Free Fight for Her#3 by JJ Knight Page B

enemies.
    My brain is racing. Get a cab. To the airport. No, they’ll go there. Just take the cab a long way.
    I stop by the door, ready to fake whatever behavior I have to show to escape. “I need Parker. I need to go. Can you get him for me? I don’t want to walk through the restaurant.”
    “Yes,” Jo says. “I’ll get him right now. You want to stay here?”
    “Yes.”
    She hesitates by the door. “You promise you’ll stay right here?”
    “I will.” Though I know I won’t.
    She leaves the bathroom. It’s not far to the table, but at least they are in the back corner.
    As soon as the door closes all the way, I pull it open again and dart along the side wall. I’m afraid to try and make it to the front door, so when I see the swinging doors to the kitchen, I go in.
    A few cooks look up in surprise, but I’ve already spotted the back door, which is open to an alley. I run through before anyone can stop me. It’s a short sprint to the street and then I’m blending in with the Vegas crowd, the sun beating down on us.
    I spot a taxi and wave at it, jerking open the door before it even comes to a full stop.
    “Can you drive away from the Strip?” I ask.
    The taxi merges back onto the street.
    I look back at the door of the restaurant. Just as we are about to go out of view, I see Colt and Jo and Parker burst out onto the sidewalk. I watch as we drive away, Parker looking frantic, dashing one way, then the other. Then we’re too far and their figures are lost to the bend in the road.

Chapter 17: Parker

    “Where the hell did she go?” Panic courses through me. The sidewalk is full of people. The street has a lot of cars, but they’re flowing through easily.
    Maddie could have done anything, run any direction, jumped in a cab.
    “You think she went back to the hotel?” Colt asks.
    “Why would she run like that if she was just going there?” I ask.
    Jo turns around from scanning the street. “She got a bunch of messages that upset her,” she says.
    “What did they say?” I jerk out my own phone. Is something wrong with Lily?
    “She wouldn’t tell me, but they really freaked her out,” Jo says.
    I punch my phone on and send Maddie a quick text. Where did you go?
    Colt claps my shoulder. “We’ll find her.”
    But nobody else is staying at our hotel. No one can intercept her if she goes there to grab her things. And I don’t even know if she went there. She might be heading for the airport.
    What the hell sort of message did she get?
    It had to be about Lily.
    I scroll through my old messages and find where Delores wrote me to meet me at the airport what felt like a lifetime ago, when I first went back to see them for the party. I tap out a message to her.

    Have you heard from Maddie this afternoon? She has a new phone.

    Hopefully that will seem like a normal message. If Delores finds out about any of what happened in Vegas, she’ll no doubt pressure Maddie to stay away from me.
    Although I’m starting to wonder if maybe that’s the way it has to be.
    Colt leads us down the sidewalk. “Let’s go to the hotel first. I can alert Jax again.”
    “No,” I say. “We need to handle this ourselves this time.”
    He nods. “You’re probably right. Their system doesn’t quite mesh with how fighters handle things.”
    “Exactly.” If Delores comes back with no news, we can drop that possibility from what might have upset Maddie enough to bolt.
    My phone buzzes. It’s Delores.

    Not yet. Is her flight delayed?

    I’m not sure what to feel. Relief that Lily is obviously fine. But an increasing sense of unease that maybe something worse has happened. Something with Striker.

    No, she dropped her phone and had to get a new one. Just seeing if it’s working.

    Hopefully that will satisfy her.
    “It’s not Lily,” I tell Colt and Jo. We walk swiftly toward the Bellagio.
    “Then it has to be Striker,” Jo says. “Unless there is someone else in her life that could upset her that