Page 58 of Always Salty

Out of them all, Copper was the most dangerous.

I knew that before I’d even walked into the room.

I’d spied him at the table from the back of the hallway, and even though he hadn’t acted like he’d seen me, I knew he’d clocked me from the moment he had line of sight.

That was prison life for you, though. You always had to watch your back.

“You need to do something about security.” I diverted away from the dating thing. “She won’t be coming back until you can make it safe for her to be in the building.”

Copper’s brows rose. “What makes you think she wasn’t safe?”

“The fact that I just walked past multiple people and wasn’t asked who I was?” I shrugged.

“I’m working on it.” He sighed. “This is a huge shit pile, and it’s taking a lot of time to sort through everything.”

“Security first, then other matters later,” I offered. “You were locked up a long time, so I know you know the importance of surprise attacks.”

Something shuttered in Copper’s eyes.

Keely put her crap onto the seat next to the one I assumed she was taking and said, “Copper, I know that you love me, but I just want to tell you that I hate scrambled eggs now.”

Copper’s eyes narrowed and focused on her.

“Since when?” he asked carefully. “They used to be your favorite.”

“Since I was fifteen and decided that they smelled like wet dog.” She shrugged. “I really like over-hard eggs, but I also like anything that’s not scrambled as long as it has salt and pepper.”

“You can have mine,” he offered.

She waved her hand in the air. “I had McDonald’s about two and a half hours ago, so I’m good.”

“Okay.” He looked a little bit hurt that she wasn’t going to eat the food he ordered.

“Dima’s going to eat it, though,” she blurted.

My brows rose and I glanced over at Keely to see her staring at me pleadingly.

She’d seen the look on Copper’s face, too.

I eyed the food.

I didn’t usually eat poorly for any meal of the day.

My body was a temple, and all that jazz.

In reality, I just didn’t like sweets all that much.

I also didn’t like anything that was greasy.

And by the looks of the bags on the tabletop, everything there was greasy.

But if she wanted me to eat her food, I’d eat it.

“Yep, starving,” I lied.

“How did you two meet?” Chevy asked curiously.

“That’ll have to wait for later,” Copper said. “We can catch up after. There’s a reason I asked you to be here today.”

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