“Alexa, calm down.” I bring her to a stop once again. “I’ll tell him tonight, okay? Does that make you feel better?”
She averts her eyes to her heels and nods her head once.
“Come here.” I pull her into my chest and hug her tightly, kissing her forehead. “You’re getting all worked up over nothing.”
“I just …” She sighs heavily, wrapping her arms around my chest. “I just worry about April and Grave, you know? I want them to be happy. They deserve that.”
“Hey.” I pull back just enough to cup her chin and force her to look up at me. “They are happy. And you and me having sex isn’t going to ruin that.”
The elevator comes to a stop once again. “Come on.” I grab her hand and pull her off at our stop. A man who I know as Mack stands by the outside of the elevator. “Hey, Cross.” He nods at us, and I don’t like the way his eyes linger on her chest. I hold her hand a little tighter.
I nod back and walk down the long hallway. Taking a right at the end, I come to a door that reads Grave across it.
“Maybe we should go in separately,” Alexa offers, pulling me to a stop.
I think about that for a second. Titan is the one who guessed it, but that doesn’t mean he’s told the others. “Sure.” I nod. Alexa is already upset about the situation, and I don’t want to make it worse. “You go in first. I’ll come in after.”
Letting go of my hand, she enters, and I wait a beat before doing so myself. I’m not going to stand out here forever. If they figure it out, then they figure it out.
Ten heads turn to look at me. “Made it!” I throw my hands up.
Bones stands, leaning up against the counter to the far right with his tatted arms crossed over his chest. Titan stands next to him, legs spread while Emilee stands between them with her back to his front. His arms around her shoulders. Grave sits on the black leather table, his legs dangling over the edge in nothing but a pair of black shorts that reads KINGDOM in gold letters on the waistband. April stands next to him. Alexa is beside her. She avoids looking at me directly while pretending to read something on her phone. A thought crosses my mind that it’s that fucker, Mitch. I have yet to ask her about him. I’m afraid she’d take it the wrong way because women always overthink shit. And when you start asking about exes, they think you’re considering a future with them. Case in point—what just happened on the elevator.
Jasmine sits on the counter next to Bones, and Nite stands leaning up against the far wall. Luca and his wife, Haven, stand to the left of him. All conversations come to an abrupt stop, making me feel like I interrupted something. I’ll ask Alexa later if they did the same thing when she entered.
“About time,” Titan announces.
“Yeah, well, I was a little busy.”
Grave snorts. “I hope you weren’t fucking that assistant of yours.”
Alexa’s head snaps up, and her eyes land on mine. I don’t say anything to that, but I do see that Titan notices Alexa’s gaze burning a hole in me, confirming what he was already guessing. We haven’t had the Rachel speech. She’s never asked, and I’ve never offered any information on her.
“Your assistant at Tit for Tat?” Emilee is the one who speaks. “She was very rude to me that one time I was looking for you.” She crosses her arms over her chest at that memory when she was trying to find the Palace suite. “She acted like I was going to fuck you right then and there in your shop when I just needed help finding Titan.”
I watch Jasmine tense. She and April both know about Alexa and me. So, they think I’m fucking both of them. Why do I want to correct them? Biting my tongue, I decide now is not the time. I need to tell Grave first and not in front of everyone. After his fight, I’ll get him alone and fill him in.
Grave adds, “Yeah, Rachel’s had a thing for him ever since Cross hired her.” He shakes his head with a laugh. “I told him not to fuck her, but he couldn’t resist.”
Fuck!
Titan’s eyes go back and forth between Alexa and me, but she’s no longer looking at me. Her eyes are back down on her cell, and she’s typing away. It better not be to fucking Mitch.
“Grave …” April stands in front of him, patting his legs. “It’s none of our business who Cross gets with.”
He just laughs as she tries to divert the conversation.
“I’m not sleeping with her,” I add quickly, watching to see how Alexa reacts. Nothing. Her eyes stayed glued to her phone.