“Yeah,” she says. “Drinks later with a couple of girls from the beach. Nothing wild.” She eyes me. “What about you? You doing anything tonight?”
I take a sip of water, then set the bottle down carefully. My pulse kicks hard, sudden and disobedient, just thinking about saying it out loud. “Actually, I think I’m going to a party.”
She freezes. “You don’t go to parties.”
I scoff. “I go to parties.”
Lola just stares at me for a beat, then shakes her head slowly like she’s trying to let me down gently. “No, babe. God love you, but you don’t. Not unless I physically drag you to one.”
I lift my chin and pretend my heartbeat isn’t doing backflips. “Well, consider this me returning the favor.”
Lola narrows her eyes. “Whose party?”
“Yeah, about that. You’re never gonna believe who I ran into today,” I say, exhaling. “Outside Marty’s.”
I give her the highlights. The parking lot collision, Gage waiting for me, how the Calloways were on the yacht, the husband line. And by the time I finish, Lola looks like I just told her gravity stopped working.
“What?” I ask. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Are you actually out of your mind?” she demands. “You’re not going over to the Calloway house after we literally stole a job out from under them.”
“We didn’tstealit,” I say, crossing my arms. “We got there first.”
“Yes,” she snaps, pointing at me. “And that’s exactly why they’re pissed.”
I roll my eyes. “You weren’t even there. He wasn’t even mad.”
She stares at me like I just insulted her intelligence. “Bell. We’re going to clear almost a quarter of a million dollars from that yacht. There’s no version of this where the Calloways aren’t livid.”
Heat creeps up the back of my neck. “They don’t know that,” I say, firmer now. “They don’t knowwhohit it, how clean it was,or what walked away. And Gage wouldn’t have invited me over if he thought I was a threat.”
That last part lands harder than I mean it to.
I keep going anyway. “This isn’t me walking into an ambush. It’s reconnaissance. I get eyes on them. I see what they know. What they suspect. That’s better than sitting here guessing and waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
Lola exhales sharply through her nose. “You’re rationalizing.”
“Maybe,” I admit. “But it’s still the smartest move.”
She watches me for a long beat, then sighs. “Fine. You’re right.”
Relief flickers, brief and premature.
“Because you’re not going alone,” she adds, jabbing her finger at me. “I’ll be your backup in case shit goes sideways.”
I snort. “Great. So they can take us both out?Perfect.”
“Aha!” Lola crows. “Youareworried they’re going to kill you.”
“I’m not,” I insist, even as my pulse jumps. “If they were planning to, Gage would’ve already tossed me in the back of his truck, and I’d be six feet under in the desert by now.”
She blinks. “You’re saying that with a lot of certainty. Almost like you’ve seen that before.”
I freeze for one beat too long. “Gage? No, I’ve never seen him do that.”
The implication hangs unspoken, but Lola, mercifully, lets it drop. She crushes her empty can and tosses it into the recycling bin before disappearing down the hallway.
I’m still exhaling when she comes back, arms loaded with black fabric. The first bundle hits my chest before I register what’s happening.
