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“She bullied me into telling her!” Lik snaps. “I told you she knew something was up. I told you not to leave me alone with her.”
“If you guys hadn’t lied to us, maybe this wouldn’t be such a mess.”
I try to look behind Rose, Lik, and Sam to see where the last voice comes from, but she’s too small, hidden by all of them, but mainly my best friend’s gigantic body.
“Lovebug, I’m so sorry. You have to understand.”
“I’m sorry too,” Lik jumps in.
They both look pathetic, apologizing to her like pouty children about to lose the right to their favorite console.
“This is a mess,” the fourth voice repeats in a huff.
“I can’t believe you hid from me.” Her eyebrows pinch together. “Why?”
I finally stand. “Because I had a lot to deal with. I never want you in the middle of dangerous things, and your desperate boyfriends were meant to keep you away from this.”
She looks at me, completely unimpressed, but her gaze softens when the fourth member of their group finally makes it past the two men behind Rose. A small, blonde woman looks up at me, then Kayla, to finally land her gaze on Rose. I only ever saw her from afar, but I know she’s the best thing that ever happened to my sister.
“Are you okay?” she asks Rose.
Finally relaxing, she wraps an arm around her waist. “No. My asshole of a brother has been out of prison for five months and our two boyfriends have been hiding it from me.”
I smile because there’s no one like my blunt sister, and extend my hand toward the blonde. “You must be Rachel. I’m Nate.”
My sister slaps my hand away, narrowing her eyes at me. “Don’t even try to touch her with your filthy hands.”
I chuckle to myself, straightening again, and putting my hand on Kay’s lower back. “Rose, this is Kay, my wife. Kay, my sister, Rose. I’m sure you’ve heard of her before.”
“Who hasn’t?” Lik scoffs.
Barely present, Kay nods to herself. “Yeah. We met before.”
“Your what?”
I catch Sam running a hand from his forehead to his chin, annoyed by my surprise announcement.
“Wife. My wife. It’s a long story.” But that’s not what bothers me. I turn to Kay, bringing her closer. “Did you say you met before?”
“Uh-huh. Met them all.”
I can’t keep the surprise off my face. “You met my sister. And her boyfriend. And her fiancée. And her other boyfriend.” I spin my finger in the air at the other group. “All of them.”
Kay nods again. “Yes, Nate. I did.” She narrows her eyes at them, tilting her head to the side. “I got her”—she points at Rachel—“fixed by my on-call doctor when she was disfigured.”
And that’s when I notice the scars running from the corner of Rachel’s left eye and down her cheek.
“Ah, fuck,” Lik mutters. “I forgot about that.”
“The four of them were begging at his door because they didn’t have anyone to turn to and they didn’t want to go to the hospital. We didn’t ask any questions, but I did ask for a favor.” She pauses, and her gaze shifts, going from Rachel to Sam. “Remember?”
His jaw tightens, and Lik automatically wraps a hand around his biceps, as if to stop him from jumping Kay.
“Yes,” he clips. “I remember.”
“And what was the deal?” I ask slowly.
Kay chuckles sarcastically. “He was meant to keep you away from me if you ever got out of prison.”
