“Hello,” she muttered, never being someone who enjoyed being woken up, unless it was by two very hot mates with even hotter body parts that couldn’t seem to get enough of seeing their body parts disappear into hers. She very gladly was okay with being woken up for that!
“Zelina Marie Mason, I am going to beat the flying ape shit out of you when I see you! Where the hell have you been? You haven’t been answering my calls. Brian didn’t show up for work today. You weren’t at your apartment. I was starting to think something had happened to both of you and was getting ready to enlist the FBI!”
She could barely keep up with her friend’s rambling, but hearing the concern in it mollified Zelina’s attitude slightly.
“Your setup turned out to be the date from hell! He tried to k . . . kiss me.” She completed her sentence lamely. She wasn’t sure if there was some kind of code as to what she could tell her best friend and what she couldn’t. Her heart was heavy at the thought. She definitely had some things that only girl talk would make better. She had almost died the day before, now had not one but two men in her life, was basically married if she understood the whole mate impression thing, had two bite marks on her shoulders, and didn’t even know where she was. This was a time to need a friend if any.
“I don’t give a damn if he tried to frisk you in the car! Mad at me or not, Z, I was worried. I couldn’t find you at all the last three days!”
“Three days! I’ve only been gone for a day!”
“Zelina, baby, where are you? I’m at the store. I know you like ice cream.”
The sentence drove home that her friend really was worried. They had developed it as kids as a way to ask if something was wrong and if the police needed to be called. When one of Jezzie’s cousins had been murdered by a robber, she’d been under bondage when her phone rang. The friend thought she sounded funny and knew something was wrong. Without thinking, she asked if someone was there, and if someone was hurting her. When Isabelle replied yes, out of fear, the robber had killed her instead of giving her the chance to give the police a description. That had stuck with Jezzie. It had stuck with them all.
“No, J. I’m fine, I swear it.” She heard Jezzie let go of the breath she’d been holding when Zelina hadn’t given the code phrase for “yes, get help.”
“Then where the hell are you? I’m coming to get you, or I swear to God the cops will! Don’t play with me.”
There was no way that she was going to get Jezzie off the bone when she was on it. The only way she’d calm down is if she saw Z . . . Problem was, Z had no idea where she was to be able to tell Jezzie. She couldn’t be that far from the restaurant, but she’d never seen outside of the room to see if she recognized anything familiar. After climbing out of bed and tossing on a T-shirt that lay crumpled on the ground, she went to the window to look out. The woodsy smell let her know it was Rion’s shirt. She turned to search for another shirt, saw a button-up and smelled Quin. Tossing that shirt on as well made her feel better.
“Okay, now about where I am,” Zelina started.
“Why? Going somewhere?”
Chapter Fourteen
Stalking. There was no other way to describe the way Rion had come into the room. Zelina had figured out over the eventful three days, as she now understood, that Rion was much darker than his brother. He was the more forceful of the two personalities. Where Quin could compromise, could smile, Rion seemed to be teetering on the verge of a blowup. She’d enjoyed that during sex. He made her feel as though he couldn’t be without her, that he was trying his best to stamp her with his essence so that she could never walk away. He was not the brother she wanted to hear the conversation that was happening. He would misunderstand.
“Rion, it’s my friend Jezzie. I’ve been gone for a few days, so she’s making sure I’m all right. She can be a little much, but I love her anyway.”
“Who the hell is that? And what do you mean ‘a little much’?” Jezzie screamed on the phone.
“Tell her you’re okay, and then hang up.”
“I’m not going to hang up on my friend. I’ve told her I’m okay. She just wants to come see me.”
“Tell her you’re okay, and then hang up,” he repeated, stepping closer.
“I said no, Rion. So what is this address?”
“Z? What is going on? Who is that?”
“Fine, have your way,” Rion replied, never breaking eye contact with her, and suddenly he was there in front of her. “Stay on the phone then.”