“The young stud you’re fucking?” Marcos grumbled.
“Marcos…”
“Sorry. That was, uh… unprofessional.”
“You’re not wrong, but yes.”
“How old is he?”
“Old enough to be a sergeant in the Marine Corps, so legal.”
“Well, that’s something, at least.”
“Tell me about it. Listen, I need a couple of favors and some questions answered.”
“Name it.”
“Thank you. Do you know how we got back to the hotel?”
“When you left the club, Damon followed in the car until losing you guys in the crowd. He kept a lookout. You popped up sometime later, and he herded you into the car and back to the hotel.”
“Well, that explains how we got back to the room and who plugged in all our cell phones.”
“Yes. Is there anything else?”
“Here’s the first favor. It’s two-fold. What I’m about to say stays between us. Do not talk to anyone about it. Also, I’d appreciate you not saying anything about what occurred at the club.”
“I understand. I won’t lie, but I won’t freely give anyone info.”
“Perfect. Now, for the second favor, I need a list of wedding venues between the club and where Damon found us last night.”
“Copy. Do you want me to go ask some discreet questions?”
“Yes. See if you can pin down where we were. I need facts, and we need to contain this.”
“Okay. I’ll see what I can find out.”
“Thank you, my friend.”
“You’re welcome. And the young stud is a lucky man.”
“Thank you. Please let me know what you find out.”
“Will do.”
The call disconnected, and I walked back to the others. I sat down in the chair next to Hayden and looked at him. I had no clue what we were going to do. Well, other than him losing his shit in the next few seconds because all five of his friends were asking questions at the top of their lungs, talking over each other, and not giving Hayden a chance to answer any of them.
He raised his thumb and first finger to his mouth, and an ear-piercing whistle cut through the chaos. When everyone shut up, he said, “I don’t know the first damn thing any of you asked, but here’s what we know. Nothing. We know nothing. We woke up with wedding bands on.”
“Well, actually, you said something, and I said something like you can’t say that about your husband. Other than that, all I remember after the test tube shots are flashing lights, music, a bunch of Elvises, a ton of flowers, and white. That’s it. It’s a blur.”
“So you think it was in the test tubes?” Scott asked.
“Yeah. We all drank from the bar all night, but not at the same time. Given how busy it was and how many people there were, it’s impossible they served us all from the same liquor bottle. The only thing we all drank was the test tubes.”
“Shit. I’m sorry, guys.”
Everyone rushed to let him know we didn’t blame him. There wasn’t anything he could’ve done. At least we didn’t overdose like some others did. And that’s what I said to him. He nodded.
