Page 68 of The Vampire's Storm

She understood it wasn’t a great time and would try to keep her trip short if her new boss agreed.

Legs burning, Brooklyn slowed the treadmill to a light walk and glanced around. She’d belonged to a gym back home and enjoyed lifting weights, so because Logan was busy lining up his girlfriend-for-the-night, she decided to wrap this up and go home.

She had a frozen meal in the freezer and a favorite TV show to watch.

With a quick glance through the glass windows, she saw the two in a conversation. He had his hand on her shoulder.

What a player.

Brooklyn made her way over to the vast array of weight machines and started looking around. The center was pretty quiet except for half a dozen vampires milling around.

No one seemed interested in her.

Perhaps she could come in here before work and stop being a scaredy cat.

Choosing one of the machines, she set it at her usual weight amount and sat down, reaching up for the bar.

Then pulled.

Nothing happened. Huh?

She tugged again.

“Need some help?” a deep voice asked.

Brooklyn turned and found herself face-to-face with a grinning, bulked-up vampire.

Oh.

He was kind of cute, and the cheeky smirk on his lips made her blush.

“Yes please,” Brooklyn said, dropping her arms. “I set it at twenty-five, which is normally fine.”

He snickered and walked around the machine. “I’m going to assume you’re human.”

She giggled. “What gave it away?”

He winked at her and began lifting weight after weight after weight from behind the machine. Brooklyn leaned over and her eyes flew open at them all.

“Oh my god, no wonder I couldn’t lift that.” She laughed.

“I got you, little lady.” He laughed. “So, you new here?”

“She’s with me, Doug,” Logan growled behind them. Brooklyn spun around and was surprised by the dark, possessive expression on his face.

“Oh, sorry, man. Just helping her out,” Doug replied.

“No. I’m not with him,” Brooklyn said quickly.

Doug stared between them, and within seconds, a smile stretched across his face like he knew something she didn’t. He walked over to Logan and slapped him on the back.

“I’ll leave you to help her out.”

“Wait. No, I’m not with him,” Brooklyn called as he walked away. “Ugh. Why did you do that?”

How dare he interfere with her making friends.

Doug seemed far nicer than Logan and so far—all sixty seconds of their encounter—hadn’t once threatened her life. A vast difference from her experience with her assassin.