Chapter 397: Come Home Tonight

Lucas left the hospital and drove for almost an hour.

By the time he reached Hanky Panky Bar, night had taken the street. Building lights glowed against the dark. Music pulsed through the walls hard enough that he felt it before he even opened the door. He parked, cut the engine, and sat with the keys still in his hand.

Then he called Richelle.

She answered on video almost right away.

"Where are you?" Her face filled the screen. "I thought we were checking the car today. You’re not buying it anymore?"

He leaned back against the headrest.

"Something came up at the company. I only finished about an hour ago. The dealer is closer from here, so I’m going direct."

She went quiet for a second. Her eyes moved over his face.

"You look drained. Don’t push yourself like that."

"I’ll call you later," he said. "You can still tell me which one I should take."

He almost ended it there.

Then Mia’s head pushed into the frame from behind Richelle.

"Why haven’t you come home?" she asked. "It’s been hours, Lucas."

Daisy appeared next. Debbie after her.

In less than ten seconds the call stopped being a call and turned into a full house meeting. Faces crowded the screen. Voices stacked on top of each other until he could barely tell who was speaking.

"Where are you right now?"

"Did you even eat?"

"Why is it dark behind you?"

"Are you at a bar?"

"Who are you meeting?"

"Lucas, answer me first—"

He opened his mouth once.

Nobody heard him.

Mia leaned closer to the camera. Debbie tried to pull the phone. Somebody’s hair blocked half the screen. Richelle looked like she had lost control of her own call. The whole thing had turned into elbows, overlapping voices, and too many women fighting for the same small frame.

Then Daisy raised her voice.

Clear. Steady. Loud enough to cut straight through the noise.

"It’s getting late."

The others quieted for half a second.

She looked directly into the camera, eyes on him alone.

"Come home tonight."

A short pause.

"And stop stressing your body like this."

The reaction was instant.

Mia’s head turned.

Debbie froze mid-sentence.

Even Richelle’s eyes shifted toward Daisy.

Nobody spoke for a full breath.

They all knew.

Daisy had not said anything dirty. She had not named what he still owed her. She did not need to. Home. Tonight. His body. After everything that had already happened between them, the meaning sat right there in the open, dressed up like concern.

Debbie’s mouth twitched.

Mia’s eyes narrowed.

One of the other girls made a sound that was almost a laugh and almost a warning.

Daisy did not smile.

She kept her face clean, soft, almost innocent, like she had only been worried about his health and the late hour. As if she had not just collected a debt in front of everyone using the most polite sentence in the house.

Lucas stared at the screen.

’Of all the traps on this call, that one was the cleanest.’

Mia recovered first.

"Why are you saying it like that?"

Daisy blinked. "Like what? I’m telling him to rest."

"You know like what."

"I said come home and don’t stress himself. Is that a crime now?"

Debbie covered her mouth. Her shoulders shook once.

Richelle looked between them, lost for a second, then clearly uninterested in getting stuck in the middle.

The questions came back harder. He tried to answer Mia and got cut off by Debbie. He tried to answer Debbie and Daisy talked over both of them. In the driver’s seat of his own car, he was losing a conversation he never started.

Then the girls began arguing with each other.

"I asked first."

"No, I did."

"Can you move, I can’t see him."

"Why are you pushing?"

He stared at the phone, expression flat.

"Richelle." His voice rose just enough to cut through. "I’ll call you when it’s time. The rest of you, goodnight."

He ended the call.

Silence filled the car at once.

He checked the time and closed his eyes for a second. More than thirty minutes gone. Bennett had been waiting while his house turned a simple update into chaos.

He got out and walked to the entrance.

At the door he remembered the Black Gold Card. He took it from his wallet and went inside.

The bar hit him all at once.

Loud music. Thick bass. Colored lights cutting through smoke and perfume. Girls in tight clothes moved between tables and raised platforms, hips rolling, short hems lifting with every step, round asses clear under stretched fabric. Glasses clinked. Somebody screamed with laughter near the counter. Hanky Panky was already deep in the night.

He did not stand around. He found a seat, dropped into it, and stretched both arms along the back of the chair. When a server passed, he lifted two fingers.

"Tell Bennett that Lucas is here."

The girl nodded and disappeared into the crowd.

---

In a side lounge, Bennett sat with four men who kept calling the meeting business.

Drinks arrived without her asking. One of them leaned too close. Another smiled like the night already belonged to him. Every few minutes somebody pushed a fresh glass toward her and called it celebration.

She had seen this before. Not once. Not ten times. Enough times that the pattern bored her.

They wanted her loose. Soft. Easier to sign things she would regret in the morning, or easier to take advantage of once the drinks caught up.

She took one shot and left it at that, sipping slow, giving them nothing extra.

"Come on," one of them said, lifting another glass. "You’re falling behind."

"I’m fine," Bennett replied.

"Just one more. We’re closing a deal."

"You can close it sober."

The smile on his face thinned. Another man tried a softer angle, then a louder one. She cut both off without raising her voice. By the time they realized she was not going to drink herself stupid, she had already turned the table.

Before the night was done, the same men who came to loosen her up had signed off on a yacht they did not need. Expensive. Unnecessary. Fully their problem now.

Bennett was still turning the empty shot glass between her fingers when the server slipped in beside her.

"Miss Bennett. Lucas is here. He’s asking for you."

She set the glass down.

The deal was already finished. These men had nothing left worth her time.

She stood before any of them could start another sentence.

"Where?"

The server pointed across the main floor.

Lucas was sitting in the open, calm inside the noise, head tipped slightly with the beat, one hand resting on the arm of the chair. No phone. No searching eyes. Just there.

Bennett stopped walking for half a second.

Same man. Same face.

But something about him looked heavier now. Cleaner. More solid. The kind of presence that made the men she had just left feel suddenly small without him even standing up.

She left the lounge without looking back.

When she reached his table, her voice came out light and playful.

"Enjoying the music?"