"What's up?" Zed asked when I reached the car.
I climbed into my seat and relayed Alexi's message, adding that he had sounded strange.
"Sounds like a setup," Lucas offered, meeting my eyes in the rearview mirror. "You're not going to 22 alone, right?"
I gave him a smile. "Of course not. But Alexi wouldn't set me up. It's probably just—"
"Him shooting his shot at joining Team Hades?" Zed suggested, giving me a knowing smirk. "He's probably decided to go all in and declare his undying love or some crap, like he's totally forgotten how many times you've subtly rejected his attention over the years."
Lucas snickered. "Well, it worked for you."
"Dare never rejected me," Zed replied, "she just didn't notice I was flirting in the first place."
I gave a small, embarrassed groan and raked my fingers through my hair. "Whatever. Just... let's go to 22 and see what he wants. Then we can deal with Rex and Seph."
"Yes, sir," Zed teased, starting his car.
As we drove away from the hospital, I let my gaze drift out the window. Silently, I told Maxine how sorry I was and how badly I would make Chase pay for her brutally painful death. Because he would. Sooner or later.
48
Alexi wasn't at Club 22 when we got there, and the cleaning crew said they hadn't seen him either. Rodney and the rest of the staff wouldn't start until later in the day, so Zed called Rex and sorted out the details for Seph's move while I drove Lucas over to his mom's house.
"Do you want to come in?" he asked when I pulled into the driveway.
I shook my head. "Nah, not today. I've got some shit to do; I'll come back and pick you up in a couple of hours. Or if you want to stay, we can get you on our way back from Timber tonight." Zed and I had some meetings onsite at Timber to look over the finished bar and check off with our inspector, and it was one of those meetings we couldn't miss—especially given the trouble we'd landed with Anarchy.
"I'll come to Timber with you," Lucas replied with a smile. "I'm dying to see it all." He opened his door but leaned over to kiss me soundly before he got out. "Don't worry, babe. I've got my gun, and I won't open the door to strangers. Besides, I just spotted Big Sal inside chatting up Claudette."
I rolled my eyes. Big Sal—short for Salamander, of all fucking things—had taken quite a shine to Sandra's live-in nurse and was actively requesting to be assigned guard duty here.
Lucas headed up the steps to the house and turned to wave before disappearing safely inside. Even so, I waited another minute in the driveway, just to be sure. Then I swung back past Club 22 to pick up Zed before reluctantly heading over to my Copper Wolf office.
Hannah was at her desk when I arrived, greeting me with a tear-stained face. No doubt she'd heard about Maxine.
"Hannah, I'm trying to track down Alexi," I told her, making it clear I didn't want to discuss feelings. "Can you get him on the phone for me?"
She dabbed her eyes, then gave me a tight smile. "Yes, sir. On it."
Zed brought his laptop into my office, and for a few hours we worked in relative silence across the desk from one another. Hannah popped in at some point to let me know Alexi wasn't answering his phone but that she'd left a message for him to call back. When he hadn't called back by the time Zed and I needed to leave, I asked Hannah to check his phone’s GPS location.
It simply wasn't like Alexi to drop off the radar like that. Especially after leaving me that cryptic voicemail.
"Got him," Hannah announced, looking up from her computer. "He's at Timber."
Zed and I exchanged a quick look, but I thanked Hannah and told her to take the afternoon off. She worked too damn hard, anyway, and I knew she was keen to go and check on Nadia and the girls before the first of them started her journey home.
"Why would Alexi be at Timber?" Zed mused aloud as we rode the elevator down to his car. "The build finished yesterday, and if there were any issues, they'd have called me."
I had no damn clue. "I guess we're about to find out," I commented. "But I did tell Lucas we would pick him up now, so Alexi can wait."
Zed huffed a laugh. "Damn, there goes my plan to nail you against the bar at Timber. You did promise we could christen it properly."
I smirked back at him. "Why would Lucas stop you from doing that?"
He gave a quiet groan, his gaze heating as we stepped out into the parking lot. "Fine, but he has to sit and watch. First fuck in our venues has to be just us, Dare. You and me." He paused when we reached his car, pinning me to the door with his hips and his hard-on. "Deal?"
My pulse raced as he dipped his face to kiss me softly. "Deal," I breathed against his lips. "But can we do it on the VIP poker table?"
Zed hummed a thoughtful sound, grinding against me and making me gasp with desire. "I think we can make that work." He kissed me again, deeper this time, then released me to open the car door.
I heaved a frustrated sigh as I got in, waiting for him to take his seat before I pouted at him. "Now I'm going to be doing this building inspection with wet panties. Thanks a lot."
Zed barked a laugh. "Better than doing it with an aching boner." He shot me a quick look as he drove us out of the parking lot and into the road. "Just take them off."
My lips parted in surprise. "So I can talk to our building inspector with damp thighs instead? How does that solve the problem?"
Zed's smile was pure evil. "Just trust me, it would." Then he shrugged. "Or maybe it wouldn't, but goddamn, it'd be hot knowing you weren't wearing anything under your skirt."
With logic like that, who was I to disagree? So I hitched my skirt up a bit and wiggled my panties down until I could take them off completely. Zed gaped at me like he hadn't actually expected me to do it, then when I dangled my underwear from a finger, he snatched it to stuff in his pocket.
"No takebacks," he told me with a triumphant grin, "you're committed now."
"You're such a fucking child," I replied with an eye roll.
A couple of minutes into our drive, it became all too clear what his plan had been. His hand had been resting on my knee, like it often did, but after a while, he started shifting it higher. Inch by inch.
"Zed," I warned as his fingers stroked over my pussy, "you're driving."
"I'm a good multitasker, Dare." A fact he demonstrated by sinking his fingers inside me while overtaking a truck on the freeway.
The danger of it had me all kinds of turned on, so instead of pushing his hand away and demanding my panties back, I grabbed his wrist and pulled him closer. He sucked in a sharp breath of surprise but didn't hesitate to give me what I was asking for.
For the rest of the drive to Lucas's mom's house, Zed navigated the roads and my pussy with skillful mastery, making me writhe in the passenger seat as I came on his hand right before we turned onto Lucas's street.
After we stopped in the driveway, I needed a moment to catch my breath before tugging my skirt back into place and glaring at Zed. "Can I have my panties back now?"