Page 10 of Static

Everyone was here now, Tori, Sylvia, Seek, Dani, Daisha, Jenny, Eva, and Sloane. The only one missing was Keely. It was hard not to be bummed out that Keely was gone. Dani was keeping us up to date on what her sister was up to, but it wasn't the same. We'd all grown close while she was here.

My phone buzzed and I checked it. I couldn't stop the frown as I read the message.

David: How was work?

"Everything okay?" Seek asked.

"Fine," I replied, too quickly. Every one of them stopped talking and focused on me.

Oops.

CHAPTER 5

Gwen

"It's just a guy who is being a little...aggressive."

"Aggressive?" Jordan demanded, looking pissed.

"Not in a bad way," I said, trying to defuse her. "He asked me out this morning. And after I said no, he got my number from the front desk."

"Aw," Dani sighed. She rubbed her belly with one hand, a grimace on her face.

"No," Seek told her, scratching Auron's ears as she spoke. "Not aw. That's just your hormones talking."

"Is he bothering you?" Kit asked. She and Seek were watching me closely. They were both the mama bears of this group—Slone and Jenny were the mama hens. The difference between the two was the eagerness to cut off appendages of anyone who messed with those they loved. I very much appreciated their concern.

"I think the more important question," Jenny interrupted, "is whether he's cute or not."

Jordan tilted the bottle to her lips then nodded. "You know what? She's right. You haven't been asked out since..." She trailed off, grimacing. Because my ex was the last man to ask me on a date. And that same ex had tried his best to kill me in a coked-out rage.

"Since Trent," I said, though my lips trembled a little as I forced myself to say it. "I know."

"The most important question," Seek argued, her eagle eyes not missing a damn tremble on my uncooperative body, "is if you feel as though you're in any kind of danger from this guy."

It wasn't very typical that a woman was pursued by a man and she got this line of questioning from her friends. But they were all incredibly protective of me. Which was exactly why I hadn't told them how hard of a time I'd been having since the attack. "No," I replied. "I don't feel like he's any kind of danger. He's..." I scrunched my nose, not really wanting to say the next part, but they were all hanging on every word.

"He's what?" Eva breathed, her eyes shining with excitement. Jecht was laying over her feet, snoring.

"He's one of the cops that was looking into the break in."

Most of them exhaled the breaths they'd been holding audibly.

"Oh boy," Susie said with a chuckle.

"That's a problem," Tori said in agreement.

"You think that's the main problem here?" Kit asked with a laugh, sitting back in her chair.

"What else is a problem?" I asked her.

"Uh, only the sexy lawyer biker who's-" Jordan was cut off with a grunt as Daisha elbowed her.

I looked around at them all. "Who's what?" I asked.

They were all smiling as though they had a secret. Finally, Dani rolled her eyes. "Well, if no one else is going to then I'm just going to say it. Honey. That man wants to fold you up like a pretzel and eat you."

We all stared at her. All I could do was blink in shock.