Super

Chapter 19: Plot, Counterplot

Serena laughed as she took her phone back. “Well, there goes my plan to seduce her. That's fine, though, seriously; if that's all they're worried about, I can agree to that.”

By the time six rolled around on Saturday evening, Lex and Serena began walking down the stairs to find Casey and Riss already waiting for them. Since Serena had been allowed to come along, she'd insisted on putting together Lex's outfit and hair, especially after she got Lex to admit that she didn't have anything appropriate to wear.

She'd outfitted Lex with a red velvet dress that fell to her ankle, had a mid-thigh slit up the right side, short sleeves, and dipped low in front. Serena had fussed over her hair, somehow made her up to minimize the bruising along her jaw (which had subsided somewhat, but still showed several colors), then finally looked at her in the mirror and sighed while handing her some elbow-length black velvet gloves.

“Definitely a good choice,” she had pouted. “Your arms and shoulders are so much better defined than mine.”

Serena had gone with a sleeveless jade green silk dress that rose to a high collar before it dived low to show off her cleavage. The dress fell just above her knees and had been slit on both sides to just under her hips. She wore matching high heels and had swept up her hair in a way that looked sophisticated and sexy all at once, leaving Lex just shaking her head, wondering how her friend did it.

Serena came to a stop on the stairs as she spotted Casey, looking her up and down, smiling with approval. The blonde had worn a deep blue satin dress that hung a few inches above her knees with a modest v-neck and short sleeves, the bodice fitted, and the skirt fuller.

“You look good enough to eat,” Serena said with a smirk.

Casey rolled her eyes at Serena as she put her coat on. “Cut it out. I feel like an ass. I'm not used to wearing dresses.”

“You should wear them more. You look really nice,” Lex said, trying to put her friend at ease while giving Serena a quick shake of her head to dissuade her from teasing Casey any further.

Riss wore an eggplant-colored dress that looked almost black in the low light, sleeveless with a scoop neck and simple lines; it had been fitted through her waist and then came to a skirt that billowed at her feet. Riss looked at Serena with a questioning glance at Lex, who shrugged as minutely as she could. Riss raised her eyebrows with an expression that almost said it couldn't be helped, donned black opera-length gloves and her coat, and then looked back at the others before going out the front door.

The drive took about an hour, and Lex wasn't exactly sure where they'd gotten to when they arrived, aside from it being somewhere in Virginia. When Lex got out of the car, along with a sky full of stars the only thing she saw was the restaurant, a plain looking two-story building in a field with nothing else nearby for about a quarter mile. The isolation set up a nervous churning in her stomach.

“I can see why they chose this place,” Riss said quietly to Lex as they went inside.

The interior had been dimly lit and lavishly decorated with dark woods, fine linens, china and glassware, and a big fire crackling in a stone fireplace that dominated one wall. Lex could see an open dining area as well as some smaller rooms along the four surrounding walls. After talking to the man near the door about their reservation, he led them to one of the private rooms along the back wall of the restaurant.

After they'd ordered and had been left alone again, Riss cleared off the table in front of her and brought her bag up. She pulled out the sniffer tool Lex had ordered for the security job and turned it on, setting it in the middle of the table. Everyone watched with interest as she pulled out the ultra-thin laptop that Lex had given her for the holidays and woke it up, attached the sniffer to it, and typed something, then looked up at the rest of them.