Canon (Klein Brothers 2)

“He’s not exactly filthy, just a little perverse when he wants to be. Anyway, this happened over a year ago, you were even at our wedding. Why the sudden interest?”

Ignoring the question, he wiggled his fingers at her. “Give me the details, and don’t leave anything out.”

As she whispered them to him, Tony started fanning himself, then decided better on it and grabbed the hairdryer out of my hand, set it on cold, and turned it on his face.

I was happy for my friend. Some people might not find it romantic, but it was proof of how deep their trust ran for me. For example, if I ever woke up with my hands tied to the headboard while a guy asked me to marry him, then proceeded to persuade me with sex when he thought I was going to say no, I’d have the mother of panic attacks and freak out for about three months after it, then never be able to see him again. I had to imagine something like that would ruin the proposal, right?

Heidi trusted Bond, and I saw nothing but beauty in the proof of it being shown via his proposal. Plus, what was hot/beautiful for some, wasn’t for another. Heck, some people found a man proposing over dinner or when he was down on one knee gross and cheesy. To each their own.

I’d never have that level of trust with a guy, though, so maybe that’s why I saw the beauty in how Bond had gone about proposing to her.

To give her credit, Heidi didn’t share every detail of the sex that’d accompanied being tied to the bed, but she kept saying ‘did stuff’ and rolling her hand like that explained it all. The wicked part of me wanted to ask what kind of stuff, but I held it back.

“Oh, shit,” Sayla hissed behind us, getting my attention on where she was sitting behind the desk, reading something on her iPad. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

Given that Heidi had gotten to the part of the story where she was holding her ring up and reminding him of the fact they’d been married for a while, Tony didn’t mind the interruption. What more could she tell him?

“What’s up, buttercup?” he called as I went back to finishing off Heidi’s hair.

There hadn’t been much left to blow dry, and the interlude from the tails of debauchery had kind of air dried it, so it didn’t take long to do.

By the time I put the hairdryer back in its holder, my arms were aching, and I was two hours past being ready for a nap.

“Um, Jacinda?” Sayla said softly as she came up next to me with Tony beside her. “Can we have a word?”

Given that we were closed for lunch, something we did twice a week, I just waved at them to go ahead while I took the protective cape off Heidi.

“W-well, you see—” Sayla stammered, then growled. “For shit’s sake, you tell her.”

“One of your old roommates from Austin was on one of those trashy talk show programs,” Tony said quickly. “The one with that irritating woman who cries on demand, Healing With Hanna.”

I figure I knew exactly which one it was who’d done it.

“Pfffbt, that’s not a surprise. Kortni was always desperate for attention. The bigger surprise is that the others didn’t follow her onto the show, too. Not one of them had an original thought of their own.”

Holding the iPad out, Tony mumbled, “The topic of the show was unknowingly living with a dangerous person, like a felon or someone who’d committed a crime. It’s strange how people will go on one of those shows and discuss how the person they knew had committed a crime, but they won’t go to the police about it.”

It felt like every muscle inside my body had turned to stone. “I beg your pardon?”

Knowing I’d heard what he’d said, Tony instead explained the story to me, seeing as how I hadn’t taken the iPad from him to read it myself. “Kortni told them about how her best friend’s boyfriend had beaten her up for years, and neither she nor her roommates had any idea.

“Of course, it was beyond traumatic for them when they realized it’d even happened occasionally under their own roof, and they hadn’t been able to stop it. According to her, they’d all felt ashamed but had still gone to court to watch the trial and support their friend. When she divulged that he was a decorated Marine, the host had to pass her a new box of tissues because she was crying so hard, she could hardly get the words out.”

The shakes were coming on fast and hard, so much so, I could feel my whole body moving with the force of them. “Are you shitting me?”