“Zed!” I cried out, forgetting that I’d ever been so angry with him. “You’re here! You came back!”
He frowned at me. “Where’s Peyton?”
I jumped out of bed and ran across the room, throwing my arms around him. After thirty-six hours in a gross bunker, his smell of cigarettes was more appealing than ever. I buried my nose in his leather jacket and inhaled deeply. Zed had stiffened when I’d first thrown my arms around him, but he seemed to relax. I felt his weight shift as he moved an arm up and rested it on my shoulders.
Forcing myself to pull my face out of his jacket, I looked up into his scowling face. “I don’t know,” I admitted. “He left yesterday and never came back.”
Zed looked around and licked his lips. “I’m starving. I bet you are, too.”
I nodded, feeling miserable. “I haven’t eaten. He’s been gone the whole time, and I didn’t want to leave.”
Zed nodded. “Good girl,” he praised me. More of my anger towards him faded when I saw how concerned he was. “Grab your things. come on, we’re leaving.”
When I didn’t move fast enough, Zed grabbed my suitcase and carried it outside. Even though the parking lot still reeked of grease, it was delightfully fresh compared to the air that I’d been breathing. Greedily, I sucked in several mouthfuls. Zed made a clicking sound with his tongue and nodded at the passenger door.
I grinned. “Sorry,” I said, blushing. “It just feels good to be outside.”
Zed shook his head. “You’d last about ten seconds in jail,” he said ruefully. “It’s not a place for a cupcake like you.”
I rolled my eyes. He was so irritating, but it felt good to have the old Zed back. Together, we carried my things out to his car, and he loaded up the trunk. I bundled myself into the passenger seat.
“What do you feel like eating?”
We passed a McDonald’s. The last time we’d gotten McDonald’s, Zed had eaten the whole bag. We’d ordered a pizza and started wrestling before it arrived. Then I’d wanted to kill the delivery guy for interrupting us. Remembering that had me tingling between the legs and blushing madly. I looked out the window so Zed wouldn’t see my face.
“I dunno,” I replied, trying to sound as casual as possible. “Whatever you want. I’m sure anything would be good.”
Two minutes later, we were pulling into a parking lot. I read the sign.
“Applebee’s?” I wrinkled my nose. “Really?”
Zed shrugged. “I want a steak. This is a safe area. We’ll be okay.”
I remembered everything that I’d read online that afternoon. “I have some stuff to tell you, too,” I added.
Zed looked at me with a funny expression on his face. “What?”
I shook my head. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll tell you after dinner.”
A perky teenaged hostess showed us to a back booth. She gazed appreciatively at Zed and then gave me a weird look, as if to say, “What’s he doing with you?”
I rolled my eyes at her once she’d walked away. “Did you find anything out?”
Zed shook his head. “Don’t bring that up here,” he warned me. “Just order some food, and we’ll be home soon. You haven’t changed.”
I felt myself blushing again. “Yeah,” I admitted. “The bathroom there was pretty gnarly.”
Zed raised his eyebrows, and the light caught flecks in his light green eyes. Now that he was in front of me again, the resemblance between him and Rose was astonishing. Even though she had been slender and petite, I guessed that she’d been tall. They had the same straight, elfin nose, and slightly squared chin. Despite how over the top masculine Zed looked, his features could almost be called androgynous.
“We’ll get you home,” he repeated. The waitress came back with her eyes sticking to Zed like glue. He ordered the biggest steak they had with a side of mozzarella sticks, fried ravioli, and French fries.
“And for you?” She turned her perky, teenaged body to me with a demeanor that couldn’t have been less interested.
“I’ll have the same. I’m starving.”
Zed burst out laughing, and the waitress rolled her eyes, walking away.
“You’re hysterical,” he said once he’d calmed down.
I smiled; I couldn’t help it, but something about the moment felt so carefree. It was a polar opposite from the last time I’d seen Zed. Now, I felt embarrassed at how clingy and sad I’d been when he left. Peyton and Zed both must have thought I was acting like a total idiot.
“Glad I amuse you,” I said with a grumble.
“I’ll be impressed if you can eat a quarter of that,” he added with a grin.
When the food came, we both tucked in heartily. I was dying to get back home so I could tell Zed about what I’d learned. Even though it was old news, I felt like it somehow might be important to him. I thought it might help with his search. Even though Zed wasn’t stupid, I could tell he wasn’t the guy who would sit around reading a lot of old newspapers.
