Outsider Read Free Page A

hotel’s elevator down to the ground floor.
    She
spotted Toni waiting in the lobby. Oh yeah, that was why Reagan had suggested a
shopping excursion.
    Toni’s
long brown hair was fashioned into a braid. Her thick-rimmed glasses would have
been hipster if she had a defined style. Her entire wardrobe seemed to have
been purchased in a 1990’s thrift store. Today she wore an ankle-length beige
pencil skirt, never-seen-her-without-them brown riding boots, and a white
button-down blouse with a ruffle down the center. She was one hundred percent
too cute to dress the way she did. Reagan wasn’t sure why Logan was so fixated
on the woman. Reagan supposed it was because he’d seen Toni naked. Toni had the
kind of figure most women would have to purchase.
    When
Toni spotted Reagan, she waved excitedly. “Logan wants to know if he can come
with us,” Toni said.
    “Nope.
He’s going to have to let you out of his sight for a few hours. He’ll probably
die or something.”
    Toni
giggled and slapped at her. “Oh, please. He’ll probably forget I exist by the
time we return.”
    Not
a chance.
    “You
can’t come,” Toni called to Logan, who was sitting on a lobby sofa hiding his
face behind an upside-down copy of a Good Housekeeping magazine.
    “Or
follow us,” Reagan added.
    “But
what if someone tries to touch her?” Logan protested, slapping his magazine
down on the end table beside him.
    “I’m
sure she can take care of herself for one afternoon,” Reagan said.
    “In
New Orleans? This place changes people.”
    “I’ll
be fine,” Toni said. “Reagan knows karate.”
    “She
does?” Logan looked at Reagan hopefully.
    She
didn’t, but that didn’t stop her from lying. “Oh yeah. I’m a black belt and
three-time world champion. If any man so much as glances Toni’s way, I’ll
pulverize him into dust. Hi-yah!” She made a chopping motion with one hand. Was
he buying it? Would he ever let the poor woman out of his sight?
    “Don’t
you trust me?” Toni asked, looking up at Logan in a way that visibly turned him
into a pile of mush. Reagan ducked her head so he wouldn’t see her laughing at
his expense. Man, the guy had it bad.
    “I
do trust you,” he said, touching Toni’s cheek. “It’s all the douchebags walking
around this city that I don’t trust.”
    “I
don’t think you have much to worry about with her dressed like that,” Reagan
said.
    Toni
ran her hands over her blouse. The woman was in her midtwenties and wearing a
bona fide blouse . Didn’t she have friends or a decent female relative to
help her see the mistake that was her wardrobe?
    “Is
it really that bad?” Toni asked.
    “With
the exception of Logan, who seems to have built up an immunity to its harmful
side effects, this get-up you’re wearing here?” Reagan traced the outlines of
Toni’s clothes in the air. “I’m afraid it’s cock-withering attire, little one.”
    “That’s
a good thing,” Logan insisted with his trademark sunny smile.
    “Where’s
the rest of the crew?” Reagan searched the lobby for signs of the wives and
girlfriends of Sinners’ band members. In recent weeks, the ladies had become
some of her closest friends, and she was sure she’d need their help to get Toni
to discard her schoolmarm wardrobe. Especially since Logan seemed so keen on
her keeping it.
    When
the elevator doors opened, Reagan heard several familiar voices.
    Myrna
Sinclair was the first off the elevator. She always wore professional suits
with tight, midthigh-length skirts—today’s was a dove gray. It was what she
wore under them that brought her husband to his knees. And those three-inch
heels she wore probably didn’t hurt. Nor had her Ph.D. in sex. What man
wouldn’t fall for a woman like her?
    Sed
Lionheart’s fiancée, Jessica, emerged from the elevator behind Myrna, looking
like she’d just stepped out of the pages of Cosmo . Strawberry blond and
blue eyed, she had heads turning as she passed. Those same heads