I guess I’m not going to figure this out until I let him show me what he’s talking about.
Noah holds out his hand and I take it with some hesitation. He pulls me into the elevator. I study him as we ride up to the sixth floor; he’s fidgety. He keeps glancing at me and then looking away, staring at the ticking floor numbers.
He’s nervous.
I fold my arms across my chest and follow Noah out of the elevator and down the dimly lit hallway. He stops in front of a room, and I glance up at the chrome numerals.
Noah takes a deep breath, shoots me a furtive smile, and uses his key card to unlock the hotel room door.
My phone buzzes again in my pocket. I’m sure it’s from Ace, but I’m walking into the hotel room and my breath immediately catches as I take in the sight before me.
It’s a suite, so it’s much larger than a normal room. The space is spread with card tables filled with guys of all ages. There are some girls walking around, too, holding drinks in their hands as they talk in small groups or linger close to the men they came with. There’s a football game on the large, flat screen TV.
I stare around the room, one hand reaching up to my head as it starts to throb painfully. I squeeze my eyes shut, but when I open them again, I’m still looking at what can only be one thing.
A gambling lounge.
“What is this, Noah?” My voice is an octave higher than normal, but I can’t stop myself from turning an accusing stare on him.
“This,” starts Noah, his voice full of pride and trepidation. “Is how I’ve been earning the money I need to buy in on my uncle’s business. I took a page out of your thug boyfriend’s book and opened my own ring.”
Like a fish swimming in circles, I open and close my mouth a few times. The words won’t come. They’re trapped somewhere between my brain and my mouth. But it only takes a moment before my muteness is cured.
“You stole Ace’s idea?” Another octave. I don’t even recognize my voice at this point.
My phone buzzes again in my back pocket, but I ignore it.
Noah shrugs, staring at me from a few feet away. “Why should he have all the glory? I went to his ring a few months ago and thought to myself I can do the same thing. Only I can be better at it. I run this ring in a different hotel every week.”
Noah’s getting carried away with his excitement. His words are coming faster and louder, and he no longer appears tentative or nervous. He’s proud of what he’s done. And he wants me to be proud of him, too.
Not gonna happen, bucko.
“I don’t limit how many people can play. And I don’t stop at letting them bet on games or play poker and craps. I’ve set up a numbers game, too. The cash literally flows in, Ny!”
Now gripping my head with both hands, I shake it from side to side. I stare around the room again, taking in the vast age differences of all the people playing here.
“Noah, you’ve got grown men gambling in here. Have you lost your mind? What if you get hurt by one of these guys?”
Noah’s expression turns smug. “That would never happen. Because like your boy, I hire muscle to make sure I’m safe. And to make sure that these guys pay up.”
I shake my head again, but then I freeze as his last words settle over me.
“Make them pay up? Like what, Noah? You hire guys who will rough them up for you?” My stomach plummets to my feet.
Narrowing my eyes on Noah, I watch his reaction. But he’s not reacting. He’s watching me carefully, like he’s waiting for something.
The oily taste of fear invades my mouth, and I bite down hard on my tongue. As the taste of blood mixes with the taste of my fear, I take a step backward from Noah. My phone begins to buzz repeatedly in my pocket, and I pull it out. Turning away from Noah, I put the phone to my ear.
I’m ready to talk to Ace now.
I feel the sting on my fingers as Noah’s hand connects with mine, snatching my phone from me.
“He can wait,” he snaps.
Tossing my phone onto table, he closes the distance between us again. Taking my face in his hands, he stares into my eyes.
“I never meant for them to kill that guy,” he says softly. “He owed me money. I wanted them to collect it. That’s all.”
My breath is coming faster, but I will my body to remain still.
I can’t freak out, I can’t freak out. Ace…he knows where I am.
But he doesn’t know that Noah is the person he’s been looking for the entire time!
“Noah…I don’t want to know any more, okay? I just want my phone. And then I have to go.” I hold my hand out, refusing to let it tremble.
Noah rips his eyes away from me, down to my outstretched hand…and back to my face. There’s disbelief in his eyes, and then regret. The last emotion that crosses his face is anger, and it’s the one that finally forces a tremor to skate down my spine.
“You won’t even give me a chance to explain? What did it take with Ace, for you to end up in his bed? An hour? Two? You’ve known me for years…but you’re staring at me like I’m a stranger. And you want to… what?” He grabs my phone off the table and holds it in front of my face. I’m not stupid enough to make a grab for it. “Call him to take you away from me? Again?”
Noah’s voice has lifted, and now the people in the room are giving us wary stares. A few of them head for the door, and I want to scream at them
