Page 98 of GAF Factor

“That’s not what you’re supposed to repeat,” I said, trying to keep a straight face.

“Dammit, that’s not how this works!”

“Dammit, that’s not how this works!”

“You suck!”

“You suck!”

“If you don’t stop that, I’m gonna kill you!”

“If you don’t stop that, I’m gonna kill you!”

“Stop repeating everything I say!”

“Stop repeating everything I say!”

Her nostrils flared in anger. “We are not five years old.”

“We are not five years old,” I repeated. Man, this was getting really hard to do without laughing.

She narrowed her eyes at me. “I suck monkey dick.”

“I suck—” I snapped my lips shut and glared at her. “Not cool.”

“Neither is repeating everything I say like a little kid.”

“You told me to. You said, Isla, repeat after me.”

“Yes, but you were supposed to repeat the encouraging words I said. Not all the bullshit after that.”

I grinned at her. “I know, but that was so much more fun and helped me relax.” I spotted Mitch and put on my game face.“Heads up. Here he comes.” I glanced at IKE, nodding to him once.

I put a huge smile on my face as he returned, but nerves were eating me up inside. I still didn’t know how to go about this. I couldn’t let on that Shawn was on the run. I had no idea how he would react to that. I had to feel him out first.

“Hey, I got us a booth,” he said, pointing to the back of the club. On the upper level, there was a sectioned-off area that looked like it was only for paying customers. I took Jane’s hand so we didn’t get separated and followed him through the crowd to the stairs. As we passed IKE, I motioned with my eyes to the upper rooms.

I was slightly nervous about going up there without IKE, but at least I had Jane with me. We climbed in our heels, tottering precariously on the floating staircase. This was all new since the last time I’d been in here, which wasn’t a surprise. Businesses had to update or risk losing customers.

We walked through glass doors and instantly, the noise level was cut in half. I could actually hear myself think again and the constant beat pulsing through my body had dulled to a manageable degree.

“This is amazing,” I said, looking around at the space. Leather booths, a bar just for up here, and a waitress…this really was an improvement. “This wasn’t here last time, was it?”

“No. It was actually my idea,” Mitch grinned. “I’m part owner of the club now.”

“Seriously? That’s amazing.” I took the seat he motioned to, not faking my excitement for him at all. When I knew him, he was just a bartender. I genuinely thought it was cool that he had gotten this far.

“Well, it took a lot of hard work, but I finally made it. So, where’s Shawn tonight?”

“Oh, it’s a girl’s night,” Jane cut in, lying her ass off. “I dragged her away from him for the night to spend time with me.”

“And you came here,” he said, his voice alluding to just a bit of incredulity.

“Nostalgia,” I said without thinking. “I was telling Jane that I came here with Shawn on one of our first dates. We thought it would be fun to go back to some of our old stomping grounds and see what they were like now.”

“And?”

“And I’m very impressed,” I smiled at him. “You’ve really done a lot with the place.” I had to move this along before he got bored and moved on. “You know, I was thinking about how Shawn knew you before I did. What did the two of you get up to before I met Shawn?”

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