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“Again, all things no one needs to know.” I swallowed the uncomfortable lump that the truth about Raymond brought me. We had dated before Dale, and before I moved back here. I let him in, and I got burned. Then I jumped into a relationship with Dale because I was hurting and missed the warning signs that he wasn’t ready for anything serious. Truth was, I’d had a few bad relationships since Dale. I mean, what did I have to go by? I knew my parents were far from the norm. Mom left every chance she got for parts of the world few people could even pronounce, and Dad, well, he was who he was, and it was far from the storybook father.
“I just don’t want to get hurt again,” I admitted and let her in a little. “The best way for that to happen is sex with no strings. Anyway, that’s the best kind of sex, right?”
“Sex with love can be lonely too.” She sighed.
“I know, hon. Brick’s not around enough these days, is he?”
She just lifted her shoulder and looked away. “And when he is, he’s distant.”
“I’m sorry.” I decided to keep things light. “How can we be lonely when we’re surrounded by the best friends in the world?”
“You want me to put a hit out on Raymond?” She grinned at me.
“Not yet.” I winked and tucked my own hurt feelings back inside. Minnie was the perfect example of why I kept myself so guarded. She loved Brick with everything she had, and her heart still hurt.
I stood and pressed on the top of my to-go cup, careful not to slosh my coffee. My phone bounced around on the table, and I snatched it up.
“Oh, shit, Min, I have to take this.”
“Everything okay?
“Yeah, I just need to take it.” I threaded my purse over my arm, waved, and threw a kiss at her as I raced out of the café.
“Hanna?”
“Kenna!”
“I’m so sorry we’ve been playing phone tag, but I have a few moments?—”
“Kenna,” she cut me off. She sounded out of breath. “I need to ask you something.” I heard a car horn. “Do you remember Sa…”
“Wait, you cut out, Hanna.” I moved through a restaurant with a wave at the waitress to let her know I needed a moment. Still no response, so I moved through the door out onto the patio.
“…Sasha Landry,” she yelled into the phone. “Do you remember him?”
“Of course,” I yelled then lowered my voice. Why would she bring him up? “You know we dated. Why?”
“Is he still around?”
“I saw him just a bit ago.”
“Kenna,” her voice sounded a warning as she loudly whispered, and a cold chill replaced the Vegas heat, “you need to stay away from him, from all of—” Her phone cut out again, and I couldn’t make out her words.
“What? What do you mean?” I repeated myself until I could hear her. I might not be a fan of Sasha, of any of them, really. They were creeps at best, but they certainly didn’t scare me enough to be concerned.
“Listen,” she used that haunted tone again, “I saw something the other night. You need to listen to me, Kenna. I think you might be in real trouble.”
“Hanna, I need more to go on than that. What did you see?”
“You just—” I heard her suddenly suck in a breath. “I need to call you back. I just sent you something. Watch for it, okay?”
“No, Hanna, you can’t just leave me like that. Wait!” The call disconnected, and I stared at the screen and hoped it would magically reconnect again. What the hell was that? Hanna was never one for dramatics, and she’d never been cryptic before. She’d always been wonderfully blunt and real. Suddenly, my mind went to the conversation with the Stripe Backs. Could Hanna possibly be the friend they referred to?
“Hey,” Leo was behind me, “everything okay?”
“I honestly don’t know.” I tried to gather myself as he studied me. I forced myself to shake off the strange call. I needed to think that through. “It was just a girlfriend. Everything’s fine. I’m sure she’ll explain later. What can I do for you, Leo?”
“There’s a new client in town, and Grim really wants to tap him for Secrets. I told him I’d help, but I’ve got stuff going on myself where I really need to be. I can’t interrupt him right now to talk to him about it, but he’ll kill me if I mess this up. Any chance you could help?”
