Chapter Thirty-Five

Harper

“Who were you talking to?” I ask as I step out of the bathroom, wrapping a towel around my head.

Rob is standing at the window of our room, looking out at the city of Las Vegas beyond. I join him at the window, take his hand, and lean my head on his shoulder.

“See that out there?” he asks, pointing at something in the distance.

I follow his finger and see the outline of a building – or rather, the skeleton of a building. It looks like another casino being built. I nod.

“Yeah, what is it?” I ask.

“That's going to be my new hotel and casino,” he says.

“You're kidding me?”

He shakes his head. “I'm not,” he says. “And I'm going to make it even more elegant and beautiful than this place.”

I kiss him on the cheek and smile. “I have no doubts in my mind about that.”

We stand in silence, just holding hands and enjoying each other's company for a moment. But, then, curiosity takes over. I look up at him and cock my head.

“Who were you talking to when I was in the shower?” I ask. “I heard voices and you didn't sound like you were very happy.”

He sighs and shakes his head. I can tell that he doesn't want to tell me something – but that he also doesn't want to lie to me. A cold worm of dread wiggles its way along my spine as I look at his face. I can tell that whatever it is, it's big. And it's not good.

Rob takes my hand and gently leads me to the couch, sitting me down before he takes a seat beside me. He takes my hands and covers them with his own massive paws. The size disparity between our hands is almost laughable. But, when I look into his eyes and see the agony in them, the laughter dies on my lips.

“Talk to me, Rob,” I say softly. “Whatever it is, we'll be okay. We'll figure it out. Together.”

He lowers his gaze to the floor and the pain etched upon his face is excruciating to me. I can tell that this is a burden that's been on his shoulders for a while. And I get the sense that he's protecting me from something.

“There's something I need to tell you,” he says. “It's about Landon.”

A jolt of fear shoots through me and I look into Rob's eyes. “Is – is he dead?”

He shakes his head and I immediately feel slightly better. “No, he's not dead,” he says. “But, he is in way over his head. And he just keeps digging himself deeper.”

“What do you mean?”

Rob sighs and shakes his head. “You remember when we first met? At Club Delirium?”

I nod. “Of course I do.”

“The man that Landon had introduced you to – ”

“Max,” I say. “Max Irving. He's a record producer who – ”

Rob shakes his head. “He's not a record producer, Harper.”

I cock my head, confusion rolling through me. “Then – who is he?”

“For starters, he's a piece of human garbage,” Rob says. “But, he's also a porn producer.”

“Porn producer?”

Rob nods. “Yeah, and he's apparently dealing in the sex trade these days as well.”

Disbelief comes crashing down on my head. I look at him and then look away, not sure what to make of what he's telling me. I don't understand what any of this means. Why was Landon involved with not just the mob, but with a human trafficker?

The answer, of course, is staring me in the face, but I deny it. I shake my head as if that somehow, will make it untrue. I can't believe what Rob is telling me. I refuse to believe it. It just can't be. I desperately cling to the hope that what I'm thinking is way off the mark. That I'm jumping to conclusions and that the assumptions I'm making are way off base.

But in the back of my mind, that little voice whispers to me. It tells me that I've known this all along – that Landon isn't a good man and that I always knew he was capable of doing something like this.

“I'm really having a hard time understanding all of this,” I say.

“And I really didn't want to have to tell you any of this, Harper,” he says gently. “Believe me, this is the last thing I ever wanted to tell you.”

“Landon – he was going to what, sell me to Max?”

Rob nods slowly, a look of genuine empathy in his eyes. “Yes,” he says. “And Max was going to force you to work for him in the porn industry.”

I shake my head again, trying to fight back the wave of nausea that wells up within me. But, I can't hold it back and I run to the bathroom, falling to my knees in front of the toilet just in time. I heave up everything I ate for breakfast – and then some.

Getting to my feet slowly, on shaky legs, I stagger over to the sink and rinse my mouth out. I grab the mouthwash and gargle, spitting it into the sink as another wave of nausea roils around in my belly. I fight if off though – probably because I'd just heaved up everything I had in my body.

I slump down to the ground with my back against the cabinets. Tears, warm, salty, and fat, roll down my cheeks. And the next thing I know, Rob is there beside me. He's sitting on the bathroom floor next to me, his arm around my shoulders, holding me close. He strokes my hair and just sits with me, letting me know that he's there for me if I want to talk, but not forcing me to.

I lean my head against his shoulder and close my eyes, willing the nausea to pass. And once it finally does, it leaves me feeling a little bit hollowed out. A little bit empty inside. I put my trust in Landon Hall. For months, I believed that he had my best interests at heart. That he'd never go out of his way to hurt me. That he'd always do right by me.

