Page 29 of Brazen Obsession

Nan laughs. “I didn’t know we were hugging people, but I love a good hug. How are you?”

“I’m good now.” I step back as Madison walks up to us.

Cooper is behind her and he brushes his hand over her hip before heading over to Dante and James. I catch Dante’s eyes on me and warmth spreads through me. I’m glad he’s here. As much as I don’t want to play favorites, Dante protects me. The others would do a great job too, but there’s something about Dante that settles me, and I need that right now.

Madison hugs me tight against her. “I’m so glad you’re safe.”

When she releases me, tears are in both of our eyes. But we smile. I make sure Nan knows everyone before we all settle back down to talk and drink.

Madison clears her throat. “First order of business is a code word. That’s three of us that were in trouble and we didn’t know.”

Nan’s mouth opens like she has questions, but then she closes it again.

“Do we need another word in case everything is fine and one of you two is just getting quality dick?” Kayla asks and sips her drink. “I’ve lost another member of my harem. I’m going to need more friends.”

Kayla smiles and Nan glances at her.

“Sorry, we need to explain a few things I think.” I glance at the others.

We fill Nan in on the previous kidnapping and luring of Madison. Kayla explains that she offered to be the drama-free harem, but the rest of us are just too into dick. And I told them about my brother and how he got me kidnapped.

I leave out the part about Wyatt’s dad because it’s sensitive and we’re in a bar where anyone could be listening in.

“So you’re going to be an aunt?” Hope smiles softly, like the thought of that is the best news ever.

“Yeah, I am.” I drag in a breath. “As long as everything goes smoothly, but we’re not out of danger yet.”

“Speaking of danger.” Kayla glances around. “I think our phrase for ‘I’m in trouble’ should be I need to pee. It’s not uncommon, but usually we’d say I need to go to the bathroom or restroom. So our word is pee, because whoever has you won’t know it’s code.”

Kayla’s green eyes sparkle as she grins at her own cleverness.

“It’s actually not bad.” Nan taps her lip. “I mean, if you’re being monitored on the phone and you say I need to pee, the worst thing they’ll do is take you to the bathroom.”

“All right, but what if it’s like Hope and someone else is using her phone to tell us everything’s fine?” Madison reaches toward Hope and Hope takes her hand.

“Octopus emoji,” Kayla says.

We all turn to her with similar what-the-fuck expressions.

“Explain,” Madison says.

Kayla smiles. “So if we haven’t seen you in a few days, we’ll send an octopus emoji. If you’re fine, you send an eggplant emoji. If you’re not, you send the first emoji on your list.”

I laugh. “Are you sure you don’t want multiple eggplant emojis?”

Kayla shrugs. “Eggplants or tacos will do.”

Hope snickers first. Then we all start to laugh. Even Nan. Fuck, I missed this. Knowing Dante’s watching me makes it easy to relax. I was taken from the street, but Peter asked me to get in the car. I didn’t really have a choice, but I was never physically forced to do anything.

When we start planning for the future, Nan listens, offering some advice here and there. She’s getting her degree, but mostly to help run a charity. Her parents don’t believe that girls should work.

“They also believe I should find a big strong man to take care of me.” Nan rolls her eyes. “Though I have to admit, Dante is the hottest guy they’ve ever set me up with. If anyone could tempt me— Nope, sorry, dick just isn’t for me.”

Nan makes this face of disgust that makes me laugh.

“My girlfriend was the same way.” Kayla looks off toward Dante. “Though I mean, it’s Dante.”

“You have a girlfriend?” Nan asks.