Baxter snorts at her less than threatening tone.
“I can steal it, the lady has gone out the back. A quick snatch and run will be a piece of piss,” Adrianne offers.
“For fuck’s sake, we’re not threatening anyone, nor are we stealing it!” I snap, exasperated.
The lady makes a reappearance and hands me a business card. Sawyer is better at negotiations than me, so I take a picture of the card and then dial his number.
It rings once before he answers. “Hey, how is dress shopping going?”
“Since you asked, Elsie found the perfect dress, but it’s not for sale because we’re not movie stars. So Baxter pulled a knife on the snotty cow working in the shop and Adrianne wants to steal it.”
“Sounds interesting,” he muses. In the background I hear Onyx add in a pissed off growl, “What the fuck is Branson doing there? He better not be watching you try on dresses.”
“Calm down. He just showed up, like he does. He’s not watching us get changed, and besides, we’re just friends.”
Baxter coughs. “Speak for yourself, I’m always down to see you nak...Omph.”
Elsie sucker punches Baxter in the gut, and I brace myself for the fallout. Even Frost has his hand on his gun. We all stare at Baxter in silence until he smirks. I breathe in relief. Elsie reallyneeds to be careful, I know her and Baxter are friendly-ish but he’s a wild card.
“Anyway, I was calling because I need you to pretty please call the designer and persuade them to sell us the dress.”
“Okay, give me five minutes and it’ll be done, but Amelie, you owe me one.”
I chuckle and agree that I owe him a favour. Because he didn’t actually use the termfavour, I know he probably means the sexual, off the books of The Order kind of owing ‘one’. Hopefully I can repay it naked, I like the sound of that kind of favour.
We end the call, and I turn back to the lady who stands as far away from us as possible.
“I would start wrapping the dress, we’ll be back to pick it up before we leave.”
Her mouth hangs open in shock, but she’s smart to not say anything as we all exit the store. It’s time to go hunt for something for Adrianne to wear. We lose Baxter when Elsie makes a pit stop for lacy underwear, or what she classifies as underwear. I feel like she might as well wear nothing, and I tell her as much, but she just laughs and asks then what will Jasper pull off with his teeth? She has a point, but I really don’t want to think aboutthemdoingthat. All three of us browse through the choices anyway. Elsie sticks with her dental floss inspired underwear. I find a very sexy red set – even if itdoescome with a thong – which leads me to second guess my dress colour.
“What about these?” Adrianne asks, holding up a black sports bra and boy boxer underwear. Elsie screws up her nose in response.
“Wear whatever makes you comfortable,” I reply.
“I think it’s a very sensible choice, no riding wedgie if she needs to defend herself,” Frost adds, and we all stare at him, open-mouthed, considering he’s been quiet most of our trip.
“It’s Amelie's inauguration, who is she going to be fighting?” Elsie asks. Frost shrugs as both Adrianne and I laugh and say, “Kalen”.
We all check out with our purchases and I start to get nervous for Elsie when I haven’t heard back from Sawyer. Elsie’s phone rings and we all stop while she answers it. I watch Adrianne looking at a store and I gesture to Elsie that we are going in while she takes her call. I grab Adrianne by the arm and drag her away.
“If you don’t want to wear a dress, then don’t.”
She nods and we look around the new store, which is an entire store of Tuxedos and pants suits for women. Adrianne’s face lights up as she looks through her options.
She stops at a mannequin and grins at me. “This is the one.”
“Did you want to try it on?” I ask and she shakes her head no.
“When you know, you know.”
I get the store clerk's attention and we get him to size her up. She’s found a white shirt, blazer and tailored pants that will sit at three-quarter length. She even shocked me by asking for the black heels to pair with it.
“What? I never said I have anything against heels, just dresses. I could kick ass in heels, I could stab them into someone’s eyeball.”
“Okay, killer, let’s rein in the violence.”
She laughs as her outfit is bagged up. By the time she is handed her bag and we head out of the store, Elsie is off the phone.
