Page 49 of Shark 2

“You know the rules,” Silver said. “No food in here.”

“I know, I just needed the smell to entice her to go outside to eat it,” Reed explained.

Silver snorted. “Smart man.”

Grant draped an arm around my shoulders and kissed the side of my head as we left the bar.

Following Reed, eyes focused on the bag of food he was swinging as he walked, we headed out of the bar and down the street to the park, so I could sit at a table to eat.

I sat and quickly opened the takeout container, drooling at the scent, and quickly opened the plastic wrapper around the spork.

Reed sat across from me and Grant sat beside me, both frowning and looking worried.

“How are you doing?” Reed asked, watching as I shoveled a huge bite of chicken and noodles into my mouth.

I shrugged. “I’m annoyed, but Gina offered me a job, pending a one week trial period.”

His eyes widened. “Wow, that was fast.”

Chuckling, I nodded. “I was pretty surprised by the offer. Honestly, I’m just glad I won’t be losing much income.”

“I’m more worried about your mental status than money,” Grant said.

Sighing, I set my fork down and looked at them fully. “I’m pretty bummed, I liked my job, and I’m going to miss the kids. I’m also upset that the kids will be upset thinking I’m dead, but there’s not much I can do. I shouldn’t have been working there to begin with, they could get in a lot of trouble if they admitted that they’d hired a shifter to act as an aquarium exhibit. I had it pretty easy up until now, and I’m worried I won’t be able to handle a real job.”

“You underestimate yourself, babe. You’re going to do great, and it won’t be harder than when you help your parents at their restaurant,” Reed said and squeezed my hand.

“Speaking of your parents,” Grant said. “You still going to visit them tomorrow?”

I nodded. “Yep, which works pretty well since Gina’s is right by their place.”

Reed’s phone beeped and he opened it to read the message he’d received. “The twins are headed to the bar.”

“I better eat fast, then!” Picking the spork back up, I ate my food quickly, but not quick enough to make myself sick or give myself indigestion.

I didn’t finish it all, but Grant quickly tipped the container up and ate the rest of it with ease.

After throwing the trash away in the cans, we headed back to the bar to meet the twins.

We ran into them outside, arguing with a man who looked similar to the twins, though a bit older.

“Hey!” I greeted as I skipped up to them.

The man turned and glared at me.

“We’ll meet you inside in a minute,” Jong-min told me.

“Okay,” I said and turned to head inside, high-fiving Tonka, the half-troll half-orc bouncer who had become a friend after I’d saved the city from Bastian.

“Is this whore the reason you’ve been ignoring our letters?” the man asked loudly.

24

I paused, foot up in mid-skip, and turned to look at the man.

Grant and Reed growled.

Jong-min growled and said, “Apologize right now! You can be angry at us, but you do not disrespect Kassidy.”

---