Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 83961 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83961 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Damn it. I was hoping there would be someone I know from the hospital on the list. Someone I could call right now and ask a few questions.
I look up and down the list of names until I spy one that I recognize.
Pia Linnet.
She’s not a member of the club in her own right. Looks like she came as some guy’s date that night.
Pia is a nice girl. She and I met on a dating app a couple years ago, went on a few dates. There wasn’t much of a spark, but she was a fun fling in between relationships. We parted on decent terms.
And by decent terms, I mean we mutually ghosted one another.
Pia was the adventurous type, the kind of woman who can’t be tied down to one man. I’m guessing she goes to the club a lot, every time on the arm of a different gentleman.
I have her number. She’s a lot of fun, and a few times when we were mid-fling she even invited a friend of hers—usually a stone-cold fox by the name of Seraphina, but one time she brought another man—to join.
The three-way with another dude was an interesting experience. I didn’t hate it, but I much preferred the rendezvous we shared with Seraphina.
Of course, neither she nor Pia holds a candle to Bianca. Not in beauty, not in brains, not in general humanity. But a fuck is a fuck. Sometimes that’s all a man needs to get him through a rough day.
I dial her number, bring the receiver to my ear.
“Why, Dr. O’Rourke,” she purrs. “To what do I owe the pleasure of this call?”
Fuck. It’s late at night. She thinks this is a booty call.
“Hey, Pia,” I say, hoping the evenness of my tone will make it clear that I’m not calling for that reason, “do you have a second to talk?”
“For you, always, Doctor.”
I rub at the back of my neck. “First off, I’m not calling to invite you over.”
She makes an audible pout from the other end. “Too bad. We had a lot of fun.”
“We did, but I’m serious. Do you have a second to talk?”
“Of course.” Her tone finally straightens out. “What’s up?”
“Okay, cool.” I take a deep breath in. “This might sound a little stalker-y, but were you at Aces Underground a month or so ago? The night of February fifteenth?”
A pause. “Yes, I was. Why?”
I drum my fingers on the table in front of me as I choose my words. “A friend of mine was there that night. I haven’t heard much from him since. I’m wondering if you bumped into him while he was there.”
“What’s his name?”
“Maddox Hathaway.”
She gasps, and then the sound of a thud. She must have dropped her phone.
Pia saw him all right.
A few seconds later her voice comes through the receiver again. “Sorry. I dropped the phone. But yes, I saw Maddox that evening. It’s not a night I’d easily forget.”
“Why?”
“Well, I’d seen Maddox a few weeks earlier. He was hot at the craps table. The two of us… We spent the night together. With Seraphina.”
Damn. Turns out I’m a double Eskimo brother with Maddox.
We both date within the same sphere. It was bound to happen sooner or later.
“You there?” she asks.
“Yeah, I am.”
“I hope that’s not upsetting to hear.”
“No, of course not. We’ve had our fun, and it’s not like I expected you to remain chaste in the meantime.”
“Of course not.” She chuckles. “But anyway, the night of the fifteenth, Maddox was in the Diamonds section of the club. Playing Blackjack. Naturally, I said hello.”
“But he had a date with him that night.”
“Yes. Apparently he’d been hot at the Blackjack table the night before as well. Rouge christened him and his lady friend the King and Queen of Diamonds.”
“Interesting.”
Mr. Night mentioned a similar thing happening. Must have been a big deal if both he and Pia remember it.
“Yeah, and here’s the kicker. I got into something of a tussle with Her Majesty.”
I nearly drop the phone this time. “Wait, what?”
“Yeah. That little bitch he brought that evening. She tackled me to the floor, just for a few harmless flirtations.”
“You must be thinking of someone else. Alissa would never—”
“Oh, but she would, Harrison. And it was out of nowhere. One minute we’re playing Blackjack, the three of us together, and the next minute I’m on the ground fighting for my life.”
“I happen to work with Alissa. She’s a nurse at my hospital. There is no girl who is more level-headed and rational than she is.”
“I’ll admit she didn’t seem the type. It was like something shifted in her suddenly. Rouge had just entered—she usually gets people’s panties in a bunch. Maybe she pissed Alissa off or something. I could tell there was some sort of weird tension between them. But anyway, yeah, she just threw herself at me. And then when Chet took Rouge to one of the curtained-off rooms to discuss something, she simply got up, dusted herself off as if nothing had happened, and made a beeline toward the Hearts section.”