Page 27 of Bae

“What’s up, guys?” I asked, holding out my fist for a round of bumps.

Rim patted me on the shoulder, and I crouched down so she could jump off my back.

Drew reached out and mussed the hat covering her head. “There’s my style sister,” he cracked. Rimmel laughed and adjusted the hat on her head.

Drew was wearing the same style hat, except his was black and a little tighter on his head.

Trent rolled his eyes and smiled.

“People are already talking, saying the Knights are out to keep their champ status,” Trent said.

I smiled. “Hells yeah.”

“So what’s going on?” Drew asked, wiping off a car part with the rag in his hand.

“Bonfire tonight,” Rimmel said.

“Sweet. We should be back by then.”

Trent tossed him a look over his shoulder. There wasn’t much to it, but it had the muscles between my shoulder blades bunching. I couldn’t help but feel like the off-hand comment was something Trent didn’t want us to hear.

“Where you going?” Rim asked.

“Need some car parts,” Drew replied easily. “Want me to get some marshmallows while we’re out?”

“Like you even have to ask.” Rimmel laughed. “Better get double because Braeden will eat half of them.”

Darcy and R came bouncing over, and Rimmel laughed, dropping down to pet them both.

“What’s going on?” I asked Trent, keeping my voice low.

He glanced over at Rim, then quickly back. “Nothing major.”

He knew better than to say that shit to me. He made a sound, then walked a few paces farther from Rimmel, the dogs, and Drew. “The press is hanging around again. I chased them off the property at the shelter last night.”

“You said they weren’t there,” I ground out low.

“They weren’t, ‘cause I showed them the door.”

“Dirty bastards,” I growled. “She didn’t say anything to me.”

“She didn’t see them, so there was nothing to say. Her car is still at the shelter. I’ll pick it up for you when we go out later.”

Ah, that explained her missing car. I hadn’t even asked her about it because it didn’t really matter. All I cared about was she was home and safe.

“To get car parts,” I said dubiously, not believing for one second they were actually going out for parts. Shit, their garage was practically an Auto Zone.

Trent’s eyes held all the answer I needed.

“Where you going?” I asked, folding my arms over my chest.

“What are you two whispering about over there?” Rimmel called out, then started our way.

Trent’s eyes cleared. “Later,” he said, then shifted to smile at her. “We, uh, aren’t really going out for car parts,” he said, like he’d been caught.

I shifted back onto my heels, waiting to hear what he would say.

Rimmel’s nose wrinkled. “Then where are you going?”

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