I was too busy throwing clothes into my suitcase to respond to him.

“Deborah!” He reached for my wrist, halting my movements.

“I—”

“Robert!” someone called from the opposite end of the locked door, knocking loudly.

“Fuck! What?” he yelled, responding to the male on the other side.

I didn’t recognize the voice.

“Open up, man. We’ve been looking for you. It’s an emergency.”

Robert growled, giving me one last glare, as if to say this wasn’t over, before releasing his hold on my wrist and moving to the door. He yanked it open. “What?” he barked at the guy on the other side.

As soon as I saw his face, I recognized him. He was one of the freshman that’d accompanied us on the trip but I couldn’t recall his name. I didn’t waste time trying to, either; I went back to packing. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the guy lean in and say something low in Robert’s ear.

“Shit!”

That one curse had me startled, alarm bells shooting through my body. Something wasn’t right, and in spite of my earlier anger, I felt the deepest urge to comfort him. But he turned and gave me a sharp look, stopping me in my tracks.

“I have to go, but this isn’t over.” It sounded like a threat, a warning, and a promise.

My body shivered and my lips parted to ask him what it was that had him leaving so abruptly. Call me crazy, but my instincts were telling me that something was seriously wrong for him to drop the conversation we’d been having and to rush out. However, before any words could come out, he was gone and I was left standing in my empty room, missing his presence just that quickly.

I didn’t know it then, but it would be another five years before I had contact with Robert Townsend again.

Chapter Nine

1979

Deborah

“I don’t understand why we had to have lunch here,” Cohen stated as he glanced around at the crystal chandeliers lining the roof of the Crown Jewel hotel’s restaurant we were sitting in.

I frowned, already annoyed by his tone. “Because this place is only a few blocks from my job and I love the food here,” I retorted rather tersely.

However, Cohen didn’t seem to pick up on it, or not care about my attitude at the moment.

“This place is ridiculously overpriced. The only people who come here are the ones who want to be seen or make everyone else believe they have money.”

I narrowed my gaze, unsure of whether or not my boyfriend of the last two years had intentionally just called me some sort of social climber.

“Wasn’t your sister’s engagement party held here just a few months ago?” I sweetly reminded him, smiling as I stared into his hazel eyes.

His already present frown deepened as he shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “Don’t remind me. Jonathan and his family just had to pay for the best,” he scoffed.