Page 75 of Runaway Bride and Prejudice

“Cool. We’ll just go,” I say. “I can catch you up later. Maybe.”

Grey jumps in. “I’ll cover it.”

I finally take pity on Amelia, who has a million questions flashing across her face. “We have a point system,” I explain.

“Paid in cheese,” Lex says.

“Cheese?” Amelia repeats.

“Cheese,” I confirm.

“And right now, Robbie’s smoking us,” Grey says.

Lex grumbles. “Because he always has the best secrets.”

“So, you trade points for secrets?” Amelia asks. “What’s the currency for points? How do you keep track? Is there a spreadsheet?”

“Ooh, she sounds smart,” Grey says. “You sound smart, woman whose name we don’t yet know.”

“And you sound surprised,” I say dryly.

“I guess we didn’t think you normally chose women based on their … brains,” Lex says.

I clear my throat and squeeze Amelia’s knee. She suddenly looks uncomfortable though she’s trying to keep her face even. “The price just went up,” I say. “Now it’s fifty.”

“Ugh, Lex! Shut up,” Grey says. In a more cheerful voice, she goes on. “To answer your question, smart mystery woman, the points are traded for secrets or favors or just about anything. Blackmail included. And they are cashed in for cheese.”

“Cheese?” Amelia laughs. “I don’t understand. How? Why?”

“We’re a big cheese family,” Grey says. “Each point is an ounce. The one cashing in gets to choose the kind of cheese. And Robbie here has expensive taste.”

“Thank you. That’s nicer than what you said a moment ago.”

“I said what I said.” Lex clears her throat. “Name?”

“Wait,” Grey chimes in. “We’re not trading fifty pointsjustfor a name. We need more intel. Where you are and how long this has been going on and how serious it is.”

“I’ll tell you who and where for fifty.”

“Forty,” Alexandra counters.

“Seventy.”

“Shutup, Lex,” Grey says. “Who and where for fifty. Now, spill it.”

“I’m with Amelia,” I say. “Say hi to my younger two sisters, Mills.”

“Hi,” Amelia says. “Good to sort of meet you both. You call him Robbie?”

“He says he hates it, but he loves us best.” I can see the wheels turning in Amelia’s head as she remembers the night we met and how I introduced myself. It’s like I knew even from the first few minutes that she would be someone special to me.

I both want and don’t want Amelia to know that. It feels freakishly vulnerable, like I’m out on the ice with no pads, no helmet, no stick. Ready and waiting for everyone to take a shot at me.

“What he hates is when we call him by his other nickname,” Lex says.

I drop my head. “Don’t you do it.”

They do it.

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