Page 91 of Below The Surface
“I know I am,” I say.
Dallas settles back onto the couch and I slide in next to him. He wraps me in his arms, and I snuggle as close as I possibly can. We’re about to hunt and I want to absorb all the cuddles I can in case everything goes wrong.
Instead of sleeping, I stare at Dallas’s rising and falling chest. He fell asleep hours ago and my brain is too loud. The plan is good, I’ll give him that. As long as Charles isn’t already at Influencer Con and doesn’t see us together.
I warm up a Pop-Tart for breakfast. The others don’t have to be awake for us to hit the road. As soon as I finish my last bite, I hop into the driver’s seat and get the day started.
That, of course, wakes everyone else up because they were not expecting to be in a moving vehicle at six in the morning.
Dallas doesn’t even say anything and buckles into the passenger seat.
“What the hell, Casey?” Kendra says while still wiping sleep from her eyes. “We agreed on nine.”
“Couldn’t sleep. Needed to do something.”
She sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. “It’s fine.”
“Besides. We’re going to have to rent a car. Dallas and Hayden can’t show up with us if we’re going to do the plan.” I turn to Dallas for two seconds before focusing on the road again. “Good thing you didn’t cancel your hotel room. Until after you get that meeting, we can’t be seen together.”
He frowns. “Didn’t think about that.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll still have our fun.” A wicked part of me wants to take out Charles before the con even starts and watch everyone scramble to try and figure out what happened to him.
“Messaging him now,” Dallas says, and my stomach turns again. I really hate the idea of Dallas getting involved.
Kendra retreats back to the bedroom and Hayden works on his laptop from the dinette.
Dallas swallows beside me. “He said yes. Asked if we can have dinnertonightto discuss things before the con gets started. He says he’s been watching my content for years. That makes me sick.”
I want to reach out, but we’re too far away.
“Let me find someplace before you tell him yes,” Kendra says. I hadn’t realized she came back out to join us again. She furiously types and she’s quiet before she slaps the table. “Tell him Readmont’s on 6th. It’s fancy, but there’s an abandoned building next door. We’ll get it rigged up for a show and we can have our fun.”
“We’re doing this,” Dallas says.
“We’re doing this.” I grin and bounce in my chair. We’re taking Charles downtonight.
Tonight, everything fucking changes.
31
DALLAS
My palms sweat and I’m sure there are beads on my brow. The salty tang hits my tongue when I lick my lips.
“You’re sweating like a sinner in church,” Hayden says and nods to the napkin under my silverware.
“Don’t draw attention to it.” I dab my forehead.
We’d spent hours in the RV, then we found a rental place an hour from the convention center and Hayden and I drove ourselves. We got all checked in with the con and sat around in the hotel room until it was time to meet Charles at the restaurant. Thank fuck for texting, because I don’t know how I would have handled all this time away from Casey. I know he’s just next door with Kendra. After they set up their mermaid tank, they started getting the abandoned building ready for a Nightmare show. And while I’ve been prepared as best I can be, my stomach is trying to revolt.
“Sorry to keep you waiting.”
I push to my feet and hold out my hand to the man I want to rip apart. Those eyes haunt me. They’re so like Casey’s it’s unsettling.
“No problem,” I say. “I’m Dallas, this is my assistant Hayden.” I nod to him and he holds out his hand for our prey to shake.
We all settle in and the server brings the table water.
