Page 5 of Save Me

Chapter 3

Eric bangedon the door a third time. There was no answer. Andie wasn’t home.

He’d driven to her apartment complex the minute he landed. The worn structure had grown downright dingy since he’d seen it last. Eric had only been there a few times. During their affair, he’d mostly hooked up with her at the club or at a hotel on the strip if he’d had a good night at the tables.

He knocked again, squinting through the gap in the curtains. The glass was dirty, but he could still see most of the living room. There was no furniture.

Shit. Had Andie moved?

He searched for a neighbor to question. The middle-aged guy in a wife-beater tank top next door told him Andie had given up her lease last week. He didn’t know where she had gone. He tried a few more doors, hoping to find someone who had her new address, but no one else answered.

Giving up, he headed to his rental car, taking the steps two at a time. Once there he texted Mike to ask if she had updated her employment records. The answer came right away.

No, that’s the current one in her paperwork. There’s more news now. Calen has decided to let her go.

They were goingto fire her? What for? Andie had been one of Lynx’s best waitresses for years. She had gotten the job there so she could go to school in the day, and never missed a shift when they had been together. As far as he knew she had done a stellar job—as long as no one knew about the two of them hooking up in the storeroom. And he didn’t think anyone did.

No one but Mike knew they had even been together, and that was only because Eric had told him. They’d bonded after spending weeks working together setting up Calen’s new restaurant in Dubrovnik. After a particularly long night they’d been having drinks and Eric had finally shared the details—minus his and Andie’s storeroom activities.

The news taken the other man by surprise. Mike was a hell of a security chief. If he hadn’t been aware of their relationship, then Eric was confident no one else knew. Andie hadn’t seen fit to share the news with any of the other waitresses. According to Mike, she never mentioned him at all. Eric tried not to think about that.

Throwing his jacket into the passenger seat, he sat behind the wheel before texting Mike again.

What the hell is going on?

It wasn’tthe first time he asked, but the security chief had been strangely silent on the matter. All he’d said was that the situation was still developing. Eric didn’t like the sound of that.

His phone buzzed.

Get over here to the club’s security office. It’s bad.

He swore under his breath,driving to the strip as quickly as he could.

The interior of Lynx always appeared strange to him in daylight. The dark interiors were a little washed out, and it lost a little bit of its magic. However, it was oddly more intimidating at this hour, with its leather and ultra-modern light fixtures and moldings. Calen spared no expense on details people only got hazy glimpses of at night, With the lights on he could see the detailed designs on the moldings and the texture on the walls.

I am not cool enough for this place,he thought as he climbed the stairs to Mike’s office. The security chief had sent a follow-up text. Calen was joining them. Whatever this mess Andie was in was pretty fucking serious.

His heart dropped when he opened the door to Mike’s office. Calen was already there, sitting behind the desk. Mike, a burly guy with silver in his hair, stood next to him. He pointed to something on the computer screen in front of them.

“I don’t see it,” Calen muttered. He looked up and scowled. “What the hell are you doing here, Eric?”

He hesitated. Hadn’t his boss known he was coming?

“I called him,” Mike said.

“Why?”

The question hung in the air for a second. Eric resisted the urge to apologize as he sat in the chair on the other side of the desk.

“I trust his expertise over the others in the new medical crew,” Mike said. “This thing is about to blow up and I want our best hands on deck. Plus, he and Andie were friends back in the day.”

“Really?” Calen asked, narrowing his eyes at him. “Just friends?”

Eric nodded, grateful Mike didn’t go into detail. Disclosing the true intimate nature of their relationship—former relationship—probably wouldn’t help her right now.

“Now can you tell me what’s going on?” he asked Mike.

The security chief and his boss exchanged a loaded glance. Calen sat back in the leather chair, taking something out of his pocket and setting it on the desk. It was a clear capsule with a purple liquid almost neon in color.

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