“Um…” I muttered, avoiding Martha’s eyes since she was right, I didn’t share anything about what happened with Brock, Damian and being investigated by a multi-agency task force that came together to dismantle my ex-husband’s drug operation and I was seeing, just then, this was probably something girlfriends shared.

Elvira yanked off the top of the cocktail shaker then extended her arm across the table, offering it to me. “Suck some of that back, girlfriend, and let ‘er rip.”

That was when I found my hand reaching for the cocktail shaker. Then, as told by a somewhat scary Elvira, I took it and sucked some back.

She made good cosmos.

I handed it off to Tracy who was standing beside me so she could partake and then I pulled in breath and started.

“Okay, well, see, I didn’t tell you…” I turned to Martha, “because I… well… it was messed up.”

“Oh boy,” Gwen muttered again.

“Keep talking,” Martha said quietly, her eyes on my face, her body braced and I knew she was worried.

Damn.

“His name isn’t Jake Knox. It’s Brock Lucas,” I whispered and felt something weird and tense coming from the table but since Martha was blinking at me and looking more worried, I hurried on. “He was… okay, here it is. Damian is a drug kingpin and he called me nine months ago lying to me that his dad was sick. I met him for lunch and he told me he wanted to reconcile.”

I stopped talking mainly because Martha shrieked a very loud, “What? ”

I put my hand on her arm and talked quickly, “Honey, it was… it was nothing.”

“That jackass calls you, Tess, it’s not nothing,” she snapped, her bright blue eyes flashing.

She was right. She didn’t know the worst of it with him but she never liked him either.

Said from the beginning he was a bad seed. Told me while she was trying on maid of honor dresses that she was performing her duties under protest. She always hated Damian.

Which was why I never told her he hit me and raped me. She’d lose it and I needed her breathing free air, not serving time for manslaughter.

“You’re right,” I agreed.

“Damn straight I am,” she shot back.

I pulled in more breath. “Anyway, I told him, obviously, I wasn’t interested. But you know Damian.”

She shook her head then told the girl posse around the table. “Dick never gives up. Sinks his poisonous fangs in you and doesn’t let go until he injects all the venom.”

“Oo, lawdy, seems you don’t got good radar when it comes to pickin’ ‘em,” Elvira muttered.

“No, her radar is beyond not good. Her radar is also not malfunctioning. It’s straight out broke,” Martha agreed and I was wondering if perhaps Elvira and Martha were not such a good match. Denver was relatively peaceful. I’d never heard of riots or sieges or militant hostile takeovers of land and I was foreseeing this if these two got together and rallied the female population of the Denver Metropolitan Area as a protest to shelter all women against dickhead ass**les.

“Go on, girl,” Camille prompted quietly and I looked around to see her, Gwen and Tracy’s eyes gentle on me.

I nodded and went on. “It gets worse.”

“Oh boy,” Gwen whispered.

“Shit,” Martha muttered.

“You don’t say,” Elvira mumbled.

I kept talking. “Like I said, Damian is a drug kingpin who’s in jail, or was. Now he’s out on bail awaiting trial.”

Martha glared at me. She knew this. Everyone did. It had been in the papers. She’d only broached it with me once, I told her he wasn’t in my life so I didn’t care and she’d backed off about that too.

I kept going. “But since he contacted me and kept contacting me, the task force investigating him thought maybe I was involved in his operation.”

“Oh boy,” Gwen whispered.

“Shit,” Martha muttered.

“You don’t say,” Elvira mumbled.

I continued. “So, they um… well, they sent someone in undercover to get close to me and that someone they sent was Jake slash Brock.”

“Holy f**k! ” Martha shouted.

“Honey, keep it down,” I whispered, my body getting tight and she leaned across the table, snatched the cocktail shaker out of Camille’s hand and then downed a huge gulp like it was Kool-Aid before she dropped her hand and her eyes cut to me.

I took that as my cue to keep going.

“Well, um… that was it, really. They did their sweep; I was caught up in it. They searched my house, car, the bakery, did a forensic search of my computers and another of my finances, brought me into the Station to talk to me and then I found out who he was, we had a few words and I walked away.”

Then I stopped talking which meant Martha started.

“I gotta tell you, Tess, I knew Damian was a bad seed. When I read that shit about him in the paper, it did not surprise me.”

I held her eyes and settled in for the “I told you so’s”.

I was not disappointed.

“And I gotta tell you, I knew somethin’ was not right with that Jake slash Brock slash whoever-the-fuck.”

I pressed my lips together.

“And I gotta tell you, I cannot believe you did not share any of this shit with me.”

I bit my lip.

“Now, what I wanna know is, how is he back?”

I released my lip only for both to slide to the side. Martha’s eyes narrowed.

I decided, since I’d kept so much for her, and I really shouldn’t have, that it was the right thing to do to answer.

“He stopped by today to explain,” I said quietly.

“Yeah? And what’d he say?”

“Um… well, he was, uh… well…”

I petered out.

“Oh boy,” Gwen whispered.

I started talking again when Martha got a look like her head was about to explode.

“He wants us to talk stuff out and see where we are.”

“Where you are?” Martha whispered and I shrugged even though I knew that was not my best play. “Okay, where are you?” she asked.

“He’s coming over tonight at nine,” I informed her and she rolled her eyes to the heavens.

“Oh boy,” Gwen and Camille said in unison.

I took in another breath.

Martha rolled her eyes back to me. “Don’t do this,” she said softly.

“Martha –”