The first familiar person I saw on entering the Vault’s basement was Briar. She stood off to the side, talking into her cell phone, seeming somewhat exasperated. She also seemed oblivious to how hard a particular male was staring at her from a nearby table in the lounge’s dining area.
The aforementioned male, Trace Lacroix, was a famous actor. He was also pretty chummy with a voice actor, Kaleb Westley, here in the basement. The two men were fond of sharing women, and I’d caught both men eye-fucking Briar on several occasions.
Catching sight of me, she gave me a quick wave, pointed at her phone, and then mouthed, ‘five minutes.’
I nodded and, wanting to give her a heads-up, slid my eyes toward Trace.
Still chatting away to her caller, she tracked my gaze. Her eyes narrowed on Trace, who simply gave her an unapologetic smile. With a snort, she turned away and refocused her attention on her phone conversation. That only made his smile widen.
I wondered if she realized that giving her back to a male as dominant as Trace would have come across as nothing short of a challenge. Possibly not. Briar was a smart woman, yes. But she’d grown up around many larger than life characters and wasquite simply used to dismissing their attempts—whether playful, harmless, or aggressive—to overwhelm, intimidate, push, or dominate her.
His hand splayed on my lower back, Danton leaned into me. “I take it you want to say hello to your friends before we head to our table.” He tipped his chin toward the bar, and I only then noticed Izzy and Inaya waving at us.
I smiled. “I do. They’ll hunt us down if I don’t.”
As we approached, Inaya swerved on her barstool with a grin and said, “Well, hey. I was worried you two were never going to come back to the club.”
As if I could have permanently stayed away. “I missed it.”
Bracing her elbow on the bar, Izzy said, “I used to miss it while I was away. Though not quite as much as I missed Redwater itself. My mum had it right when she said that it’s like the place has its own gravity.”
I nodded. “I can’t imagine living anywhere else.” Sensing Danton stir beside me, I followed the direction of his gaze and noted that the owner of the Vault, Blake Mercier, was waving him over.
Danton put his mouth to my ear. “Wait here for me. I’ll be back in a minute.” He subtly brushed a kiss over my temple before he stalked off.
Inaya put a hand to her chest, her face soft. “I’ve never seen him do that before.”
“What?” I asked.
“Any PDA. It was so sweet.” Twirling her ankle, Inaya regarded me carefully. “You look sappily happy.”
“And you look smug,” I shot back.
Her smile kicked up a notch. “Because I was right. He’s totally into you. I’m relieved he admitted it to himself and agreed to scrap the arrangement to take things to the next level. It’s a good thing for him, really, because I was going to write a superdark song about him if he didn’t. I would have done it to Cole too, but he stepped up as well.”
“You didn’t tell me that,” said Izzy, sitting up straight on her stool.
Inaya shrugged. “You didn’t ask.”
Izzy frowned. “Why would I ask if you were going to write a vengeance song about the bloke in my life?”
“It should have occurred to you.” Inaya raised her index finger. “I’m one of your bestiesanda lyricist who hates when people upset those she loves.”
“Aw, you love me?”
“In a sense.”
Izzy snickered. “Bitch.”
“Skank,” Inaya playfully sniped.
I rolled my eyes before fixing them on Izzy. “Where’s Cole?”
“On his way here,” she replied. “We’re weirdly not having tea—dinner, whatever—in the lounge first. He said we won’t be needing food. All I can think is that there’ll be munchies provided in whatever private room he’s booked. But I don’t know for sure, because he’s being all mysterious about it. Which room did Danton book?”
I shook my head, replying, “No clue. He won’t tell me either. Rarely ever does.”
“Well, I want all the details from both of you later, since I have to live vicariously through you,” Inaya cut in.