Dex glances quickly at me before looking back at the road. “Everything as in?”
“What Frankie did and that she’s the Black Demon.”
Dex whistles. “That’s some heavy shit.”
“I don’t care about any of that,” I say harshly. “I just need to know Alessa is okay.”
Ryder told me she had a panic attack in the garage when he was raving about Zane being at the house. He said after we talked to Alexey and Dmitri, she has more bombs to drop on us.
Holden squeezes my arm. “She’s okay. She just needs a minute.”
I pat his hand, thankful for the comfort. “Thanks, man.”
“That explains the panic attack,” Dex mutters. “Bringing that up couldn’t have been easy.”
“I had no fucking clue it was that dark,” I say defensively.
Dex shakes his head. “I’m not blaming you. I’m just saying it makes sense.” He rubs his scarred cheek. “Some things you can’t forget.”
“Yeah,” Holden agrees from the backseat. “Sometimes memories sneak up before you can stop them.”
“How do you guys get past it?”
“Les,” they both answer at the same time.
Dex chuckles at that. “Now she needs us to get past it.”
“I didn’t say the right thing today, Dex. I didn’t say anything at all,” I admit.
“That’s a lot to process, bro,” Dex soothes. “She will realize that too. Let her get through this meeting with the Orlov assholes and make her talk to you.”
I smile. “You don’t like Alexey and Dmitri either?”
“Fuck no,” Dex says grumpily. “I hate how they look at her.”
“Can you blame them, though?” Holden says dreamily, making Dex chuckle again. “I don’t like it either. Or Zane.”
Dex grunts. “Zane is a bigger fucking problem,” he snarls, his hand tightening on the steering wheel.
He’s right about Zane. He and Les have a history together, which I’m starting to piece together from what the guys talk about.
Dex turns into the abandoned airstrip where they hold The Games and stops beside their bikes. I can see Alessa standing between Alexey and Dmitri with Ryder’s arms wrapped around her waist.
“I see we aren’t the only ones,” I say, nodding to Ryder marking his territory.
Gage runs over and jumps on the brush guard on the front of Dex’s truck, moving up and down so the truck rocks.
“Crazy fucker,” Dex mutters, then jerks the door open. “Get off my fucking truck!” Gage just grins and flips him off.
I shake my head and follow them out of the truck. I walk to the front where Gage is standing, admiring his ass in those riding leathers.
“You like what you see?” he asks, and I’m taken back to the first time he asked me that.
“Yep,” I agree without hesitation.
He slings his arm around my shoulders, guiding me toward the rest of the group. He leans against the side of Alexey’s Lambo and pulls me to stand in front of him with my back to his chest, tucking his fingers into my pockets. “Is this okay?” he asks. I know he means the PDA with him.
“It is.”
