I peeled the lid off the one he handed to me before passing Savannah's tofu over to her. In turn, she handed my sushi to me.
No one was in the mood to complain. Woody was clearly not in the mood to listen to them if we were. He hadn't spoken more than a word or two since he woke from a nap. Like an angry bear, he needed to hibernate for longer. Relatable. I could have curled up in a cave for a few months myself. If the cave had a bathroom, wi-fi and food delivery. What? There's a difference between needing some time out and wanting to give up basic comforts.
"Did you find out anything?" Leif said, after polishing off a couple of spring rolls and starting on some fried rice.
"The police ruled the senator's death a homicide," Forrest said dryly.
"I'm shocked. Shocked, I say," Leif said sarcastically. "If I was any more shocked, I'd fall off this chair onto the floor." He flailed his free arm in the air like Kermit the Frog.
"Go on then," Woody said. "For shits and giggles." Apparently his snark had woken up. Of course that would be the first thing to recover.
Leif scooped a piece of shrimp out of his container and threw it at him.
Woody caught it and popped it into his mouth. "Thanks, bro." He chewed thoughtfully. "That's not bad, I'll order that next time."
"Don't you hate it when your attempt to retaliate against someone backfires?" Leif pretended to sulk. He needed to work on his pout more, it was too close to a smile.
"It's the worst," I agreed. "Maybe you should have tried something a little bit more, I don't know, liquid."
"Don't give him any fucking ideas," Woody growled. There wasn't much heat in it though. Either he was too tired to bother, or he didn't care if he got showered in cola.
My guess was the first one, since cola was sticky. On the other hand, he might have some strange, sticky drink kink.
Was that a thing? Probably. It wasn'tmything, though. Sticky was my least favorite sensation. Unless it involved orgasms.
"Do they have any leads on who did it?" I asked. This might be a safer topic of conversation than flinging liquid around.
I glanced at Savannah, who was listening, her nose wrinkled. She had some idea of what happened, but not the whole story. That was probably for the best. The details were nasty, to say the least. Not to mention, what she didn't know, she couldn't tell the cops if they asked.
"They have a few leads," Forrest said. "He had no shortage of enemies. They're going to have their work cut out for them, narrowing it down. They'll have to rule them out one by one. Chances are, his enemies will be less than cooperative. That'll slow down the process." He didn't seem too worried about it.The opposite, actually, which was logical. The longer it took, the colder the trail leading to us got.
"Was it you?" Savannah asked Woody and me pointedly.
"Depends, are you going to go to the cops?" Woody pointed at her with his fork.
He better not intend to use that on her. Or I'd… I don't know. Throwing a piece of sushi at him wouldn't do much harm, except to my food. Maybe I'd throw the chair I was sitting on. It was nice and heavy. If I threw it hard enough, I'd leave a dent in the side of his head.
"No," she said quickly, hand raised. "I don't know what's going on, but I know you saved me from…what would have happened if you didn't save me." She was visibly trying hard not to think about it too much.
"If you say it was for the best, then I believe you," she concluded.
"It was for the best," I told her. "If it wasn't him, it would have been us."
I also decided not to think about what might have happened. The important thing was, it hadn't. We were both lucky. The guys had our backs. Did that make us a team? Sable and her…um, stable? Anyway…
I'd focus on what I could control. Like Leif. The way he'd let me take charge in the bedroom? That was hotter than hell. A woman could get used to it. It's me, I'm the woman.
I had a sneaking suspicion he'dletme get used to it and love every moment of it. Especially being called a good boy. He seemed to enjoy that as much as I enjoyed being called a good girl by Forrest. It seemed we had praise kink in common.
I admit, when I first heard it from Forrest's lips, I'd assumed I liked it because I'd never been called that before. Not that I could remember. I was starving for approval, desperate for it. Craved it.
But now? Now I understood there was more to it than that. Yes, I wanted approval, but from someone who mattered to me. A man who cared enough to give me what I needed. A man who knew, instinctively, how to build me up without tearing me down later.
Although, Leif was a lot more confident, so maybe it was simply another one of those things we were born with. Probably something someone would try to shame us for, if they had nothing better to do.
Fuck that, I felt how I felt and I wasn't going to apologize for it.
"Is there anyone they can pin it on?" Woody asked around a mouthful of rice.