I dressed quickly, making a snap decision to skip showering right now. The small, vulnerable part of my mind that was still sobbing over hurting Zed was desperate to keep the phantom touch of his hands on my skin a little while longer.
Before heading downstairs, I grabbed my phone and checked the messages there. Most were work related, but the one that I'd been waiting for all day had finally arrived.
GC: Successful first day.
That was it. Three words from a burner phone that shifted a thousand tons of worry and stress off my shoulders.
I replied truthfully, not allowing myself a moment to second-guess my message until after I’d sent it.
Hades: I miss you, Saint.
The second it delivered, a wash of panic swept through me, and I tried to unsend. But he'd already seen it. Crap.
The bubble popped up to show him typing. Then disappeared. No message came through, the bubble didn't reappear, and I groaned out loud. Why'd I have to go all needy like that? Fucking hell, he'd barely been gone a day, and I was acting like a clingy, codependent weakling.
Irritated at myself, I tossed my phone back onto the bed and headed downstairs. I was burning with curiosity to know what the actual DNA results were, and more than that, I was anxious to see Zed and assess how badly I'd fucked up.
I found Zed and Lucas in the kitchen, where Lucas sat cross-legged on the kitchen counter while Zed swept up broken glass from the floor.
"What happened?" I asked in a carefully neutral voice, tensing my entire body to keep from flinching when Zed raised his eyes to mine. His expression was tightly guarded, giving away nothing, and that almost hurt worse than if he'd shown me anger or disappointment.
Lucas looked up at me from the papers in his hand, but there was no panic or concern on his face. "Oh, nothing. I was distracted reading this and dropped the wine glasses I’d pulled out for us."
I frowned, looking at the pile of glass Zed was tipping into the trash. That answer seemed almost too normal. Anticlimactic. Then again, Lucas didn't strike me as the kind of guy who broke shit when he couldn't deal with his big emotions, so it actually made a lot of sense. He was way too well adjusted for that macho shit, and he’d already gotten it out of his system by punching Zed.
Speaking of which, Zed's left eye was coming up red and puffy, and the stubborn fool hadn't iced it at all.
Marching over to the freezer, I pulled it open and retrieved an icepack. "So, what are the real results?" I asked Lucas. Zed had just put the dustpan and brush away, so I handed him the icepack and gave a stern nod toward his bruised face. "Ice it. Idiot."
Zed's lips twitched with a tiny smile. "Yes, sir."
I grabbed the cordless vacuum from the butler’s pantry and gave the kitchen floor a quick once over because I sure as fuck didn't want any shards of glass in my bare feet.
"So, good news," Lucas announced when I was done. "Or, I dunno. Good, I guess? None of the samples, including Chase's, were a familial match to mine."
My brows rose, and I nudged Zed out of the way so I could retrieve some fresh wine glasses. "That's a relief," I commented, then gave Zed a curious look.
He just shrugged back at me. "I never said it was you. You assumed, and you know what they say about assuming." He'd only moved a couple of inches out of my way, so his arm was close enough to brush mine as I poured us all a glass of chilled riesling.
"I hate you," I muttered, not even remotely meaning it. He knew it, too, smirking as he took the glass I offered, his fingers deliberately brushing mine.
Instantly I released a bit of the breath I was holding. That small touch was the reassurance I needed that he wasn't pissed off at me or disgusted. He was just giving me space and time.
"Lies," he whispered, bringing the glass to his lips and shooting me a wink.
"Whatever," Lucas growled, glaring daggers at Zed. "Still not funny. But Zed also wasn't lying. The lab tech found a familial match in one of their other databases but had a hard time uncovering who the match was for."
I handed Lucas his glass of wine, then leaned my ass against the counter beside Zed to sip my own. "Why would