“Interesting. I didn’t know that about peanut butter. I usually buy the store brand and keep it in the cabinet.”
“Next time I go out, I’m going to buy you a jar of the good stuff. You’ll never go back.”
“Sunflower butter is good too,” I chimed in.
Both of their heads turned my way and Forest scrunched his nose. “Ewww, why? You don’t have food allergies.”
I shrugged. “Colleen eats it and the soy kind. I like them.”
“Okay, that doesn’t surprise me.” He turned back to Winnie. “You have to meet Colleen. She’s Oleander’s mom and the sweetest woman. She cooks like you would not believe.”
“I wonder if she’d teach me some of her recipes,” Winnie said.
“I bet she would,” I told her. “She’s very nice.”
They kept talking, moving on to other things. Winnie surprised me. I knew she was tough, but she had a soft side too. I didn’t doubt her ability to protect Forest. Watching her in the gym assured me of her capabilities. The other side showed she was human.
My phone vibrated, so I picked it up and looked at the screen. Jordan wanted me to meet him in a conference room downstairs.
“I have to go.” I bent to give Forest a quick kiss and was out the door, taking the elevator down.
Jordan, Vincent, and Lane waited for me.
“This is ominous,” I said before taking a seat.
Lane worked closely with Jordan, but not always leaving together. Lane did a lot without him, due to being Jordan’s second-in-command.
The door opened, Raiden slipping in. “Sorry. I was showering.”
Lane grinned. “You should see him wet. Very sexy.”
“Not now,” Jordan growled.
“What? Sometimes a little levity is good. If we were serious all the time, we’d need more than what Arden can provide in therapy. Al would have to give us the heavy-duty meds.”
“What happened?” I asked, getting right to the point. I would rather be upstairs listening to Forest talk about the best meals to put in a slow cooker than be here. God, I’d really changed a lot. I used to live for anything to happen. That was before I had Forest in my arms every night.
Jordan slid a pink polka-dotted box across the table toward me.
“I’m touched. You shouldn’t have.” It was donuts from a bakery a few blocks down. They had the kind that made my mouth water and had me craving them for days.
“Open it.”
I cocked an eyebrow when I noticed my name on the label on the side. “Have you been going through my deliveries? If the Boston cream is missing, we’re having words.” Lifting the top, my breath froze in my lungs. “What in the ever-loving fuck?”
Inside was a clear bag of what I assumed were organs from an animal. I’d seen enough human ones to know what size they should be. Also, when I was younger, I worked at a butcher shop. It was too much for me at the time. I didn’t last long.
“Is that what you pull out of a turkey before you roast it?” Lane asked. “And before you tell me to be serious, I am. Who the hell has a bag of organs sitting around? I wasn’t here when Jordan got a peek at it first.”
My phone began to ring. I removed it from my pocket to see Colleen’s name on the screen.
“Yes?” I asked.
“I don’t know what you’re doing, but you need to stop before you do something you shouldn’t.”
“I haven’t. It’s still bagged.”
“Good. I don’t want to know what it is.”
