have met your mate. And to top it all off, you let her get away from you without, at the very least, getting her number?”
“I was preoccupied,” Rush said through gritted teeth.
“I bet you were. So, what do you plan on doing now? Getting the guest list? No, wait. You won’t do that. That would involve talking to Jeremy Winslow. We can’t have that now, can we? Even if that’s the whole reason I got us invited to this party in the first place.”
“I don’t need to talk to Jeremy. I need to find Gwen Marsdale. She knows my mate. From what I understood, Chacha designed her dress.”
“Chacha?” Marlon chuckled. “That’s the name your mate gave you?”
“Don’t laugh. Which room is Gwen in?”
“How would I know?” Marlon answered, crossing his arms.
“Because you know a lot of shit you shouldn’t. Now, spill. Gwen’s room.”
“Only if you promise to talk to Jeremy. What he said last night has no bearing on the reality of our situation.”
Rush didn’t say anything but slowly blinked at his brother with his patience getting thinner and thinner by the second. Just before he had gathered the courage to speak with his mate, Rush and Marlon had accosted Jeremy, asking him for his help. The other man hadn’t appreciated the interruption of his good time.
It was Rush’s fault, really. He should have known that whatever plan his brother came up with would be a bust. Rush should have followed his instincts and called Jeremy’s office for a meeting.
Though he didn’t regret the night. That would mean regretting meeting Chacha and spending the most incredible night with her. Rush could never bemoan that. He just needed to find her.
“I will deal with Jeremy later. Right now, I want to find Chacha. Which is Gwen’s room?”
Marlon must have read the frustration in his brother’s eyes. He threw his hands up in defeat. “Fine. Gwen would be staying in one of the luxury suites on the seventh floor.”
“Which one?” Rush snapped.
“I don’t know. Follow the scent of expensive perfume.”
“If only you used your powers for good instead of evil, our family business could actually be something.”
“I have got bad luck, that’s all. But I have a feeling all of that is about to change.”
Rush walked away, not even bothering to reply to Marlon. The man didn’t have a streak of bad luck. He was a spoiled man-child who didn’t understand the consequences of his actions because Rush was always there to fix everything for him.
Some good it had done.
They had never been in such a tight spot.
Rush was not an idiot. He was only too aware that he would either have to talk to Jeremy, or he would have to face the wrath of Spike Hastings and his enforcers. He would eventually have to swallow his pride, but maybe it would be easier to do all of that if he at least knew who his mate was and where.
He climbed to the seventh floor, using one of the curved stairwells. There were only three rooms on the seventh floor, each suite larger than the last. Following Marlon’s directions of expensive perfume wasn’t much of a map. Thankfully, he recognized the sound of Gwen’s voice through one of the doors. Of course, it was the suite to the left, the largest of the luxury rooms. Rush knocked on the door a few times, each rap of knuckles more impatient than the last.
“What?” Gwen snapped as she swung the door open. She slowly took him in. “Do I know you?”
“Rush Jensen,” Rocco, Gwen’s new fiancé, said from over her shoulder. “Why the hell are you here?”
Rocco was a wolf shifter, but his family wasn’t in the hotel business. They were financiers who worked closely with a family of dragons, the Warwicks. If anyone in the shifter world knew about the Jensen family’s money troubles, it would be Rocco.
“Rocco,” Rush couldn’t help his clipped tone. “Gwen, I need to get in touch with the woman who designed your dress. Do you have her number?”
“Don’t give it to him,” Rocco instructed.
“Why not? What is going on?” Gwen asked.
“Because she is an old friend of Jeremy’s. He sees her like a little sister.”
Of course, she was, Rush thought. But he couldn’t let that deter him from finding her. “This is important.”
“Do you want to hire her services?” Gwen was hopeful. “Because she is amazing at what she does.”
On a whim, or perhaps by pure instinct, Rush nodded. “That is exactly it. I want to hire her