Page 8 of Bombshell

“Leave it, Tracy,” a man warned her.

When the door closed behind Tex, I was relieved he was gone. I didn’t want to deal with any of these men. They all seemed to think what Micah had said was right. They were wrong! All of them.

“Fucking hell, Nina! Why do you torture me like this?” a female asked, then groaned loudly.

I shifted on my stool to see who it was and realized someone new had entered the room through the red door.

A stunning brunette with nothing but a pair of sparkly panties that might have been meant to be shorts and a matching blue bra walked in stilettos toward the counter. Her gaze swung to mine, and she paused, scanning over my body before coming back to my face. “Who are you here with?”

The blunt question took me by surprise, and I opened my mouth to respond, but nothing came out. I wasn’t sure how to explain my situation to the woman staring at me.

“She’s a guest. Dolly is Pepper’s best friend,” Nina informed her. “Dolly, this is Amethyst. Ignore her rudeness. She is starving herself today to keep her stomach flat, and that makes her ornery.”

“Pepper is here?” Amethyst asked, sounding as if she was happy at the thought of seeing my best friend.

“No, she isn’t here. Dolly came with Micah.”

Amethyst’s head snapped back around quickly to look at me. This time, her eyes widened, and she was assessing me closer than before. I felt nervous under her sudden, intense interest.

“Micah?” she asked, her voice an octave higher.

“Not like that. Christ, Pepper would kill him,” Nina replied with a shake of her head. “He brought her here, and I was trying to find out why when you walked in and started hammering her with your nosy questions.”

Amethyst didn’t even glance back at Nina. She kept her eyes leveled on me. “Are you in some kind of trouble?” she asked me.

I started to say no, but stopped. Because that wasn’t the truth. I was gonna be in a pile of hot shit with my momma when she found out about this.

“Not exactly,” I replied carefully. “But I will be if Micah doesn’t let me leave soon.”

My momma could be calling my phone right now, and I wouldn’t know it.

“Let the girl eat her bread while it’s hot,” Nina urged.

I glanced down at the buttered bread in front of me. If I ate that, it would go straight to my hips, but if I was going to die soon and possibly end up in hell, then it might be worth it.

“I’m just curious as to what Micah was thinking, bringing her here. He doesn’t typically do the hero thing. And if he was saving her, then why’d he drop her off with you and bolt, leaving her with this bunch of horny bastards?” She waved a hand around the room.”

Nina lifted a shoulder. “He knows I won’t let anyone touch her. Besides, Tex warned them.”

Amethyst didn’t seem as convinced. She leaned closer to the bread and inhaled deeply. “Dammit, I think smelling it made me gain a pound. Fuck, that must taste like heaven. Take a bite and let me watch you eat it.”

Was she serious right now? I stared at her as she watched me with envy and hope in her eyes.

“Get your bottle of water and a stick of celery out of the fridge and go. You’re freaking the girl out,” Nina scolded her.

Amethyst sighed and gave my bread one last longing look before walking past me and into the kitchen. “Fine. But I want the details on why Micah brought her here. Nothing interesting has gone on here in months. It’s getting boring.”

Nina rolled her eyes heavenward, then leaned a narrow hip against the counter and picked up a mug to take a sip. “How long have you and Pepper been friends?” she asked me.

The memory of the day I had met Pepper brought a smile to my lips. She’d been a force to be reckoned with in the second grade, and I’d been the new girl in class, afraid of my own shadow.

“Since the first day of second grade,” I replied. “Daddy got a job at a factory right outside of Miami because Momma wanted him home more. He’d been gone all the time before, working as a trucker.”

“Where did you live originally?” she asked me.

“Biloxi, Mississippi. It’s where my momma was born, and she threatens to move back all the time. But I ain’t going, and she knows that. So, she stays in Stuart to be close to me. Having an only child made her a touch overprotective.” I didn’t add any more of my details about that. The truth was much darker.

“I’d think you would have dropped that thick accent of yours by now,” Amethyst said. “I would have never guessed you’d lived around here since you were in second grade. You sound like you’re fresh out of Mississippi.”

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