Page 87 of Outlaws of Tulsa

As I wind my way through the house, I eventually hear the murmur of voices behind a closed door. I’m just turning the corner to find Stormy hovering near the door.

“They started the meeting without us,” I joke as I approach.

She nearly jumps out of her skin. “You scared the shit out of me, brat,” she hisses and smiles broadly at me.

I fall into her embrace the moment she opens her arms. After the year I’ve had, it feels really good to just be held by a friend. Stormy is a good person and I like her.

“How are you feeling?” she asks, stroking her fingers through my hair, but not pulling away.

“Better.”

“Good. Did Koyn hurt you?”

I squeeze my ass cheeks. Yes, I’m sore as hell after the way he took me earlier, but he didn’t hurt me. “We had sex. It was typical Koyn sex.”

She pulls away to frown. “Consensual?”

“Yes, Detective Nosy.”

Her eyes roll so hard I think they’re going to fall out of her head. “I just worry about you, kid.”

At least someone does.

“Why do you stay?” I ask, my brows knitting together. “With Filter, I mean. Is it that serious?”

Her gaze darkens. “I do what I have to do.”

“Because you want to be his old lady?”

“Maybe,” she says, a far cry from what she told me before. Before, she said she loved him and was trying to get him to commit. I wonder what’s changed.

“Do you still want to be his old lady?”

“No.” She pauses, seemingly flustered over her admitting it to me. “I mean, I want to be someone’s old lady one day. I just don’t know if Filter and I will last.”

“How come?”

She shrugs. “He doesn’t want to commit. He keeps me at arm’s length. Always has.”

“So why not break up with him and date someone else?”

“Like Koyn?” she taunts, her lips curling up on one side.

“I was thinking his brother.” I smirk at her.

My words throw her for a loop because she presses her lips together and her nostrils flare. “No. Why would you think I would want Copper?”

“Because he’s hot…” I say slowly. “And he’s Koyn’s brother. Next best thing, I guess.”

“Oh.” She lets out a sharp breath and laughs. “Oh. Hmmm. Guess I never thought about him in that way.”

“Better scratch him off the list then,” I tease. “What about Bizzy?”

Her lip curls up. “He’s a manchild. No.”

“Dragon?”

“I’d like to live to see thirty-two.”

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