It might have been amusing to see the nervous alarm in their eyes, Zinnia thought, if it had not been for the fact that she knew Nick had purposefully selected this route to the elevators. He was up to something and that worried her.
"Think respectability," she warned out of the side of her mouth.
"Respectability is ever at the forefront of my thoughts." He studied the threesome with the lazy interest of a lion-pard that has happened upon trapped prey. He paced closer.
Rexford, Bethany, and Daria tried to squeeze discreetly aside but Nick gave them no space. His eyes were filled with dangerous anticipation as he came within a hairsbreadth of brushing against Rexford's shoulder.
"Well, well," Nick said in a soft voice that managed to reach the small crowd standing at the nearby wine bar. "Will you look at this, Zinnia. You know the old saying, two's company but three's a syn-sex show."
Zinnia groaned silently. The devil was loose in the Founders' Club. There would be hell to pay.
Rexford blinked several times. His mouth opened and closed and color rushed into his face. "What is the meaning of that crude remark?"
Bethany's eyes widened in alarm. "For God's sake, Rex, don't make a scene."
"Don't let him goad you, Rex," Daria said with cold authority.
Nick grinned at Rexford. "Which one is the dominatrix, Rex? Or do they take turns with the little whips and chains?"
"Bastard," Rexford managed in a hoarse whisper. "Get out of here."
Daria took charge. She looked at Nick with icy disdain. "I see the Founders' Club has lowered its criteria for the acceptance of new members."
That was too much for Zinnia. She smiled sweetly at Daria. "It certainly has. Otherwise how could one possibly explain the presence of three such avant-garde thinkers such as you and the Eatons?"
Bethany's eyes snapped. "I would advise you to control your tongue, Miss Spring. You're getting enough publicity in the tabloids as it is, these days."
"I've always been rather sorry that the three of you didn't get the kind of attention that I got eighteen months ago," Zinnia murmured.
Rexford took a step toward her, his hands clenched at his sides. "One more word, Miss Spring, and I'll have my lawyers after you. By the time they're finished, you won't have a dime left to your name."
"Don't make threats you can't carry out, Eaton," Nick said gently. "You aren't going to call your lawyers."
Rexford swung toward him, chin outthrust. "I damn well will do just that if the two of you don't leave us alone. Now take yourselves off. This club is for decent, civilized people, not bastard trash from the islands."
Zinnia saw red. "Don't you dare call him trash. Nick Chastain is a gentleman. You, on the other hand, are a hypocritical son-of-a-spider-frog, Rexford Eaton. You had no compunction about throwing me to the press in order to cover up your cozy little arrangement with your wife and Miss Gardener."
Daria's face went rigid. "Speaking of cozy arrangements, Miss Spring, how does it feel to be the current mistress of the notorious Nick Chastain? I assume there are some interesting financial advantages to the position?"
"Nothing compared to the financial advantages a politician like you receives from sleeping with the Eatons," Zinnia shot back.
Bethany gasped. "You little tramp. I can't imagine why they let you or Mr. Chastain attend this ball."
Nick grabbed Zinnia's arm and hauled her back to his side before she could get her fingers on Daria's throat.
"Think respectability," he said. But his eyes were gleaming.
"That does it." Rexford clenched and unclenched his hands. "I'm calling my lawyers in the morning."
Nick looked at him. "Before you call them, I suggest you talk to your nephew, Warren. He owes me over sixty thousand dollars. At this point, it's a private matter. But I can certainly arrange for the debt to be made public. I'm sure it would make interesting reading in the tabloids."
Rexford's face turned an unpleasant purple. "Why, you . . . you bastard." He took a menacing step forward.
"Rex, no," Daria snapped.
Nick grinned. "You heard her. Down, Rex. By the way, just how far down do you usually go?"
Rexford gritted his teeth in rage and threw a roundhouse punch.
"Nick, look out," Zinnia yelled.
Someone at the wine bar screamed.
A familiar figure leaped out of the hallway that led to the restrooms.
"Totally synergistic," Cedric Dexter said happily. He raised his camera and grabbed the shot.
The flash exploded just as Nick crumpled dramatically to the floor.
Zinnia gazed steadfastly at the closed doors of the elevator that was carrying them to the parking garage twenty floors below. "I can't believe it. A brawl in the hallowed halls of the Founders' Club."
"Hey, these things happen even in the best places." Nick straightened his black bow tie. "No harm done."
"No harm?" She was nearly speechless. "That picture that Dexter took will be on the front page of Synsation tomorrow."
"We've been there before," Nick said. He looked remarkably cheerful.
She shoved her hands into the pockets of her coat. "What about your plans to become respectable?"
He smiled as the elevator glided to a halt. "I keep telling you, respectability is a commodity. I can afford it."
Zinnia watched the doors slide open to reveal the dark confines of the third floor of the underground garage. "For the record, I want it noted that this time, it was not my fault. You started that scene."
"I had help." Nick's eyes were wickedly amused. "I thought we worked well together, partner."
She glanced back at him over her shoulder as she stepped out of the elevator. "You deliberately took that fall. Eaton missed you by a mile."
"Not for lack of trying."
She eyed him thoughtfully. "Is Rexford Eaton's nephew really in hock to your casino?"
"Yes."
"I'll bet you set him up," she accused. "What's more, I'll bet you planned that whole confrontation with Eaton and his wife and Daria Gardener."
"Now, Zinnia, how could I have known we'd run into them tonight?" Nick followed her out of the elevator.
"Maybe you didn't know it would happen tonight. But you knew that sooner or later we'd encounter them if we went to functions like this one. What's more, you knew that Rexford would very likely threaten to sue when it did happen."
"It was a possibility."
"So you arranged to make sure that his nephew was in an embarrassing financial position with your casino before you made your move tonight."
"You're getting pretty good at this conspiracy-theory stuff," he said approvingly.
"It comes from hanging around you."
"The lights." The laughter vanished from Nick's eyes in the space of a heartbeat.
"What?"
"Zinnia, come here." Nick reached for her.
"What's wrong?" At that instant it hit her that all of the lights in this section of the garage were out.
By then it was much too late to retreat to the safety of the elevator.
She heard the rapid footsteps behind her and whirled around to see two men leap from the deep shadows between the parked cars. There was just enough light spilling from the crack between the closing doors of the elevator to see the scarves around their faces and the knives in their hands.
"Don't move," one of them shouted. "Don't nobody move."
"Oh, my God, Nick. Look out."
Nick went past her in a smooth, silent, utterly lethal rush. She saw the two muggers halt in shock and confusion when they realized that one of their victims was attacking.
"He's crazy," one of them shouted.
"Not as crazy as he's gonna be." The other man slashed wildly with his knife.
And then Nick was upon him. Zinnia heard a knife clatter on the concrete garage floor.
"Get him." The second man reeled backward and fetched up hard against the hood of a car.