6

Cadence

The elevator lurches upward and I laugh.

I didn’t need the delay in getting to bed, but Maximilian Stonee is funny. And sexy, even when he’s being a drunken idiot.

His words, not mine.

Considering how many drunk guys I’ve had to deal with in my life, that should be a turnoff, but something about his smile… the light of admiration in his eyes.

Not want, or need, or desire, but appreciation.

It’s nice.

The morning light is bright when I squint awake to the sound of—what is that noise? It takes me a moment to realize where I am.

The hotel. I stayed here last night after I left Novi’s room.

And now my phone is ringing to wake me up. A quick check shows it’s already after nine and that my assistant Tatiana is FaceTiming me.

I don’t hesitate before accepting. “I slept in,” I say groggily, flipping my hair away from my face and sitting up. “What’s wrong?”

Luckily, I pulled on the oversized T-shirt I slept in before my head hit the pillow so Tatiana wasn’t greeted with the sight of any nakedness.

“Were you with Novi last night?” Tatiana has fifteen years on me, and wonderful lines of experience on her face, as well as a cheerfulness that often keeps me sane. This morning, though, she looks every inch of those years, lines etched deeper, and the cheerful smile is missing.

Worry grips my gut. “I was. I left when he fell asleep.” Tatiana looks to the side and I know her husband Travis is with her. “What is it?”

“It’s Novi.” Tatiana pauses for an instant, flicking her gaze to Travis. “He died, Cadence. I’m so sorry.”

“He… what?” There’s a roaring in my head like I’m standing too close to a subway train. I shake it to clear the noise. “What?”

“Room service found him earlier this morning. He didn’t answer his wake-up calls. It seems like he passed away in his sleep unless—”

“No.” It comes out more as a soft moan than a word. I rub my forehead with two fingers. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sorry, Cadence.” Tatiana looks it too. Even though neither she or Travis ever met him, they knew how important Novi is to me.

Was. He was important because now he’s dead. Novi Tate has died and where does that leave me?

Not with him when he died. I close my eyes, searching back to when I left his room. Was he breathing?

He had to have been breathing. If he wasn’t—

I can’t think about if he wasn’t.

“He was alive when I left,” I tell Tatiana, fully awake and mind ticking with alarm. Awake and… Novi. “Nothing happened between us.”

“You don’t have to tell us anything,” Tatiana says gently. “You cared about him.”

“But not like that. We’ve never had sex. But if anyone knows I was in that room last night, that’s what they’ll assume happened. And that I killed him somehow.”

The AC in the room clicks on and I tense, more about the situation I’m in than because of the cold air. Novi is gone, and if anyone knows I was with him, I know exactly what will happen. Older man. Younger woman. No matter how long we’ve been friends, and how much he’s helped me over the years, I will be somehow responsible for his death.

I killed him with sex. I killed him with a pillow. I killed him for his money.

And then my life, and everything I have, will be splashed everywhere for the world to see. And judge.

They’ll judge me so hard.

“Did anyone see you go in or out?” Travis asks, crowding into the screen with his wife. “Because that—”

“Would be bad,” I finish. “What are they saying?”

“It hasn’t hit the news yet, but I have my sources,” Tatiana says. “I don’t know if the family has been notified yet.”

As Tatiana says that, I check my text messages. Eighteen notifications.

Stomach twisting, I scan them. Fourteen from Preston Tate, the last coming in two minutes ago. Three from his brother, David. And one from his wife.

All threatening and accusing, even from Penelope.

If they can put me with Novi, it will be everywhere, and then people will start digging. I’ve hidden my past well, but Travis and Tatiana can only do so much to shield me without Novi’s help. He kept his family from finding Catrina Quinlan.

I don’t know what I can do to protect my secrets.

“They know,” I tell Tatiana in a hollow voice.

“Okay, okay.” From her tone, I know she’s switched into gladiator mode. “Go back, walk me through the night.”

This is a standing conversation, so I pull myself out from under the covers.

This is a pacing conversation, and I start a lap across the room. “We ate dinner in the hotel restaurant,” I start, my mind flying over the events of last night to remember who saw me where. “The waiters, Owen, the sommelier, Gus, the manager who greeted me with a kiss hello. That woman when we were leaving…”

Marco.

I draw in my breath.

Maximilian Stonee. The elevator, after I left Novi’s room…

I close my eyes.

Novi’s family hates me. Hate may be a strong word, but they strongly dislike me. If they find out I was with him…

“Dinner took place in a public place, so no one can say anything.” Tatiana pulls me back to the present. “What happened after dinner?”

“We took the back elevator up to his room,” I report, keeping my voice steady and calm even as my heart gives anxious thumps. “He doesn’t like the staff to see him with the cane, so he never goes through the lobby. The room was in his name.”

“So there’s no way to place you with him after dinner.”

My pause is too long for Tatiana. “Cadence? Did anyone see you with him?”

“There was someone in the elevator,” I admit. “But he was drunk. I’m sure he won’t remember anything.”

“Cadence,” Travis groans. “You’re unforgettable, even for drunk guys.”

“Any chance you got a name?” Tatiana is back to businesslike. She thrives on problems dealing with everything that isn’t in my wheelhouse. I take care of the business end of things, Travis looks after everything IT, and Tatiana keeps the scandals to a minimum.

I call her my Gladiator, a la Olivia Pope.

“Oh, I got a name,” I tell her heavily.

“Who is he?” Tatiana demands.

I huff out a sigh. “Maximilian Stonee.”