Chapter Twenty-Three

Zeke

A s he slid out of the booth, Zeke laughed at something Knox said. He shook his head as he made his way to the bar and flagged down Drew, their head bartender. Drew threw the towel onto his shoulder, the one he’d been using to wipe down the counter, and grinned at Zeke.

“Having a good night?” he asked.

Zeke swayed a little. “So far. Three more shots.” He held up three fingers, and Drew nodded before fulfilling his order. As he did, Zeke looked back at their table.

All three of them were drunk. After Amara left this morning, they made plans to celebrate. In the beginning, they hadn’t set out to get wasted, but that seemed to be what had happened, and the night was still early.

Drake had finally claimed Amara, and Knox was now clean, which gave them reason to let loose tonight. Things had been tense there for a while, and he was grateful that was no longer the case.

Feeling euphoric, whether that be from the alcohol or this turn of events, he breathed deeply and let it out slowly. He finally felt like everyone was on the same page about everything.

The sound of the shot glasses clinking against the wood bartop caused Zeke to turn back around. “Celebrating?” Drew asked.

“Yeah.” His grin widened.

Drew chuckled. “I can tell. At this rate, I’ll have to carry the three of you upstairs. What are you celebrating anyway?”

Knox and Drake not being dumbasses anymore. He almost let the words slip out. Instead, he puckered his lips for a moment. He couldn’t tell him that, because they were his bosses, and he couldn’t tell them the full truth either. “Stuff,” he said instead.

Drew laughed and shook his head a little. He slid the shots over to him. “Alright, I get it. None of my business.” He crossed his arms, the smile on his face lighting up his eyes. “Let me know if you need another.”

Zeke grabbed the shots and headed back toward their booth, dodging other patrons. It was a miracle he didn’t spill any with how drunk he was, nor how many people bumped into him as he tried to skirt around them. The bar was busy tonight, but that wasn’t going to stop them from having a good time.

As he eyed their booth, it looked a little empty without Amara squashed between them. He hated the fact that Amara had to go back home. He had gotten used to her staying at the apartment with them, but he understood. Now that they were all in this together, they needed to start figuring out what they were going to do about her father. They couldn’t keep going this way, and they needed her with them. Living separately just wasn’t going to cut it anymore.

Once he reached the table, he found Drake holding a pocket knife and Knox with his hand flat on the table. Drake brought the knife down quickly, but Knox pulled his hand out of the way in time, and the knife embedded into the wood.

Zeke frowned as he set the shots down, but Knox barked a laugh, held out his hand to Drake, and said, “My turn.”

“You two are idiots,” Zeke grumbled. He slid the shot glasses in front of each of them and squeezed into the booth next to Drake. Once he was settled, he said, “What are we toasting to this time?”

Knox picked up his shot and proclaimed, “To a lifetime of a tight pussy and mind-blowing blowjobs.”

Zeke shook his head, knowing that Amara meant more to him than getting laid. In fact, she was his world right now, and he didn’t see that changing for Knox any time soon.

Lifting his shot, Zeke clinked it against theirs. Together, they downed the shots and slammed the glass back on the table.

“Seriously though,” Knox said after clearing the sting of alcohol from his throat with a cough. “I’m regretting getting wasted without Amara here. I’m horny as hell with nothing to fuck but my own damn hand.”

“So, this is really who you are?” Drake smirked. “It wasn’t just the drugs?”

“Can take the drugs out of the man, but that doesn’t change the man,” Zeke replied for Knox with a small shake of his head .

“Damn right,” Knox agreed, jabbing the table with his pointer finger.

Zeke leaned forward, and even though his mind was fuzzy from the alcohol, he grew serious. “Now that we are all on the same page about all of this, I think we should discuss our next steps.”

Drake slapped him on the shoulder in a joking manner. “Is that really smart to do while we’re drunk?” It’s been a while since Zeke had seen the guy so carefree. It was clear that he was the one Amara had changed the most.

“Would you rather go another day without a plan? Leaving Amara at the hands of her father?” Zeke countered.

Knox’s face grew serious. “We should have never let her leave this morning.”

“We can’t exactly keep her hostage,” Zeke replied.

Knox’s lips were tense. “Sure we can.”

Leaning back against the back of the booth, Zeke crossed his arms over his chest. “That was before we were all in this, when she was still trying to fight the bond. I think it would be different now.” At least, he hoped it would be. Every time she left to go home, he got a terrible feeling in the pit of his gut. He didn’t know exactly how bad things were with her father, and he didn’t want anything to happen to her. Not when they could have prevented it.

“So what do you propose we do about it then?” Drake asked after a pause. Zeke was sure they were all probably thinking about the possible horrors that could happen if they weren’t there to protect her.

“I say we kill him,” Knox said simply. Zeke shouldn’t have been surprised by his response. That had been his solution since the beginning .

Zeke raised an eyebrow at him. “We need to convince her to at least move in with us.”

As soon as he finished the words, Knox stood and gripped the edge of the table to steady his sway.

“Where are you going?” Drake asked.

“To convince her to move in with us.”

Zeke chuckled. “I didn’t mean now, you idiot. She’s on pack territory. We can’t go there.”

“The hell we can’t,” Knox grunted. “I’ve done it before, remember? Multiple times.” He rapped his knuckles against the table. “Stay here and be a pussy if you want. I’m going to go see our girl.”

“This is a bad idea,” he murmured as he climbed out of the booth, Drake right after him.

“Possibly,” Drake agreed.

They followed Knox as he moved through the bar and out the front door. Only when he started making his way toward his truck and pulled out his keys did they stop him.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Zeke demanded. “You can’t drive right now. None of us can. Are you trying to kill us before we even get there?”

“Besides,” Drake interjected. “We can’t exactly drive up to pack territory.”

“No,” Knox began, drawing out the word while twirling the key around his finger. “But we can drive to the service road and around the back of the property to sneak in from there.”

Zeke snatched his keys. “Over my dead body.”

The narrowing of Knox’s eyes wasn’t as threatening as it usually was. “That can be arranged.”

“We’ll walk and shift,” Drake chimed in.

As he stuffed the keys into his pocket, Zeke turned to him. “I thought you didn’t think any of this was a good idea. ”

“No, but we’re clearly not going to stop him.” He shrugged a little. “And I want to see her too.”

“I miss her too,” Zeke agreed. “But you guys are drunk and not thinking as clearly as I am. What if we’re caught? Then what? What do you think her father would do to us? Or to her, for that matter?”

“All the more reason to kill him,” Knox growled.

He sighed in frustration and pinched the bridge of his nose. He was outnumbered here. While he didn’t condone killing Amara’s father, at least, not until she agreed to it, even he had to admit that he wanted to be with her. He had gotten used to having her around, and without her, he felt empty.

“Fine,” he relented. “But we go there on foot. None of us is dying on the way there because we’re too drunk to drive.”

Knox held out his hand with a mischievous grin. “Do you want to hold hands with me while we skip down the yellow brick road?”

“Fuck off,” Zeke mumbled, and the three of them headed into the trees.