“So they’re either ridiculously rich or starving artists?”Maddie tapped her chin thoughtfully.
Katy gave Lola another nudge.“Only one way to find out.Go give him your number, Lo, and get the goods.Pun intended.”
Lola’s gut tightened as she watched the two men find a table and then immediately turn to look at her.
“Oh snap,” Maddie muttered, and then subtly pointed towards the door, grabbing Lola’s attention.“Looks like they’ve got competition.”
“What the,” Lola said as she watched the guy named Roan, with the silver eyes, and Rafe, with the unnatural, cat eyes, come strolling through the door next.They immediately noticed the first two guys that had walked in.Roan and Rafe froze and glared –like seriously glared– at GreenHair and Spiky.All they needed were some tumble weeds to roll by and some of that Western movie music they played right before a shoot out, and the scene would be set.
“Rival bands?”Katy asked.
“Let it go,” Maddie said, shaking her head.“Neither of those dudes are in bands.They’re probably gang members or bikers with vendettas against one another.”
Lola snorted.“You’ve been watching gang documentaries again.”
“Dude, it’s an epidemic in this country that everyone ignores and some of them are into some scary crap like sex trafficking,” Katy pointed out.“For all we know those hotties are scoping out potential women to take into their harem of sex slaves.Oh, snap,” Katy gasped.“That means they’ve set their eyes on Lola.It’s because you’re beautiful and exotic looking.They’ve probably got a client who likes women with unique attributes.Like a foot fetish only his is a skin fetish.”
Lola turned her head slowly and looked at her friend who was staring at the group of guys in question.“And you think I have an overactive imagination?”
“Unlike your scenarios, mine,” Katy pointed at herself with a knife, “have merit.There are no sexy, shifter men who are looking for their mate to claim, and give ridiculous amounts of pleasure simply because of some magical connection.That’s not a thing.Though I will admit that sounds much more preferable to the gang-sex trade scenario.”
“There is seriously something wrong with you,” Maddie sighed.“Lo, you going to take one of the tables?”
“They’re both seated in her section,” Katy pointed out.“She’s going to take both of them, and she’s going to get a date with one of them, and find out which category they fall into.”
“I don’t even know what to say to that,” Lola said as she snatched up a pen and headed for Roan and Rafe.Neither of them had asked for her number so they felt like the safer bet.
“Take one for the team, Kitten,” Katy whisper-shouted.
Lola ignored her and pasted a smile on her face as she reached the table.The two guys who were, thankfully, no longer glaring at Spikey and Green Hair.“Welcome back to NNP,” she said, her voice sounding much too chipper because she was suddenly very nervous.Their gaze ran up and down the length of her, giving her the distinct impression that they were looking for something.Or maybe they knew she’d gotten a tattoo.That was impossible, of course.But unless they’d been atWild Inkwhen she had, how could they possibly know?Was one of these two her stalker?Or maybe both?
“Stalker?”Rafe asked, a frown marring his too-handsome face.“Someone’s been stalking you?”
Lola’s eyes widened “Did I say that out loud?”What the hell.Am I ever going to get control of my mouth?Short of that muzzle she wanted her parents to buy her, the answer was a resounding no.
“Psht, no,” she waved dismissively.“I was just thinking about a show I’ve been watching.The girl has caught the attention of some members of a sex-trafficking gang, and they’ve been stalking her because she’s what some rich, old guy has decided he wants, and she feels like she’s being followed, like she feels eyes on her, you know?That feeling you get when you just know you’re not alone?Anyways, it’s just an intense show and tends to stick with me.I binged watched it last night.”She totally didn't and there was no such show.At least, not one she was watching, and what the hell was she doing making up a scenario from Katy’s conspiracy theory?
“Wow,” Rafe said.“Sounds a tad creepy.Maybe it’s not the best thing for a beautiful, single female to watch, especially if it freaks you out as much as it seems to.”
Lola pursed her lips.“Who said anything about being single?Or about being freaked out?I’m not freaked out.You’re freaked out.Probably not single, but, I’m totally fine.No stalkers, no weird things.No rich, old men who want to make me their sex slave, and hold me captive because of some weird, skin fetish.Holy jackrabbits I’m going to shut up now.”She took a deep breath and pasted her smile back on.“Would you two like the No Name Meat Explosion pizza again?”
Roan’s intense gaze hadn’t left her since she walked up, and though he hadn’t spoken a word, his attention was one hundred percent on her.As if he was trying to decipher if she was lying.She glanced at her pad, waiting for her answer.
“How many times have the two males in the booth twenty-feet away been in here?”Roan asked, surprising her enough that Lola’s head snapped up and her eyes immediately looked at the men in question.They were staring right at her.
“How do you know they’ve been in here before?”she asked, looking back at Roan.His eyes were swirling like a silver hurricane, and it was much more vivid than it had been even from the first time she’d seen them.
He tapped the finger in a steady, staccato rhythm as he stared at her.“They’re not far off from what you just shared about your T.V.show.”
“And how would you know that?”She pulled her order pad to her chest and rested it against her, as if it could somehow shield her from the information Roan shared.“Are you cops or detectives?”
“Not like you think,” Rafe answered.“We work for a bodyguard firm.And do the occasional work for law enforcement to help them with groups like those two are involved in.”
Lola was surprised at his forthcoming answer.“Oh.”That had not been what she’d been expecting them to say.She wasn’t going to say she wasn’t a tad freaked out over some possible sex traffickers asking for her number.Chills ran up her arm as a shiver moved down her spine.How close had she come to being taken into the very scenario that Katy had laid out?
“They’ve definitely been in here before,” Roan shifted in his seat, leaning back slightly.“Even if I hadn’t seen them once, I can see it by the fear in your eyes.”
“Not to mention the way you smell,” Rafe said so low she barely heard it.
