Except, fuck it. He would never be better off without Leah. She wasn’t better off without him, either, and the sooner she admitted it the better off both of them would be. There was only one person who’d know where Leah had gone. Kate. Brandon dialled her cell number and got her voicemail.
‘Kate. It’s Brandon. I … could you call me, please?’
Shit, he sounded as corn-fed and aw-shucks as he knew Kate liked to tease Leah he was. Too late, though, saying more would only make him sound like a desperate asshole. He disconnected.
Kate would know where Leah was, but who would know where Kate was? Brandon dialled another number, one he’d never had need to use before but which Leah had programmed into his when they got matching iPhones.
It rang only a couple of times before a male voice said, ‘Hello?’
‘Dix? It’s Brandon.’
‘Band Boy,’ Dix said after the barest pause, amusement thick in his voice.
Brandon gritted his teeth and slapped a hand to his forehead. ‘Don’t call me that, man. C’mon.’
‘Sorry.’ Dix laughed. ‘Couldn’t resist.’
Brandon scowled. ‘I’m trying to reach Kate.’
Dix stopped laughing. ‘Why?’
‘Because she knows where Leah is.’
Brandon liked Dix well enough, though he didn’t know him as well as he knew Kate. The four of them had gone out a bunch of times to dinner, sat at the same table for things like Leah’s company holiday party, stuff like that. He’d met Kate first, though, and had spent more time with her. Had even had a few conversations with her without Leah or Dix around. Kate wasn’t his buddy, but he thought she liked him, at least thought he was good enough to be dating her best friend. He wasn’t really sure what Dix thought about him, but he was pretty sure Dix knew the sort of relationship Brandon and Leah had.
‘I’ll give you credit, kid, you held out longer than I thought you would.’
‘It’s only been a day.’
Dix snorted. ‘I didn’t wait that long to figure out where my woman went.’
‘She told me not to try to find out,’ Brandon said and braced himself for Dix’s laughter.
Dix only cleared his throat. ‘Ah.’
‘I know why she left,’ Brandon said. ‘I was going to ask her to marry me. She got a little … freaked.’
Another beat of silence and then Dix growled, ‘Damn, what’s with those two, anyway?’
‘Do you know where she is? Leah, I mean.’
‘She’s with Kate.’
Brandon snorted. ‘So, where’s Kate?’
‘Vegas.’
Of all the places in the world Brandon might have guessed she’d go, that was the last. Leah had once referred to Vegas as a ‘playground for deviants’. He’d assumed she was being derisive. Maybe he was wrong.
‘I’m not waiting for her to come back,’ Brandon said. ‘I want her to see I’m serious about this. I’m not just going to sit back and let her run away every time something gets scary.’
‘Dammit, kid …’ Dix laughed again. ‘So. Let’s go.’
‘Wait. What?’
‘Vegas,’ Dix said. ‘You and me. Let’s go get them. Besides, Vegas is a helluva lot of fun.’
7
KATE DEFINITELY DIDN’T look at Leah. If she did it would be over and the laughing would begin and that would not be nice. No. Not at all. Instead she tried to pretend it wasn’t odd at all to ride in an elevator with a guy in a latex body suit wearing a feather mask and a cape. And a rather large red hat.
Kate had mental rules about certain things. Women over thirty-five shouldn’t wear leather mini-skirts. No one should wear reinforced-toe panty hose with open-toed shoes. Not ever. And anyone with an ounce of body fat shouldn’t wear a purple latex body suit. Much less with feather masks, capes and big red hats. It was like bad taste exploded all over him. Still, he seemed rather nice, and he held the doors for them as they approached the elevators.
‘So, are you here for the con?’ Cape guy asked.
‘Con?’ Leah sounded so very calm, like she had discussions with men in masks and capes every single day.
‘FetCon? It’s a sex and fetish conference down at the convention centre. You two should come by,’ Cape boy’s friend – the one on the end of the leash snapped to the spiked collar on his neck – added. Seriously, a collar was one thing, but spikes? It seemed so very right out of a catalogue and poserish.
Kate nodded and smiled, giving her very best blank lawyer face. ‘Thank you for the invitation. Our schedule is pretty full.’ She was all for letting your freak flag fly. Whatever got you off as long as everyone consented was just fine. Who was she to judge? She liked to have sex where people might see. She had her own kinks, so she assumed everyone else did too. However, it seemed to her that not being a stereotype would be good too. But hell, she didn’t know these dudes so what did she know? They could just like spikes. Or something.
‘Something for everyone. Not just straight people.’
‘Oh? Well, good. We’ll keep it in mind.’ Kate smiled brightly.
Two more stops and the elevator’s inhabitants grew more colourful. After the guy with the cheek piercing and the split tongue got on, a woman in a fishnet cat suit and knee-high boots joined them for several floors.
‘Love the boots. Where’d you get them?’ Kate asked.
‘I got them online. I live in Prairie Hawk, West Virginia, we don’t have any lifestyle-gear stores around.’ She rattled off a website name and Kate made a mental note. The boots were beyond awesome and Dix would most certainly enjoy any evening she wore boots like that and nothing else.
Kate and Leah managed to hold it until they’d gotten inside the gargantuan suite where they
