Something was wrong with this conversation.
Everyone at the table could feel it — the strange charge in the air, the way Declan Pierce was looking at Sloane like she was the only person in the room, like Maya and Tyler and all the birthday candles and cocktail glasses had simply ceased to exist.
Tyler felt it too. His jaw tightened. His eyes cut to Sloane's face with something sharp and unreadable burning behind them.
Maya, never one to leave well enough alone, stepped forward with her most dazzling smile. "Mr. Pierce — do you actually know Sloane?"
Declan didn't look at Maya.
He looked at Sloane.
"A place like this," he said quietly, his voice dropping low enough that only she could catch every word, "isn't somewhere you
belong."
Sloane's breath hitched.
What does that mean? Wha
