Page 23 of All Bets Are Off

“Enough for what?”

I run my fingers through my hair with an exasperated groan. “Look, I just . . . I’ve been drinking all day, and you sat down next to me at the slot machines, and I saw your watch . . . And I thought it would fix all of my problems, okay? I’m sorry. Can I . . .” I suck in a breath, because I fully understand the irony of the question I’m about to dare ask. “Can I please have my bracelet back? It’s sentimental.” I hold out my palm hopefully.

“And who says my watch isn’t sentimental to me?” he counters. That’s when I notice his wrist is bare now, the Rolex most likely triple-barricaded into his suite’s safe deposit box to keep it far, far away from anyone’s reach.

“I’m sorry,” I say with a heavy, drunken sigh of frustration. It’s not even frustration at him, at this point. I’m frustrated only at myself for being such a damn idiot, all of the damn time.

Jameson thinks. “I read that you fly home on Monday morning. So do I,” he says, mouth stretching into a sadistic grin. “That means I have another forty-eight hours to screw with you.”

“Screw with me?” I repeat, stepping back in shock.

“I’m here in Vegas to take my mind off something, and I was intending on doing that by losing too much money in the casinos and then drinking enough beer to forget all about it,” he explains, “but I think I’ll keep myself busy with you instead.”

“So you’re . . . What? Just going to follow me around, dangling my bracelet in front of me?”

“That’s exactly what I’m going to do,” he says, and I gape at him as he pushes past me.

I can’t remember his room number, so if I lose sight of him, then I’ll have no way of finding my bracelet again without waiting for him to seek me out first . . . Which, by the sounds of things, is what he’s planning on doing. How am I supposed to explain any of this to the rest of the bachelorette party? How do I warn them not to be alarmed when some random man keeps on apprehending me over the weekend? If I tell them the truth, they’d kill me for getting myself into this situation in the first place.

Once again, I chase after Jameson. I slip into the elevator behind him, and he crosses his arms over his chest with a sigh as he leans back against the wall.

“Are you obsessed with me?” he asks coolly.

“Are you obsessed with me?” I fire back. “You’re the one who waited in those crazy lines to get into the club just to come and find me.”

“You shouldn’t have made an enemy out of me, Evelyn.”

My nose scrunches as I glower up at him, like an overly dramatic pouty toddler. If only he wasn’t so fucking hot, I’d be much more willing to physically fight him for my bracelet . . . But ugh. I kind of liked him back on the casino floor, but now I will never have the chance to kiss him for real, because I stupidly decided to try and rob him instead of actually getting to know him more.

Abruptly, someone sticks an arm in between the closing elevator doors and the doors ping back open again. My brother steps into the elevator with Hailey still handcuffed to him, and it’s almost a relief to see them both, to have the protection of familiar faces around me in this elevator. Almost. Because Jameson is here too, so there is also a beat of panic in my voice.

“Theo! Hailey! Oh my God, where have you guys been?”

I don’t know why, but Hailey looks kind of embarrassed . . . Then again, Hailey is perpetually shy. As she presses the button for the forty-ninth floor, she says, “We’ve just been doing some exploring, but I need to . . . I need to grab something from my room, and then we’re going to join everyone.”

“Again?” Didn’t they already disappear earlier to grab something from their rooms?

“And where have you been?” Theo asks with a suspicious undertone as he not-so-discreetly looks Jameson up and down.

“In the club,” I say. Not a lie. I was in the club, like he and Hailey should have been.

Theo fixes me with a knowing look, one that’s also full of stern disapproval, and he’s doing that thing again, the same thing Addy always does, where they embrace their older-sibling complex and treat me like a child. “And you’re not in the club right now, why?”

“Hey,” Jameson says, and I glance at him in horror for daring to open his mouth right now, because what the hell is he going to say? “I’m Jameson.”

“And I’m Evie’s brother,” Theo states, like it’s a threat.

“You’re here on the bachelorette party?” Jameson asks, almost teasing.

I will the elevator to ascend through the floors at lightning speed to save me from this conversation. Twenty-three . . . Twenty-four . . .

“No, I’m here on the bachelor party.”

“Oh, you didn’t mention the bachelor party was here too. What a fun weekend!” Jameson says chirpily as he smiles at me, and I sneer back at him. The elevator stops on the forty-first floor and the doors slide open. “Anyway, this is me. I’ll see you guys around, maybe?”

“Yeah, maybe,” Theo says unconvincingly.

As Jameson walks out of the elevator, the three of us wait in silence for the doors to close again, and the moment they do, Theo has something to say, of course.