Page 24 of Fake Fiancé, Real Wedding
“Love you too,” I reply and turn around.
OnlyFans Galadriel is standing behind me. Right there, less than a foot away. Smiling. “Hi, Delly.”
A ragged noise—part gasp, part chuckle—bursts from me. Heart pumping faster, I mock-scowl into my phone at Stevie. “Seriously? You sent one of your university friends after me?”
Stevie frowns. “What do you mean? I didn’t send anyone after you.”
I lift my stare to the woman in front of me. She’s still in her bachelorette party fairy costume, which is kind of weird, although the wings are MIA. She smiles again. She’s got a lot of teeth. And there’s a spray of freckles painted over her nose and cheeks. Purple freckles. Like the ones I wore last…
Oh… Fuck.
A cold tension squirms up my spine.
“What uni friend?” Stevie asks.
My pulse a growing drum in my ears, I flip my phone’s camera so the woman fills the screen. “This one.”
“Del,” I hear Stevie say. “I havenoidea who that is.”
My heart smashes up into my throat.
“Oh fuck,” I mutter, staring at the woman in front of me.
“Hi, Delly,” she says again, stepping closer. “I’m so glad we’refinallyalone. I tried to get your attention at POPcon, but you were just so busy.”
I gasp, recoiling. My heel snags on something—a rock, or a root, who the fuck knows—and I stumble backwards, arms pinwheeling as my phone flings out of my hand.
Up.
And out.
Over the yawning drop of the valley far below.
Gone.
Chapter Seventeen
Lachlan
Hurrying through dense scrub and towering trees on a winding path not much wider than my shoulders, I scowl. Shards of morning sunlight pierce through the thick canopy, casting everything in fractured shadows.
How the hell did Del wind up on this path?
She was angry with you.
Valid. She’s allowed to be furious. I behaved like a dick, and the Staffords led her to believe—intentionally or not—that I’d used her to buy the hotel. Still, as soon as I find her, I’m pouring my heart out.
I love her. And if I’m lucky, one day, she might love me back.
After discovering she wasn’t in her room, I’d tracked Jared down. He’d been surprised and more than a little uneasy when she didn’t answer his call. “I think she shares her location with Stevie,” he’d said. “But I really don’t want Stevie to worry. Tomorrow’s a big deal, although she’ll kill me if Del?—”
“Give me Del’s number,” I’d said, urgency punching at my chest. “I can find her.”
He’d hesitated until I told him I’m ex-defense force cyber security. “Trust me. If any kind of tech is involved, I pretty much can find it.”
Five minutes later, I was heading into the bush on an overgrown path, a little blue dot indicating her location blinking on my phone.
Wherever she was, reception was patchy. If the signal dropped, I’d call in a favor from one of my old teammates still in the unit.
