Nor like he does and I don’t.
“Yes, I’m aware,” I said, finishing my glass of wine.
“We’re just telling you to be careful, that’s all,” Elizabeth said.
“That’s rich coming from the sisters who swapped boyfriends.”
They laughed. They understood that I wasn’t coming from a place of malice, but sarcasm. I was not this mean to everyone, but I was this brutal to those who could take it. And the Rogers girls could—mostly—take it.
“And Zack?” Tara said. “You still haven’t said how you won Zack over.”
“Oh, that was easy,” I said with a smile. “I am older than Zack, so I am an older lady. I told him that I needed to go to this party and that I’d supply him with beer to win over some coeds at the university.”
“So you bribed him with booze.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing. He could have paid for it. It was just a fair trade.”
Both girls were left shaking their heads and laughing.
“You are something else, Katie Lane.”
Understatement of the year right there.
* * *
This was not my first rodeo at a Black Reapers party. I knew what they were typically like.
Essentially, they were frat parties for guys who had never quite adjusted or grown up to normal society. A lot of cheap beer, a lot of liquor, a lot of cheap clothes, a lot of sex, a lot of games—not beer pong or flip cup type of games, but more like, “who would win if these two dudes started fighting” games—and a lot of loud music and shouting. It was so unrefined, and I loved it.
But when the Uber dropped us off—asking us multiple times if we had wound up at the right place and if we needed help—there was something that seemed very different about this particular party.
While there was loud music and everyone had a drink in their hand, the mood seemed surprisingly calm, as if no one wanted to rock the boat to the point of notifying the public. None of the crazy, wild games that were usually had were ongoing. There almost seemed to be a perfect ratio of girls to guys.
In fact, when Brock and Steele came over and kissed their respective girlfriends, the whole thing just carried a weird aura to it, like the guys wanted to celebrate but were prevented from doing so by police order or something else like that. No one, apparently, wanted to risk being too drunk or being too stupid right now.
“What the hell, Brock?” I said when Brock asked how I was doing. “I was told this was a Black Reaper party, not a ‘Black Reapers Do Dignified’ party.”
“Funny as always, Katie,” Brock said with a slight sneer. “Tensions are rising in this town. We’re giving people the chance to blow off steam, but we have to do it in a safe manner. No point in going crazy and exposing ourselves to retaliation.”
Well, that’s just lovely.
“Come, have a drink.”
Brock said it nicely enough, so I followed him. Zack didn’t even pretend that he was the person that invited me; by now, he had his arm around some red-headed girl. Perhaps Brock and Steele had allowed him to “invite” two women, or maybe they’d just legitimately forgotten. It didn’t matter to me, and if anything, I was grateful for the fact that I didn’t have to play appearances in front of Connor.
Which, speaking of…I did not see him right now. I didn’t want to ask Brock or Steele yet, hoping that one of them would reveal something.
“So, Tara, how goes the new apartment?” Steele asked, sounding like…I couldn’t fucking believe I was thinking this…but sounding like a dad talking to a friend’s wife. I didn’t even remember that they had dated for a couple of years when that happened—they had become so boring.
Or they were just restraining themselves. It was so bizarre. If they were going to be this way, why the fuck even throw a party? Maybe they thought they could handle being tight, but I just found the whole thing bizarre and boring. Like, fuck, have some fun!
I gave no pretenses about being interested in the conversation when I saw him.
Connor Burns.
He was seated in the corner of the clubhouse, away from where I would have seen him when I first walked in. He had his arm around some brunette, but he looked disinterested, almost disdainful of the girl. She was talking to him, but he was paying no attention to her. She was probably a former hookup or something.
I hated her already.
