“Hey, hey, sexy lady. You must excuse me for a moment.” He weaved over to the bushes and proceeded to vomit. Yes, she’d definitely arrived in the right place.
She didn’t want to wait. She wanted to go inside, grab Josh, go to bed, but Arlo was in pretty bad shape, so she went to him and put a hand on his back.
“Can I help?”
He retched again, stood up, spit a few times. He looked slightly more normal, but still pale, and still drunk.
“Jesus, why do I ever agree to J?gerbombs? Shit makes me sick every time. Josh not feeling good either?”
“I don’t know. He’s been doing J?gerbombs, too?” Great. They didn’t make him sick, but they certainly didn’t make him amorous. More like passed out cold.
Arlo gave her another slightly cross-eyed look. “He never showed, princess. And trust me, Sulman is mightily pissed.”
CHAPTER 4
Aubrey was getting annoyed.
“You’re drunk, Arlo. Josh is inside. He took off for the party the minute we arrived.” She glanced at her phone; it was nearing midnight. “That was over three hours ago. We were late, we had an accident on the way over. Didn’t you hear?”
Arlo rubbed his eyes and gave her that soft grin he used when he wanted to be charming. “I’m drunk all right. As a fucking skunk. But he ain’t inside. We called his cell phone, but he never answered. He’s missing the strips, too. They have ta-taaaaas.” Arlo’s face turned white. “You didn’t hear that. Don’t tell Janie. She’s not cool like you.”
So Sulman had fallen prey to the strippers.
“I won’t say anything.” Aubrey reached for the door, but Arlo stumbled over and slammed it shut.
“No way, sexy lady. You can’t go in there. Men only.” He looked a little more sober now, and Aubrey shook her head. God knew what Sulman was up to in there—or Josh. Was that why Arlo was blocking her way? Was Josh doing something he shouldn’t have been? She had a flash of anger and jealousy so intense that she felt like if she didn’t scream she’d explode.
No. No way. He would never. Not after . . .
She shouldered Arlo out of the way and flung the door open. His slurry voice followed her down the dark hallway.
“Aubrey. Aubrey, really. You don’t want to go in there.”
She stormed into the corridor and followed the noise. A heavy bass beat thumped in time with her slamming heart. She pulled the double doors open and strode into the bacchanal. Her eyes took a few moments to adjust to the gloom. When they did, her first emotion was relief. What she saw wasn’t terribly shocking. Not great, but it could have been worse.
Kevin Sulman, the groom, was being kissed and groped rather forcefully by a random stripper, and looking like he was enjoying her attentions. A few of the boys had their hands and mouths in places that they shouldn’t have, but no one was naked but the hired girls.
And there was no Josh.
What the hell?
Arlo was right behind her. He grabbed her by the waist and yanked her from the room.
The doors swung closed, but the music barely faded. Arlo pulled her by the hand down the corridor and into the parking lot. He was humming under his breath. Once they hit the tarmac, he put both hands on her shoulders. His breath was sour on her face.
“Aubs, you can’t say anything to Janie. She will roast Sulman on a spit.”
“She won’t, Arlo, but I don’t care about them. Where is Josh?”
“I told you. He didn’t show.” He stepped back, fumbled in his pocket for a pack of cigarettes. “We thought he either felt bad after the accident or y’all decided to go home.”
“In our imaginary car?” Aubrey heard the note in her voice. Heard it, and it scared her. She’d gone up several decibels and an octave, all at once. Arlo heard it, too. He stopped fumbling with his smokes.
“Don’t freak, Aubrey. Have you called him?”
“Yes. He’s not answering.”
Her breath started to come short. What if Josh was dead? An intracranial bleed caused by the accident? A collapsed lung? A pneumothorax? All those terms she’d been helping him study for the past three years tumbled around with the threatening panic inside her head. Maybe he was in the emergency room right now, intubated, unable to talk, unable to call her and let her know.
As she rang Josh’s phone again, she asked Arlo, “Do you know the way to the main hotel?”
“Yeah. It’s through the back of this place. You came the long way around, I take it?”
“Yes. I want to check the room. Show me the fastest way back.”
He tossed his cigarette on the ground and pulled the door open for her. She followed, phone to her ear. Josh’s voicemail clicked on. She left him a message. Followed Arlo past the thumping walls of the party, out into a long corridor that attached back to the hotel lobby. Damn concierge had sent her the wrong way, but she didn’t care about that now. They found the first elevator up, and she hit the button for the fourth floor.