But he’d have to wait for that someone to find him. He had come in earlier than the usual post-shift crowd to chat up the bartender. He’d described Lena. The bartender’s eye twitched as he glanced out at the growing crowd. He shook his head and told Alex she didn’t sound familiar. Alex dropped her name, then, and her friend’s, too. The bartender’s shifting gaze told Alex he was lying when he said he’d never met a Lena; he didn’t know any Ace, either. The man had moved off to serve other customers. And, Alex believed, to find Ace.
Alex waited, sipping an excellent, house-made tequila, and focused on tasting it instead of frustration. He leaned his head down to rub his eyes. He was tired. Tired enough that he found his usual discipline slipping in little hitches. It was just flashes of Lena’s freckled face or that energy bloom, unlike any he’d seen before. But those flashes were intrusive signs that he needed to focus. That on-target dig she’d made about him being snatched from his parents didn’t help any. It had taken everything he had to not respond, to focus on her pain instead of his own old wound. Now, with her no longer in front of him, he could allow some of it to leak out. Not much. Not enough to make him weak. Just enough to fuel him through the rest of his work.
He needed to be on his way, first back to the office to write up his Council report, and then to Fort Nevada to make his real report. It was already an hour past dark, and it had been a long day with no sign of rest in the immediate future. If it weren’t critical to make some kind of contact with someone Lena trusted, he’d leave now.
A pair of hard arms, heavily muscled and burnished deep brown, appeared on either side of him. One hand came to rest on the bar to his right, the other on the wall to his left. The breath Alex had just taken whispered out as his body subtly tensed, easing into position for quick, deadly movement.
“Hey there, stranger.” The voice in his ear was deep and too close. “I don’t know you. Is there a reason you’re dropping my name?”
Alex took a last sip as he turned his head. He cupped the small glass, and as he took the measure of the man leaning in, he recognized what a shame it would be to splinter the glass into the perfect skin of the face before him. The dim light gave his dark skin a bronze and gold glow over a clean-shaven jaw and pate. Pale whiskey-brown eyes shone out from his dark skin and fed the illusion of the glow.
“Depends, Ace,” Alex kept his voice low, “on whether you’re interested in ensuring the continued safety of a mutual friend—the one living in the middle of nowhere?”
Ace’s eyes darkened. He didn’t so much as twitch an eyelid, but Alex could feel the shift from curious to menacing.
Oh, yeah, Ace and Lena are close.
He had the man’s attention. He leaned in, putting his head next to the other man’s. “When did you last see her?” Alex kept his voice low and friendly. “I saw her this afternoon. Four Council teams threw her a party at her place.”
Now he had a reaction. The man’s jaw muscle jumped in time to the rapid pulse at his temple.
“But she left early and took off to stay with her friends in Santo Domingo,” Alex said.
“Good for her.” Ace’s voice was nonchalant, but he took a quick breath, and his eyelids dipped in relief.
“No, Ace, bad for her.” He made his voice hard. “If she had come quietly, if she’d cooperated, even if she’d been dragged back kicking and screaming, I could have arranged something.”
“Could have arranged something? And who the Dust are you?”
“Alejandro Reyes. Senior Council Agent. And the only man in Azcon, other than you, interested in keeping her out of the hands of the Council. But that doesn’t matter now.” He leaned back into the bar and slid the glass away in a quick, angry motion. “Now she’ll have the Council’s attention. Having their attention is bad. It’s worse than either of you think.” He let that sink in. “I’m not talking about giving up her freedom outside for a spot in a power plant line-up, I’m talking about real danger and being shipped away and forced to—”
A hand dropped onto Ace’s shoulder, pulling him away from Alex. A young man, blond hair cut into a shaggy frame for his long face, glared at Alex. He turned to Ace, eyes wide and indignant. “What the hell is this?”
Ace reached out and ran a placating hand across the young man’s lower chest. “It’s business, Jimmy. It’s just work.”
Jimmy’s gaze flicked over to Alex and ran over him. “He doesn’t look like work to me.”
Ace’s hand closed around Jimmy’s shirt, and he pulled the younger man in close to get his attention. “It’s work. Go on back, and I’ll—”
Alex tossed back the last of his tequila and shook his head. “No worries. We’re done. Get her to come to you. Send word to me at work. Quietly. I’ll get her somewhere safe.”
He turned to push through the crowd, but Ace’s hand left his boyfriend’s chest to shoot out and grab Alex’s arm.
“Wait.” Ace had been leaning against the bar. He stood now, towering over Alex and Jimmy both. “Why are you doing this? Telling me—it’s a little dangerous, isn’t it?”