Zed went straight down to my parking level and left his Ferrari in the space I always kept vacant for him. I climbed out of the passenger side with a groan as my stiff, bruised muscles screamed at me.
"I need a shower," I observed, brushing my dirty hands down the front of my dirtier jeans. Then I quirked a brow at Zed as he came around the car from his side. "Correction, you need a shower. You look like you just..." I trailed off, giving a sharp laugh. "You look like you just dug up a grave."
Zed chuckled. "How morbid." I started toward the elevators, but he caught my hand in his, pausing me mid-step. "Actually, before we go upstairs there's something I need to say. Something I've been meaning to tell you for a really long time, but I just kept losing my nerve."
I gave him a confused frown. "Can it wait until we're not covered in grave dirt? Even though there was no corpse in that coffin, I still feel like I smell of death."
He gave a small headshake. "No, I just... I keep making excuses to myself why I haven't told you, and it's killing me to keep this secret."
That had me worried. I took a step closer, peering up at him. Conflicted emotions filled his familiar gaze. "Zed, whatever it is, you can tell me. We don't keep secrets from each other, remember? Even if it hurts."
Honesty, at least between the two of us, was the whole foundation of our friendship. So for him to say he’d been keeping something from me...?
"Yeah, I remember. That's what makes this worse," he muttered, running a hand over his hair. His gaze left mine, dropping to the floor as he visibly argued with himself over what to say.
It pained me to see him so twisted up, so I stepped closer still and wrapped my arm around his waist. "I know I've changed a lot since we made those promises, but I'm still me. I'm still Dare, deep down."
Zed's hand came up to my cheek, gently tilting my face up as he stared down at me. For a tense moment, it almost seemed like he was about to kiss me. For a moment, I wanted him to.
But then I remembered how Seph had been getting inside my brain lately about me and Zed and how I never, ever wanted to risk our friendship again with misplaced romantic feelings. So I stepped away.
"What did you want to tell me?" I asked him in a rough voice. Fucking hell, I'd just come so close to screwing up the best relationship I'd ever had.
Zed gave me a long look, then sighed. "Nothing, it's nothing. Just... I scratched your McLaren when I drove it last month."
I gaped at him. "What? You drove my McLaren?"
He winced. "Yeah. Sorry. When you were out of town for that meeting with Ezekiel. My car was getting serviced, and Seph told me to grab one of yours for the day. I couldn't resist."
"What the shit, Zed?" I exclaimed, stomping over to the car in question, my one stupidly expensive car that I hardly ever drove because I was paranoid about damaging it. Sure enough, there was a white scrape in the front bumper. "You asshole." I swung a punch at his upper arm, and he grunted when it landed.
"I'm sorry," he said again, "but holy shit, what a dream to drive." His grin was all mischief, and I couldn't even muster the appropriate anger for what he'd done.
Instead, I just shook my head and stalked past him to the elevators. "You're so fucking dead, Zayden De Rosa," I growled as he followed me inside. "Next time I need to transport a body, I'm doing it in your car."
He just barked a sharp laugh. "As if you clean up your own bodies. That's cute."
He continued teasing me about being a princess for not disposing of my kills personally, and I just rolled my eyes and flipped him off when the elevator reached my floor. I only made it a couple of steps more before I froze in panic, though.
My apartment door—the one secured with biometric locks that could only be opened by Seph or I—stood partially open. Seph would never leave it open. Not even on her most careless of days.
Zed saw it too, and we both drew our guns as we rushed forward. The inside of the apartment was totally trashed, and I needed to swallow heavily to smother the scream of panic welling up inside me.
"Seph!" I called out, my eyes sharp on every possible hiding place. "Seph, are you here?"
Zed motioned to me, and I moved over to where he stood near the kitchen. Smashed glass was all over the place and my furniture was a mess like there had been a huge fight. The blood he was pointing to suggested the same damn thing.
"Shit," I breathed, terror taking hold. "Seph? Seph, answer me!"
I raced through to her room, searching for any sign of her, but found it totally empty.
"No, no, no," I chanted, tossing my gun down on the bed and pulling out my phone. I called her number first, but the sound of her phone peeled out of the living room.
With my panic reaching epic proportions, I dialed Cass.
"Red," he answered, his voice a low drawl. "What's up?"
"Where are you?" I demanded, not even trying to hide the fear in my voice. "Where's Seph? You were supposed to be watching her, Cass! I trusted you to keep her safe!"
"Whoa, what?" His gravelly voice kicked up a notch at my accusation. "She's right here; I'm staring right at her. What the hell is going on?"
My heart stopped a second, then beat twice as fast as those words sunk in and confused the fuck out of me.
"Here where? Where are you?"
He made a sound like he was walking while he spoke to me. "The frozen yogurt shop down the street. Apparently, she needed sugar for her period or some shit."
I swallowed heavily, my free hand balled into a fist as my eyes surveyed the mess in my home. "Put her on, Cass. Put her on the phone."
"Two seconds," he replied, and the sound of his boots on the pavement traveled down the phone, followed by the chime of a shop door opening.
Then came the best sound I'd ever heard in my entire damn life. "Dare? What's up? Cass looks like he's ready to murder something."
I needed to take a few breaths as I processed the fact that she was okay. She was safe. Cass had her right there with him.
"N-nothing," I lied, relief washing over me so hard I almost fell. "Nothing. Sorry, brat. I just... I was worried. It's pretty late for a yogurt run." Obviously Seph would see the break in when she got back, but there was no sense in panicking her now that I knew she was safe.
I made my way back down the hall to tell Zed that she was safe as she replied, "Yeah, well, my period cramps were making me all bitchy and crap. I figured I'd be back before you and you wouldn't know... Are you super pissed?" She sounded guilty as hell, like she expected me to go batshit on her ass. But she was eighteen; if she wanted to go for a late-night frozen yogurt run, she could.
"Pissed? No, why?"
"Boss!" Zed shouted. "Come and see this!" He was in my bedroom, staring down at something on my bed.
Please don't be body parts.
I moved closer, desperate to see what it was, and was instantly relieved not to find my sister's severed head on my quilt, even if I was on the phone with her. Instead, it was a note, and on top of that note was a diamond engagement ring.
"Uh, I dunno," Seph was saying in my ear with a nervous laugh. "Maybe because I left Lucas there while I went out? I know how you feel about security and shit, but, like, I've only been gone ten minutes, max. And you seemed cool with him coming over the other day, so..."