AllFreeNovel
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“I do.” I never want to wear a condom with Pearl again, especially after our shower. I stop walking, thinking, pulling at the collar on my shirt. “You free now?” Let’s get this done.
“Give me ten minutes. James has ordered a scan on Baby Enigma in an hour. I just need to set up the machine.” He cocks me a wry smile, and I laugh. Then stop.
“Wait, Beau’s okay, right?”
“Beau’s fine. You know how it is. A shoot-out, a scan. An argument, a scan.” He wanders off toward his room, and I take the stairs down to the kitchen. James is mixing that green shit he and Beau love when I enter.
He looks up as I pull a coffee cup down. “You need to make peace with Beau,” he says, grumpy as hell. “She’s stressing about you, and I don’t need her stressing about anything at the moment.”
Oh. So the scan is because of me? “She doesn’t need to stress about me, I’m fine.”
James stops chopping fruit and glares at me. “Tell Beau that.”
“Fine.” I laugh, going to the coffee machine. “I will.” I stab at the button and stare at the timer as it warms up, drifting into a daydream. I’m not sure what happened this morning. I had no intention of pointing the conversation onto me, but hearing how Pearl lost her mom really got me. I’ve buried that shit for years. I feel like, along with all the other feelings that are unfamiliar to me, I’m getting a hard dose of delayed heartache. Mom was a firecracker. Beautiful, confident.
And my dad ruined her.
I can’t blame Uncle Carlo for butchering the bastard. But back then, I thought my dad really had left. What I would love to know is if Mom did too, or if she knew what Carlo had done. All answers only a dead man can give me. Danny’s pops didn’t know that by killing my father to save his sister, he would actually end her. But that’s on Mom’s head. Not Carlo’s. She chose to leave this world behind. She chose to leave me behind. It doesn’t matter that I had Uncle Carlo. She chose him.
I vividly remember the day Uncle Carlo sat me down and told me that Mom had been involved in an accident. I don’t remember exactly when I figured out Uncle Carlo was protecting me. It didn’t matter by then. I wouldn’t have insulted him by confronting him about it.
He only ever did right by me.
Doesn’t stop the dormant ache inside from rising though. What the fuck is with that?
I blink, the buzz of a blender whizzing ringing in my ears. “Fuck.” I grab my overflowing cup of coffee and set it on the side, snatching a towel off the handle of the stove and mopping up my mess.
“You okay?” James asks loudly over the blender.
“Fine.” I lift my cup and take that first, amazing sip, turning as I do. My cup stills halfway down from my lips when I find Beau in front of me. Here we go. I’m about to be given an earache when she grills me or back ache when she kicks my feet out from beneath me. “Please don’t hurt me,” I say, giving her a cheesy smile. Then I register her sorrowful face. I cock my head. She pushes her bottom lip out on a pout.
“How are you?” she asks, reaching for my wounded arm and rubbing just south of the bandage beneath my clothes.
“Fine,” I say slowly, looking at James. He’s watching Beau too. Frowning. Am I missing something? The last time I saw her, she was scowling at me. Don’t tell me after sleeping on it, she realizes she was out of line. That she’s worried about my injury. And I know no one’s told her about what really went down in the alley because no one fucking knows except Pearl, Nolan, and me. Which reminds me, I must call Nolan.
“You sure?” she asks, stepping closer. Is she about to hug me? I lean back as Beau leans in, but with the counter behind me, I’m going nowhere. She flings her arms around my neck and squeezes me, forcing me to hold my coffee up and away from our bodies. What the fuck? James is shaking his head in despair as he drinks his green juice. I’m stiff as a board in her arms, not that she’s noticing how uncomfortable I am. Or confused. “I love you,” Beau says. “I just want you to know that.” She breaks away and wanders off, taking her juice as she passes James.
“Hormones,” he mutters when she’s gone.
“Right.” She’s all over the place, hating on me one second, loving me the next.
Danny walks in, wriggling the knot of his tie. I frown at his impeccable suited form. “Since when does meeting Higham warrant a full-blown three-piece?”
He goes to his cuffs and starts fiddling.
“With cufflinks,” I add, looking between him and James, who’s in his running shorts. No T-shirt. “Are you wearing a suit today with all the trimmings?”
“I never wear a suit with all the trimmings.” He throws Danny an exasperated look. “Unless I’m getting married or taking my wife to the opera.”
“You need cuffs for that too,” Danny says, getting himself a coffee.
“And an AK47,” I add, smiling when James places his glass down with a bit too much force. “Do I need to change?” I motion down my casually suited form.
“You look gorgeous, darling,” Danny quips.
I roll my eyes and take a seat opposite James, sipping my coffee and pulling my phone out, dialing Nolan.
“Anyway, it might not happen,” Danny grumbles, glancing at his watch.
