Page 65 of Drilled

“No.”

“Please, Lane?”

“Why does the conversation always turn back to my love life?” I complained.

“Because it’s been dead for the past five years and now you have three sexy men on your roster,” she said simply.

Fair, but ouch.

I took a long-suffering breath. I suppose this is what I missed out on by not having siblings. “Fine. I like them, Nance. All of them, I do. I thought this might just have been a bit of fun at first, but there’s more to them than that. They make me feel safer than I have in a long time. And I…I’ve officially slept with all three of them.”

“Ooh,” Nance’s face was glowing with excitement. “At the same time?”

“No!” I shook my head. “Well not quite. Not all of them at the same time.”

She gasped but before I could tell her about the threesome with Dax and Bear, my phone started ringing.

“Speak of the devils,” Nance mumbled, taking a sip of coffee.

And she was absolutely right. It was Bear.

“Hey,” he said, his deep voice coming through the speaker and causing Nance to quietly giggle. “I just thought I’d call to check in on how things are going with you two bounty hunters.”

“Well, I guess,” I answered. “Nance and I parked outside of his brunch meetup spot. He’s due to show up any second now.”

I could hear Silas and Dax arguing in the background and realized we were on speaker too.

“Did you guys eat something?” Silas asked once Bear got them to settle down. “If you’re set on following him around, it’ll make for a long day.”

“Already got our bases covered,” I said, touched that he was thoughtful enough to even bring it up. “But thanks for worrying, Sy.”

Sy? Nance mouth quietly and I shushed her.

“Hey, Lane, I was thinking,” Dax said, his voice dry. “If Sandy spots you, don’t run. That Camry I saw this morning won’t make it past thirty.”

“Excuse me!” Nance couldn’t help herself, affronted by the comment. The line went quiet. “This baby has a V6 and pure spite. Which one are you, the biker, probably? Yeah, at least my car doesn’t require three months’ worth of rent every time it needs an oil change.”

“Just a heavy-duty zip-tie for the front bumper.”

“Shut up,” Bear said, but I could hear the amusement he was trying his best to strain from his voice. “Look, we’ll leave you ladies to do your thing and report back, okay? Remember to keep us updated.”

“Shoot, Lane, he just arrived,” Nance said, pulling out her camera.

“I promise. We’ll see you guys later,” I said, then hung up. It was go-time.

*

Hours later, we were back at home with our spoils of knowledge plotted out on a cheap, cork-backed dartboard that I’d flipped over and hung on the wall of my home office. Or soon to be, which was the next renovation project in the line-up.

The guys were sprawled out on beanbags or wrapped in a throw blanket, and Silas was busy laying out a massive and chaotic spread consisting of a cheddar block, Ritz crackers, pepperoni slices and a bowl of grapes.

Bear gave him a pointed look as he set it down. “You know, Sy, you should probably stop raiding Lane’s pantry. She’ll have nothing left at this rate.”

Silas suddenly looked a bit concerned and turned to look at me, but I waved it off. “It’s fine, I need to restock soon anyway. I don’t mind as long as you make sure you save something for Docket.”

Everyone paused what they were doing and stared at me.

“Docket?” asked Dax. “Who or what is that?”