Page 51 of Bloom: Part 1

“You know why he’s coming, don’t you?”

Crowe chuckled, but it sounded weary. “Yeah.”

“He thought he was being slick, but he was definitely smashing Chris when he was here last Christmas.”

“Jesus Christ, Bloom.”

“What did I say? Isn’t that the right term?”

“You know how you always say the first thing that comes to mind?”

“What of it?”

“Practice saying the second, no, make that the third thing, just to be on the safe side. I shouldn’t have let you hang around with these bikers when you were so young. For years, you couldn’t speak, but you were soaking up every foul thing coming out of their mouths.”

“Their? Don’t you mean ‘our’?”

“Yeah, yeah. Get out of my face. I see the reverend is here.”

I didn’t follow Crowe as he walked across the room to a tall, distinguished-looking man dressed in black with a white clerical collar and a cross pendant around his neck. Why the hell was he here? He was associated with the Grimm Reapers, not us.

My phone came on in an explosion of text messages and missed calls. Logan had sent me a text message. “Why did you leave?” He’d also called me twice on the day I’d run out on him.

The rest of the missed calls were from Jamie earlier today, a slew of text messages, one right after the other.

What the hell, Bloom? I helped you with Dr. Collier because I thought you were serious about him.

Will you at least tell me why you haven’t been around?

I know something’s going on at the club, but Grimm says everyone’s been hush-hush about it.

If you want to be with Dr. Collier, you need to call me now or lose him forever.

I swear, Bloom, if you don’t call me, I’m done. I’m no longer helping you.

In case you’re interested, Dr. Collier has a date tonight. A DATE!!!!

What? I’d been reading the messages in order, and as soon as I saw the last, I punched in Jamie’s number. Crowe was frowning at me. Dammit. I forced a smile to my lips and walked out of the mess hall.

“Bloom, where the hell have you been?” Jamie asked.

“Is it true? Is he really going on a date with someone else?”

“Yeah, I was there when the dude asked him, and he said yes.”

I gritted my teeth to bite back the anger that wanted to roar out of me. How could he go out with someone else after the last time we’d been together? Did he not take me seriously about cutting his balls off?

“Who’s this guy?”

“What are you going to do?”

“What the hell do you mean? I’m going to eliminate the problem.”

“Listen to me, Bloom. You can’t hurt him because you don’t want him to be with Dr. Collier. That is not how you solve the issue.”

“Ain’t it? Because if he ain’t breathing, he can’t fuck with my man.”

“Your man! You’ve been missing for a week. Did you two have some sort of agreement before you disappeared on him because it doesn’t sound like it? You need to work this shit out with Dr. Collier and come to an understanding of what you mean to each other. That man has nothing to do with it.”

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