I'm here for my weekendly update! Ready to see the elusive Zach? Trust me, you'll enjoy this chapter (and it's another Cammie). Love to my reviewers!

Cammie's POV:

As expected, Fearing's was a very swanky restaurant in one of Dallas' hottest districts. It was a long, modern building with tinted windows running all around the first floor with just a few glittering on the second floor. We cut the line at the door just by dropping the Senator's name and were escorted to the balcony-like second floor which had a dozen tables scattered around, each one private and very cozy. I counted at least three celebrities, four politicians, and two other members of the higher class who were definitely not with their proper spouses. But I'm not judging.

The furthest table sat tucked into a dark corner with a large window overlooking the lights of downtown Dallas. In the gloom, I could just make out a lone masculine figure sitting facing the window. The host disappeared as the figure stood.

No matter how many times I see Zachary Goode in my lifetime, I think he'll always make me a little shaky. It gets better the more time I'm around him, but seeing him standing in that restaurant clad in a finely tailored suit, dark hair messy, green eyes sparkling…wow. It had been nearly six months since I'd last seen Zach…and for once, I actually looked as good as he did.

"Zach," Macey greeted him with a graceful incline of her head, sliding past him and into the booth.

"Macey," he replied. I couldn't be sure in the dim light, but it felt like his eyes were on me.

There was a pause, but I managed to get out a few words that sort of sounded like something a normal, not-nervous-at-all girl might feel around her sort-of-boyfriend-that-she-hasn't-seen-in-ages.

"Been a while, hmm?"

He nodded, "It has been. You look good-well," he finished lamely, running his fingers through his hair before motioning to me to take a seat. I can barely admit this, but I sorta wished he was running his hands through my hair. FOCUS CAMMIE!

I brushed past him, my arm tingling where he touched it, and slid into the booth next to Macey. Zach took the chair across from us, with his back to the window. A waitress in a rather skimpy uniform appeared to take our orders and leave a complementary bottle of champagne.

Ignoring that fact that we were all under twenty-one, Macey reached for the bottle and began pouring us all glasses. When we were all settled in, Zach opened the conversation, "So, where's Rider?"

"Back at the house," Macey answered.

"Sleeping," I supplied.

Zach nodded, "I see. He couldn't even drag himself out of bed for a meeting involving him."

"We've been up for close to thirty-two hours," I nearly snapped, proving that Alex wasn't the only sleep deprived one.

Zach looked slightly taken aback at my snappy defense of Alex, but he was bright enough not to say anything. Macey continued, "It may be best that he's not here. At the moment, he's a little bit on edge."

"Being rouge can do that to a person," Zach agreed.

Well, that was an interesting comment coming from him, but I let it pass. Instead I turned the conversation to all of the things that had happened to Alex and I since we'd met up in Mexico.

Both Macey and Zach sat listening with their Spy Faces© only stopping me to clarify something or ask a question. I finished just as the waitress delivered the main course, and we all thoughtfully chewed for a few minutes.

"So you don't think that this Tom Harris is selling information?" Macey asked.

I shook my head, "No, and I think that the necklace was just a coincidence, I hate to say it but we were really on the wrong path with that."

"How did the necklace get from Pennsylvania to England to Mexico?" Zach pondered aloud.

I shrugged, "Who knows? The Black Market would be my guess."

"What are you going to do with it?" Macey asked, picking the piece in question up from where I'd set it on the table. I'd 'hidden' it long ago; I'd been wearing it since Seattle. It felt odd not to have the weight around my neck. I don't believe in curses.

"Return it to the museum in Pennsylvania."

She arched an eyebrow, "Won't that bring up a lot of questions you don't want to answer?"

"It'll all be anonymously done," I replied in a duh voice, "I was thinking it might make a sensational news story if the thing just showed up back in its case."

Macey pushed the necklace aside, "Okay, so the necklace isn't important at this point. What next?"

"We need to figure out who's framing Alex," I said.

"And find out why," Macey agreed.

Zach had been oddly quite this whole conversation. It was actually starting to annoy me. "Do you have some sort of input over there?" I asked.

He didn't say anything, just motioned to the floor below us where some sort of commotion going on. My eyes zeroed in on the entrance where a guy in jeans and a t-shirt was fighting with the host. Clearly, this was not a jeans kind of establishment. But that tall build and blond hair looked really familiar…oh, boy. Alex.

"Guess he woke up," Zach said mildly as I stood up.

"I'll go get him, be right back!"

I tottered as fast as I could in Macey's Jimmy Choo's, but when I reached the bottom of the stairs, the world shattered, literally. Machine gun fire filled my ears and I dove down the last of the stairs as the windows all around me exploded into trillions of shards.

I landed with my arms covering my head, and I was vaguely aware of something warm and sticky running down my hands. But when the hail of bullets stopped half a minute later, it didn't stop me from struggling my feet.

All around me, people were screaming and crying and rushing for various exits. Already, I could hear sirens in the distance. Frantically, I searched the room for Alex, but I didn't catch sight of his t-shirt until a terrified man shoved me to the floor. Two men in dark jackets each had one of Alex's limp arms and they were dragging him out of what had once been the front window.

"Alex!" I yelled, dodging a group of people and sprinting for the window. I fell once, splitting a gash in my calf and I could hear Zach and Macey yelling behind me. I vaulted through the window and landed on the sidewalk just in time to see Alex tumble into the back of a dark sedan.

I took three steps before the car roared off and the muzzle of a machine gun appeared out of one of the windows. Before I could move, someone tackled me from behind, sending me smashing to the pavement just as another hale of bullets pounded the building behind me. With the rain of bullets still all around me, the last thing I remember is the scream that tore at my lips and the darkness that took over my senses and pushed me into pitch blackness.

CLIFFY! MUHAHAHA, take that! I do love you all, I just can't help myself. It's like my strange addiction: cliffies.

Ok, so I took some liberties with Cammie and Zach's relationship, but something less steady is so much more FUN! And I happen to be a very happy Zammie supporter!

Reviews make me a very happy camper, lovies!

Lots of Love,

Striker