Page 33 of Gamble (Black Light #38)

Several side conversations she couldn’t hear broke out around the table just as Jaxson Cartwright-Davidson stood at the head of the table.

She felt smaller with each long stride he took in her direction.

The tabloids were full of stories of how intense a man he was, and the dark scowl on his handsome face had her quivering even before he stopped next to Madison.

The relief that the owner didn’t yell at her for her interruption was short-lived as he pulled Madison aside to exchange a few words she couldn’t hear. Their body language was animated enough that she knew they were arguing over something.

By the time Jaxson returned his attention to her, Reagan had backed against the door, preparing to bolt out of the room and never return.

Jaxson spoke to her directly, his voice much nicer than she’d been expecting based on the intensity of his scowl. “I’m sure Elijah will be glad you stopped by. We will tell him you asked for him.”

Dismissed, but at least she hadn’t been thrown out yet.

Reagan held her breath for a second—torn between her old self that would have run from the room with her tail between her legs and the new, more confident version of herself that Elijah had just awakened.

She liked that version of herself so much better.

Be brave. Fight for yourself, if not for Elijah.

Standing taller she replied, “That’s not good enough. He’s been avoiding my calls for two weeks, and now I find out he lied about managing Runway? I’m not leaving until someone tells me what’s going on.”

Jaxson’s scowl deepened as he asked, “Did he ever tell you he managed Runway?”

“Yes. He said he managed the club here that you owned.”

She recognized Jaxson’s wife, Emma, as she arrived next to her husband, slipping her hand into the crook of the man’s arm. Emma was even more beautiful in person as she pressed her husband with a concerned, “We should tell her.”

Reagan’s pulse shot up again.

Tell her what? Had something bad happened to Elijah?

Not realizing just how desperate she was, Jaxson still denied her answers while turning toward his wife. “This is not our information to share. He is our employee. We have NDAs for a reason. She is not a member.”

“But…” Emma threw Reagan a sympathetic glance that spoke volumes.

“Please, I just don’t understand,” Reagan pleaded just as a dark-haired Polynesian woman who’d been sitting next to Shane Covington shot out of her chair and rushed toward the door.

Before she even got close to the group at the door, the woman announced, “Well thank goodness I’m not an employee any more then. I’m not bound by the same HR rules as all of you.”

Jaxson’s heated glare turned in the newcomer’s direction before demanding, “Be careful, young lady. You signed an NDA, too.”

“Oh, who cares,” the beauty retorted, waving her hand in Jaxson’s direction just before taking Reagan’s hands in her own. “This is way more important than that.”

A sad smile lit up the dark-haired beauty’s face, and the second the woman’s hands squeezed hers reassuringly, a new calmness Reagan hadn’t felt in weeks came over her.

She did not know why or how, but looking into the kind woman’s eyes as she looked at Reagan with a growing smile eased the worst of her anxiety.

Jaxson was less relieved as he yelled back to Shane still seated at the table. “Hey Covington, are you going to let your woman defy you like this?”

All eyes in the room watched as the award-winning actor grinned. “She’s defying you and Keaton. I never told her she couldn’t talk with Elijah’s girl,” the A-lister retorted with that sly grin that made women all over the world swoon.

Holy shit. Shane Covington knew who she was? And he knew she was with Elijah?

“I’m Nalani,” the woman next to her added. That name rang a bell. Hadn’t Elijah talked about Nalani being like a ‘daughter’ to him?

Finally, someone who might have the answers she needed.

“Do you know what’s going on?” Reagan pleaded with her.

“Yes. The question is, are you sure you really want to know too?”

That was the million-dollar question now, wasn’t it?

“Yes… please. I deserve answers,” she pleaded.

Nalani grinned. “Yes, you do. I knew I was going to like you.”

Next to them, Madison announced, “Hold on. Stay here. I’ll be right back,” while Emma reached into her husband’s pocket and came out with a men’s handkerchief with the initials J.C.D. embroidered on a corner.

Handing it out to Reagan, Emma said, “Men... they can be so annoying. They just don’t understand how important communication is.”

Chase called out from across the room. “You’re living dangerously, Em. I’d be careful criticizing the entire male gender when you’re surrounded by so many of us.”

“Oh, please,” Emma shot back with a grin. “You’re all proving my point by wanting to keep secrets instead of just telling this woman the truth.”

