Blood Noir - Laurell K. Hamilton [68]
“I’ll take Lisa back to the party,” Trish said.
Everyone agreed that was a good idea.
Lisa grabbed Jason’s arm. “You have to come to the party”—she looked at me—“both of you. Please, most of my bridal party are girls from school. They’ll want to see you, Jason, and they’ll want to meet your new girlfriend.”
I soooo did not want to go to Lisa’s bachelorette party. But I was pretty sure what Jason was going to say, and he did not disappoint me. “We’d need to get dressed first.”
“Of course, of course,” Lisa said, and then she turned that fragile face to him, “but you’ll come, right?”
He nodded, and I did not like the look he gave her. It was way too intimate a look from a man to another man’s fiancée. I’d wanted to throw a monkey wrench into the wedding plans, but not like this, no, this was a bad idea.
As if he’d read my mind, Chuck said, “This is a bad idea, Lisa.”
She looked at him, and the one look told me two things. One, she didn’t particularly like Chuck; two, there was more force of will inside her than I’d seen yet. It blazed to life in those blue eyes, gave some color to her face that wasn’t embarrassment.
“I say who comes to my party, not you, not my future in-laws, me.”
He took a breath as if he’d argue.
Trish said, “Let’s not fight.”
Chuck frowned at her.
Lisa said, “I’m not fighting; Chuck is an employee, you don’t fight with employees.” She said it cold and hard. Point for her, but the look on Chuck’s face made me want to touch my gun in its robe pocket. Chuck didn’t like Lisa any better than she liked him. Interesting.
“Fine,” Trish said, “fine, but let’s get you back to your party. The other girls are going to wonder what happened to us.” Her tone of voice alone said that she’d been doing a lot of managing in the last few days. I wondered if Lisa had a drinking problem. That would be bad.
Lisa wouldn’t let go of Jason’s arm. She gave him all the eye contact she had in those blue eyes. “You will come to my party, right? Promise me that you and—Anita, right?—promise me you’ll come. The other girls are going to flip.”
“Who’s all there?” he asked.
“All the Jennifers,” and she grinned. It wasn’t quite his smile, but it was still close.
He grinned back. “All of them?” he asked.
“All of them: Jen, Jenna, and J. J.” She grabbed his arm with both hands. “And Ashley, and Kris. Oh, they’ll kill me if you don’t at least come say hi.”
He nodded, as I’d feared he would. “We’ll get dressed and I’m sure someone here will be happy to take us to your bachelorette party.” That last was almost mean for Jason, because he knew damned well that none of the men wanted him at that party. Hell, I didn’t want him at that party, though not for the same reasons. I just didn’t want to go.
She let go of his arm with one hand and grabbed my hand. “Please, Anita, I know I’ve been horrible. I guess it’s wedding nerves, but please let Jason come. Please, come with him. Give me a chance to prove to you that I’m not some crazy woman, please.”
I looked down into her face. She had to be under five feet tall. I didn’t get to look down at many people. But it wasn’t the height that made it hard to say no. It was the look in her eyes. But I could have withstood that, too. It was the look in Jason’s eyes. He wanted to go. He wanted to talk to his old friends. Well, I’d already met his family, what were a few old girlfriends compared to that? I tried to believe that as I agreed that we’d get dressed and join them at the party.
30
THE FIRST THING we did after we got the crowd out was shower. The sex had been good enough that you needed a shower the way you do after a good workout. We tried to get Shadwell and Rowe to step out of the room while we cleaned up, but they wouldn’t do it. So two strange, armed men whom I’d just met got to sit out in the room