The shrug she gave him was almost imperceptible to anyone but him. I don’t give a shit whether you’re pissed off or not. Aloud she said, “Okay, so where was I? I think I mentioned I’ve got a team at Void Angel dedicated to investigating this apparent human trafficking link Alex and Katya discovered at Conrad’s Four Horsemen casino? Well, I’ve also been reviewing the security footage we got from him.” She jammed her hands into the back pockets of her jeans. “And I think I may have some information.”
Tension crawled along Zac’s shoulders, stiffening his spine.
“Nothing,” she’d said to him as they’d sat there, going over and over the tape Alex had gotten from Conrad South—casino owner; erstwhile member of Alex’s father’s mysterious Seven Devils club; rapist; and, as they’d lately found out, murderer. Footage taken at the Lucky Seven casino nineteen years ago, when Alex had been assaulted by the man.
It was their only lead to solving the mystery of who was behind the Lucky Seven and who had given the order for Alex and Honor’s father to be killed and made to look like suicide. Why Honor’s stepfather, still in a coma, had been shot. And why Alex had been warned off digging too deeply into the doings of the Seven Devils by a mercenary he’d met in Conrad’s own casino.
So, Eva had lied to him. It would have surprised him if he hadn’t guessed that already. If he didn’t know her the way he did, every expression, every inflection in her voice. He always knew when she was holding back or when something scared her, and that day, watching the tape, something had scared her. And he’d hoped, he’d really hoped like he always did, that she would come to him with it.
You always hope that and yet you are always disappointed.
Story of his whole bloody life.
“What kind of information?” Alex asked, leaning back against the couch, his hand covering Katya’s where it rested on his lap.
Eva rocked on her heels. She was nervous, Zac could immediately tell. No, more than nervous. He recognized the tilt of her chin, the rigid cast to her shoulders, the cynical amusement in her eyes. Eva wasn’t nervous, she was scared.
Instantly he straightened. “Sit down, Eva, and I’ll get you some tea.”
“I don’t want any fucking tea.”
Oh yes, she was scared all right. Was that why she didn’t want him here? Christ, what had she seen on that tape? Unease shifted inside him.
“Say what you have to say then,” he ordered. “Now.” The quicker she said it, the quicker they could get on to sorting what it was that had scared her.
The quicker he could get on to finding out who’d brutalized her all those years ago.
The quicker he could shoot that fucker in the head.
Eva’s gaze remained on his. “Last time I checked, you weren’t my boss. Which means I’ll tell you whenever I’m goddamned ready, okay?”
He didn’t react to the aggression in her voice—she always got belligerent and pissy when she was afraid. Merely held her sharp, silver stare. Waiting.
“I recognized the guy who was guarding the bathroom door,” she said flatly. “I’ve seen him before.”
* * *
Eva’s fingers curled in the back pockets of her jeans. They were cold no matter the fire burning at her back, but then again, her hands were always cold. She could never get warm, no matter where she was.
And now she felt colder still.
None of the others would know the significance of her confession—she’d never told anyone about her past and she never would—but Zac would know. Which was why she’d wanted to tell the others without him here. She didn’t want to see the flare of knowledge in his familiar golden eyes. Or the glitter of anger on her behalf. The anger that made her so fucking tired. That made leaving behind what had happened to her impossible.
But someone had told him to come, and so here he was. She would just have to deal with it.
So she braced herself and stared at him, and sure enough, there it was, the understanding. And close on its heels, the rage. It burned like a banked volcano in his eyes, a heat he never let out because Zac never let anything out. She’d never met a man so completely in control of himself, which was why he was her one and only friend.
He was the only person she ever felt utterly safe with, a fact that both annoyed her in the extreme and yet formed the entire foundation of her present life.
Oh yeah, there was a reason she was in the fucked-up billionaire’s club. She was probably the most fucked up out of all of them.
“What do you mean you’ve seen that guy before?” Alex sat forward, frowning. His blue eyes were so sharp. Too sharp. “Where? How?”