Sweet Seduction Shield(64)

"What am I, chopped liver?" Abi offered.

"I know how to fire a gun," Gen added.

Everybody ignored the pregnant woman.

"Where's your sense of adventure, Marie," Kelly demanded. I opened my mouth to reply, when Eva beat me to it.

"You ladies seem to forget who our other halves are. Do you really think Ben would let you out of his sight, Abi? Or Nick let me wander off at night without knowing exactly where I'm going?" She turned to Gen and sighed. "And Gen, sweetie, really? Dominic would lock you up and throw away the key if you went off loaded for bear in your current state. No," she added, turning back to the rest of us. "This is not about defying them, as such. It's got to be a little more subtle than that."

I liked this woman. She had a devious side that appealed to me right now.

"We convince them that the retrieval is still on," I suggested, getting into the swing of things now. "We don't need the good detective to accompany us for the original plan to go ahead."

"Now, see," Eva said, sitting back in her chair and adjusting her hat again. "That's what I'm talking about."

It wasn't going to be as simple as we'd thought, however. Nick took one look at the innocent, sweet face of his fiancé and said, "You're up to something."

"Who me?" Eva asked, slipping onto his lap without waiting for an invitation.

Abi sauntered over to Ben where he was leaning against the kitchen bench drinking a beer, and snuggled under his arm, burying herself into his side. He immediately offered her his bottle, grunting in amusement when she tried to take more than one sip.

Gen and I pulled out chairs around the table and sat down, while Kelly bumped hips with Adam, who was leaning over Daisy's shoulder pointing out a spot she'd missed on what looked like a birdhouse, clearly recently painted due to the new-paint smell wafting up off the thing.

"So," Nick said, once we'd all gotten ourselves into position. "Finished scheming?"

"Nobody's scheming, cowboy," Eva drawled.

"Angel," he shot back. "One word. Eric."

My eyes darted to Abi's, taking in her widened gaze and slight grimace.

"Ah, fuck it all to hell," Kelly declared. "You guys are seriously whacked. Listening in on your women's conversations. What's with that?"

"Who's Fred, Kels?" Adam asked. "Another guy I have to knock outta the ring to get to you?"

Kelly snorted, Gen made a long suffering sighing sound, and Ben said, "You wanna go ahead with the retrieval, all you had to do was ask."

"You think it's a good idea?" I queried.

Ben shrugged, then looked over to Nick for guidance.

"Pierce said he'd meet us there," Nick offered and every single woman groaned.

"Did he now?" I murmured. Nice of him to have told me. Here we were thinking we were being so clever, getting one up on the men. And all the time we didn't even need to, the men had it all planned out for us.

A small slightly amused sound escaped my lips. I had no idea what was going through Pierce's mind, but clearly he had no intention of meeting up with Stone for a beer after work. He wanted, instead, to meet up with me... us. A smile curved my lips. Nah, me.

"I'm glad you think this is amusing, Marie," Nick said, interrupting my cheerful musings. "But there's a couple of things we need to get sorted first."

The women shifted in their seats and the men all stood a little straighter. It seemed when Nick spoke everyone listened.

"OK," I said, lifting my eyes to his ice-blue ones.

"Gen and Adam stay here with Daisy," he ordered.

"What?" Gen exclaimed. "I don't get to go? Why not?"

"Dominic," all three men said in unison.

I expected Gen to splutter and fume, but she cocked her head to the side and then shrugged. My gaze met her amused one.

"It's all right, he'll pay," she explained. "It'll be fun."

"I bet it will," Kelly murmured, receiving a snigger from Abi in response. Gen just smiled, wickedly.

"We'll be buying drinks, but no one consumes them," Nick added. "They'll be for show."

Everyone nodded.

"Eva, Marie, Kelly and I will go in together. Abi and Ben will scout the bar out first before we do. We do not proceed unless they give us the all clear."

"How will they know it's safe?" I asked.

"Abi's familiar with McLaren's men, and Ben's familiar with any locals," Nick pointed out reasonably. It all made complete sense. "Both of them are trained to handle any difficulties that could arise," he added, making me look at Ben's head, noticing the bandage had been removed, but the memory of why he'd had to wear one was still fresh.