Then we follow Colleen around so she can awkwardly introduce me as her son and tell Blake's story.
After talking to what seems like two hundred people in the room, Blake and I find our seats next to Aubry and Aimee's and see Connor's name on the table with us. Aimee waves her hand and explains that a lot of people come to these events, and Connor usually doesn't make it even when he says he will.
"Don't count me out just yet," Connor booms behind us, making me laugh.
I turn around and look at him in surprise when I see he's wearing a tuxedo and has a pretty brunette on his arm that's smiling in apprehension.
"This is Sandra," Connor announces before introducing us all to her. When he gets to Blake he pauses and gives her a pointed look that leaves me confused. Blake's smile widens and she stands.
"It's so great to meet you, Sandra. I'm Connor's cousin," Blake says, which confuses me even more.
"Good to meet you, Blake," Sandra says, smiling happily.
"Your son is absolutely adorable, I've seen a million pictures of him. He looks like trouble," Blake continues.
"Oh, you have no idea! Like father, like son," Sandra says with a laugh.
"I am not trouble!" Connor says as he looks at Sandra in adoration, and I realize who she is.
Once we settle down in our seats again, Mark shows up with his date, who Blake also happens to know and talks to for a couple of minutes.
"How do you know all these people?" I whisper as the food is being served.
She smiles. "Sandra is Connor's ex but not really ex—it's complicated. He's always talking about her. I'm surprised you don't know who she is. And Mark's date I know from his office," she says in a low whisper.
"Got it," I reply before taking a sip of champagne and leaning back into my seat.
All of us fall into easy conversation for the duration of our meal before Blake excuses herself to go to the bathroom. Aimee also gets up and accompanies her, tossing her napkin aside before walking rapidly after her.
I crinkle my eyebrows when the waiter brings over the dessert and I realize that I've been so enrapt in conversation that I hadn't noticed Blake taking a little too long in the bathroom. I look around, pivoting my body in my seat to look for her but don't see any sign of her or Aimee.
"Aub, is it me or have they been gone a long time?" I ask curiously. Women always take long in the bathroom—I've learned that over the years. But something doesn't feel right.
"You're right," he responds as his eyebrows knit together.
A loud shriek rings through the ballroom and the feeling of dread that was threatening to consume the pit of my stomach, does. My eyes shoot to Connor's as I get up and take off into a sprint in the direction of the screams. I hear stomps behind me and assume Connor and Aubry are following, maybe Mark, but don't care enough to look. My vision tunnels and my ears clog as I look around anxiously for the bathrooms, bumping a couple of people out of my way in the process. My shoulder crashes into a blur of brown hair when I round the corner and I grab on to the feminine figure to steady her. My heart rate spikes even higher when I look past Aimee and realize she's by herself.
"Where is she?" I shout, shaking Aimee by the shoulders.
"There! There!" Aimee shrieks, pointing at the door as she runs toward it again.
"Aimee!" Aubry screams behind us and grabs her as she tries to shake out of his hold, shouting that she has to get to Blake.
I turn the knob of the door she pointed at and find that it's locked. I slam my shoulder into it as hard as I can once, twice, three times before I decide to start kicking it.
"GET THE FUCK OVER HERE, CONNOR!" I yell loudly.
H
e runs quickly to me and pulls out the pistol from his back, making people around us scream in alarm and start to scramble in every direction.
"Get out of the way!" he shouts, pushing me aside.
"Give it to me!" I demand, earning a 'you've got to be kidding me' look that I don't have time for.
"Are you fucking crazy? You're not using my gun!" he shouts back, pushing me away and aiming it at the doorknob.
Screaming coming from the kitchen doors makes our heads snap in that direction before we take off running that way.
"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?" I yell loudly as Benny walks me through the commercial kitchen of the hotel. The chefs and everybody else dressed in white drop everything to either scream or put their hands up. "HELP ME!" I scream, looking at them with wild eyes, not understanding how they could just be standing out of the way watching this happen.
"Yeah, yeah, stay out of it unless you want your head capped!" He spits, pushing the barrel of the gun into the back of my skull, making me close my eyes and shiver at the bite of it. "Well, Blake," he starts, my name rolling off his tongue in disgust. "Your father gave me some interesting information yesterday. Your father," he chides with a throaty laugh before pulling my hair back roughly and making me yelp at the pain. He walks me to the back door, pushing my chest into it with an elbow in the middle of my back. He turns my face so that the tip of my nose brushes the scar on his left cheek before he shifts and we're nose to nose. "Turns out...that I'm your uncle. Or that's what Liam wants me to think. Dumb fuck. We're gonna find out the truth, but I call bullshit. Liam wants to save his ass, wants to keep you safe, wants to screw me over as usual. We're gonna see how true that is when I call him now and make him listen to me splitting your face open like he did me. Let's see how much he likes to feel helpless."
I gasp and screw my eyes shut as my chest heaves against the metal door. I open my eyes and turn my head slightly at the absence of the gun on my head and catch a sharp blade through my peripheral vision that makes me yelp and frantically turn the doorknob beside me. I push it open, letting it hit the rail beside it and scramble outside. I pray that my heels don't slow me down as I take the four concrete steps as quickly as my dress allows and begin to run with him on my tail. He yanks me back by the hair and presses the tip of the blade to my naked lower back.