Page 36 of Warrant
“I’m Ramona, but everyone calls me Mona,” the last woman said with a friendly wave.
“She’s the local reporter,” Rae said, speaking up for the first time.
“If you can call it that,” Ramona said with a laugh. “It’s mostly covering the local kids’ sports and weather. Not a lot happens here in Sentinel.”
“Seems like enough since I’ve gotten here,” I commented.
“True,” Harlow said, though no one elaborated on the loss of the Rices’ son. The town was still trying to move on from that. It was going to take some time from what I could tell.
“So?” Kaisa asked me.
My brows shot up. “So what?”
“Is it orgasms or pregnancy responsible for your glow?”
“Wouldn’t one kind of lead to the other?” Maya asked.
I choked on nothing because my mouth had just gone completely dry. Warrant had worn a condom during our little… I didn’t even know what to call it. It’d been the best sex of my life. None of my previous partners could even compare.
Focus, Ains.
I tracked my cycle like a mad woman, so I knew there was no pregnancy to speak of, but to be safe I should get a damn test. Or five.
“You’ll get used to them,” Rae said, leaning over to pat my hand that was clutching the table for dear life.
“What?” Mona asked, with a twinkle in her eye. “We’ve just all heard the rumors that the new sheriff was spending an awful lot of time with a certain handsome biker.”
“That smile of his,” Harlow said, rolling her eyes and fanning herself.
I gaped at her. I’d seen her around Warrant a couple of times—mostly when he refused to leave my office and she’d stopped by—and she always seemed indifferent to him. “You think he’s hot?” I asked her in surprise.
“Whew,” she said, then winked at me. “Not that I’d fight you for him.” She eyed my arms. “I’d lose that in a heartbeat.”
Laughing, I shook my head. “Let me guess,” I said, looking over at Melody.
She gave me a sheepish grin. “All those men are drop dead gorgeous,” she admitted. “You can’t tell them that,” shecontinued with a roll of her eyes. “Their egos are all the size of Alaska.”
“Bigger,” Mona said with a snort as she picked up a Bloody Mary and took a sip.
The waiter came by and took our order and I settled back, realizing I was actually enjoying myself. When Harlow had first mentioned meeting for brunch, I’d cringed. It was the last thing I wanted to do. But this was exactly what I needed. Women I could connect with and hopefully we’d all end up being friends.
“What is it about bad boys, though?” Kaisa asked. “Put a cut on a man and suddenly he’s ten times hotter than he was before.”
“It’s the fact that they don’t care about rules,” Rae said. Her voice was soft, so everyone at the table stopped talking and focused on her. “You know they’ll destroy anything in their way to get to you if you’re in danger.” She gave us all a sheepish smile. “The good ones anyway.”
“There’regoodbad boys?” I asked, cocking my head. “In my line of work the bad boys end up in jail and aren’t worth much.”
“That’s because those aren’t the good ones,” she said with a shake of her head. Her hair was as dark black as mine, though it had a bit of a wave to it. “There’s a difference.”
“Hmmmm,” I replied.
“Warrant is agoodbad boy,” she continued. “He’d protect you from anything.”
“Wouldn’t beat you,” Harlow added. “No way Cypher would ever let a woman beater into his organization… Either of them. He has morals.”
“That’s it,” Kaisa said, snapping her fingers. “They have their own moral code. It’s different from most of society, but it’s there.”
“They protect the innocent,” Mona added. “Those guys have done so much for this town, and others.”
