Page 22 of Shattered Veil

Luke caught my eye first as he was sat at one of the two chairs facing the entrance. He flashed me a surprised smile, gently elbowing Claire, who was on his left and lifting a short tumbler of clear liquid to her lips. She followed his gaze, quickly finished the sip of her drink, grinned at me, and threw me a wave. This alerted Liam and Zoey, who were sat directly across from them. Simultaneously moving their heads, Zoey smiled and waved similarly to how Claire had, and Liam ticked his head upward in acknowledgment of my arrival.

Though Shawn had walked in first, he trailed behind me as I led the way to the table, lingering just to my right when I stood beside my typical seat at the head next to Zoey.

“About time you showed up,” Zoey remarked. “Out of sight since last week, what gives?”

“Busy,” I lied succinctly. I wasn’t busy. I was hiding away in my apartment for various reasons, all to do with Cassie. “Ah, Zoey, Liam, Claire, Luke.” I pointed at each of them as I spoke their name and then gestured to Shawn. “Shawn Brooks. Brooks—everyone.”

They all gave him a cheery greeting, Shawn waggled his fingers almost shyly, and Liam added:

“Grab another chair, Cas is comin’.”

The mention of her name sent a nervous jolt through me, and I attempted to conceal my reaction by nodding and searching the nearby space for a spare chair. Shawn found one before I did, asking the women at the table just behind Luke and Claire if the empty seat was taken. They kindly told him that it was free, and we shuffled the seats just enough to allow room for him to sit between me and Zoey.

We sat, and Shawn pointed at Luke. “Brother?”

He smiled in return. “Uh huh. How do you know Jay?”

Luke began to lift a pale beer to his mouth, and Shawn happily stated, “Work.”

Luke’s light eyes narrowed mid-sip, and his head turned to me as he set his glass down.

“Is this the guy?”

“Oh God,” Shawn cringed. “Am I the guy?”

I knew without further inquiry that Luke was questioning if Shawn was the work friend who had invited me to Gas Lamp.

“Yup.”

He ground his teeth at my acknowledgment, and his judgmental gaze whipped to Shawn.

Shawn leaned backward under Luke’s wordless scrutinizing, asking, “What did I do?”

“You dragged him to a strip club?” Luke said incredulously. “Do you know him at all?”

Claire’s expression mimicked Luke’s upon the mention of a strip club, Zoey snorted loudly into her cider and rushed to set it down, and Liam snapped his fingers once, his brown eyes alight with recognition.

He pointed at me with a broad grin and exclaimed, “That’s right! Strip club! You went to a strip club on Friday!”

Zoey simply reached toward Shawn as if she wanted to shake his hand. He looked down, cocked his head in curiosity at her dainty digits, and took her hand in his.

“Nice job, man,” she quipped as their hands bobbed up and down twice. “Hilarious. How was he?”

Shawn stammered, “Um—”

“Zoey, I’m right here,” I reminded her needlessly.

Her green eyes shot to me. “And there’s no way you’ll give us a realistic recounting of the night, now, is there?”

“Uh,” Shawn’s head bounced from Zoey to Luke. “For the record, I apologized.”

“Oh, please,” Zoey spoke. “You don’t need to apologize unless something went wrong.” She gasped, and her smile blinded us all. “Did something go wrong?”

Liam chuckled at her excitement, and I internally squirmed as I said, “Nothing went wrong.”

“What…what could even go wrong at a strip club?” Shawn questioned aloud in an attempt to remain casual.

It did not sound casual.

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