A few regulars called out to me and I was stopped by two different cocktail servers that had been here just as long as I had. They both hugged me and told me they loved my new hairdo. I hugged them back and made chitchat as I tried to locate where Reeve might be. I had so much spinning around in my head I needed a safe place to try to lay it all out, and Reeve was the only person that was even kind of my friend.
I caught sight of her dark hair by the bar. She was leaning on the edge of it talking to a huge man that had a wicked-looking scar that bisected one half of his face. He was dressed in a dark gray suit that fit him to a T but he had on heavy and serious-looking boots. When he caught sight of me staring in their direction, he straightened, and there was no missing the black gun tucked into his side. He might look like a businessman, but I would bet anything the business he was in involved a whole lot of blood and broken bones. He inclined his head in my direction and muttered something to Reeve, which had her head jerking up so that she saw me.
The big man scowled when she nudged him out of her way so she could come around the bar. I wondered what his story was as Reeve barreled into me for a hug. She’d changed a lot since hooking up with the hot cop. She wasn’t much of a hugger before, and as she pressed into me and I hugged her back I noticed what was probably the biggest change that had occurred since I had been gone. Her normally lithe and toned figure was a little bit softer and a whole lot fuller.
I pulled back and looked at her with huge eyes. “The cop knocked you up!”
She pulled back and gave me a little squeeze. Her eyes were an odd shade of dark blue that hovered on the edge of navy, and right now they were shiny with the kind of pure happiness I didn’t think existed in the Point.
“He did.”
I pointed at her barely-there belly and narrowed my eyes at her. “Why didn’t you mention something?”
She put a protective hand over her stomach and shrugged. “I haven’t really said much to anyone.” She snorted and shoved some of her long, black hair behind her shoulder. “I see Nassir every single day and he hasn’t even noticed. Aside from Bax, Dovie, Race, and Brysen, no one really knows. It’s kind of just been in the family.” She hooked a thumb toward the big guy that was still watching us with narrowed eyes from the bar. “Killer over there was actually the first person to guess, but I think that’s because my hormones are all over the place and one minute I’m crying all over him and the next I’m threatening to cut his balls off if he doesn’t get out of my way.”
My eyebrows shot up and I snickered. “I’m surprised Nassir let a stranger watch over his club for him.”
Reeve shook her head and sighed. “Booker isn’t a stranger, and believe me, he’s paid his dues and then some. He deserves his place at the table with the rest of the shady and sinister.”
It was my turn to sigh. I shifted on my tall shoes and looked toward the back of the club, where Nassir’s office, now Reeve’s office, was located. “Can we go back there and talk? I really don’t need the entire city to know how ridiculous I am.”
She nodded and cupped her hands around her mouth to shout to the guy she called Booker that she would be back in a few. He just did that head-tilt thing guys did and turned his attention to his phone. I didn’t know who he was talking to, but I bet by the time I left the club, word of my sudden reappearance would be all over the city.
Reeve took a seat behind the desk and groaned in obvious relief when she did so. She was barely showing, but growing another person was hard work, especially in a place like this.
“I can’t believe you’re going to have a baby. Are you planning to leave the city once it’s here?”
“No. Our life is here, and if that means making sure a baby is safe in that life, then that’s what we’ll do. Plus, you should see Bax.” She laughed. “No one believes me when I tell them that I think he’s more excited about this kid than Titus is. He calls me at least twice a day to check on me.”
I blinked in shock. “I thought Bax hated you.” There was bad blood there because Reeve had been involved with something that threatened Bax’s girlfriend, Dovie. It hadn’t ended well, and Bax wasn’t the kind of guy to forgive and forget.
She lifted a shoulder and let it fall. “He’s not my biggest fan, but he is infatuated with this little human inside of me. I think the idea of something new, the thought of a fresh start, appeals to him. This kid couldn’t have a better guardian angel looking out for him or her in this city.”
I laughed. “No kidding.” Bax was a brick wall when it came to protecting those he cared about. It would take an army to get through him if he was keeping his new nephew or niece within his protective circle. Not to mention the baby’s dad was armed and dangerous in his own right. If any newborn had a fighting chance of having a normal life in this very abnormal place, it was this one.
“I’m happy for you, Reeve.”
“Thank you. Now tell me what’s up. I assume this look on your face is because you wasted no time in seeing the man behind the curtain when you got back to Oz.”
I shoved my hands through the longer part of the front of my hair and tugged at the roots. “I’m losing it, you know? My mind that is.”
She lifted a midnight-colored eyebrow at me and settled farther back into her chair. I tugged on my hair harder.
“I can’t stop what I feel for him. I can’t stop playing his stupid games. When you mentioned the club, all I could hear was him whispering that he had a business proposition for me. I thought it would be ridiculous, that it was just one more way for him to keep me close so he could silently pull the strings in my life. And it is, but it isn’t. He really wants me to buy into the club, and the profit margin is huge.”