Page 19 of Sly (Dragon Riders MC 5)
Her words gave me pause. “Huh.”
“So…. come on, girl. Dish! When are you two seeing one another again?”
My phone vibrated against my thigh and I slid my hand into my pocket. I pulled it out just enough to see the screen, and I saw I had a text back from Sly. So, as Joanna stared at me with curious eyes, I decided to open the message.
And what I saw made me smile.
Sly: Come to the Iron Horse around six. Drinks and food are on me. We can talk then.
“Well?” Joanna asked.
I slid my phone back into my pocket. “Guess I’m seeing him at the bar tonight.”
She squealed and clapped her hands. “That’s so amazing! Okay, okay, okay. Do you trust me?”
I snickered. “I barely trust myself these days.”
“Well, you’re going to come home with me and we’ll get you ready. I’ll call the rest of the girls and we can make a girl’s afternoon out of it! How does that sound?”
“That… actually sounds really nice. Are you sure, though?”
She took my hand across the table. “If you can get Sly as smitten with you as he already is? You’re already part of the family. As far as I’m concerned? You’re one of us.”
I smiled at her words and felt a warmth that wasn’t actually mine to feel. I enjoyed what she was saying, though. Everything from Sly being smitten to being part of a family again, it all felt so nice. She was nice.
Sly was nice.
They’re all just… nice.
Something with my brother’s investigation didn’t add up in all of this.
“So, does that mean we take the chocolate cake to go?” I asked.
Joanna raised her hand. “Oh, hell no. We’re going to scarf it down so we don’t have to share with the other girls.”
I snickered. “So much for sisterly sharing?”
Her face grew mockingly serious. “Not when chocolate’s involved.”
I barked with laughter. “All right, all right. Chocolate cake, then girl time. Got it.”
But I still had no idea what I was going to do about my brother.
Joanna stood. “I’ll go put in the order for our cake then head to the bathroom. I’ll be right back.”
I nodded. “And I’ll be right here!”
She pointed to her mug. “If someone comes around with coffee, let them know to top me off. Okay?”
I paused. “Coffee is refillable here?”
She giggled as she walked away. “Only if you get a plain mug to mix up yourself! Want me to grab you one?”
“Yes, please!”
As I leaned back in my chair, polishing off the rest of my caramel coffee, my eyes dropped to my purse. I couldn’t leave my phone off all damn day, Ben would surely come after me. But if I turned my phone on and blamed it on battery life before telling him what was happening, he might accept that as truth.
How much information can someone find on a phone that’s being traced?
I hadn’t been on board with Ben tapping my phone in the first place. But I understood—somewhat—since I was in contact with someone he was researching. However, the more I got into this, the more I felt like Ben and his guys had it all wrong.
In the pit of my gut, I knew Sly and his guys weren’t responsible for this craziness that brought my brother to town in the first place.
I took a chance, though, and dug around in my purse. I slipped the battery back into my phone and turned it on, then sighed with relief. Holy shit. My phone actually was dying. I only had thirty-two percent.
Thank God I always forget to charge your phone overnight.
But the second my phone queued up, a phone call came rushing through. From my brother.
“Hey there, Ben,” I said as I picked up the call.
He wasn’t happy, though. “Are you insane?”
I paused. “Uh, what?”
“Why the fuck would you leave this apartment and turn off your damn phone when you’re right there in the middle of—”
I blinked. “I forgot to plug my phone in last night. I’ve only got thirty percent or something like that. Would you calm down?”
He groaned. “Why the hell do you always—”
“Is there a reason you’re bothering me right now? All I’m trying to do is have some coffee and some food without you breathing down my throat—”
“You live with me and you went on a date with someone we’re investigating. So, yes. I’m going to be breathing down your throat.”
“Then, consider this my two-week notice.”
He paused. “What?”
“I’ll be taking the next job offered to me and I’ll be moving out. Because if this is how I’m going to be treated ‘out of the goodness of your heart?’ Then, you can keep your goodness. My phone is going back off so it doesn’t die. I’ll be out the rest of the day. Don't like it? Suck it up.”
Then, I hung up my phone and took the battery out again.
