She was falling for him. She could not help herself.
But now she had the feeling that something was simply . . . off.
“I saw Saxon,” Benny said.
“What? When?” she asked, because Johnny was conferring with Dick and didn’t seem to have heard him.
Benny reminded Lizette of a puppy—he was quite eager to please and possibly would lick you if you let him.
“About an hour ago. We were having a drink to celebrate his marriage.”
“An hour ago?” she asked in surprise. “How long were you together?”
“Couple hours. I ran in to him here after my day shift at the club. So I guess it was probably around ten.” But then he looked around and patted the pockets on his tight jeans. “But wait, what time is it now?”
“It is two.”
“Then I’m not really sure. But it was tonight. That I can tell you for sure.” He gave her a friendly smile.
That was interesting. Not Benny’s smile. The fact that Saxon had been with him after waking up for the night. Did that mean he’d been with them in the dungeon until he’d woken up? But surely he would have roused Zelda as well if that had been the case, at the very least to make sure she was all right. “Did he mention not remembering his wedding night?”
Benny gave her a blank stare. “Who doesn’t remember their wedding night? I mean, come on. It’s kind of noteworthy.”
“That’s true.” Lizette glanced over at Johnny and Dick, who were now busy looking at the screen of Dick’s phone. “Care for a drink, Benny? Let’s sit at the bar, shall we? Johnny, Dick, can we sit at the bar?”
Johnny gave her a distracted nod, but he didn’t protest when she started dragging him the three feet to the barstools. He held out a stool for her, then continued his conversation with Dick, which seemed to have left the field of handcuffs and ventured into the territory of online gaming. There was a lot of weaponry discussion and strategizing going on.
“Okay, thanks.” Benny followed her as well, pool stick in tow. “I’ll have a Heineken,” he told Nigel.
“Riesling, please,” she ordered, crossing her legs after she climbed onto the stool. While the bartender moved to get their drinks, she turned back to Benny. “When I meant memory loss, I was thinking more along the lines of when someone drinks to excess, or perhaps has something slipped in their drink that makes them lose their memory of the night.”
“Oh, gotcha.” Benny nodded. “I totally understand. I had that happen to me once, you know. The night of Johnny’s wake. I totally didn’t know any of these guys until that night.”
“Really?” she asked politely, though she wasn’t particularly interested. Her focus was on the night prior, not what antics Benny had gotten into in the past. “So Saxon didn’t mention anything like that about last night?”
“Nope. He said the wedding was a blast and Zelda tore him up in bed. He was smiling and looking good.” Benny grinned.
Now that was odd. So Saxon remembered the night, but no one else did? How had that happened? “Did he say where he was going when he left here?”
“Nope. So the night of Johnny’s wake, did he ever tell you about that?”
“Not specifically.” Which was the truth. He had told her why he had faked his own death, but he hadn’t described the outcome or how quickly he had come clean with his friends and family. Obviously not before they’d had a wake for him. That must have been awkward, and Lizette found herself in sympathy with Stella. It must have been horrific for her to plan her brother’s funeral.
“So it’s really a funny story.” Benny thanked Nigel and took his drink from him. “So like I said, I had never met any of these guys in my life, and I just went to work as usual, except it was Tarts and Vicars night at the club so I was dressed like a priest, crucifix and all. I forgot to bring a change of clothes, so it was either walk home in a Speedo or the costume, so I left the robe on. Then I don’t remember a damn thing until I woke up the next night in a bathtub three blocks off Bourbon with a chick screaming and a bunch of hungover dudes all arguing with each other. Then a bat bit me. I mean, just swooped down out of nowhere and bit the shit out of me, and while she’s biting me, she just turns into a hot babe. Like bam! There she is—hot babe sucking on my neck and I thought, ‘Whoa. These people are vampires. Could anything be any fucking hotter?’”
Lizette almost fell off her stool in a dead faint, her panic growing with each and every word he spoke. “What do you mean?” she managed, a strange buzzing sounding in her ears.