Ginny couldn’t help but laugh at Kimmy’s comical expression. “I know you don’t.” Ginny assured her. “I think it was more of a precaution from letting it unintentionally slip to the wrong person.”
Kimmy’s shock became confrontational. “You mean, like Nick or Lawrence?”
It was Ginny’s mouth that dropped at Kimmy’s spurt of anger. “I was talking more like someone who works in the nightclub or one of the regulars who comes to the shows.”
“Good,” Kimmy snapped. “Because I can tell you for a fact that it wasn’t Nick or Lawrence. Nick was in the meeting before I came in, and Lawrence doesn’t even like you. He told me about the time you asked him out and he turned you down.”
“I didn’t.”
“He says you did.”
“Then he’s lying, or he has me confused with someone else.”
“Maybe I heard him wrong. I’m sorry.”
Kimmy might have apologized, but Ginny saw the doubt in her eyes.
“I’ve never asked Lawrence out, not even on a friendly date. Ask anyone on the band’s staff or the nightclub’s if I’ve ever asked anyone out on a date. I just don’t do that.”
Ginny sent another emoji.
“I can vouch for that,” Nate broke in from where he was standing.
“Me, too.” Sin amusedly corroborated.
Flushing, Ginny swung her head in Nate’s then Sin’s directions.
“I thought we were friends.” Kimmy didn’t try to hide her hurt feelings. “I tell you everything. You didn’t mention you had a stalker or that you were dating someone.”
“We are friends.” Ginny broke off to text another emoji before continuing. “I explained about why I didn’t tell you about the stalker, and I’m not dating anyone.”
“Then I don’t—”
Ginny jumped in her chair when Kimmy suddenly jumped up.
“You’re sneaking behind my back, seeing Lawrence, aren’t you?”
“What? No!” Flabbergasted at Kimmy’s assumption, Ginny wanted to shake some sense into her illogically thinking friend.
“Then why wouldn’t you date? Unless ….”
She had never seen this side of Kimmy before, and the sudden change in her behavior was scaring Ginny.
“You are sneaking around with Lawrence. You come across as a Goody Two-shoes, yet you’re banging him behind—”
“No! I haven’t!” Kimmy’s whack-a-mole reasoning was totally out of the realm from her normal behavior .
“Then who? You spend most of your time with Lawrence before the shows—”
“That’s because he is constantly missing my intro.”
“The only other ones around you are Shade, who’s married, and Rider, who has a girlfriend.”
Ginny’s nerves were already strung up with her room being destroyed and a man missing, so Kimmy’s wild assumptions were sending her over the edge.
“Those aren’t the only men I’ve been around!”
Ginny’s stomach dropped when Kimmy’s face broke into a broad smile.
“It’s Gavin, isn’t it? That’s why you told me he’s attached.”
Ginny wasn’t able to compose her guilty face before Kimmy saw it and misinterpreted the expression as hitting on the truth.
“You’re with Gavin! Wow! You sure nothing is going between you and Lawrence?”
“I’m sure.” Ginny’s concern for her friend’s irrational behavior was replaced by a wave of temper. “And what’s so shocking about me and Gavin?”
Kimmy stared at her as if she had never seen her before. Ginny felt the same toward her. Being locked in the room was dissolving their friendship fast.
“I just imagined him with someone more ….” Kimmy broke off when she realized she was about to put her foot in her mouth again.
“What?” Hurt that Kimmy was right had Ginny sliding to the edge of her chair. “Prettier?”
“Ladies …,” Sin interrupted the budding argument. “Perhaps this isn’t the time—”
“Sexier? Thinner?” Jealousy had Ginny talking before her commonsense could catch up with her. “You’re so worried about Lawrence and me when nothing is there, but it didn’t stop you from asking me if Gavin was attached!”
The Kimmy that Ginny was more familiar with made an appearance. “So, you and Gavin are a couple! You should have just said so! It’s no big deal. I’m so happy!”
At that point, Ginny was about to jinx Kimmy with a wart the size of Pluto on her upper lip when a sound from the doorway had Ginny turning, then wanting to sink to the floor at the sight of Gavin standing there.
“Uh … I …” Ginny had never been so embarrassed in her life. She had unintentionally proven to him that she did live in an alternate universe. “I can explain.” And she would, as soon as she came up with something that made any sense.
“It’s doesn’t matter. I understand. I told you it wouldn’t be an easy secret to keep.”
What secret? Had she missed something? Maybe she drank the same Kool-Aid that Kimmy had?
“Did you find Mason?” Nate asked.
“Yes.” Gavin came to a stop in front of her, placing his hands on her shoulders. “We found him in a freezer in the nightclub. He’s on his way to the hospital.”
Chapter Eleven
“Why did you let Kimmy keep assuming we’re a couple?” Ginny engaged the blinker as she sped up to merge onto the interstate. She was too upset about Mason being in the hospital to be humiliated over Gavin overhearing the out-of-hand conversation with Kimmy.
“I want to find out exactly how possessive your stalker is over you.”
Gripping the steering wheel like a lifeline, Ginny continued driving as if his unemotional explanation hadn’t drilled a big hole through her heart. “I see.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Gavin’s head jerk toward her at the flat intonation of her voice.
“You don’t agree?”
“Whatever you think.” Shrugging, Ginny took the turnoff to her exit.
“You think I’m wrong?”
Ginny remained mute, sitting stiffly behind the wheel.
“So, now I’m being given the silent treatment? Fine. I don’t give a fuck if you agree with me or not. It’s my call.”
Pressing her foot down on the accelerator, Ginny drove to her apartment in record time, pulling into her parking spot with a screech of tires.
Gavin’s hand went to the dashboard as she slammed the car into Park. “You trying to kill us?”
Releasing her seatbelt with a snap of her fingers, Ginny turned sideways in her seat. “It’s one thing for me to put myself on the line to draw him out and another to paint a target on you. That’s unacceptable, and I won’t allow one more person to be hurt because of me. Especially not you.”
Gavin unclicked his seatbelt just as angrily. “Why not me? Because I was stupid enough to get myself kidnapped or—”
Fury went through Ginny like a fireball. Leaning toward Gavin, Ginny put her face right in his as she poked him in the chest. “Because I love you!” she shouted out in the close confines of the car.