“I think he didn’t want to be a one and done,” I surmised.
“Just, you know,” Elivra began, “takin’ up the slack while Hawk here tamps down his inclination to chase up Axe and Boone so he can work out his current murderous tendencies, this Kovack guy thought you’d share with her.” She tipped her head to Ryn. “My guess, this started before you and Axe got together?”
I nodded.
“So … yeah,” Elvira said in conclusion.
“But then he knew I was with Axl,” I pointed out.
Elvira shrugged. “That, I don’t get. Unless he got into it and found he was getting off on it and didn’t feel like quitting.”
It was more than that.
I felt it.
But I focused on Ryn. “You okay?”
“Yeah.”
She didn’t sound convincing.
“I’m sorry that happened to you.”
“No big deal, it’s over. I’m sorry it leaked to you.”
“That isn’t on you.”
She nodded.
“He bi?” Elvira broke into our back-and-forth to ask Ryn.
“No clue,” Ryn answered.
“He’s bi,” Elvira said.
“And?” I asked.
“And, have you seen Axl?” she asked back. “Or Boone?”
Well then.
There you go.
“He wanted him,” I surmised. “He wanted him. He wanted you. He wanted Ryn. Maybe even wanted Boone. Who knows? That video,” she tipped her head to my laptop, “says ‘Come and play.’ It does not say, ‘Come and play, and after, I’m gonna wear your skin.’ ”
Yeah, just like I thought.
Totally no Silence of the Lambs vibes.
Totally an invitation.
But … who does that?
And it wasn’t just rule-breaking BDSM guy stuff.
I just couldn’t shake that it was …off.
“Boone did not share the details of his ‘conversation’ with Laszlo, but I’m thinking he left it without question that he was not down to play,” Ryn noted.
“This guy doesn’t play by the rules, right?”
“Right,” Ryn said miserably.
“Ryn, honey, it isn’t your fault,” I reiterated.
“It still sucks. I mean, what a dick,” she replied.
“It does suck, but whatever. They’ll get him so it’s almost all over.” It was a lame attempt to reassure her, but it was all I had.
“They’ll get him,” Hawk rumbled.
I jumped, not believing I kinda forgot he was standing there.
Hawk then turned and prowled down the row, and at the end, he jogged up to his office like he had energy he needed to expend.
Hostile energy.
Eek!
“So, you know, you gotta hook a girl up with the shops you go to,” Elvira said to Ryn. “I mean, marriage is da bomb, but you gotta keep things in the marital bed hopping, you feel me?”
Ryn lost some of her gloom and semi-smiled. “I can totally hook you up.”
“Porn too. Malik won’t do all boys, but a girl can take her laptop to a bubble bath and get herself in the mood before she pounces on her man,” Elvira declared.
Ryn’s smile strengthened. “Totally.”
Elvira’s voice changed abruptly, and it did this in totality.
“You are never responsible for a violation. You will almost always feel like you are, but it is not yours to take on. It is never yours to take on. Do you get me?”
“I get you,” Ryn said softly.
Elvira looked down at me. “Do you get me?”
“I get you,” I repeated Ryn’s words.
“Right, this pretty much shouts time for a cosmo. Who wants one?”
A cosmo?
As in, the drink?
“Vira, it’s not even ten in the morning,” Ryn noted.
Yes, the drink.
“And?” Elvira demanded.
Neither Ryn nor I had the answer to that.
Though I had another note.
“Bars aren’t open yet.”
“You think, I work with these boys, I don’t have a setup in my office?” she asked.
Considering this was a place of business, a kickass one, but still a place of business, I wouldn’t have thought that, no.
Though, thinking on it then, if I had to work with an office full of hot guys, I’d have a drawer of goodies to help me get through.
“Ten or not, it’s girl time,” Ryn said, grabbing my arm and pulling me up.
I hadn’t even had breakfast.
Still.
“I’m in,” I said.
We moved down the row with Elvira declaring (to me), “Girl, you miss my boards again, I’m banning you for life.”
I knew one thing in that moment.
I really liked this woman.
So that could not happen.
“Cross my heart, never again,” I promised.
“Best stick to that,” she warned.
We hit her office.
She opened a cabinet, and this was not clandestine.
There was a fancy shaker, stylish martini glasses and everything.
Even a mini ice maker!
I’d heard a lot of talk about Elvira.
I was now seeing why.
Because straight up.
She was the shit.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Setup
HATTIE
After work that night, I opened the door to the dancers’ dressing room and saw Axl out in the hallway.
He was shoulders to the wall, ankles crossed, arms crossed, and his head was bent in contemplation of his shoes before I walked out, and it came up when I did.
It was not a pose of patient waiting.
It was a pose of annoyed reflection.
I knew two things about seeing him there in that stance.
One, Sly was off duty.