Page 128 of Never Sleep with the Enemy

She throws her arms around my neck, nearly knocking me off the stool. I cling to her for balance, laughing as I hug her back.

“Ugh, this sucks,” she says.

“What does?”

She pulls back, rolling her eyes. “We haven’t hung out all week. We miss you.”

“Yeah. I miss you guys, too.”

“Duh. We’reawesome.”She gives her blue hair a playful flip before turning to Addison. “Hello, there.”

“Hi,” Addison replies, stiff.

Tesla clocks the tension immediately. “I know. Iknow. We haven’t really talked since I totally came onto your hot boyfriend back in Colorado, but I wanna put it all out there: it meant nothing.”

“Nothing?” Addison arches a brow.

“It was all part of that totally dumb plot to spy on you guys or whatever. I hated it. Not that it did anything. Your boy is stupid loyal. It was actually quite impressive.”

Addison narrows her eyes. “Really?”

“Oh, yeah!” Tesla laughs. “Can’t blame the guy, though. I mean, if I had my chance withtheAddison Abbey—the woman personally responsible forMoney Bag’sfifty-two second electric guitar solo—I wouldn’t fuck it up, either. So, we cool?”

Addison stares at her for a long beat, then finally blinks and smiles. “Yeah, we’re cool,” she says, hopping off her seat. “I’ll go let Pam know you’re here.”

“Awesome!” Tesla cheers, sliding onto Addison’s now-empty stool beside me. Once Addison’s out of earshot, she lowers her voice.“Arewe cool?”

I chuckle. “She wouldn’t have said so otherwise.”

“Good.” Tesla exhales, visibly relieved. “Because she is a goddess and I would die if she didn’t love me.”

“You said exactly the right thing.”

Behind her, Logan approaches. Just like that, the rest of the bar fades from my awareness.

“Hey,” I say, my whole body homing in on him.

“Hey.” He leans in and brushes his lips against my forehead, but they don’t linger. They don’t even really land.

“Is everything okay?” I ask.

“Yeah,” he says, his eyes fixed on Knox, Jonah, and the others seated by the stage.

They glance over. Every one of them looks away just as fast.

“Well, this is off to a good start,” Goldie mutters behind him.

“Agreed,” Logan says. “Let’s get this over with.”

He turns and heads toward the empty chairs across from the others.

I look at Tesla.

“It’s not you,” she says with a sigh. “He’s been like this for days.”

“Like what, exactly?”

“Just…off,I guess. I think he’s worried.”

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