Reagan dabbed at her eyes with the offered handkerchief, grateful for the small kindness even as her mind raced with questions. What truth? What secrets? And why did everyone in this room seem to know more about her relationship with Elijah than she did?

Madison returned with a clipboard and what looked like legal documents. “Before we can tell you anything, you’ll need to sign this,” she said, holding out a pen.

Reagan glanced at the papers—non-disclosure agreements with multiple pages of legal text. “What is this?”

“Standard NDAs,” Jaxson said, his tone still stern. “If you want answers about Elijah, you need to understand that what you learn tonight stays between these walls. Forever.”

The room erupted in heated whispers as couples turned to each other, divided on whether this was the right approach. Reagan caught fragments of the arguments—the women seemed to advocate for honesty while the men insisted it should be Elijah’s choice what to reveal.

“This is ridiculous,” Khloe Monroe declared from her seat at the table. “The man is miserable without her. Someone needs to do something.”

“It’s not our place,” Cash Carter argued back. “Keaton’s a grown man. If he wants to screw up his love life, that’s his business.”

“But look at her,” Piper interjected, gesturing toward Reagan. “She’s devastated. They’re both suffering for no good reason.”

Reagan felt heat flood her cheeks as the room full of celebrities debated her personal life as if she weren’t standing right there. The surreal nature of the situation—getting relationship advice from Hollywood A-listers—would have been funny if her heart wasn’t breaking.

“Stop,” she mumbled, then louder when no one heard her. “Stop!”

The room fell silent, all eyes turning to her.

“I’ll sign your papers,” she said, reaching for the pen with shaking hands. “I just want to understand why he doesn’t want me anymore.”

Shane Covington stood, crossing the distance between them in long strides as the room remained silent.

Only when he stood beside her and Nalani did he answer, his famous voice gentle with understanding.

“Believe me, it isn’t that he doesn’t like or want you anymore.

It’s the opposite. He thinks he’s too old and wrong for you. ”

The words hit Reagan like a physical blow. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“I’ve tried to tell him that,” Nalani said.

Reagan scrawled her signature across the NDAs, not bothering to read the fine print. Whatever secrets they were protecting couldn’t be worse than the torture of not knowing why Elijah had abandoned her. It has to be more than just the age difference.

Before the ink had dried, Nalani reached to take her hand again. “I’m taking her down.”

“Down where?” Reagan asked as Nalani already had them in motion. The fact that she was drawing Reagan deeper into the room instead of out the exit only confused her more.

“Nalani,” Jaxson warned, “do you know what you’re doing?”

“Yes, I’m trying to get Elijah his own happily ever after,” the dark-haired beauty replied.

“But this party is for you and Shane’s engagement,” Emma protested.

“Then I suggest we move the party downstairs early,” Nalani shot back. “We all knew we were going to end up down there eventually, anyway.”

“Sounds like a great idea to me,” Chase grinned, enjoying the drama unfolding.

“Hell, yeah,” the handsome guy with salt and pepper hair who had his arm wrapped around Khloe’s shoulder exclaimed.

Before Reagan could ask what they were talking about, Nalani had linked their arms and was steering her to follow Madison toward the back wall of the dining room.

When Madison pressed her palm to another hidden biometric scanner, a section of the back wall slid away to reveal a service corridor that led through some back-of house industrial kitchen space and storage.

What looked like an employee elevator was at the end of the hall.

The women’s heels clicked on the tiled floor as Nalani continued to answer Reagan’s unasked questions. “We’re lucky Jaxson, Chase, and Emma installed this secret entrance just for us, so we don’t have to go back through Runway and past all the looky-loos to get downstairs.”

Emma spoke from behind them. “We didn’t have a choice. Runway patrons were putting two and two together when all the celebrities kept going down the guarded staircase. Too many journalists were getting nosy.”

What’s with all of this cloak and dagger stuff? NDAs and secret hallways? Guarded staircases and biometric security systems? Was it possible there was some illegal activity going on here? Is that what Elijah was trying to protect her from?

As the entourage moved down the hallway, they passed a surprised-looking staff member who stepped aside as the procession of celebrities swept through. A security guard stood at attention next to the elevator bank. As Jaxson stepped to the front, the guard nodded respectfully.

“She’s cleared, John,” Jaxson announced.

“Yes, sir,” the guard acknowledged before reaching to hit the down button.