I ate almost half of my steak and a few mozzarella sticks before I had to call it quits. Zed nodded in approval, then reached across the table and pulled the rest of my food towards him. I watched as he devoured every morsel, like a starving man who hadn’t eaten in days. When he’d eaten the last crumb, he slapped a couple of twenty-dollar bills on the table and stood up, belching. I wrinkled my nose in disgust.
“You’re so gross,” I commented, playfully slapping him on the arm. I’d put a little force behind my slap, but it did nothing. Zed glared down at me.
“You appreciated my energy once,” he replied, looking straight ahead. I blushed deeply, remembering just how much I had appreciated his energy—and his body.
We walked to the car in silence. I climbed in my side and turned to look at Zed.
“What would you say if I told you that I had news for you?”
Zed narrowed his eyes. “Don’t tell me you’ve been putting that nose where it doesn’t belong,” he said in a warning tone. “I thought you knew better than that.”
I shook my head. “No, I haven’t, I promise. I just Googled some stuff, that’s all. Should I tell you here, or at my apartment?”
Zed looked at me before turning the key in the ignition and focusing on the road.
“It’s about The Manticore,” I continued nervously, twining my fingers in my lap. Zed didn’t look up. “I think he’s somehow connected to Rose’s murder.”
Zed didn’t say anything. He grunted at me without turning his head.
“Zed, it sounds like he disappeared a few years ago, right around the time Rose was killed.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Lily, it’s a coincidence, okay? Trust me, I’ve looked into it.”
I frowned. “Why aren’t you listening? I spent the whole day doing research, and something just seems really fishy!”
Zed shook his head at me. “You didn’t have to do that,” he finally said.
“I want to help you though,” I persisted. “And I think I really could, but you’re not listening to me.”
“Drop it, Lily,” Zed said with a growl. I felt a touch of the old fear coming back, but I didn’t look away. “This isn’t any of your fuckin’ business, you got that?”
“Fine,” I said in exasperation. “I knew you wouldn’t listen to me anyway. I don’t even know why I bothered.”
Zed let my remark hang in silence. He accelerated and the car shot forward into the darkening night. As I felt my frustration grow and grow, I looked out the window and sighed. It was just like him to brush me off like this. And it was so typical of our interactions to be friendly one minute and snarky the next. The emotional rollercoaster that Zed had put me on was wearing me out, and I closed my eyes and lay with my head on the cold window glass.
The next thing I knew, Zed was shaking me roughly by the shoulders.
“You’re home, Lily,” he grunted out softly. The car was still running, and when I didn’t move, he reached across me and opened the passenger door. Arctic air filled the car, and I began to shiver.
“Aren’t you coming in?”
Zed shook his head. “I have some things to take care of,” he muttered. “I’ll be around later.”
I realized he wasn’t going to help me with my bags, so I got out of the car and left the passenger door open until the last minute. Zed glared at me but showed no signs of being cold; I wondered if he even felt the winter chill through all of those muscles. He didn’t say goodbye, and as soon as I’d hefted my suitcase out of the trunk, he drove off.
For the first time in what felt like years, I was alone outside. Fear prickled the back of my neck as I quickly carried my suitcase up the stairs. On the inside, everything was thankfully just as I’d left it. If someone had been there while I was gone, at least I wouldn’t be able to tell.
I dropped my suitcase on the floor and flopped down on the couch. It felt like no time had passed since I’d been home, and already memories of the creepy apartment were fading from my mind. I smelt cigarette smoke emanating from my clothes and with a disgusted groan, I headed into the bathroom and turned on the tap.
As the steam surrounded me, I tried to breathe deeply and think about the situation at hand. I wanted to help Zed, but if he wouldn’t listen to me, I might as well not even try. I wasn’t sure if there was some kind of masculine pride thing preventing him from accepting my research, but it was infuriating all the same.
When the bath was almost overflowing with steaming water, I added some of my lavender bath salts and eased myself in, inch by inch. The hot water burned my skin, but it felt incredibly good after not washing for two days. All of the carbs from dinner earlier had settled in my stomach, and the combination of being full and soaking in a warm bath was heavenly. I decided that right after this, I’d go to sleep and come up with a solution in the morning.
But back in my bed, I couldn’t fall asleep. No matter how hard I tried, Zed lingered in my mind.