Page 19

18

S he was not fine.

Her back was killing her by midmorning. Why had she gone to the club last night? She was an idiot. The pain had been more manageable before that scene with Dean the Dick.

She’d meant to go to the pharmacy this morning before work, but she’d had a terrible night and had slept through her alarm.

You’re going to be in so much trouble when Renard finds out. Especially since you lied and told him that you slept all right.

But right at the moment, she didn’t much care because her back was absolutely burning.

“Are you all right?”

She glanced over at Liston. Laken had just hired the younger woman to help out during their busier times. Opal was supposed to be training her today since Mondays were quieter at the shop.

But she could barely move off the chair by the dressing room.

“Yeah, I’m good. Why wouldn’t I be?”

Shit.

Liston didn’t deserve to be snapped at.

“Sorry,” she said with a groan as she heaved herself out of her chair. “I hurt my back over the weekend. Thought it would be better, but it’s making me a bit crabby.”

Liston nodded. “I get it! My mom hurt her back a few months ago, she was hobbling around, snapping at everyone for ages. I know it gets harder to recover from injury as you get older.”

“Right.”

Liston did realize that Opal was only a few years older than her, right?

Although today she felt centuries old.

The bell chimed as the door opened.

And she barely smothered her groan. Why couldn’t everyone just leave her alone today? They just kept coming in here and pestering her.

What size do you have in this?

What other colors does this come in?

Urgh. Leave me alone.

Well, this is your job, you know.

She was really starting to wish that she’d listened to Renard and hadn’t come in to work today.

All she wanted was to crawl into bed and sleep for the next century.

Not deal with people and all their demands.

“Opal! Why didn’t you tell us?” Lilac asked, walking in.

“Yeah. Why were you keeping this from us?” Ryleigh added, pushing a sleeping Kye in front of her in a stroller.

Drat. Alec Malone had a big mouth.

“Liston, do you think you can handle the shop for fifteen minutes while we go out back?” she asked.

“Yeah, go for it!” Liston said cheerfully.

Opal moved slowly out to the back room.

“Oh, Alec said you had hurt your back,” Ryleigh said. “Are you okay? He wasn’t real happy at you moving that carpet by yourself, by the way.”

Awesome.

“Neither was Tanner. He wanted to come have a few words with you,” Lilac added. “I managed to convince him not to. But the Malone men are upset. I think you’ve insulted their manhood or something.”

“Their manhood? Doesn’t that mean their dicks? How have I insulted their dicks?” Opal asked as she poured them all coffee.

Opal doctored hers with four spoons of sugar and extra creamer. She didn’t usually have sugar, but she needed the energy boost.

Ryleigh just shrugged. “I’d rather not think about my brothers’, uh, privates, thank you very much.”

“There’s only one Malone dick I’m interested in,” Lilac said as she took a seat, sipping on her coffee. “And it’s just fine, thank you very much.”

“Gag,” Opal replied without heat. She lowered herself into a chair with a moan. “Fuck. Who knew your back could hurt so much?”

“Have you taken painkillers?” Lilac asked with concern.

“Last night. I have to get some liquid stuff, you know I have trouble with having pills near me.”

“Opal, you need to take some,” Ryleigh told her, leaning forward. “Do you need us to go get some for you?”

“No. I can do it.”

“I have some in my bag,” Lilac said, pulling some painkillers out.

Right. Lilac poured two out and Opal stared down at them.

Nausea bubbled in her stomach.

Great.

She breathed in deep and started to bring them to her mouth. But all she could remember was Stefan shaking her, yelling at her.

Stupid bitch!

What have you done?

I swear you’re a lot of fucking work for a hole! If you weren’t so damn good at blow jobs, I wouldn’t waste my fucking time!

“I’m gonna be sick,” she mumbled before a garbage can was shoved in front of her by Lilac.

She gagged, but since she’d barely eaten today there wasn’t anything to come up.

“Oh, Opal,” Ryleigh said, rubbing her back. “You poor thing. What can we do?”

Lilac put the garbage can down. “We’ll go get you the liquid stuff.”

“I’ll get it on my lunch break. Promise.”

“You’re looking a bit pale,” Ryleigh said. “Maybe you should go home and rest.”

“Pale? Me? I don’t think so!” She’d looked pale this morning, though, when she’d woken up. Which is why she’d put extra make-up on.

Crap.

How bad did she look? She searched through her handbag for a mirror and held it up.

Fuck.

She did look like shit.

“I need to put some more makeup on. I can’t believe you can see the bags under my eyes.”

This wasn’t acceptable.

It couldn’t be happening.

“Opal, it’s fine, no one will notice,” Ryleigh told her.

“I’ll notice,” she grumbled as she grabbed her foundation from her handbag.

“You could have called us, you know,” Lilac said to her. “We would have helped you clear the carpet out and move furniture.”

“Ah, honey, I think you’ve forgotten about your man. No way is a Malone letting either of you lift heavy furniture or move shit around,” she replied.

“They aren’t the boss of us,” Ryleigh said hotly.

Lilac and Opal turned to look at her.

“What?” Ryleigh said defensively. “All the men in this town can be so darn bossy. They need to tone it down. If I want to dress up and go dancing, I can do that without needing a whole police escort.”

