Chapter Twelve

Adalee

"You're not going to tell us?" Mark asked, his voice tinged with suspicion.

"Tell you what?" I replied, trying to keep my tone casual.

Mark tapped his fingers on the arm of the couch, his eyes narrowing. "Why Fade told us to go home, lock the door, and stay with you until he arrives."

I shrugged, attempting to play it cool. "Uh, not really sure. You should ask him when he gets here." Lying to Mark and Garett was not what I wanted to do, but I didn't know if I could tell them just what was going on.

"Did they block out the cameras again?" Garett asked. "Don is going to flip the fuck out if they did."

Good lord. I did not want to deal with a pissed-off Don on top of all of this. "I think they blocked them for a few seconds, but that's it."

"Who were they sneaking in this time?" Mark asked, clearly frustrated.

"How much you want to bet they are going to send us on some weird wild goose chase soon?" Garett joked. "I don't think any of the guys are ready to get married, though." He glanced at me with a smirk. "Unless you and Fade have something to tell us."

I reared back, feeling a flush of annoyance. "Excuse me, but there is nothing I need to tell you guys. There is nothing going on between me and Fade." I balanced my laptop in my lap, working on editing out a few awkward pauses from the interview with Fade earlier this morning.

"Where did you two take off to this morning?" Mark asked, not letting up.

"He just wanted to take me for a ride on his bike. I thought it would be good for me to know what it's like to ride on a motorcycle. Research."

"Was that the only thing you rode?" Mark asked, a mischievous glint in his eye. "For research purposes, of course."

I gasped loudly, and Garett burst into laughter. "Mark!" I exclaimed, feeling my face heat up.

"What? Just asking," Mark said with a shrug, a grin spreading across his face.

"You guys are unbelievable," I muttered, trying to focus on my editing.

Garett leaned forward, still chuckling. "Come on, Adalee. We know there's something going on between you and Fade. You can't hide it forever."

I sighed, feeling the weight of their expectations. "There's really nothing to hide."

Mark raised an eyebrow. "Sure, if you say so."

I rolled my eyes and went back to my work, trying to ignore the heat rising in my cheeks. The truth was, I wasn't even sure what was going on between Fade and me. Things had gotten complicated, and I wasn't ready to dissect it all, especially not with these two grilling me.

"I do, and I need to focus on my editing, okay? Don is going to kill me if I don't have this in his inbox by five."

Mark held up his hands. "Fine, fine. I'll wait until Fade gets here to ask him."

"Sounds like a good idea to me," I murmured. I didn't know when that was going to be, but I hoped it was soon because I wasn't sure how much more grilling and jokes I could take from Garett and Mark.

I also wanted to know what was happening back at the clubhouse. I had hoped we would get to hang out with the girls while they had their meeting, but Yarder made it pretty clear that he did not want us there. I had started to try to tell him it would be good to get more footage of the ol' ladies, but I could sense immediately that it was not the time to press my luck.

So until Fade got here, I would deal with Mark and Garett, and hope whatever was going on at the clubhouse was good, and not more shit hitting the fan.