“She doesn’t realize she’s torturing me.”
“Maybe she needs to realize it.”
He shrugged. “You want another drink?”
I laughed, shoving thoughts of Blair and her anger out of my mind. “Now you’re speaking my love language.”
20
TWENTY
Bree was fun. Even having Joey there at the beginning of the event hadn’t dampened her spirits. Once she ticked off Blair—which I knew would come back to bite me at some point—we spent the rest of the evening entertaining each other.
We were both tipsy when it was time to leave and we headed next door for dinner. We got more food than we could eat, with the intention of taking leftovers home, which meant we went big. Between the veggie spring rolls, shrimp dumplings, sweet-and-sour shrimp, sesame chicken, and pepper steak, we ate so much that I thought I might burst.
I grabbed the leftovers, and we returned to the scooter to collect the helmets Bree had locked in at the back. She was convinced they would make an enticing target for thieves, and I didn’t disagree with her. The food had sobered us up. The sight we found when locking down the scooter for the night chased the fun from both of us.
“Well, crap,” Bree said when she realized she had two flat tires.
At first, I figured the tires had gone flat because she hadn’t driven the scooter in months. It didn’t make sense, but I wasn’tthe type to jump to the dramatic conclusion. Then I saw the big gashes in them.
I was immediately rattled at the way Bree hugged herself for comfort. I’d seen it more than once. The first time had been when Joey rattled her at the initial author event. The second time was over lunch with her mother and my father. I’d seen it again when Joey had boxed her in at the second event. Now I knew what it meant.
“Somebody slashed my tires,” she said dumbly as I switched hands with the takeout and slipped my arm around her back. “Who would do that?”
“Kids,” I answered automatically. “They were probably passing by and decided to be assholes.”
She arched an eyebrow. “Kids are obnoxious—I would never say otherwise—but this is out in the open.” She gestured around the parking lot. “I don’t think they would have done it knowing they were likely caught on camera.”
I glanced around. She was right. I could see two cameras just from this vantage point. “Do you want to go in and look at the footage?”
She shook her head. “It’s late.” Her expression was guarded as her gaze darted in every direction. “I don’t want to stay here any longer than necessary.”
I nodded. “We can arrange for the scooter to be picked up tomorrow. It’s going to need new tires before you can ride it again anyway. That won’t be done in a day, I don’t think.” I hesitated. “We can still go out tomorrow as planned.” I didn’t want to give that up. “We’ll handle the scooter in the morning and then pick it up when we’re done. I can follow you home just to be on the safe side.”
She nodded. “That sounds like a good idea.” She was still looking around as if she expected somebody to jump out from behind one of the vehicles. “Do you think it was him?”
It took me a moment to figure out who she was referring to. “Joey?”
“He was irritated when he saw us together. He only stayed for about an hour, but he watched me the whole time.”
I’d seen him. In fact, I’d been watching him closely. He never took his eyes off Bree. The way he looked at her was worrisome. Fortunately, he hadn’t approached her. Maybe he would stop now that he likely thought we were together. That was the reason I’d taken her hand the way I had. Okay, one of the reasons. Mostly, I’d just wanted to hold her hand. Since it had served a dual purpose, however, I was giving myself an out.
“We don’t know it was him,” I said after a beat. “It could have just been a random person walking by. There are monsters out there who like to destroy things for fun.”
“Yeah.” She blew out a sigh and finally looked at me. “Can we get out of here? I’m creeped out.” She moved to the back of the scooter and unlocked the helmets.
I immediately missed her being beside me but nodded. She wasn’t just going to get over this. It might have only been tires, but she’d lost some of her comfort thanks to this act. I hated that for her.
“Yup.” I pulled up my Uber app and filled out the information. “Only three minutes away,” I said when I was finished.
“That’s good.” She moved to stand next to me, but I didn’t miss the way she kept looking over her shoulder.
“I can contact the bar tomorrow,” I said. “Have them look at their footage.”
“What good will that do? The cops probably won’t do anything.”
“It will give you peace of mind to know.”
