Page 97 of Gather the Storm

“If those three guys think of you like a little sister, they should be locked up. There’s nothing sisterly about the way they look at you.”

I had a flash of Wolf between my thighs, heard the things he’d said while he’d been making me come with his mouth the night before, and blushed.

“I, um, get along okay with Wolf and Otis,” I said. “But Jace hates my guts, so you’re definitely reading that one wrong.”

She flashed me a perfect smile. “I get a lot of things wrong, but men? Men I don’t get wrong. And those men — all three of them — want to eat you for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”

I was glad a shout went up from a group of guys standing by the coolers because I didnotknow what to say to that.

Honey stood, then looked down at me. “Come on, sugar. Time to go.”

I looked up at her. “Where are we going?”

Her smile was blinding. “It’s time to get wet.”

Chapter 50

Daisy

“Um… what?”

Honey laughed. “We’re going tubing! The guys didn’t tell you?”

I shook my head.

“Figures,” she said. “Come on, it’s a blast!”

I stood and took my plate to a trash can. “Is there a bathroom I can use first?”

“Sure thing.” She looked at the big white building where people were coming and going: carrying stuff inside, bringing other stuff outside. “Through the main doors and to your right.”

“Thanks,” I said.

I made my way through a crowd assembling by the coolers. A giant stack of inner tubes stood to the side, Mac handing them out against a backdrop of rowdy laughter. I might have missed it, but I hadn’t seen him talk to Jace once, and I wondered if things were cool between them or if Jace going to jail had been a problem.

I passed the older pink-haired woman named Pinky on my way in.

“You got everything you need?” she asked.

I smiled at her. “I’m good, thanks. Just going to the bathroom.”

“On your right,” she said.

“Thanks.”

I found the door, a rusted brass plaque readingWomenhanging over it, and pushed through. Otis had told me the property was a summer camp back in the day, which explained why everything looked kind of institutional.

Still, it was cool, the main building holding a cafeteria and movie room, among other things, and two other concrete buildings acting as dorms for the single guys who lived on the compound.

I used the bathroom and was washing my hands when the door flew open.

I turned to see Jace stomp into the room, bare chest on full display over jeans and boots.

The sight of his inked chest left me speechless for a second. Unlike Otis, he wasn’t prone to walking around with his shirt off, and I’d always wanted a closer look at the images etched onto his stupid perfect pecs.

Now I saw that the ink was a perfectly integrated collage: the Blades logo and a silvery river running through leafy trees and a motorcycle and initials I didn’t recognize.

It was beautiful, thorny vines entwining it all like an enchanted forest, snaking up to his neck, over his shoulders, down his arms.

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