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“He’s not that extreme,” I laughed. “You know, though. It could work in James’ favour if you do say something, since we need to get him to come around to our way of thinking at the party. If the boys know that he’s helped you out, it might help his case with them.”
“Hmm…you might be right. I’ll think about it,” she murmured. “Anyway, enough about all that. No more talk of anything depressing. Let’s get all this girly stuff done, then we can go and do knife throwing.”
“Knife throwing?” I raised a brow.
“That’s one of the options on offer.”
It felt a bit strange pulling up at a knife throwing range after a morning of relaxing with a massage, manicure, pedicure, and soak in the hot tub with champagne. But here we were. A huge, modern warehouse-style building with “Skirmish” printed in huge block letters on a sign above the doors. Underneath there was a smaller sign detailing everything the place offered—knife throwing, archery, axe throwing, paintballing, shooting, and various corporate team-building events. We parked next to Cassius’ SUV and headed into the cool building to meet the boys.
They were standing by the reception desk talking to a tall figure that I recognised instantly. His head turned when he saw us, and his golden eyes glimmered with recognition. This time he wasn’t dressed down in a hoodie but had on a shirt and tie that made him look even more powerful and imposing than the first time I’d seen him. “Winter. We meet again.” He strode over to greet me, before he turned to Kinslee.
I watched, bemused, as Kinslee’s gaze lowered as he looked her over.
“I’m Credence Pope, but my friends call me Creed. And who might you be?” he purred, taking her hand.
She stood there mutely, and I nudged her elbow. I hadn’t ever seen her tongue-tied around anyone before. Maybe it was the aura coming off him—he came across as smooth and charming, but underneath you could sense how lethal he was.
“This is Kinslee,” I answered for her, when the silence stretched. He smiled and lifted her hand, placing a kiss to the back of it, and I saw her flinch. What the fuck?
After one last look, he turned his attention to Lena, who had no such trouble with introductions, being her usual confident self.
Once the greetings were out of the way, he strode to the door, picking up a navy suit jacket from the hook on the wall and shrugging it on.
“Feel free to help yourselves to anything. Z knows where everything is. Happy Birthday, Winter.” Then he was gone, and I spun around to face Kinslee.
“What the fuck was that all about?” I hissed under my breath.
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “He really scared me.”
“He scared you, but Z doesn’t?” I queried.
“Yeah. I mean, I can tell they’re both cut from the same cloth, if that makes any sense, but…well, I know Z, I suppose…” She trailed off, shrugging, clearly at a loss for her own reaction.
“Okay.” I decided to let it go. “Come on. What are you in the mood for? I’d quite like to try the knife throwing.”
“Archery,” she said decisively. “I want to be the next Katniss Everdeen.”
“Of course you do.” We walked over to join the boys, and I was immedi
ately pulled into Caiden’s arms.
“I missed you,” he husked into my ear.
“It’s only been a few hours.”
“Still missed you.”
I smiled and reached up to kiss him, threading my hands through his messy hair, loving the feel of his body pressed against mine.
We drew apart, and I turned around in Caiden’s arms to face the others.
“Archery and knife throwing? Everyone agreed?” Cassius asked, and I nodded, seeing the excitement on Kinslee’s face as she bounced on her toes, raring to go.
“Sounds good to me. Archery first?” I suggested.
Kinslee beamed, and I smiled to myself.
Zayde led us through the building to a large, spacious room where archery targets were set up, waiting for us. After the run-through of what to do, which in my case mostly involved Caiden using any excuse to get his hands on my body and aiming my bow for me, I was surprisingly okay at it. I managed to hit the target, at least, so I’d call it a win. Kinslee and Lena had an impromptu competition, both of them way better at it than I was, and I took loads of photos on my phone of them in action, posting a couple to my social media accounts and tagging them.
