Indelible | SNEAK PEEK
LIGHTLY EDITED AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE
Teal could hear the apprehensiveness in her friend’s voice. Sitting up fast, the manuscript fell from her lap and banged to the ground. “What’s happened, Katie? Are the girls all right? Is it Logan? What? You’re scaring me.”
Her voice held such concern, Teal’s heart pounded in her chest. "So, Trent hasn't called you yet." Teal’s hackles rose at the mention of Trent's name. "Shit. I might have overstepped my bounds by making this call, but—”
Teal didn't let Katie finish her sentence. Her anxiety caused her hands to shake as she spoke. "Katie, what the hell is going on? What do you mean Trent hasn't called me? He just left but twenty minutes ago." She glanced at the time on the phone, wondering if time had somehow gotten away from her.
Fear laced Katie’s words. "I just. I just don't want to piss Logan off."
"Katie." Teal waited until she felt she had Katie's undivided attention. "Fuck Logan. You’re about to piss me off." The added bite to her words gave way to silence. Teal knew that Logan wouldn’t hurt Katie, so she was unsure as to why she was acting like such a timid mouse. "Tell me what the hell is going on. I don't care if Logan gets pissed. It's obviously important, or you wouldn't have called me."
Katie's apprehension kept her silent a moment longer before she spoke. "Trent's shop was vandalized last night or rather early this morning, I think."
Teal closed her eyes. Biting out a silent curse she stood and paced the floor. "What do you mean? Did they steal anything? I just don't get it why the hell—”
Katie's voice interrupted Teal. "Did anything odd happen with you and Trent last night?" To Teal, it seemed like Katie was fishing for info she already knew.
“Girl, stop pussyfooting and tell me what you know, or so help me, when I see your skinny ass again . . .” Teal’s threats held no real heat. She loved Katie like a sister, but in this moment, she wished she could snatch her ass bald.
Despite the gravity of the situation, Katie chuckled. “Skinny? Not so much. I still have some baby weight to get rid of.”
Baby weight? Teal rolled her eyes. With a scoff, she sat back down. “You look like an hour glass now. It’s the figure every woman wants. Now back to the issue you called about. Talk.”
“Keep in mind, I only heard Logan’s part of the conversation, as he was on the phone. But from what I gathered, Trent got to his shop this morning to find the walls covered with graffiti.”
To Teal, the idea of some punks costing Trent time and money to clean their mess up pissed her off, too, still she didn’t understand why Katie sounded so upset by it. It wasn’t as if he’d been hurt or ended up in jail for beating the shit out the punks.
“Also,” the reluctance was back in her voice. “Trent believes he knows who did it. Apparently, something happened on your date night? Logan asked if Jake, his old lawyer, had anything to do with it.”
Shocked, Teal sat forward. “That asshole was Logan’s lawyer?”
“Was being the operative word.” Katie’s voice held heat.
Teal caught herself and reined it back in. Her words about Logan in the past had hurt their friendship, and Teal wasn’t going down that road again. Especially since he’d been doing well dealing with his past race issues. Teal had learned a great deal about Logan’s past, and while at first, she’d found it hard to believe a white person could suffer such racial injustices, she now realized her beliefs didn’t change what actually happened to him growing up.
While Logan would never know how hard it was to be black in America, Teal had to understand her life was vastly different than Logan’s. They’d both suffered at the hands of the opposite race, and her race’s past and present social injustices couldn’t demean or belittle what Logan had gone through. It was a hard pill to swallow, but she was trying nonetheless.
With a sigh, she said, “I get it.” Past that subject, her mind honed in on Katie’s revelation. “What did Trent say when Logan asked him about Jake’s involvement?” Without thinking, Teal was up and headed to the bedroom.
“I don’t know.”
Teal balanced the phone between her cheek and shoulder as she shoved on a pair of shorts. “Well, what kind of spy are you? Shit!”
“The kind without super hearing, obviously.”
She made quick work of her shirt. “So, what does Logan think happened?” Teal could hear every bit of Katie’s frustration as she spoke.
“He told me to mind my own business.”
Teal laughed through her anger. “Ooh, honey!” Though she was pissed and worried, she wished she could have been a fly on the wall during that argument. “And what did little miss Katie say?” She shoved her feet in her shoes, then headed into the living room in search of the keys to Trent’s spare vehicle.
“You don’t want to know.” Katie huffed. “Why do you sound out of breath?”
Teal had made it to the living room and found the keys. Opening the front door she said, “I’m going to help Trent.”
Katie groaned. “Damn.”
“Sorry, I’m sure this will cause some friction with you and Logan, but you need to explain to him that you were concerned. I am sure he and Trent have a guy code, just as we have ours.” She headed into the garage and smiled at the old Challenger.
Trent would no doubt flip his lid when he saw her pulling up in his baby, but she needed to be with him. She needed to figure out what the hell was going on. And if she were honest with herself, as tough as she believed she was, she felt a bit unsafe in his house without a weapon.
What if those men had come to Trent’s home thinking he was at work? Trent had guns, she was sure of it, but where were they? And the men at the bar last night were huge ass bastards. What if one of those men had gotten into the house before she was able to get a weapon?
“Look,” her voice wobbled with the irrational fear that those men were coming for her, “I’ll call you later to let you know everything is okay.”
“Hey, are you okay?” The concern in Katie’s voice warmed her heart.
“Yeah.” Once inside the car, she locked the doors before starting the engine. “I am just about to take his baby out for a spin.” She cracked the joke to ease her distress.
Unconvinced, but seemingly not willing to push it further, Katie said, “Okay, call me when you can.”
Teal agreed and placed the phone on the passenger seat. Anger made its way past the fear as she stared at the phone. If Trent had thought those men messed with his shop, then why the hell hadn’t he called her? Shouldn’t he have at least called to ease her mind?
Okay, so he didn’t know she was distressed, but he had a damned clue on who was to blame for his shop. Then it dawned on her. This was Logan’s lawyer. The same man who had shown up on Katie’s doorstep, filling her head with lies about Logan. If he would find Katie’s home and show up there, there was nothing to say he wouldn’t do the same to Trent. With that thought, Teal started the car and backed out of the driveway.