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So,we didn’t go out with themthatnight.
Instead, the “double date” Isaiah proposed happened several nights later—a completely informal event that found us in a mostly empty bar, well past closing.
They knew the owner or something.
I’d known Tamra and Wilder before Isaiah came back into my life—not from the Garden, but from their work with Alicia. They were both officially on the payroll of the security firm she’d built, as some kind of counterbalance to what she used to be.
It seemed to be working for her.
It seemed to work for all of them, really.
Wilder had been one of the first Thorns to show up—one of the first to convert. His crush on Alicia had been so obvious, to where I thought he and Cree might end up throwing blows. Not that Alicia ever encouraged it—I wasn’t even sure shenoticed.But maybe Cree talked to him or something, because Wilder fell back, and then… Tamra came into the picture, and Wilder had to chase her.
And now… they were a couple.
She didn’t—wouldn’t—say so, because she was on her free-spirit thing, and he wouldn’t say it because she didn’t want to, but… they were. I didn’t know either of themwellthough, had never engaged more than a few words of conversation. So although I understood that she was coupled with Wilder, that fact told me nothing about whether shewantedIsaiah.
She answered that question with her mannerisms.
At one point during the night, Isaiah had pulled me aside, asking why I was so quiet. My response focused on being fatigued, which I was, after working out with Alicia that morning and then spending all day at the computer. So it wasn’t a lie.
It just wasn’t the whole reason.
I was quiet because I was observing—years of neglect had made me rusty, but reading people had always been a decent skill of mine. I was certainly not at the same level I’d been when predicting the client was the highest thing on my priority list, but I waswatchingTamra.
The way she interacted with Isaiah—the way she spoke to him, laughed at his jokes, touched him, looked at him, all of it. And I compared it all to how she was with Wilder.
By the time we made it to that empty bar, I’d arrived at a conclusion I was incredibly sure of.
I was… maybe… kinda… tripping.
Tamra didn’t shy away from interacting with Isaiah in front of me—which would have been suspicious, really. She punched his shoulder when he teased her, slapped his leg when he made her laugh, gave him her full attention when he was speaking, all that. With Wilder, though… all her toucheslingered. She leaned into him, undressed him with her eyes, bit her lip sometimes when he was talking—all subtle. It was pronounced to me because I waslookingfor it, but it wasn’t like she was putting on a show.
She was justattractedto Wilder, and was very clearly going to screw his brains out once they were alone again after this date was over.
And seeing that for myself made the idea of anything different just seem… silly.
“I’m glad Zay talked you into coming out with us – I was starting to think you didn’t like me or something,” Tamra teased. She and I were alone at the bar, watching Wilder and Isaiah shit-talk each other at a nearby pool table.
I grabbed my half-melted sprite, and took a long drink, trying to wet my throat. “It… it wasn’tthat,exactly. More like I didn’t want to get in the way.”
She wasn’t talking about the more recent thing of me wondering if she was more than just friends with Isaiah – this wasn’t the first time I’d been invited out with a group of former Roses and Thorns. I’d always felt disconnected from their group – the killers – and I didn’t want my awkwardness or uncertainty keeping Isaiah from making the connections he needed.
But… maybe if I’d come out sooner, I wouldn’t have ever wondered about anything between her and Zay.
“You?” Tamra sucked here teeth. “How couldyoube in the way, when you’re the one who even brought him into the fold in the first place?”
I raised an eyebrow. “Huh?”
“I ran into Isaiah in thisverybar months and months ago. Right when I’d first found out about what Alicia was trying to do here. I… had agreed to join her. And I asked Isaiah to join too, so he wouldn’t be out in the cold. He turned me down. But thenyousuggest it, and… here he is. So if anything, I should be thanking you.”
I almost choked on a piece of ice. “Thankingme? For what?”
“For bringing my friend back,” she said, like it should’ve been obvious. “Zay and I practically… grew up together, I guess. He’s like a brother to me. And I was worried about his ass. Like… alot. But you managed to convince him to be a part of the group, instead of doing God-knows-what out on his own. Not to mention…girl.Therapy?! Good luck to getting a normal man to go, but aThorn? We’ve gotta get you on the hostage negotiation team or something, you can talk a person into anything.”
Laughing, I shook my head. “I… I don’t think I talked him into anything that wasn’t already there, you know? Like the desire was already present, he just needed the right little push. For instance… you talking him into doing the DNA test thing. He didn’t even really talk to me about that, until it was done. Hell – until he had the results.”
Tamra sighed. “I told him that was a bad idea.”
