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“No!” She looks at me. “He’s… he’s too stupid to do something like that. He wouldn’t blow anything up. He’s much more likely to blow his own hand off or something. He’s…,” She goes silent and starts worrying her lip.
When she starts shifting in my lap nervously, I know something is up. Something she doesn’t want to say. When she looks back up at me, she’s got tears in her eyes.
“What is it?”
“I…this is all my fault. I’m so sorry. I…” tears run down her cheeks, and she becomes more and more upset. “I can’t do anything right.”
I take her by the chin and hold her face so that she has no choice but to look me in the eye. “Calm down, love. I’m not above helping you relax like I did before. Right here in front of the entire club.”
Her eyes widen at my threat, which really isn’t a threat because I will do whatever is best for Lori. I won’t let her make herself sick because she gets all worked up.
“Just tell me what is wrong, princess.”
“I…the relationship I used as an excuse for not wanting to date Gideon…it was with you. I…I did this. I’m so sorry, Odin.”
Chapter Twelve
____________
Lori
“When did he start showing interest in you?” That’s an odd question to ask after I just confessed what I did to him. He doesn’t seem upset though. “Was it before or after you met your friend, Joanne?”
I think back before I answer, “After. About a week after.”
“Find everything you can out about this Gideon fucker. The timing is off, and something isn’t adding up. I don’t like it.”
“What? You don’t think…”
“Princess, Gideon Kerrell isn’t a college kid. He’s twenty-nine and has a rap sheet longer than mine.”
“Twenty-nine?” That…he…what the hell is going on? Odin passes a folder to me, and I stare down at the evidence that he is telling the truth. “Twenty-nine. He…he told me…he said he was twenty-one and his parents ran in the same circles mine did. It was one of the things that turned me off about him.”
“It sounds like you might have been targeted.” Poe starts speaking but I can’t keep up with everything he is saying. Targeted? Targeted for what? “They send the woman in first to befriend the girl they want to take and then in comes the guy just wanting a date. Once you go out with him, he roofies you and then you’re gone.”
Pyro who has wandered over with his girl, Nori, also speaks up, “If Gideon killed Joanne they must think she’s the reason the grab went sideways.”
“No!” What they’re saying…has to be wrong, doesn’t it? Fear rumbles up inside my belly making me sick and clogging my throat so that I have to repeat the word before other people can understand me. “They…they were going to take me?”
I look to Odin for the truth.
“They didn’t choose me because of the story I was writing or any of my research? Did they?”
He shakes his head no. We both realize why they chose me. Virgins cost more.
“Joanne was going to…hurt me? To help hurt me?”
Nori reaches out for my hand and it’s only then that I realize how cold they are. “You look like you need a drink, hon. Let’s get you something fruity and rummy.”
I take the drink she hands me not really listening to the rest of the conversation. I don’t think I can handle any more truths. By the time both couples leave, I’ve already knocked back three of the drinks.
“Sweetheart, those have a lot of alcohol in them. You might want to slow…”
“Don’t…just don’t. I’ve spent my whole life being good. The good little daughter, the perfect student, a decent human…the perfect little virgin. And what did that get me?” Even I can hear the slur in my voice, but I don’t care. “It got me…fucked. Fucked. Or something like that.”
I sway a little when I stand up off his lap but I don’t care.
“No! It got me not fucked. I’ve been unfuckable because I’ve been a goody-two-shoes. And I’m sick of it, Ander…Odin…whatever.” I see the smile that stretches across his face. It looks good on him. He doesn’t do it very often but I think I can change that. “It’s my fucking virgin…virg…it’s my cherry. I need it gone. I need it to be history. If I was a person without my cherry, I would be…”
