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“All the extra security,” she says, motioning to the door. “Is it really necessary?”

When I dropped Piper off at work this morning, we filled Eden in on the gist of what was happening, that someone was coming after the club and they needed to be more careful, but we didn’t tell her many details about how serious the threat was. Even though it makes it hard for her to take this seriously, it’s for the best. This is club business and the less people know about it, the better. I nod.

“Yeah, it is.”

She rolls her eyes.

“It could be worse, you know. I could have one of the guys come babysit y’all.”

A smile stretches across her face as she arches a brow. “Would it be a single guy?”

“No,” I answer with a laugh and her face falls.

“Fine. Ruin all my fun.”

“Honestly, Edie,” Piper says, shaking her head. “As two women who stay here late at night sometimes, we should have been doing this way before now.”

She sighs, reluctantly, nodding her head. “Yeah, okay.”

“Are you finished for the night?” I ask her. “We’ll walk out with you.”

“No, sir,” she replies, shaking her head with a stubborn look on her face as she pulls a pistol out of her bag and my brow shoots toward my hairline. Well, shit. “I have one more shoot tonight and I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”

I study her for a second and consider arguing with her but there is something about the look in her eyes that tells me she has been through some shit and she is more than capable of taking care of herself. Although, judging by the shocked look on Piper’s face, it seems to be something she doesn’t talk about much. Finally, I nod.

“Yeah, okay. But call me if you run into any trouble.” I release Piper and pull one of the club’s business cards out of my wallet and scoop a pen up off of the counter before scribbling my number down on it. I hand it to her and I see a flash of vulnerability in her eyes before she covers it up and nods.

“Thanks.”

“When in the hell did you get that, Eden?” Piper asks as she finally recovers enough to speak and Eden shrugs like she didn’t just pull a firearm out of her purse.

“A girl’s got to protect herself, Pip-Squeak.”

The darkness flicks across her gaze again as Piper turns to stare at me with wide eyes. Maybe she’s expecting me to say something or insist that we stay here with Eden but I’m not going to. The look in her eyes is the same one Tate gets sometimes and I have no doubt if the worst case scenario happened, Eden would handle herself just fine.

Nodding, I wrap my arm around Piper’s waist. “All right, I guess we’ll just get out of your hair then.”

“What?”

Eden smiles her thanks as Piper bores a hole into the side of my head. “Have a good night, y’all.”

“Oh, we will be talking about this later,” Piper says, pointing a finger at her best friend as I pull her into my side and my body relaxes at the contact.

“Mmhmm,” she calls as she stands up and grabs one of her cameras off of her desk. “Looking forward to it.”

As she walks away from us, I release Piper’s hips to grab her hand and lace our fingers together as I grab her purse off of the counter and hand it to her. She eyes me but before she can say anything, I flash her a smile.

“I’ve got a surprise for you.”

She arches a brow. “What kind of a surprise?”

“Huh?” I ask, feigning innocence as we open the front door and step outside. She stops and puts her free hand on her hip as she stares me down with that “tell me now” look.

“You said there was a surprise.”

“Did I?” I ask, scowling at her and shaking my head as I pull her around the passenger side door and open it. “Huh… I don’t remember.”

“You’re a liar.”