“Did she know you were coming here after?”
“Yes.”
With my back to him, I felt Jury’s body heat a second before his arm reached around me. His large, tattooed hand grabbed three of the cookies at once before he stepped away. “Then these are for me.”
A sneer curled my lips as I glanced over my shoulder at him. If I wasn’t so shocked and disgusted, I would’ve noticed how defined his muscles were. Or how many tattoos covered his skin. Or how many scars were puckered between the bursts of ink.
Okay, fine, I did notice. But I was hung up on the more important point. “You like raisin cookies?”
“Only kind I like. Don’t have much of a sweet tooth.”
My sneer deepened as I made a mental asterisk by his name.
I’m not saying he’s guilty of anything, but I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t like sweets.
And only a true psychopath exclusively likes raisin cookies.
The advantage, of course, was that I didn’t have to worry he’d eat what I wanted. I decided to separate it out anyway, just to be safe.
I lifted onto my toes to reach over the bar to grab a couple of cocktail napkins.
“Usually,” he tacked on, reaffirming my decision.
I grabbed the jammy cookie and the cupcake Piper had made me vow to eat. Since the strawberry cake was filled with marshmallow cream and topped with cream cheese frosting and a sprinkle of the strawberry crumble things from the ice cream bars I used to eat as a kid, it was a vow I was planning to take seriously.
I set those two aside on the napkins before gesturing to the rest. “Help yourselves.”
At my phrasing, it was his turn to glance over his shoulder to see that an unknown biker was closing in quick. The patch on his leather vest labeled him a prospect like Texas. Haze was right behind him.
I pointed out my private reserve. “These are off-limits.”
“Seems to be a theme,” Haze muttered, making Jury smile.
Kind of.
His eyes crinkled at the sides, so it was definitely smile adjacent.
Since I was betting everyone got territorial over the goods—even the raisin ones, apparently since Jury smacked Haze’s hand when he went for one—I left them to fight amongst themselves and went behind the bar for my needed hydration. “Anyone want a water?”
“See? You’ve got it down already,” Haze said. “And I’ll take a whiskey if you’re offering.”
Actually, there are far worse ways to spend the time…
Since I didn’t think my new fake boss would appreciate me getting his paid crew drunk, I just arched a brow.
And then bit back a hiss when the movement irritated the scrape on my forehead.
No one took me up on my offer to be an H2O exclusive bartender, though, so I returned to a stool on the other side. Jury strolled closer as he knocked off the second of his three cookies in just as many bites. It gave me the chance to study the tattoo on his chest. One that was clearly a cover-up, begging the questionof what it was before it was turned into a devil. When he was done chewing, he opened his mouth.
“Lo.”
My name didn’t come from him. I leaned to the side to see around shirtless Jury and spotted Rhys at the other end of the room. He lifted his hand and crooked a finger at me.
I would like to say that I only went because I thought he might have something important to tell me.
I wouldliketo say that, but I couldn’t.
My feet had decided to obey his summoning before my brain caught up, and the thought didn’t hit me until I was nearly to him. “What’s up?”
