Page 38 of A Prince of Smoke and Mirrors

Oh,I’d bet that’s just what happened to him.

My heart cracked open wider. Las Vegas might be the town of quickie marriages, but it was also a town of heartbreak because some people bolted.That damned Jimmy.“Marrying someone else isn’t going to fix things.”

His dazed glance up at me was heartbreaking. “It will for me.”

Sympathy got the better of me, and I reached a little toward him. I didn’t touch him, though. “Is it for a green card or something?”

He shook his head and looked down, and he looked so sad. “What is a green card?”

“You know, US permanent residency? Because otherwise they’ll throw you out of the country?”

He snorted. “They wouldn’t dare.”

From the crowd, a woman’s voice yelled, “I’ll marry him if you don’t want him!”

I straightened, looking at the vast crowd that had gathered around us on the nighttime street corner, stretching all four ways through the intersection and blocking traffic.

Honks blared.

A man with a lilting tenor voice yelled, “I’ll take him to be my wedded husband. I’ll take himhard.”

Oh, someone was offering to sexually assault this guy who was definitely too drunk to consent.Ugh.

The crowd laughed, but an evil undertone of enjoying pain rumbled under it.

I crouched again to whisper to Blue Eyes and fished my phone out of the pocket I’d sewn into my swishing skirt. “Hey, I think I need to call someone for you. Do you have a friend in town who can make sure you get back to your hotel safely?”

He shook his head, his mussed hair swaying in the hot breeze. “No one. There isno onewho can help me.”

Another female voice in the crowd called out, “If he’s carrying around ten-G in cash, I’ll take him, all right. I’ll take him forhalfof everything he owns.”

The crowd’s snarling laugh was turning ugly.

Every crowd had some assholes in it, but Blue Eyes’ distress had called the predators in human form like they were scenting blood.

They wanted to take advantage of him.

Nicolai was in no condition to make life-altering decisions that night. Someone needed to protect him.

Maybe the vulnerability and hurt in his clear teal eyes (how did that color exist in nature?) echoed my own just a few days before, but I couldn’t throw this guy to the wolves.

I stepped off my stupid empty suitcase and stomped on its foot to flip it vertical, catching the handle, and scooped up my top hat full of his money.

Juggling all that into one arm, I grabbed Nico’s large, warm hand. “Come on. Let’s go.”

“Are you marrying me?” Nico asked, his eyebrows rising.

Absolutely not.

But I could get sad, pretty Nicolai away from this crowd, sober him up, and talk some sense into him.

He didn’t have to ruin his life just because someone had left him at the altar.

“Please,”he begged.

“Okay.Come on, Nico. Let’s get hitched.”

He chuckled as he strolled behind me. “That’s my girl.”