Tainted Gold (Providence Gold 3)

That’s when Levi slammed a piece of paper down on the bar in front of me. At the top were the details of the doctor who worked in town, and underneath it were columns with numbers in them with a paragraph written at the bottom.

“No, but putting Flunitrazepamin someone’s drink is,” Levi said, sounding pissed off.

Beau shot me a confused look and subtly pulled her phone out, most likely to search for it. If she could figure out how to spell it, she was a genius – something which I had to accept she was when she looked up at me with wide eyes.

“What? What’s that?” Carly asked, her hand shooting up to cover the front of her throat. Behind her, Chris shifted on his stool under the weight of Archer’s hand still, shooting a glance at me every so often.

“Flunitrazepam,” Beau spoke up, clearing her throat. “Also known as Rohypnol, a date rape drug. If used in excess, it can impair balance and speech, and is commonly used in suicide. If used in pregnancy…” she broke off and took in a sharp breath, “it can cause Hypotonia, or floppy baby syndrome.” She’d just gotten the final words out when she took a step forward and grabbed Carly by the hair, pulling her toward her. “So help me God, if you’ve drugged her…”

“She hasn’t,” Tate growled, not moving a muscle to help the woman. “Have you?”

“No, no, I wouldn’t do that,” she squealed as Beau gave her hair a savage tug. “I swear. You were the only one who was meant to drink it,” she screeched, pulling her hair away from Beau and pointing at…

Archer?

Even the Townsends looked shocked at this. We’d all been looking at Tate expectantly, but when we’d realized she was pointing behind him at his brother, it took a minute for our brains to catch up.

It was mine that got their first though. “Bitch, are you out of your mind?”

No sooner had the last word come out of my mouth, Archer asked the question we were all wanting the answer to – well, aside from mine, because seriously! “Me?”

“Yeah, you. I’ve been trying to get you to notice me for years. In high school you even sat in front of me, and where did that get me?”

“You did?”

“Yeah,” she sneered, which seemed to be an unfortunate go to expression for her. “I did. Then, I dated your best friend – nothing. Picked up another friend – nothing. I kept trying and trying, even going for your brothers – nothing. Oh, but every other bitch would do, wouldn’t they? Bonnie, seriously?”

The surprise left Archer’s face in the blink of an eye, and it was replaced by a look that would have melted all of the ice in the machine behind me in seconds. “What did you do to Bonnie?”

Her screeching laugh was forced as she threw her head back. “She was there too, don’t you remember?”

Taking a step toward her, he repeated, “What did you do to Bonnie?”

With a satisfied smile, she held her hands up beside her and shrugged. “Nothing, but bitch couldn’t hold her alcohol. Maybe something was off with the tequila?”

“Something’s off with your brain, more like,” Levi mumbled, shaking his head in disgust.

Madix Blue, Noah’s brother-in-law, appeared beside Carly just then, scaring the shit out of her. They say it’s the tall ones who manage to go unnoticed – actually, no they didn’t. I just made that shit up because I hadn’t seen him standing there and he was six-foot-eight so it was embarrassing to have missed him.

“That’s my wife’s best friend,” he told her coolly. “Which means she’s a member of my family. Now, I’m going to call her while you stand here, and if she doesn’t answer, or she even sounds like she’s stubbed a toe…” he didn’t need to finish the threat.

Hell, even my ass clenched, and I hadn’t done anything!

As Madix dialed the number and held the phone to his ear, his eyes not leaving Carly the whole time, Tate left the group and walked around the bar to stand beside me. “You ok, baby?” he whispered in my ear, giving my stomach a gentle rub. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Chris watching, mouth pinching when I leaned into him and nodded.

If I was honest, this was freaking stressful, I needed to pee (shocker), my feet were feeling hot, my ankles were stiff, and my vagina hurt like a mother. Not that I’d say any of that out loud though. Tate and I had shared a lot, but we weren’t at the stage where I could comfortably discuss my bladder and sore vagina. Sure, he knew it happened, just like he had to know at some point during the day I pooped and peed, and vice versa, but it was done secretly – like farting, which FYI pregnancy made you do more of too.