Chapter 8
ADELAIDE
The bathroom mirror at Duke’s restaurant is not being kind to me right now. I mean, I walked in here voluntarily, so that’s on me, but still.
My hair is messy. Skin is a bit sun-kissed, but I’ve got salt on my collarbone and a smear of van floor dirt on my elbow that I missed somehow, and my hands will not stop shaking.
I run them under the cold tap. Okay, Adelaide. Assess.
Someone who knew which van was mine tracked me to that beach and had enough time unsupervised to slash two tires and go through my belongings. And whoever did it didn’t take a thing, which means they were looking for something specific. Could it be a mistaken identity thing?
I laugh at myself. “Yeah, right,” I murmur under my breath because I keep coming back to Daniel. Some random opportunists wouldn’t slash two tires. They’d grab the cash, then run.
Fuck, please don’t let it be Daniel.
I brace both hands on the sink. I have three options. Go to Clio’s and potentially drag her into this. Get a hotel and sit alone waiting for whoever it is to find me again. Or…
I think about Luca helping me straighten the mess in my van without being asked. About the way he waited while I decided things instead of pushing.
Or I stay close to three very large Alphas for a few days until I can work out what’s going on. Yep, the difficulty of staying with three absurdly attractive men in Hawaii—truly my cross to bear.
And one of them is Ace, which is its own entire situation that I’m putting in a box and closing the lid on right now.
I straighten up. Fix my hair as much as possible. Wipe the dirt off my elbow. Gloss my lips with the few toiletries I brought in my backpack, because some things are nonnegotiable regardless of personal crisis.
“Okay,” I tell my reflection. “Go win them over with your charm.”
Out of the bathroom, Duke’s is exactly what it should be, and I wasn’t prepared for it.
The whole back wall of the place is just open, the entire thing—wooden beams and a patio that sits literally over the sand—and beyond it the ocean is right there, all tranquil blue in the midday sun.
The salty breeze comes straight off the water and through my hair, and I stop for a second because it’s hard to feel completely terrible when Hawaii surrounds me.
I spot the guys at the far end of the patio.
Round table, dried-grass umbrella overhead, four cold glasses already sweating in the heat, and three large men who are chatting and laughing.
North has a faded navy tee that fits like it was made for him specifically, and Ace is in a gray button-down he’s left half open, which I’m going to pretend I don’t notice.
All three of them clock me at exactly the same moment.
I don’t know why I put the extra swing in my walk. Self-preservation instinct, probably. Or, possibly, I just enjoy the way Ace’s jaw clenches when he stares at me.
I pull out the empty chair, drop into it, and spread my arms wide. “Tell me this isn’t the best seat in the whole place.”
“We saved it for you,” North states.
“Smart men.” I tip my face toward the breeze for a second. The ocean is so close I could throw a chip into it. “Is it always this good, or is today special?”
“Always,” Luca says. “You stop noticing after a while.”
“That’s deeply sad, and I refuse to let that happen to me.” I lower my sunglasses from my head to my eyes purely so I can stare at the water without squinting. “I want to go in so much.”
“You were just in the ocean,” Ace says.
“Completely different energy.” I reach for the nearest glass and find it’s water with lime and drink half of it immediately because I’m dehydrated on top of everything else. “How’s the food here?”
“Outstanding,” Luca says, leaning back in his seat, and it’s hard not to notice all those muscles pushing against the fabric of his shirt.
“Good. I’m starving.” I set the glass down, and the three of them are watching me too intensely. “I’m fine, by the way, before anyone asks. I’m assuming Luca told you about the van?”
“I was going to ask anyway,” North says. Those steady brown eyes tell me he has the calm manner of someone who doesn’t rush anything. “How are you holding up?”
“Feeling pretty annoyed and a bit worried, to be honest. I don’t need a stalker in my life right now.”
Ace leans forward on his elbows, closer than strictly necessary, and I get the edge of his scent—guava, basil, and ocean salt.
But it’s so much more than a delicious smell.
It curls inside me as if it’s calling me to him.
But I need to keep my head straight, so I make a very deliberate decision to focus on the menu. “Any idea who did it?” he asks.
“None,” I say. “Which is the part that’s making me insane. Who breaks into a van, goes through everything, takes nothing, and slashes the tires? Like, what was the end goal? What were they hoping to find?”
“Maybe it’s a warning,” Luca suggests.
I don’t answer that, because he’s right and saying so out loud will make it more real than I want it to be right now.
“Adelaide. We can help you,” Ace says, voice low.
