“She wouldn’t let me drop her off at Ana’s, and she didn’t want to stay in town. When she heard I was going to the mountains, she begged to come along.”
“Elias, what were you thinking? Do you know how this looks?”
That the runaway bride ran away with a limo driver associated with her best friend? Yeah. He did. But it was too late to undo the damage now. “The plan was to drop her off at her parents’ house in Asheville,” he said, repeating what Quinley had told him regarding the codes and pool house lacking camera coverage. “That’s where she planned to lay low, but someone was there, and there were reporters outside.”
“Yeah, her parents are there,” Cole confirmed. “They’ve gone into hiding because of all the media coverage. Lachlan sent them off on one of the private jets because their house was surrounded by paparazzi thinking Quinley would go there since she’d obviously left the hotel.”
She would’ve been better off staying at her parents’ house in Wrightsville and pretending no one was home. Not that she could’ve known that at the time. “What about you and Ana? How are things there?”
“We’re trapped. They’re stacked five deep here at Ana’s, and the neighbors are not amused.”
“I’ll bet.” Ana lived just over the bridge in an older, otherwise quiet neighborhood. Elias didn’t imagine any of them liked the hassle of not being able to get in and out of their own homes due to the road being blocked by reporters and their vehicles.
Elias finished the dishes and dried his hands before he lifted one and pinched the bridge of his nose. “So do they also know it was Blackwell Rentals?”
A snort was Cole’s response.
“I’m sorry, Cole. I know this is the last thing you needed. I take it Lachlan has contacted you about…me?”
“They named Blackwell Enterprises as the owner of the getaway car before Ana and I left the hotel so, yeah. We’ve talked, and I told Lachlan that you were leaving, and she must’ve jumped in on her own since to my knowledge you’d never met.”
“That’s the truth. He can’t be too angry if it’s the truth, can he?”
“What do you think?”
Elias groaned. “That it looks bad regardless.”
“Elias, I get why you did it. I probably would’ve done the same if I’d been driving, but you should’ve left her somewhere, not hightailed it to the mountains together. When Lachlan finds out you’re still together, he’s going to believe the worst. They all are.”
“I know. I’m sorry. Like I said, it wasn’t the plan.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t see us getting that contract with the resort after this, but what you do now is going to get all of us raked over the coals if people find out.”
Elias groaned softly at the reminder. “I’d forgotten you were trying to get a full-time contract with him.”
Cole and Gage had been attempting to land a car-service contract with the new resort and the other Lachlan-owned hotels in the area, something that would allow them to add another vehicle to the business, but with the latest turn of events?
“I’m more concerned about how this will come down on you—and Ana. I don’t want Quinley’s actions to come back to bite Ana and her boutique. Or you and your businesses.”
“Quinley mentioned that on the drive,” he said. “She’s worried about Ana having to interact with Lachlan but said she didn’t think her ex would punish Ana because of how things went down.”
“You never know,” Cole all but growled. “We’re all about to find out. Quinley’s called him, right?”
Elias inhaled and grimaced. “Not yet. I told her it might be best to get some rest first. Call him this morning. She…wasn’t in great shape last night. She got sick on the drive and almost passed out after we got here. I got some food in her and sent her to bed.”
Silence followed Elias’s words.
“And she went to bed alone?”
Elias stilled at the low-voiced question. “I’m the only other person here so, yeah,alone.”
“Make sure it stays that way.”
A rough laugh left Elias. “You can’t be serious right now. You know me. And Quinley is a walking disaster.”
“She’s a beautiful,vulnerablewalking disaster.”
“What are you implying? You think I suddenly won’t be able to control myself? Seriously?”
