Half Empty(26)

They’d kissed twice the whole night, and certainly no one was climbing on anyone. “I can’t imagine he’d invite me here and ignore me to flirt with other women,” Trina told her.

“He wouldn’t mean to, but sometimes his polite nature won’t let him stop a woman from trying.”

Trina wasn’t sure what hidden message Vicki was trying to tell her. If she wasn’t high on the endorphins from dancing and Wade’s attention, Trina might have just flat-out asked her. She pointed toward the stairs. “I was going to grab a jacket.”

“Of course. Go on. We can chat another time.”

Trina didn’t like the sound of that.

On the landing up the stairs to her room, Jordyn stood poised against the wall, almost as if she were waiting for someone.

Her gaze snapped to Trina’s, and she looked behind her before she started talking. “Hello. We haven’t met.”

“That doesn’t mean we don’t know who each other are,” Trina said without pretense. “I hope this isn’t awkward for you.”

Jordyn flashed lots of teeth. “For me? Oh, no. I’m fine. I’ve known Wade long enough to know what he’s all about.”

Again with the hidden messages.

The woman was looking for a conversation that Trina didn’t want to have. “If you’ll excuse me.”

Jordyn lifted up her hands. “Don’t let me stop you.”

You already did.

Once in her room, Trina took a long, deep breath. Laughter from outside reached the balcony. She walked to the door and watched the party from above. Wade was easy to spot, or maybe her radar had already dialed him in. He was laughing beside a few friends while over a hundred other people stood in small groups, socializing. It surprised her that there weren’t more people vying for his attention. A celebrity of his standing almost always had a crowd trying to interrupt. This was obviously not that group of people.

She turned away from the open balcony door to use the bathroom before gathering her sweater from the back of a chair. She sat on the edge of her bed and removed her lip gloss from her purse. Two swipes of the tiny brush, and she tucked it away and placed her bag back on her nightstand. As she did, she knocked her plugged-in cell phone to the floor.

When she picked it up, the screen turned on and caught her attention. Three messages lit up.

All of them were from Lori.

Call me!

It’s urgent!

Left a message on your voicemail. I’m flying out now, call Sam.

A chill ran down Trina’s spine. Lori never cried wolf. The woman was always calm and collected—cold, even. Trina fumbled with her phone until she found Lori’s message. She’d called six hours ago.

“Trina, it’s Lori. Don’t panic.” Only it sounded like Lori was unnerved. “It’s Avery. She’s okay . . .” Lori cleared her throat. “Call me as soon as you get this message.”

Trina started to shake.

She dialed Lori, ended up on her voice mail. Without leaving a message, she called Sam. When she picked up, Trina jumped on her. “What happened?”

“We’ve been trying to get ahold of you for hours.”

“What happened, Sam?”

Sam paused. “Avery was attacked . . .”



Wade saw Trina cut through the crowd, her eyes scanning everyone. Her smile was gone, as was his hat that he’d placed on her head hours before. She had her purse tossed over her shoulder and she held a sweater like she was leaving.

Something was wrong.

“Excuse me.” He stopped the conversation midsentence and hustled to Trina’s side.

She noticed him several yards out and met him halfway.

“What’s wrong?”

Her lip quivered. “I gotta go. I need a ride to the airport.” She was close to tears.

He placed both hands on her shoulders. “Slow down. What happened?”

“I need to leave now, Wade. It’s Avery. She’s in the hospital. I’m sorry. Can I borrow your truck? Or Jeb can drive me to the airport. Anything . . .”

“Take a deep breath, baby.” He grasped her hand and started toward the house.

Jeb intercepted them at the back door.

“I’ll explain on the way. Get the car,” Wade told Jeb.

He left Trina on the driveway long enough to grab his wallet and a coat, and when he returned, she was already in the car, with Jeb at the wheel. Instead of jumping in the front seat, Wade took the back with her.

Trina was on her phone. “How long?”

Jeb took off. It appeared that Trina had already told him they were going to the airport.

“Okay. Do we know anything else about the person who did this?”

Wade started to draw a picture in his head.

