Insatiable (Steel Brothers Saga 12)

Come on, Colin. Come on.

As if on cue, he walked back into the kitchen, Dominic following him. Alex leaned against the counter, looking as distrustful as ever. Dave hadn’t returned for his phone.

So far so good.

If this didn’t work, though, I had a backup plan.

“My turn.” I rose. “I’m going to need my purse.”

“Why?” Alex asked.

“My monthly friend is visiting,” I lied.

“You’re full of it,” she said.

“You want to check?” I glared at her.

“Sure, you dum—”

“For God’s sake, Alex,” Dominic interrupted. “Get her purse.”

I held back a smile. If I could depend on one thing always, it was the discomfort all men shared when it came to female body functions.

“She’s lying,” Alex said. “She would’ve had to go before now.”

“Light flow,” I said. “I’m on the pill.” The second part was true, anyway.

Dominic and Colin had both turned the color of a red delicious apple.

Good. This was going well.

“Lighten up, Alex.” Dominic left the room and came back holding my purse. “Here. And don’t mention any of this again.”

“Dom…”

“We’ve already been through her purse, Alex. We have her phone.”

Ah. As I’d suspected. Thank goodness I always kept extra tampons in my purse, or they’d have had a lot of questions. Since he didn’t mention the blade, he probably hadn’t found it.

I wished for a psychic link to Colin. If only I knew if he’d gotten through to Jade…or whether he’d done anything at all. He could have easily chickened out, which was why I needed plan B.

I grabbed my purse and muttered a “thanks.” Alex led me to the bathroom.

The room was tiny, since this was a mobile home, but I had enough elbow room to do what had to be done. I opened a tampon with as much commotion as I could, just in case she was listening, and I even inserted it, in case she wanted to check for the string. Not that I thought she would, but Alex was a question mark. I couldn’t manipulate her the way I was manipulating Dominic.

Then I pawed through the contents of my purse, removing the bulkier items so I could access the hidden zippered pouch at the bottom.

Eureka!

I fingered the shiny blade.

The scar on my upper thigh began to tingle.

No time for that, though. I couldn’t be bleeding while I tried to make someone else bleed.

These are my friends…

No, damn it. No!