And to find out that he was willing to sell me to a sex trafficker – it's a depth of hurt and betrayal I've never known before. I can't even begin to quantify or put into words how absolutely shattered my heart is right now. I can't stop the tears from flowing. They just keep rolling down my cheeks. Rob holds me tighter and lets me cry.

“I can't believe he'd do that to me,” I say, feeling utterly miserable.

“People do crazy things when they're desperate,” he says.

“Not crazy,” I say. “Evil. What he was going to do was pure evil.”

Rob nods. “You're right. It was pure evil.”

“Why did he call you?”

Rob looks at me, the expression on his face hard but inscrutable. “He wants to make a deal.”

“What kind of a deal?”

He leans his head back against the cabinets. “He wants you back,” he says. “He says he's got something good to offer me in exchange.”

I stare at him with wide eyes, my mouth falling open. “He can't be serious,” I say. “I never want to see him in my life again. I'm afraid of what I'll do if I see him. I have half a mind to kill him myself.”

Rob gives me a small smile. “I told him that you're a big girl who makes her own decisions,” he says. “I told him that I was going to tell you about Max and let you make a decision once you have all the facts.”

“And what did he say to that?”

Rob's laugh is rueful. “He said that it was just a bump in the road that you'd get over,” he says. “That you two will be able to get past this.”

The peal of laughter that escapes me is brittle and sharp. “Like hell. I'll never set foot in the same room with him again. Ever.”

“I tried to tell him that,” he says. “But, he's insisting on a meeting anyway.”

“What is there to talk about?”

“Nothing, as far as I'm concerned,” Rob says. “I told him to get out of LA or he'd suffer the consequences. But, he's stubborn.”

I sigh and shake my head again, angrily wiping away the tears. “Are you going to meet him?”

Rob shrugs. “I have to,” he says. “I need to impress upon him that he's no longer welcome in Los Angeles and that it's time to move on. Without you.”

As he speaks, I can hear shades of what I imagine his father sounded like when he ran the crime family. And it's a sound that chills me to the bone because I realize I'm not hearing Rob, the good man I'm falling in love with – I'm hearing Rob, the head of the Rossi organization.

And I don't know what to do with it. Part of me wants him to dish out some old school mob justice. My anger and hatred for Landon Hall is so deep and searing that I want him to suffer. I want him to die a horrible, painful, screaming death.

But, I know that eventually, my anger will fade. I'll never, ever forgive Landon for what he tried to do, but that hatred won't burn quite as hot or bright. And when that day comes, if I know I contributed to his death by winding Rob up and sending him off half-cocked, the guilt will eventually consume me.

“What are you going to do, Rob?” I ask. “Are you going to –”

“No,” he says. “I'm not going to kill him. As much as I'd like to. But, I'm not my father. I vowed to end the bloodshed associated with my family name, and even though I feel like he deserves it for what he tried to do to you, I won't kill him.”

“Then, what are you going to do?”

“I'm going to scare him so bad that he leaves LA and never looks back,” he says. “I'm going to make sure he's too terrified to ever set foot in Southern California again.”

“And how will you do that?”

He shrugs. “I'm going to have to be creative.”

I look deeply into his eyes and try to figure out if he's just telling me what I want to hear. But, he's so controlled and so guarded, that I can't tell. For all I can tell, he really is planning on killing Landon.

“Look into my eyes,” I say. “And promise me, you're not going to kill him.”

He speaks without hesitating. “I swear to you that I'm not going to kill him.”

Wrapping my arms around him, I let Rob hold me tight. I take comfort in the closeness we share and just being with him alleviates some of the pain I'm feeling. Not all of it, of course. Not anywhere near all of it. But enough. Enough that I don't feel alone.

“I trusted him,” I say miserably.

“I know you did,” he replies softly. “And I'm sorry he abused that trust so terribly.”

“How can a person do that?” I ask. “How can he think it's okay to sell somebody into a sex trafficking ring?”

Rob shakes his head. “I don't know,” he replies. “I don't understand it either.”

Together, we sit on the floor of the bathroom in the Bellagio for a long time. I cling to Rob, revel in the warmth and closeness of his body. I draw strength from him because I know that I'm not mired in this darkness and this pain alone. And through all this pain and misery, that's something. It makes it a little more bearable.

And for that, I'm thankful. For Rob, I'm thankful. I didn't know it that night, but when he took me away from Landon and put me under his protection, he really did save my life.