Trina hung her head and sniffed. “I knew we should have had Reed bring in a bodyguard. She was taking stuff to the auction houses . . . No, watches and pens. I don’t know, Sam. Expensive crap. Nothing worth hurting Avery over.”

Wade placed his hand on Trina’s thigh in an effort to comfort her.

“Of course this is my fault. She wouldn’t have been there if I had just walked away from that house and let someone else deal with it.”

Trina looked up and out the window, unshed tears in her eyes. “How long until we get to the airport?” she asked Jeb.

“Thirty minutes.”

Trina told the person on the phone her timeline. “I’ll be there.”

She hung up the phone and punched the seat beside her.

Wade didn’t ask, he just waited for her to talk.

“She was found in a parking garage, dragged between two cars. They beat her up, Wade.” Trina started to cry.

He pulled her into his arms. “It’s okay, honey. We’re getting there as fast as we can.”

She cried on his shoulder. “Sam is sending a plane. Just get me to the airport. You don’t have to—”

“We’re not having this conversation. I’m going. Jeb?” he asked, even though it was understood that where Wade went, Jeb went, unless otherwise arranged.

Jeb caught his eyes in the rearview mirror with a look of Are you kidding?

“You don’t—”

Best way to get a woman to stop arguing was to get her talking about something else. “Tell me everything you know.”

She sucked back a breath and started at the beginning.





Chapter Eighteen



A car waited for them at LaGuardia. She tucked into the back of the limousine with Wade while Jeb took the front seat, next to the driver. It was late and traffic was light. They arrived at the hospital well after visiting hours, but that never mattered when you knew someone in the ICU. Trina walked into the waiting room to find Lori and Reed.

Trina fell into Lori’s embrace. “My fault.”

“Stop.”

“She was there because of me.” Guilt would sit in Trina’s soul for eternity.

“Avery has never done anything she didn’t want to do. So stop!”

Trina pushed back the darkness inside. “How is she?”

“She woke up.”

The fact that she hadn’t been awake all this time wasn’t lost on Trina.

“And she’s talking . . .”

Chills. God, please.

“She’s going to be okay, Trina.”

Trina shook as she broke down.

Lori embraced her until the sobs ebbed.

Slowly . . . ever so slowly, the room came into focus.

Reed and Wade stood side by side.

“Can I see her?”

“For ten minutes at the top of the hour. Hospital rules.”

Trina looked at the clock on the wall. They had half an hour to wait.

The door to the waiting room opened and Jeb walked in.

Wade turned to Reed and extended his hand. “I’m Wade.”

“I’m sorry,” Trina said.

“It’s okay, Trina,” Lori told her.

Trina sat beside Lori, and Wade made himself comfortable opposite the two of them. Jeb hovered by the door and watched the other people in the waiting room.

“Do the police have any leads?” Wade asked quietly, once they were sitting down.

Reed answered, “No. They’re getting the surveillance tapes of the garage as we speak. Hopefully by morning we’ll have some information.”

“Has Avery said anything about her attacker?”

Lori placed her hand over Trina’s. “They’re able to wake her, but she’s sedated now.”

Reed sat forward. “Do you know where exactly she was going?”

“Christie’s, I think. The other one I don’t know. Avery had found Fedor’s pens after I’d left for Texas, the expensive kind. She was all excited about them, said they were worth a ton of money.” Trina swallowed hard. “I was going to give her a percentage of what was sold at auction.” She turned to Lori. “Avery’s burned through a lot of money this year and wanted a job. I thought, perfect. She knows all about high-end stuff that I’m clueless about. She was excited.”

“Did she take the stuff to New York with her?” Lori asked.

“Yeah.”

“At least we have a motive,” Reed said with relief.

“What do you mean?” Trina asked.

“Burglary. Her purse was dumped out, but whoever did this didn’t bother to take her wallet. There weren’t any watches or pens on her either, so they must have taken those.”

Trina shook her head and brought her purse to her lap. “I don’t think she had any of it on her. Here, this text came through before all of yours. I didn’t notice it until we were on the plane.”