Now, this sounded way more interesting than her back pain.

“What did Deputy Hottie do now?” Opal asked.

“Deputy Dickhead more like,” Ryleigh muttered. “Apparently, I’m far too innocent and sweet to go drinking and dancing without him. What does he think is gonna happen?”

“Wait. You went drinking and dancing without me?” Opal asked.

“It was last Thursday night when you had a headache,” Ryleigh reminded her. “Hannah and Raid offered to look after Kye while I went out with Lilac, Clem, and Lara.”

“Oh yeah, damn it. I miss out on all the good stuff.” Her headaches were rare, but when they came, they were vicious.

Could be because she didn’t take any painkillers.

Or it might be because Stefan had once slammed her head into a wall and given her a concussion.

Who knew?

But damn. It sounded like she’d missed a hell of a good time.

“Linc came in and loomed over her, demanding to know what she thought she was doing,” Lilac said. “We pointed out that we were with her and that our men didn’t mind us being out without them.”

“Butch was lurking in the background the entire time,” Ryleigh reminded her. “And I saw him on the phone a lot, probably talking to my other brothers.”

“Did Linc drag you out of there?” Opal asked Ryleigh.

“He tried, until Clem threatened to turn her killer chicken on him. And then we all got kicked out.”

“Why did you get kicked out?” she asked.

“Because Clem actually had her killer chicken with her,” Lilac said dryly. “None of us realized there was an actual live chicken in her handbag.”

Okay.

That was just fucking hilarious.

“Next night I’m coming,” she announced. “I cannot miss out on killer chickens just because I’ve got a small headache.”

“A small headache? I don’t think a small headache would stop you from going anywhere,” Lilac said. “It didn’t look small when we came the next day to check on you.”

“Yeah, why didn’t you tell me what happened then?” she asked.

“Because you looked like death warmed up,” Lilac told her dryly.

“You didn’t look that bad,” Ryleigh said. “Just, yeah, not so good.”

“Anyway, seems you’ve been keeping stuff from us too,” Lilac said. “Renard? When were you going to tell us?”

“And is Renard his first name or last name? Because I’ve never been clear on that,” Ryleigh said.

Opal opened her mouth, then closed it. “Crap. I have no idea whether Renard is his first or last name.” She should probably know that sort of thing.

But her brain was fried by his bossiness.

And his ability to kiss.

Wow.

“Opal? We lost you?” Lilac asked dryly.

“Sorry. Just thinking about the way Renard kisses. Lord, I’ve been kissed before but never like that.” She fanned herself.

“Yeah, Tanner is an amazing kisser too,” Lilac said.

“So is Linc. The asshole,” Ryleigh muttered.

“He kissed you?” Opal asked.

“Yeah, we’ve kissed. But then he usually says something dickish and ruins the moment.”

“Men often do that,” Opal told her. “They can be complete assholes.”

“Amen to that,” Lilac said. “You know, until they do something really nice and then they’re the best.”

“They sure are.” Opal sighed.

“You really like him, don’t you?” Lilac asked.

Did she?

“He’s an all right guy,” she replied.

“You do,” Ryleigh squealed.

“Hey, don’t make that noise,” Opal grumbled. “We aren’t serious. We’re just seeing where this goes. He doesn’t want anything serious.”

“He doesn’t?” Lilac asked softly.

“We don’t,” she amended.

Well, lied.

Because she felt more for him than she ever had for anyone. And she had a feeling that when this did end, she was going to be in a whole lot of trouble.

But did that mean she was going to call things off before she got further entangled in him?

Nope.

Because Stefan had been right.

She was as dumb as a sack of bricks.

“I’m so stupid,” she muttered. “I’m walking right into heartache and I’m gonna fall off the cliff and it will be my own damn fault.”

“Been there,” Lilac commiserated.

“Yeah, but Tanner was there to catch you,” she replied. “I’m going to end up battered and bruised and in pieces. I just fucking know it.”

“Why doesn’t he want more?” Ryleigh asked. “If he’s a good guy, then you should be able to trust him with who you really are.”

“He’s a good guy. And he does know me.”

“The real you?” Lilac asked skeptically. “Because we know you, Opal. And you don’t show just anyone the real you.”

Right. Because that part of her was easily hurt. Could be destroyed. And she didn’t want anyone to have that power over her.

At least not anyone but these two women. They’d sort of wormed their way into her life.

“Look, this isn’t a serious relationship, because there’s only room for one rocker on his front porch.”

Ryleigh and Lilac shared a look.

“Doesn’t he live in an apartment?” Ryleigh asked, sounding confused.

Opal waved a hand in the air. It was really getting hard to ignore the pain she was in. “I assume it’s not a literal porch.”

“Well, shit,” Lilac muttered.

Yep. Shit.

“Alec thought he was serious. He invited him to Sunday lunch,” Ryleigh said. “I should tell him that he’s messing you around.”

“He’s not messing me around. He made everything clear.” Sort of. “We’re just having some fun together and what’s wrong with that? A girl has needs. And he fills those needs. He’s got big dick daddy energy and I like that.”

A throat cleared and they all looked up.

And there stood Renard.

So, she should probably say something to make it seem like they hadn’t been talking about him . . .

But she had nothing.

“Hey there, Big Daddy.”