The Girl's Got Secrets (Forbidden Men #7)

I took my first table full of orders of the night and brought them to Knox to be filled since Mason and the Gambles were still arguing amongst themselves over how to seek justice for their younger siblings. Ten gave up on trying to put in his two cents’ worth and decided to help Quinn and me wait tables.

I’d just delivered a tray full and was pocketing the payment when my cell phone alerted me to an incoming text. I checked the screen, surprised to find it was from my new drummer.

I just realized I don’t have an exact time or address of where to be tomorrow for the gig. I’ve only been to Forbidden once and I didn’t drive so I’m not sure if I remember how to get there.

I zipped back the time and address and pocketed the phone, only for it to ding seconds later.

Gracias. Me and my two boys will see you then.

After I told him okay, all the while wondering who his two boys were, he spit back another message to me.

And by two boys, I meant my drumsticks, not the pair in my pants.

Before I could even think up a response to that, he messaged me again.

Not that the other two won’t be there too, of course. But technically, you won’t be seeing THOSE boys, so yeah...I’m only talking about the drumsticks.

I grinned, growing more amused by his rambling posts. I could almost picture him groaning to himself as if he knew he kept saying shit he didn’t mean to even as he typed more. And on cue, he wrote.

So, yeah, I’m just going to shut up now before I dig myself any deeper into my humiliation. See you tomorrow.

I laughed outright and typed back that I’d see him then.

“Who’re you flirting with?” Ten asked, making me jump out of my skin because I’d been so preoccupied with pushing Send.

Scowling at him, I shoved him back when he tried to read the screen over my shoulder. “None of your business, nosey ass.” Then I tucked the phone into my pocket out of his sight.

He snickered and wiggled his eyebrows. “Just tell me she’s hot.”

I rolled my eyes. “What makes you think I was even talking to a girl?”

“Because you were grinning and laughing as you read the messages, like a little douche boy with a crush.”

“What the hell ever.” I shoved at his shoulder again, this time to shut him up. “I was not. It was the new drummer in my band. And he said something funny...so I laughed.”

“Yeah...” Ten kept eyeing me as he scratched at the scarred side of his face. “I’m not buying it. You were reading your screen far too long for it to be from another dude.”

I stared at him in absolute confusion. “Huh?”

“It took you a while to read the screen,” he explained. “Ergo it had to be from a chick. Two guys messaging back and forth to each other will keep it to five words or less per text...or they’ll just call. So yeah...you were most definitely sexting.”

“Whatever.” I shook my head as I walked off. “You’re weird. Stop being so weird.”

“That’s okay if you don’t want to talk about her yet,” he yelled after me. “I’ll learn who she is soon enough.”

“Freak,” I muttered under my breath. But for some strange reason, what he said stuck in my head. Making sure he wasn’t looking, I pulled my phone from my pocket and reread my conversation with Sticks.

Sure enough, everything I’d typed to him had been squeezed into five words or less. His shortest text to me had been ten words long.

“Huh,” I murmured, frowning as I shoved the phone back into my pocket. Then I finished my shift and didn’t think about the bizarreness of it again.





“?Dios mío! I am such a moron.” I tossed my cell phone onto the coffee table as if it was infected and swiped my hand across my forehead, utterly mortified.

I’m surprised Asher hadn’t called me a freak and told me not to bother coming to the show tomorrow. What I’d just texted him had been beyond idiotic.

I’d started out, trying to be funny, but then it’d sounded like I was being too sophomoric. Yet when I tried to explain what I’d really meant, it’d all just gone downhill from there and splashed right into shit lake.

“Ugh.” This was his fault, I decided. The guy was just too hot. After spending hours in his company, listening to him sing, I was still rocking too many raging hormones.

But Asher had shocked me today. In a good way. After my first encounter with the group, I’d had it stuck in my head that Galloway was their leader. That had concerned me. I mean, not enough that I didn’t want to play with them tomorrow, but it’d still been a distressing, disturbing, depressing thought.

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