CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
*Lace*
Our group splits. After giving Bae the waivers from his first round of signups, Vee leaves to do it all over again. While Bae is quickly adding the paperwork to his folder, Brodi announces that he is going to the condo to catch a few winks. Coty, on the other hand, just up and left.
Acid burns in my throat as I wonder if he and Brodi are off to do another job, since I have deduced in the past that they always leave in pairs.
With Kal gone, Vee doing his own thing, and Kio having disappeared somewhere, that brings our party of nine down to a much more manageable party of four.
Usually, checking out the Behind Bars Rally Vendors is not something I get to do since I typically work either at the saloon or at the Leather and Lace booth. Sometimes a small window of opportunity opens if the other dancers and I get the booth closed down quick enough on the final day. During those instances, Chaz gives us a generous monetary bonus to spend freely, but even then, our browsing is limited to the vendors who are still lingering open.
Today is different, though; his generosity starts right away with a trip to the concessions area. A collective groan fills our small group as we all pile up at the end of a line. Conversation is nonexistent while Chaz, Bae, Zane, and I wait. A weary unease is palpable between us. Hell, it almost feels as though that unease spreads throughout the entire event and settles on the hot pavement to hitch a ride on every trudging sole.
Wow. How very divinatory sounding of you, Lacinda.
Wayward thoughts meandering from there, they drift around my current predicaments: every who, what, when, where, and why.
Mostly why, though. Why does Kal want me to do this? Surely he has better resources. A specialist who knows how to handle this sort of stuff. Someone who can get fingerprints off the folder or something.
What do detectives do? How do they start? Throw up yellow caution tape, dust for prints, and question anyone who was on the scene at the time of the crime?
I have no online access right now, much less the time to do any precursory research like the unexpecting sleuths do in the movies. I could have looked up some tips and tricks on my phone, but Chaz took it, along with my purse, and passed them off to Brodi, who is likely passed out hard at the condo by now.
“Know what you want to eat?” Chaz asks.
“The usual,” I respond absently.
He nods and turns to give the lady taking orders his full attention, heart-throbbing toothy grin and all. “Two orders of hog candy, six lamb gyros, a turkey leg, three sweet teas, and a water.”
“With lemon,” Zane adds.
“Ya want lemon with the sweet teas, too, or just the water?” the woman in the window asks, batting her lashes. The biting down on the corner of her bottom lip afterward zaps me right back to the present, though.
Doing a damn fine job keeping the disgust off my face, if I do say so myself, I step up to his side and nuzzle against him with my shoulder. Chaz immediately scoops his free arm around me, despite the fight he has to put up to get money out from inside his suit top one-handed as a result. He even places a kiss on my temple before plopping the uncounted wad down onto the skinny counter and veering us away, paying her no more mind.
In our wake, Baylor can be heard wrapping up the transaction. Zane joins us, and we find a pocket in which to huddle up and wait amid the crowd.
“Jealousy looks good on you, Lace. You should wear it more often.” Chaz palms his dick and adjusts my positioning in front of him to hide his growing erection from a young family standing nearby. When he adds his other arm into the mix this time, completely cocooning me, he cups the back of my head, squeezes me tight, and gently sways us.
A real, genuine, sympathetic hug. Not a single word needs to be exchanged between us. Chaz knows what happened, and this is his way of relaying that to me. My arms had been simply dangling at my sides, about as heavy and worthless as my entire existence feels, but now they rise and curl around him, my fingers clenching into the back of his riding suit.
Chaz loosens his hold, and he brings his hands to my face instead, cupping me between his palms to nudge my head back and bring our noses close. His ocean eyes flit between mine, his long hair blows forward, creating a curtain blocking us from the rest of the world for a moment, and he places a gentle kiss on my nose while his thumbs brush little arches along my cheeks.
Just when I think this moment between us will be wordless, his lips meet my forehead, and he leaves a parting whisper before turning me back around. “So damn resilient.”
No chastisement. No disappointment. Only admiration. With those three small words, Chaz turns all my weaknesses into the singular strength acting as a supportive foundation beneath them all.
“Father, what does that Bible verse say about the bread?” Bae projects, making his way to us from the counter, his arms laden with food and biceps precariously securing drinks between them and his body. “Looking up to heaven…” He flashes me a smile.
“He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples,” Zane finishes, helping to relieve Bae from his arduous load and passing off a sweet tea to Chaz and me.
Bae refuses to give up the turkey leg when Zane tries to remove that from his grip next. As is always tradition with Bae, while keeping his hold on the turkey leg, he opens his gyro first, pulls back just enough of the paper wrapping to make a bite accessible, then offers it to me.
I take a quick taste, stomach grumbling in thanks at the first bit of food since yesterday sometime in the early evening. Bae then removes the gyro from my hand and gives me the turkey leg I always order. I quickly take a bite of that next.
The first time he ever did this, I was so confused. He had to explain to me that his mother taught him to always offer his partner the first bite or sip of his meal, just in case they decide they might want that option instead. An old-fashioned trick to being a proper gentleman, since removed from society for the most part.
Not for Bae, though. He waits patiently for me to make my choice.