“You are helping me.” I open the menu. “Luca rescued me, called the tow truck, and now the three of you are joining me for lunch. Honestly, that’s already a lot.”
“That’s not what he means,” Luca says.
“I know.” I keep my eyes on the menu. “What’s good here besides everything?”
North makes a quiet sound that might be a laugh.
Luca leans back as I lift my gaze. “For the record, I’m the only one with military training, but if you want all three of us as bodyguards, that can be arranged.”
“I’ll think about it.” I close the menu. “So how did this happen, exactly?”
North lifts a brow. “Lunch?”
I wave a hand between them. “You three. As a pack.”
“We grew up here,” North says. “Met young. Stayed.”
Ace shrugs. “Known each other forever. It’s not very exciting.”
Luca grins. “That’s his version. Mine’s better.”
Ace barks out a chuckle as North takes a sip of water. “Most of them are lies.”
I laugh. “Good. All this vagueness helps. And now?” I ask. “You all surf and work luaus?”
“Professional surfing pays when we place,” North says, resting back in his chair with that easy, steady confidence that somehow never looks forced. “The luau work fills the gaps.”
Luca grins and drags a hand over his jaw. “Which, in my case, mostly means carrying heavy things and looking useful.” He says it like a joke, then laughs at his own line, low and rough, and I can’t help smiling.
Ace glances at me. “He’s not wrong.”
“And you?” I ask him.
“Same as them,” he responds, and I wait, feeling there should be more, but he offers nothing else.
North’s mouth tips slightly, like he’s been waiting for me to ask. “You should come tonight. Big luau. Food, music, activities, tourists pretending they’re not sunburnt. Come with me.”
His gaze holds mine.
Before I can answer, Luca leans in a little, all dark amusement spreading across his smile. “Careful. He gets very confident when he’s inviting women to places.”
North doesn’t even look at him. “It works often enough.”
Ace lets out a quiet breath that might be a laugh and finally sets his menu down. “You’d like it,” he says to me. “Food’s good. Show’s good.”
I narrow my eyes slightly. “That sounded suspiciously reassuring.”
“It was,” Ace says.
“And what do you do there?”
“Perform,” Ace answers.
I stare at him, my mind going in a dozen different directions from that one word alone.
He just stares back, completely composed.
I laugh once. “No, really.”
His mouth curves, slow and maddeningly self-assured. “Really.”
Luca points at him with his glass. “That reaction happens a lot.”
I shake my head and look at North. “And you’re the same?”
“Yep. I guarantee that you will love it.”
I turn my attention between them, and I hate how curious I’ve suddenly become.
“So this is all very mysterious on purpose?” I ask.
North gives me the faintest smile. “A little.”
I tap my finger against the edge of the menu. “And if I say yes?”
North doesn’t hesitate. “Then I’ll take you with me as a guest, as I’m not working the luau tonight.”
Luca glances at Ace, then at me, clearly enjoying himself far too much. “See? Told you. Confident.”
Ace shakes his head, but I catch the corner of his mouth moving.
And just like that, I’m sitting at lunch with three men I barely know, being invited to a luau event. Objectively, I should have concerns. Instead, I hear myself say, “Fine. I’ll join you.”
North’s expression doesn’t change much, but something satisfied settles into it all the same. “Excellent,” he says.
And somehow that single word feels like I’ve agreed to a lot more than dinner and a show.
The waitress arrives, and she has eyes only for the three Alphas, which, fair, I get it, as I understand the impulse, but I am also sitting right here.
She does a full sweep of Luca, then Ace, then North, then back to Luca, and I’m watching this happen with the patient detachment of a wildlife documentary.
“What can I get you all,” she says, to Luca’s left shoulder.
“Mai tai,” I say, from directly in front of her.
She writes it down without looking at me.
Ace catches my attention across the table, and the look on his face is the specific one from the plane when something amused him and he was trying not to show it. North orders drinks and then gestures at me. “Lunch is on us.”
“It’s absolutely not,” I say. “I lost the bet. I’m buying.”
“Your van got ransacked,” Ace says. “You’re not buying lunch.”
“Those are unrelated events.”
“Adelaide—”
“Ace—”
“We’re buying,” Luca states, to the waitress, and then opens the menu and points, saying, “Bring us everything on this section.”
The waitress blinks. “That’s—”
“A lot, yeah.” He hands the menu back. “It’ll get eaten.”
She writes it all down with an amused expression on her face, and then she’s gone. I stare at Luca. “That’s an absurd amount of food.”
“We surfed all morning, and we’re big men.”