Free Taming Vegas by Nadene Seiters Page B

of thinking I have to do as soon as this step is finished.
    “Well, I’ll miss you.” I feel something akin to guilt when
he says it as if he means it, and I flop back onto the bed with my hair splayed
out behind me.
    “I’ll miss you, too.” He tells me he has to go because there
is something urgent he has to deal with, and I let him go without a second
hesitation or thought.
    Now that the awkward conversation is over, I immediately put
my phone back in my purse with the ringer turned off and the vibrate option
also silenced. I sling my purse over my shoulder and open up the door to the
suite that I booked, and head out to the hallway. I’m on the thirtieth floor,
which means it’s a long ride to the ground level where I get out. Eerily,
there’s no one about when I walk through the parking garage and up to street
level.
    It takes me about thirty seconds to hail a cab so that I can
go to the smaller, crappier hotel room I rented yesterday and grab my things. There’s
a fee for checking out early, but I swipe my card and smile anyway. Tonight I
will be a single woman again. I glance down at the ring on my left hand. Well,
almost a single woman.
    The ride back to Obsidian Nightclub takes about twenty
minutes through the traffic, and I’m hit with a blast of hot air when I open up
the cab door. I thank the driver, give him a hefty tip, and try not to smile
when he gives me a lopsided grin. This is how I got into trouble in the first
place, in Vegas. A pretty boy smiled at me, and I let my knees get wobbly.
    Someone asks if I need help taking my bag up to my room, but
I deny the help and roll it onto the elevator myself. Once I’m safely back
inside my new hotel suite, I sit down on one of the leather chairs and lean my
head back as I stare at the ceiling. It’s only two in the afternoon, which
means I have two more hours to kill before Alex’s lawyer shows up. He’s kidding
himself if he thinks I won’t be there when they read through the divorce
papers.
    ----
    I wake up from a nap about an hour before I have to head
upstairs to Alex’s office and grab a quick shower so that I’m refreshed for the
meeting. Part of me wants to wear something slinky to show him what he’s missing
since he never tried to get in touch with me, but I put on a button up white
shirt with a pair of black slacks. I pull on a pair of closed toed heels to
complete my ensemble and walk out of my hotel suite with a small frown on my
face. I just want to finish this. Stepping onto the elevator, I straighten the
cuffs of my shirt and flip my hair away from my face quickly. Just as the doors
are opening, I check to make sure that not a smudge of the light makeup is out
of place. Then I straighten up and put a small smile on my face even though I
feel as if I want a hole to swallow me up. Then two worlds seem to collide at
once.
    Brent Hickory is standing and facing the elevator with a
small grin on his lips, and Alexander Pope is sitting behind him at his desk. I
see that they have not opened up the manila envelope with the paperwork inside,
or they closed it before the doors could open. Yet when Brent’s eyes meet mine
and the recognition hits, his grin falters into an expression of pure shock,
and the doors almost close.
    At the last second, I reach out a hand to stop them and take
a hesitant step inside the room. This has to be some kind of practical joke.
There is no way that my sister’s husband is Alexander Pope’s lawyer. If he is,
I’m screwed because my sister can never keep her big mouth shut. It’s one of
the reasons we never talk.
    “Melanie?” If I felt any doubt this is Brent Hickory
standing in front of me, it’s washed away by the sound of his voice. I’ll never
forget the deep tenor of his voice the first time I met him.
    “Oh God, Brent?” Alex genuinely looks confused, but I’m
still suspicious he might have something to do with this. Maybe he’s trying to intimidate me?
    “Well, this is not what I