Read Online Leaving Las Vegas (Entangled Ignite) by Aleah Barley - Free Book Online

wanton woman in his arms was private. Special.
    His phone rang again. He clenched his jaw, angry at the interruption. He didn’t want to answer, but he needed to get info on the kidnapping plan. “I have to get that.” He grabbed the phone from where it lay on the dashboard. He began to untangle himself from Glory’s body as he flipped it open.
    Wow. Multiple missed calls. All from his mother.
    Her number was blinking on the phone’s wide touch screen. Tension squeezed his temples. He hurriedly finished untangling himself from Glory and pressed accept.
    “Luke!” The woman on the other end of the line cried out.
    “Hello, Mother.” After his father’s death, he’d decided that the best way to deal with his mother was to get things over and done with. Quickly. Anything to keep her out of trouble. His mother was always overspending and under-thinking. She’d bounced back and forth between a dozen different relationships before settling for Chester.
    “How are you this morning?” His voice was calm, modulated. Everything about him was controlled. That didn’t stop him from letting out a sigh when Glory’s curls slid forward, revealing the smooth skin of her neck. At the moment, he’d give anything to kiss her collarbone, to feel her pulse beating beneath pale skin. To know her deeply and intimately, not just a quick moment in the front seat of his car, but a long night together. He knew she liked classic rock music and beer from the bottle, but that wasn’t enough.
    He wanted to lie in a soft bed beside Glory, listening to her while she talked about her day. Sex would be good too, but he wanted someone who would stay with him all night long. Snuggling close under crisp sheets.
    His mother’s soft sobs brought him back to reality. Wild driving and crazy sing-alongs were fun for one night, but it was a fantasy. It couldn’t be maintained. Not for Luke, the most straitlaced man in Las Vegas.
    The niggling headache he normally felt when speaking to his mother was growing by leaps and bounds. Had he made the right decision the night before, taking off with Glory?
    “I’ve been calling you for hours. You didn’t answer! Chester said some showgirl kidnapped you at the poker game!” His mother’s voice cracked. “He said he got away while they were carting you off. He also told me not to call the police—it would only cause trouble. What do they want? I’ll empty my bank account—my jewelry’s worth more. Do the kidnappers take diamonds?”
    “Chester’s right—don’t call the police. And don’t hock your jewelry, Mother. The kidnappers don’t want your diamonds.”
    “Don’t be preposterous. Everybody wants diamonds!”
    “Mother, I—” He opened the door to the car, getting out to stand in the early-morning light. They were still in the desert, the lack of cloud cover having made the air cool during the night, but it was a different kind of desert. Gnarled pine trees instead of prickly pear cacti.
    On the phone, his mother was wailing. He could see her in his mind’s eye, hands fluttering at her sides like a pair of wounded birds.
    Luke stood up and stretched. “Chester shouldn’t have worried you. I’m fine.”
    A ragged sniff at the other end of the line. “But you were kidnapped! I can’t lose you. Not like your father—”
    “Dad died in a home invasion. He made the wrong kind of friends, and he let too many people know how much cash he had on hand.” Luke slammed his mouth shut to keep from continuing. His father had made mistakes. He’d put himself—and his family—in danger.
    Luke played things safe, keeping even his closest friends at arm’s length. He’d keep on staying safe by figuring out who’d set up the kidnapping. “I need to ask you something.” He hadn’t called his mother the night before because he didn’t want to worry her, but she might know something useful. As much as Cherry liked hobnobbing with Las Vegas’s elite, the former showgirl still kept in