The Reed Security Relationship Manual: A Reed Security Romance, Giulia Lagomarsino [acx book reading .txt] 📗

against my hand as I rested my elbow on the window ledge. “This sucks. I had big plans for Blake and I tonight. Maybe I could borrow one of yours?” I said hopefully.

Claire scoffed. “Seriously? I’m not giving up any of those toys. You’re on your own. I especially can’t wait to try out my new Intelligent Oral Sex Simulator.”

I pouted, hating that I was going to be missing out tonight. We had been at a sex toy conference for the past three days. Blake only wanted me to stay for one night, sure that I would get into trouble if we stayed longer. The only trouble we ran into was the obscene number of sex toys that we didn’t have in our shop, and which ones to purchase.

We were in the process of setting up a shop on the outskirts of town, something that took a ton of convincing for the guys. They didn’t think it was safe to open a shop that invited so many scandalous people into our world. None of us agreed, and we convinced them that having such easy access to the toys was beneficial for everyone. This trip was supposed to help us get up and running with the best of the best.

“I really wanted to try my new bullet,” I grumbled. “It’s just not fair.”

“Relax, we placed the order,” Cara assured me. “They said it should only take a week to get our shipment.”

That was a week too long when you were waiting for new toys to play with. I glanced in the rearview mirror, doing a double take when I realized there was a truck behind us.

“Hey, does that truck behind us look familiar to you?” I asked. They started to turn around, but I shouted out to stop them. “Don’t look!”

“Then how do you want us to tell you if it looks familiar?” Ivy rolled her eyes.

“Just look in the mirrors. I could swear I saw that truck at the conference.”

“Really?” Raegan said drolly. “You saw a black pickup truck at a conference, and now you think it’s following us?”

I squinted as I stared in the rearview mirror. The windows were tinted, so I couldn’t see who the driver was. “You don’t find it strange that the windshield is tinted like that?”

Raegan bent down slightly to look in her mirror. “Okay, that’s a little weird, but still, why would anyone be following us?”

I shrugged. “Maybe we should call the guys.”

“And say what? Someone’s following us?” Ivy replied. “They would lock us up for the next twenty years, not to mention that whoever is behind us would end up buried in the woods whether they were following us or not.”

“She’s right,” Cara nodded. “We just have to wait it out and see what happens.” She pointed to the right. “Turn up here and see if he follows.”

I did as she said, and breathed a sigh of relief when the truck kept going straight.

“See? He wasn’t following us. You almost got us sentenced to life imprisonment all because you’re paranoid,” Ivy huffed.

“Can you blame me? I mean, with what happened with Kate, and the way the guys always act like someone’s out to kill us, it’s amazing that any of us have the ability to behave normally.”

Raegan reached under the seat and pulled out her gun. “Relax. We’ve got this. If anything happens, the guys have ensured that we all have protection. Besides, we have our trackers in. If we were to be kidnapped, they would find us. Plus, we all have our alert buttons.”

I took a deep breath and nodded with a laugh. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have freaked out.” Glancing over at the gun in Raegan’s lap, I winced. “Maybe you should put that away, though.”

“Why? I’ll just keep it out for protection.”

“Because you’re more likely to shoot us than whoever’s after us,” Ivy retorted. “Let’s face it, you’re one of the worst shots.”

“Hey, I’ve become a lot better over the past year!”

“Yeah, that’s why Jackson keeps taking you to the shooting range and making sure you’re far away from everyone else. Guess what? It’s not because he wants to play hide the gun.”

I bit my lip, trying to hide my amusement from Raegan. I felt bad for her.

“Well, while your men keep trying to protect you, Sinner’s been encouraging me to practice more often. He bought me a new gun for my birthday,” Cara grinned.

“You’re just playing up the whole anxiety thing so he’ll let you blow stuff up,” Claire pouted. “I long to blow something up.”

“I long?” I asked.

“You know, in Pride and Prejudice when Lydia says I long for a ball.” She grinned, laughing to herself. “It’s just such a quotable book. No, no. The green one. Or, Oh, hang, Kitty! What has she to do with it! It’s like The Godfather for women. All life’s answers are wrapped up in that one book. Shelves in the closet. Happy thought indeed.”

She laughed to herself while the rest of us stared at her. “I’m pretty sure some of those are just in the movie.”

“Whatever. It doesn’t matter. The movie was just as good. Well, the five hour BBC version was. The other one was shit.” She sighed dreamily. “What I wouldn’t give to have Mr. Darcy take me on a carriage ride through the country. We’d stop at Pemberly and stroll through the grounds, seeing where he ripped off his clothes and dove into the pond.”

“Yeah, again, I’m pretty sure that was just in the movie.”

“Hey, it’s Colin Firth. When you see him in the movie, do actually wonder if his lines were in Jane Austen’s original work or if it was in the movie?”

“Guys, I hate to break up this Pride and Prejudice orgasmic event,” Cara said, “but we have company again.”

I looked in the rearview mirror, noticing the black truck was back, just turning onto the road behind us. “No way. What are the chances that he just happened to follow us in a roundabout way?”

Raegan racked