Page 14 of Carter

I dropped my phone on the bed after I erased the message. How many times did I write the same exact thing to Dahlia in the last year? Always choosing to not send the message at the end. We’d talked over the phone only a few times over the last few months, which wasn’t normal for us. We usually talked every day.

But with everything that happened between Savannah and me since that night in Miami, I had kept Dahlia and Jack at arm’s length to protect them.

Savannah wasn’t just trying to ruin me anymore; she was trying to ruin everything and everyone I loved too.

One last glance at the time on my phone and I left my apartment. Taylor, my chief of security, met me when I entered the K Hotel from the staff’s back door. The last thing I needed was to be recognized.

Taylor placed a golden plastic square in my hand. “Your card. Room 4802. She’s already there.”

I clapped his shoulder and ignored the voice in my head urging me to walk away.

“Thanks, man. And thanks for your discretion.”

With my hands stuffed in my pockets, I rode the access-card-only elevator to the presidential suite on the forty-eighth floor.

In front of the door, I halted.

Why are you doing this, Carter?

The circus has to stop. It’s getting ridiculous.

With my face buried in my hands, I breathed in and out. This wasn’t the time for my racing thoughts to mess with my head even more than they already were.

With a steeled back, I unlocked the door and let myself in.

Lyla, a woman I used to see every time I was in town years ago, closed the distance between us. She looked amazing in her short silvery dress, her straight dark hair tied into a sleek ponytail.

“Hey, Carter. It’s been a long time. I am glad you called.”

Her hands rested on my chest, and the beating of my heart slowed.

Lyla’s eyes lit up the room.

“Just kiss me already,” she asked of me, rising on her toes, her mouth crashing on mine.