Page 5 of The Encounter
“We should go.” He nodded his head toward the door.
She followed him out and back to the music. He leaned close to her ear.
“I had a wonderful time with you tonight. I hope we can see each other again soon.”
And just like that, he was gone.
2
Maddie stumbled out of bed and pressed a palm to her pounding head. After she and the Phantom parted ways, she made her way to the bar and had one too many shots. She had expected to see him again, but he was nowhere to be found. Her wild streak had her forgetting that she planned to stay sober and drive. After stumbling into a cab with Kayla, they made it home and crashed before either of them got themselves into any trouble.
She dug around a kitchen cabinet until she found a bottle of aspirin. Popping a few into her mouth, she chased it with water just as Kayla came into the kitchen.
“Oh my God. Was my head hit with a baseball bat?”
Maddie handed her the aspirin and a cup. “Glad I’m not suffering alone.”
Kayla walked into the living room and sat on the couch, popped aspirin into her mouth, and drank her water before setting the cup down on the coffee table. “So, how did you score Jace Locke last night?”
“Jace Locke? What... the billionaire? He was at the club?” Maddie joined her and thought back to the different people she ran into during the night, but he was not one of them. Not that she had ever met him or anything, but his face was plastered on every tabloid in the city. She would have recognized him unless he was wearing a mask.
A mask.
The Phantom.
Kayla sat up straight. “You didn’t know the guy you were dancing with was Jace Locke?”
Maddie stared at Kayla, dumbfounded. No, it couldn’t have been him. She would have known. Wouldn’t she?
“Whoa whoa whoa. Youdidn’tknow.”
Maddie pressed a hand to her head, her brain suddenly thumping harder against her skull. “That wasn’t Jace Locke.”
Somehow, it felt necessary to say his first and last name together. She wasn’t on a first name basis with the guy as she had never met him.
But, if he was the Phantom, shehadmet him. She had gotten to know him quite well.
“Yes, it was! Robert even confirmed it to me!”
“Why would a billionaire be at a club on Halloween? I’m sure he was off throwing some lavish party at his mansion.”
She didn’t know if he actually lived in a mansion or if he ever threw parties, but it made sense that he would.
“Because he owns the club.” Kayla stared at her as if to say, ‘Duh, everyone knows this.’
Maddie only stared at Kayla for several minutes.
“Earth to Maddie.”
She shook her head. “So, you’re telling me that the man dressed as the Phantom of the Opera was Jace Locke… the billionaire.”
Kayla nodded.
Maddie shifted and wildly gestured with her hands. “So, let me get this straight. The man I blew in some random office down a hallway at the club was Jace Locke, the billionaire?”
Kayla’s eyes nearly came out of her head. “YOU GAVE HIM A BLOW JOB?” she shouted. “Oh my God. You should have led with that. I want details!”
Maddie recounted the evening with Kayla, telling her about the guy at the bar who was hitting on her to talking most of the night with the Phantom, and then winding up in an office. Which, apparently, had beenhisoffice. Suddenly, things made more sense. Why he had been able to go up to the VIP lounge without a band, why a security officer came back to the office to grab him to deal with a situation, and why the man hitting on her at the bar had been escorted out of the club.
