“What if I get a girl to spank them both?” Slade asked.
“I’ll double your points if you can,” Z said. “I am the scorekeeper of the eggplants, after all.”
Baz shook his head, but his smile remained in place. He had to admit JJ had known what she was doing when she selected this game for this group of people.
“You can also buy a stranger a blow job shot and take it with them. And the last for fifteen points is to stand on one foot and count to twenty while a stranger does it with you.” He took a breath, expecting someone to add their commentary, but everyone remained quiet, so he forged on. “And for twenty points, you can dance on a bar or a table in a public place, get a condom from a stranger—”
“Used? Or no?” Luca asked, his expression dead serious despite the smile that crept up. He shook his head. “No, right? Okay.”
“Get a piggyback ride from a stranger,” Baz continued. “And last, take a group selfie in the women’s restroom.”
“I do that every other Thursday,” Griffin said with a straight face. “That’s easy.”
“Also, you can get one point for every person who signs your shirt.” Baz looked at each person. “Just remember, you’re wearin’ that shirt for two days, so try not to spill anything on it.”
Cal raised his hand. “Trey’s gonna need a bib.”
Trey rolled his eyes and flipped his brother off.
“There are more shirts in here,” Atticus noted, pointing toward the duffel bag.
“Those are for Brantley and Reese,” Baz told him, walking over. He pulled out one and checked it, then turned around and showed everyone the black shirt with a fake tuxedo design on the front. “You’ll start out wearing these,” he explained, then reached for one of the other shirts. “But as soon as either team gets to fifty points, you’ll have to change into these.” He held up the other shirt with the fake wedding dress design on the front, complete with cleavage.
“Now that’s worth dancin’ on a table for,” Killian noted.
“Any questions?”
“How many points do we get if we can get Brantley and Reese drunk enough to do these for us?” Luca asked.
“I like where your head’s at,” Slade said, pointing at Luca.
“There’s not enough tequila in the world,” Brantley told him.
Baz grinned when everyone turned to look at Brantley and said, “Wanna bet?”
***
JJ waited in the driver’s seat asAva put her bag in the back. Magnus had just left, heading off to the bachelor party weekend with the rest of the guys. At one point, JJ thought she would have to shove him out the door. And she might have if she weren’t so dadgum pregnant.
“You good?” she asked Ava when she got in.
“Better than good.”
JJ believed her. Nothing about Ava’s countenance or tone made her sound the least bit hesitant about changing the weekend venue from JJ’s house to Wes’s.
It had been a last-minute decision on JJ’s part. She thought for sure she would have no problem staying in the house alone while Baz was gone. But there’d been a brief period—from when Baz left to get Brantley and Reese until Ava showed up—that JJ had been alone. It was then she realized she wasn’t up for staying in the house by herself. Even with Ava there, she didn’t feel safe.
Yeah, she knew it was crazy. She was safe in the house. She had a top-notch security system and cameras set up everywhere on the outside. She would see anyone coming.
But that was the problem. She wasn’t sure how she would react if they passed those defenses. And right now, she only cared about keeping the peanuts safe. And the best way to do that was to surround herself with people capable of standing guard.
“He’s great, by the way,” JJ told Ava as she backed out of the driveway. “Wes, I mean. He’s the sort of guy who’s never met a stranger, so don’t be surprised if he chats your ear off.” JJ glanced over. “He’s a big guy. I guess I should warn you about that. Bigger than Baz.”
To JJ’s shock, Ava reached over and squeezed her hand. “I promise I’ll be fine. I’ve been seeing Dr. Briggs for a while now. We’ve worked through a lot of my issues. I’m one of the lucky ones. I don’t have PTSD.”
How that was even possible, JJ didn’t know. Ava’s crazy husband had attempted to kill her. Hell, he’d thought he had, so he rolled her body up in a rug and dumped it in a field, leaving the poor woman for dead. And somehow, Ava managed to walk—despite her body being badly broken—to the nearest house where a woman took her in and kept her safe until the task force—with the help of a lot of friends and family—eventually found her.
JJ was pretty sure she would never get over that. Never. As it was, she had PTSD, and she hadn’t been through nearly the ordeal Ava had. Hers was the result of that night when Dante staged his kidnapping to extort his parents. That night had changed her, and the most recent kidnapping ordeal hadn’t helped a bit.
