Buy Me Bundle(41)

For years I searched for her. Do you know how many Tiffany Smiths are in the world? Fifty-two thousand, seven hundred and fifty-nine. And that’s assuming she didn’t change her name. I’ve gone through countless private detectives and more money than a normal man could make in a lifetime trying to find her. False hope and women pretending to be her have broken me over the years. I’ve built my empire in the hopes that one day she might find me. Hell, I even named my casino after her. I’ll never forget her bright blue eyes. I see them every time I close my own. Somewhere in my heart, I always thought we would find one another, but maybe she’s with someone else, moved on. The thought makes me clench my fists and grit my teeth. I only have myself to blame. I should have found her by now.

“You doing okay, Ethan?” Charles’s words snap me out of my angry guessing game, and I just nod, following him through the casino lobby.

“Have you seen Foxy’s new show?” Mandy asks, obviously trying to bring us back to business.

“No, I’m afraid I haven’t had the time. But I’ve heard great things.” We pass one of her posters for the old show, and I get a funny feeling in my stomach. It happens every time I see something that reminds me of my Tiffany. The poster is of a woman, turned away from the camera with only her head and shoulders visible. Her hair is white blonde with a pink bow pinned in it. The words Foxy Bow are emblazoned across the bottom in glitter. The picture doesn’t show her face, but the blonde hair makes me think of my girl. This is Vegas, though, and a bottle of bleach is on every street corner.

“Oh, we need to have these changed out. They are the old promotional banners. Come around the front and see the new one. I think they installed it just this morning.”

“Sure, sounds great.” I don’t know why I’m melancholy all of a sudden, but I think it’s because Tiffany is on my mind so much lately.

As we walk through the casino, I try to pay attention to the conversation. Charles and Mandy are discussing plans for the casinos and what they want as far as the future of our partnership is concerned. I spend most of my life working to get noticed by someone I haven’t seen in ten years. Someone who may or may not want to see me. Someone who may or may not even be alive.

I stop that train of thought as soon as it enters my mind. I would know if my soul was gone. I would feel it in my bones if she wasn’t still breathing. I’d know it.

The day I was pulled apart from her was the worst day of my life. When I was put in the back of that cop car by DCP, I begged them to take me back. I knew that if I was separated from her, something bad would happen. If I didn’t have my eyes on her at all times, he would get to her. I just knew her father was waiting for his chance.

When we got down to the police station, it turned out that they had found a relative of mine. I’d gone into foster care after my mother died. I was placed with the Mark family, who just happened to live next to my Tiffany. When I was at the darkest point in my life, it was like God sent her to me. To shine light on my dark world.

They found my grandfather, but he had recently passed, leaving everything he had to me. A pile of money and a casino that wasn’t turning a profit. As soon as the cops let me go, I raced back to Tiffany, only to find her gone. I beat the shit out of her father but later realized he didn't know where she went either. So I started looking for her and building a life for us. Taking what my grandfather left me and increasing it tenfold. For her. For us.

“There she is. Our star.” Mandy waves her hand up, and I follow her line of sight.

I look up, seeing a huge banner stretched across the front entrance of the hotel, and as her ice blue eyes stare back at me, my knees go weak. It’s her. It’s my Tiffany. Clutching my chest, I nearly collapse to the floor, and Charles and Mandy rush to help me.

“Where?” I manage to choke out, but they don’t respond. They look at one another as if they’re confused. Like my whole world isn’t about to explode.

“Where is Tiffany?!” I bellow, and it echoes off the black marble walls.

“She’s about to go on stage. What the fuck is wrong, Ethan?” Charles is still holding my arm to steady me, but I break free and run as fast as I can to the other side of the casino. My legs burn and my chest aches. It can’t be possible. It can’t be true. Please God, let it be true.

I don’t know what happens, or who I knock over to get there, but when I get to the entrance, security is there to try to stop me. I feel a sudden rage come over me and I turn, punching someone who puts a hand on me.

