Page 19 of Coerced

“Don’t whine about it now.” John shoved his shoulder.

“I’m not.” Jax shoved him back. “I’m reminding him what he agreed to.”

“Fine.” I shrugged. “I can get Gigi to whale on you easy enough just by telling her you punched me for no reason.”

“What? Wait. That’s not how it happened!”

“Quit trying to weasel out of it.” John caught him in a headlock and gave him a noogie.

Matt shook his head at us, but he grinned from ear to ear.

“I know a lot of people who’d want to get in on learning a few hand-to-hand moves,” he said. “We should make our own club. We could get together once a week or something.”

“Yeah, and Kerry can be the teacher.” John released Jax. “We can use this space.”

“Uh, I don’t think so.” I shook my head.

“Not like anyone uses the high school dojo on the weekends.” Matt shrugged.

“Come on.” I held up my hand and took a step back. “Stop it.”

“We’ll be charter members,” John said.

“I’m in!” Jax high-fived them both.

“Wait a minute.” This was getting out of hand. “I don’twant—”

“Too bad. It’s done.” Jax grinned at me. Apparently I was forgiven. “Let’s hit the showers.”

Then they were gone, laughing and shoving each other as they headed toward the locker room.

What just happened?

Shaking my head, I followed them.

#

Matt went his way when we left the gym, and I asked Jax if he knew where our ladies were.

“Hanging out, I guess.” He shrugged.

“Doing what?”

“I don’t know. Gigi wasn’t specific.”

“Gemma wasn’t, either. Makes me wonder.” My eyes narrowed. “John, where’s Tara today?”

“Hanging out with Chessie. And, no, she didn’t tell me her plans.”

“I’ll text Gigi and ask,” Jax offered and pulled out his phone. “It’s a bit suspicious that none of them told us what they were going to do today.”

“Look them up on that friend tracker app first,” I told him.

“Spying. Nice.” His grin fell fast enough, though, when he looked at his phone. “Oh, no. Tell me they’re not.”

“What? Where are they?” I demanded.

“At the quad.” He turned his phone screen toward me. “They all are. Gigi, Gemma, Tara, and Chessie.”

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