Series: Like Us Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 241
Estimated words: 236417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1182(@200wpm)___ 946(@250wpm)___ 788(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 236417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1182(@200wpm)___ 946(@250wpm)___ 788(@300wpm)
“I’d believe it more if you didn’t let him put holes in your water wings, bro.”
He’s not wrong.
I laugh into a smirk. “You come for my rubber duckie next, and we’re gonna throw fists.”
Oscar grins into a crunch of potato chip and laughs. Epsilon guys are being just as gossipy, shifting more towards one another, whispering. Ian and Vance are twisting their mic cords around radios. Done with comms for the night. O’Malley is chatting with them while flipping a notebook like he’s about to start a college lecture.
I lean into Oscar to whisper, “Let’s ditch.”
“Pass.” He shakes the chip bag. “I think this’ll be good for us.”
I squint. “Dicking down is good for us. Getting dicked down by Epsilon, not so much.”
“Bro, you are Epsilon.” Oscar lowers his voice another notch. “Trust, we’ve tried to claim you as one of ours, and they play tug-of-war with us like you’re their new special toy.”
I make a face. “Why? They don’t even like me.”
“They like something about you. They act like you’re theirs. It’s been aggravating the ever-loving fuck out of me and Redford.”
“They’re trying to make you jealous,” I realize.
“I don’t think it’s that,” Oscar says. “They’re not pretending to care about you.”
No time to contemplate that—all three Epsilon bodyguards turn their attention to us. I’m thankful I never grabbed a shirt ‘cause I’m burning from the inside out.
“Let’s start with discussing the last tour stop in Phoenix,” Ian presides over the so-called meeting. “Donnelly?”
Me, start? I nod to O’Malley. “What’s with the notebook?”
“I’m logging hours for our meetings.” He clicks a pen.
My brows rise. “Didn’t know you became a secretary.”
“I volunteered,” O’Malley says. “It’s called stepping up.”
“We’ll never get through this if we don’t cut the bullshit,” Ian pipes in quickly, speaking to the two of us. “Price asked for detailed notes. If Akara asked you all for the same thing, you’d give it to him, wouldn’t you?” He’s eye-balling Oscar.
“Of course we would,” Oscar replies.
“Great,” Ian sighs out and motions his energy drink at me. “The Phoenix stop. How’d it go for you?”
“Fine,” I say lightly, but I feel like I’m on a hot seat. “No security mistakes. Smooth sailing. Clients were safe and happy. Nothing to complain about.”
“You were okay with fans taking photos with you?” Ian ensures.
“Yeah, that’s alright by me if it helps Xander and causes less of a mess.” I grip my kneecap underneath the table, just so my leg isn’t rattling with impatience.
“Frog and Quinn weren’t here this time to protect Luna,” Ian puts out there.
What’s he getting at? “Missed them, but it’s better than catching the flu.”
Vance tosses a stress ball from hand to hand. “Anyone think it’d do us all a favor to axe the rookie girl? She’s a hundred pounds soaking wet. What happens when a guy goes for Luna?”
Guy goes for Luna. My breath shortens, and I stare off for a boiling second. “No one’s going for her.”
“No one thought she’d be kidnapped either,” O’Malley jumps in.
I shift forward. “Frog weighs more than a hundred pounds. Come on. She’s not a garden hose,” I gesture to Vance.
“Whatever, you know she’s small,” he shrugs.
Oscar crinkles his emptied chip bag with a serious look. “She’s trained in defensive maneuvers. She’s not supposed to tackle a three-hundred-pound threat, and Akara has already rectified any issues by putting my baby bro with her.”
Ian nods a few times. “That’s good enough for me.” He rakes his hand back and forth through his pretty boy haircut, then eyes me. “With Frog and Quinn gone, did you worry about Luna at all?”
“No,” I say with heat. “I wasn’t distracted. I knew you were protecting her.”
“Then why do you sound like that?”
Defensive? I sound defensive. I slam back into the seat and let out a weighted sigh. No one is really coming at me. No one is trying to rip her away from me. They’ve knowingly let me sleep in the same bunk as Luna. O’Malley even knew we were having sex tonight, and he said nothing.
“How much do you trust us?” Ian asks me.
“I trust you’ll protect her,” I tell him. “I never doubted that.” Do I trust they’ll look out for me? Not really, but I have Omega. Coming forward again, I rest my forearms on the table. “But it’d be easier to trust you on a personal level if there wasn’t a nark in SFE.” I glance between them. “Who’s running to tabloids about me?”
“You think it’s us?” O’Malley’s jaw unhinges like I’m smoking crack. “We hate the media.”
“It’s someone in Epsilon, man. It has to be. ‘Cause everything that’s leaked has pertained to SFE.” I’m prepared for them to say I’ve gossiped to Omega. That there’s a plausible explanation for SFO to be the root of the problem.
“I think it’s one of our temps,” Ian says.