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“Another one babe?” Gigi grabs my empty beer bottle, and raises an eyebrow at me.
“Sure Gi, just one more though. I’m driving tonight,” I answer as I lift the lid to my laptop and eye Cole from my peripheral.
“Man, you really scored yourself a couple of fucking hotties, Z,” she laughs as she pops the cap off a new bottle of beer, setting it in front of me. Cole glances back at me, giving me that classic Cole smile, and it melts something inside of me just a little.
“Damn, you are smitten aren’t you?”
“Me?” I stop and turn my head toward Gi. “No, not even. It’s new, it’s just this thing. I don’t know I -”
“Chill out,” she laughs, waving her hand at me, “I’d be all upside down too if I were in a throuple with men that looked like they do.”
“I - we’re not… A throuple?”
“Yeah, okay,” Gigi laughs as she clears some empty glasses from the bar. “Tell yourself that some more and see if you can manage to convince yourself it’s the truth. But you’re all in, babe. I can see it.”
Gigi walks away to help some other customers, and I turn to my laptop, pulling up the accounting software for the studio. Does she know something that I don’t know? Does she see something that I can’t see?
A throuple?
I mean I guess she isn’t wrong, but we never defined this thing that we’re doing, and suddenly it feels kind of hard to breathe. Like the collar of my shirt is growing tighter, but when I reach my fingers to my neck, it’s still as loose as ever.
To add to the ever growing confusion, yesterday Cole flipped my world upside down. He crowded my space, dropped to his knees, and sucked my soul out of my fucking dick, leaving me speechless. He was demanding, and tender at the same time, calling me beautiful and telling me to let go. It was weird, but in a way that I didn’t mind, and now I’m left wondering what all of it means for the future.
Until that moment, Cole and I had kept our distance to an extent. The dynamic was that we shared Riot, and the dynamic was working. But now I feel like I need more of it. Like I need to see where all of this goes.
Groaning, I shove all the thoughts into a corner of my mind for later, because I really do need to go over the books. I’ve been pushing everything aside in my quest to find Ellie, including the shop, and I can’t let Rodney’s legacy slip through the cracks.
As I sip my beer, I plug in the details from the invoices into my software. Mindlessly sipping and filling in data, it doesn’t take long before I’ve reconciled a solid three months of expenses. I don’t realize how late it’s gotten though until Cole hollers out for last call, and he and Gigi begin filling final drink orders and cashing out tabs.
Closing my computer, I slip it into my laptop bag and place the bag back on the floor by my feet. While I wait patiently, something fills me with a sense of unease. I can’t explain it, but once more I feel like someone is watching me. Watching us. Spinning around on the bar stool, I scan the room, but nothing looks out of the ordinary. The same patrons that spend their time at Rico’s any other night fill the bar, along with faces I don’t know, but who are clearly engrossed in drinks and conversation.
It’s all in your head, Zeke.
Shaking off the feelings, I move to spin around, but the sound of screeching tires is deafening. It cuts through the evening, drowning out the music that plays from the jukebox in the corner. Turning toward the sound, I quickly jump to my feet, reaching my hand around my back.
Slipping my fingers around the grip of my Glock, I hold my hand in place but don’t pull my weapon. No one else pays any attention to the screeching tires. Maybe it was just some asshole driving like shit out on the icy roads. I’m being jumpy for no good reason.
Just as I’m about to settle down though and release my grip on my Glock, the front window of Rico’s shatters and people start running and screaming. It’s so loud, I can’t think, I can only react. I whip my Glock out of my waistband, holding it up as I look for our assailant. It’s eerily quiet, so I move to take a step toward the entrance, and suddenly a bullet whizzes past my face, narrowly missing me.
A warning shot.
Turning around, I lunge on the top of the bar and shove at Gigi and Cole just as another bullet speeds past my head, shattering a liquor bottle on the shelf into tiny pieces. Sliding back down to the ground on the opposite side of the bar, I crouch down with my gun drawn.
Opening my mouth, I scream for them both to stay down, and hope like hell they listen.
Chapter twenty-nine
Cole
“Stay down!” Zeke screams after shoving me and Gigi both to the floor and dropping down to the other side of the bar. The sounds of glass shattering and gunshots popping off reverberate through the bar, filling me with absolute terror, memories of that night echoing in my mind. Looking around, I try to find a clear path to the back office, but the screams of our patrons and Gigi infiltrate my ears and I can’t think straight.
“Gigi, run. Office, go! Lock yourself in!” I shout as I slide beneath the bar, crouching down with my back against the wall.
Gigi scrambles to her feet and takes off running for the back office, keeping crouched below the top of the bar so she isn’t seen. I should be following her. I should be running for my life, but Zeke has barely recovered from his last gunshot wound, and even though he’s the only one of us who is armed, I can’t leave him out here alone. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if something happened to him and I ran away.
My heart races within my chest as I smack myself in the head with the butt of my palm.
Think Cole. Think!