"We're sorry for that." Noah seemed sincere. Either he didn't like it any more than I did, or he was an excellent actor. Since he was related to Forrest, I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, for now.
Also, he could stab me right here in the dark, and he wasn't doing that, so maybe he was on our side.
"We tried to look for opportunities to get any of the women away from there, but they had that place locked down tight."
"Tighter than an ant's asshole," Urban agreed. "Anyway, it wasn't like we could say, 'Hey, we're the good guys.' She wouldn't have bought it."
"Probably not," I said with a grunt.
I wouldn't have bought it if I was her. I wouldn't have trusted anyone around me. To be honest, I was still surprised she'd gone with Forrest and Leif. Did she have a choice? No. She stillmight have kicked up a stink. After all, she didn't know them from a piece of toast at the time, not really. And yet, she'd gone with them. Now she trusted them, as she should. They were trustworthy men.
I wanted to believe these two were as well, but we'd see. They might be waiting for my proverbial bus so they could throw me under it. If they were, I'd make sure they went under those wheels first.
"We're on our way," Forrest said, in my earpiece dragging my thoughts back to the present.
"Understood," I replied. "Good luck."
We were all going to need it.
CHAPTER 14
SABLE
"Why do I feel like I'm being taken to market?" I pulled down the hem of my dress to show a little more cleavage. After a moment I pulled it back up.
"You look beautiful," Leif said, wrapping his hands around mine before I could adjust it again. "If you keep doing that, I'm going to tie your hands behind your back."
I regarded him for a moment. "I have an idea, let's stay here and do that instead."
We couldn't, I knew that. I had to speak to my parents. I had to see this thing through to the end. What if what I learned was worse than I guessed? Something I didn't want to deal with? I'd have to deal.
There was only one way through this, and that was headfirst. No wonder I felt the start of a headache in my temples. I rubbed at them carefully, not wanting to mess up my makeup.
"We have time for that after," Leif assured me. He glanced over to Forrest, who'd just finished speaking to Woody through his microphone. "Is everything ready?"
Forrest buttoned his suit jacket and adjusted his watch. "As organized as it can be."
"But?" Leif asked before I could.
"No buts," Forrest said. "We're organized. Everything should go smoothly. We all know what we need to do. Let's pull it off."
I couldn't keep a smile from creeping onto my lips.
"I'm starting to think your ideas are better than going to a Christmas party." Leif kissed my knuckles.
"I have an imagination and a healthy appetite," I said. "There's nothing wrong with that. Besides how else am I supposed to respond to the expression,pull it off?"
"I'll choose my words more carefully next time." Forrest patted my hip, making sure the small gun he'd placed there was still as he left it after all my adjustments.
"No, you won't," I teased. I suspected he knew exactly what he was saying when he said it.
"All right, no I won't." The lines around his eyes crinkled as he smiled. "However, I won't regret it either."
"I didn't think for a minute you would," I said. Both of them were incorrigible. It was one of the things I liked the most about them. They weren't scared of my sexuality. They encouraged it. Of course, it benefited them to do so, but I suspected they would have supported me either way.
Forrest took my hand from Leif's and pulled me toward the door. "The car is waiting for us already."
That was part of the plan Woody didn't like. He'd wanted to drive us. Forrest insisted he get to the party first and called the car. We'd had to wait a couple of hours for his driver to arrive. We had little choice though. I wasn't going to walk all that way in heels; it'd take us at least an hour. My parents would lose their minds if we turned up late, sweaty, or in a taxi. Public transport was basically a dirty word as far as they were concerned.