I see Charles out of the corner of my eye. He’s holding up his hands and telling people to let me pass. He must see that I’m in a fury that won’t be stopped.

When I get past the entrance, I walk into a dark room, seeing the stage at the end, and I watch the curtains part. A bright light centers on the woman, and all the air leaves my lungs.

Standing there, glowing with perfection, is my girl.





3





Tiffany





The cheers of the audience meet my ears as they always do when the curtains part. The stage light blocks my vision of the audience, and it’s something I’m always thankful for. I know what’s out there: a sold-out crowd, mostly men, here to see Foxy Bow.

I start my routine, something I’ve done so many times I can do it in my sleep. I pop my hip to the first beat of the music that fills the theatre, silencing the crowd.

I don’t hear so much as a pin drop before I’m off the ground. He had me before I ever saw him. A strong body lifts me from my feet. A squeal leaves my lips as a giant of a man tosses me over his shoulder. I've had men try to get onstage before, but no one has ever made it this far without security taking them to the ground.

Flipping my hair out of my face, I see Charles and Mandy following behind the man who’s carrying me. Their faces don’t look worried, just shocked as the man carries me away from the crowd and through the backstage area, never breaking stride as he carries me further and further from the show.

Maybe he’s a bodyguard and something has gone wrong. That thought quickly leaves my mind when the man’s deep voice fills my ears and makes my head spin. A voice I thought I’d never hear again in my life.

“Bunny.” With one word, so many emotions flood my body, overtaking everything, and I feel myself go limp. All the fear I was holding inside me leaves with the simple word. If Ethan has me in his arms, I’m utterly safe.

“Are you going to stop him?” Mandy says to Charles as they follow us out from the backstage area into the casino.

“There is no stopping a man with that look on his face,” Charles replies, making me want to see the look on Ethan’s face. I wonder if it still looks the same as it did ten years ago, but if the size of his body is any indication, I’m guessing not. I don’t remember him being this big all over, but I was never draped on him like this either.

“She’s mine. Back the fuck off, Charles.” Ethan’s hard voice is lethal, but it’s one I’ve heard him use before. The same one he always used when protecting me.

“Is this, like, a thing? Do casino owners just grab women they want and declare them as theirs or something? Because I’m starting to see a trend,” Mandy comments as she shoots Charles a glare that holds no heat to it. She’s always got something smart to say.

“Ethan, I don’t know where you think you’re going, but you can’t just take off with my employees.” At Charles’s words, Ethan stops in his tracks and turns so I can no longer peek at Mandy and Charles.

“Call her ‘mine’ one more time, Charles, and I’ll burn this fucking building down. Then you’ll have no fucking use for employees. You won’t call them yours then.”

“It’s like that?”

“It’s way fucking far beyond ‘like that.’”

No one says anything for a few moments, and Ethan turns and starts walking again.

“Stop him,” I hear Mandy say, but Charles grips her hand, not letting her follow.

“She’s not fighting him,” is all I can hear Charles say before he’s too far away for me to make out any more of his words. Ethan’s making a quick retreat, and I feel the Vegas night air hit my exposed skin as we step outside. Suddenly, I hear Ethan bark out an order.

“Door!”

I’m shoved into the back of a limo and quickly pulled into Ethan’s lap, straddling him. I have only a moment to take in his face before he grabs my neck, pulling me to his mouth.

Ethan kissed me once when we were young. It was a soft touch of his lips to mine. It happened two days before he was taken from my life. It was my first and only kiss.

This, however, is nothing like that first kiss, or how I thought our first real kiss would be. I’d pictured it soft, slow and sweet, but this is filled with so much more. It’s infused with the emotion and feeling pouring from both of us.

His hands on my neck hold me tight to him while our warm lips meet and his mouth opens. His tongue presses into my mouth, demanding entry that I eagerly grant him, and I’m lost to the powerful connection. It’s not a kiss, it’s the reconnection of our souls, years after being torn apart. It’s as if I’m whole now that his lips are on mine.