Page 37 of Bully

“Hmm.” Mya held up her glass to cheers me. “If you have the energy to hate someone, it’s because they meant something to you to begin with.”

Looking away over the heads of everyone in the restaurant, I noticed a familiar face in the crowd of people outside and got the urge to make myself suffer even more. “It doesn’t, actually.” I tossed back the rest of my drink and then stood up, laying down money for the drinks and my food on the table. “He’s a total stranger to me. It’s purely just a case of two auras that can’t stand each other or coexist in the same space without fighting for control. I’ll see you girls later.”

“Go ahead,” Val called out as I walked away, “Leave when things get difficult, that’s your specialty. Good thing we love you anyway!”

Clearing the front door of the restaurant, two matching pairs of green eyes found me and I gave a gentle wave. “Hi.”

Peyton and Olivia both smiled brightly at me as they waited for me to catch up to them up the street.

“We were just talking about you.” Peyton said.

“Oh?” I asked cautiously.

“We were talking about how Tamen is more grumpy than usual.” Olivia shrugged, “Figured maybe you had something to do with that.”

“Oh.” I deflated as my cheeks bloomed red. “Sorry.”

Peyton rolled her eyes and weaved her arm through mine, walking down the sidewalk and taking me with her as Olivia walked on my other side. “We didn’t say it was a bad thing. We actually approve of you torturing him. More than approve, we want to help.”

“More torture. Definitely more torture.” Olivia grinned, and I felt like a sacrificial lamb walking between two guards on the way to the altar. “Did you know Tamen’s afraid of spiders?”

“And heights.” Peyton added as I fought the urge to chuckle at their tactics. “Ooh,” Peyton cheered excitedly, looking around me at her sister. “And Dolly.”

“Dolly?” I stammered, so lost, but had a feeling they were going to tell me so much more about Tamen if I stayed with them.

“The Feral Post Office Lady.” Olivia clarified, but I was still so lost. “I’m sure he wouldn’t tell us if she did, but I think she held him hostage one time. Nobody heard from him for days after that night.”

“I’m so confused.” I giggled, shaking my head.

“That’s okay.” Peyton patted my arm and winked. “Do you have any plans today?”

“None.”

“Good. Then you can join us on our monthly girl day, and we can corrupt you.”

“Hmm,” I shrugged, “Usually it’s me doing the corrupting. I don’t usually meet women who are darker than me.”

Peyton tipped her head back and laughed boldly. “Oh girl. You’re wrapped up with a Line Walker now, you’ve got a lot to learn about darkness.”

I held my sides, trying desperately to not let sparkling water shoot out of my nose as Olivia tipped her head back and cackled loudly at Peyton’s impersonation of her husband Dane running through a dark corn field years ago. I still couldn’t wrap my head around a little old lady causing such mischief in a small town, but from the sounds of it, she had a thing for the hunky men.

The Line Walkers, as Olivia, kept referring to them.

Dane, Maddox, and Tamen.

Of course, there were no specifics given to me, but the way the two sisters looked at each other and kind of shrugged, sidestepping around certain topics, I was sure it was illegal.

Dark, even.

Which would fit with the brokenness I had seen in Tamen that night in the parking lot when he pinned me to the wall. The same night I held the shiny, incredibly sharp knife I found in his belt to his chest and took back control of the situation.

Before he stole that control back from me at the private event.

My phone pinged from the table, and I glanced down at it, skimming the message on the screen.

You get on my last nerve. + $5,000.00

“Another one?” Olivia gasped, leaning over the screen to read it. “Damn, what’s the grand total up to?”

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