Aodhan shakes his head at Noah and then side-eyes Lips hard. “The Bay isn’t big enough for all that fucking attitude, does he have any idea of who he’s snapping at?”
She shrugs. “He doesn’t give a fuck. I’ll sort him out eventually. He either learns how to shut the fuck up and follow instructions, or he goes back to Wyatt’s basement.”
Ash snarls something and Noah is off, running down the hallway as though the hounds of hell are chasing him. I raise an eyebrow at him and he snaps, “It’s bad enough that I’m stuck here with him tonight, I don’t need to be dealing with his pissy mood too.”
I fuss with my purse for a second, checking it for everything I need. “Why are you babysitting him? We’ve left him here before and, other than the fucking crumbs, it wasn’t a disaster.”
Ash kisses Lips with too much tongue and a complete disregard for her lipstick, and Harley huffs at me. “Oh, you mean that time that Jackson called us to say that the little fuck had taken the bus for a joyride to try and find some weed because he’d made it through Blaise’s stash and wanted more? Yeah, he needs a fucking babysitter now. I’m not sure he’s figured out what ‘in hiding’ really means, the fucking dumbass.”
It’s all too confusing for one evening and I shake my head at the lot of them. “Shall we head off, then? It’s been too long since I had people shaking at my feet and the sadist in me craves it.”
Aodhan chuckles at me, tucking me into his side carefully as we walk out to the sounds of Harley mumbling, “Fucking Beaumonts.”
* * *
The gala is being held in one of the oldest and grandest ballrooms in the country, that also happens to be an hour's drive from Mounts Bay. I let Harley sit in the front with Aodhan so they can talk all about their favorite topics of cars and family politics while I sit with Lips in the back and work on more important things.
Like telling her to stop fussing with the lace neckline of her dress so she doesn’t stretch it.
“I feel like I’m being strangled, what is your obsession with going to these things? Gimme a lingerie party at the docks any day of the fucking week.”
Aodhan’s head snaps around. “You guys went to that? Jesus fucking Christ.”
Lips blushes and shoots Harley a scathing look at his very self-satisfied smirk and I attempt to keep the details to myself, even though this is prime shit-talking material in our family.
“We all went. Harley and Ash had a point to prove with the Jackal and certainly got it across. It was a very… exposing night for us all.”
Lips groans and slaps a hand over her face. “Stop. Honestly, it’s fucking weird enough that you were there, we don’t need to talk about it all over again.”
Harley throws back his head and roars with laughter, that infectious joy of his, and Aodhan meets my eyes in the rear view mirror. I shrug at him. “Lips will throw herself into oncoming traffic if we talk about it too much, she’s very shy about all of the public sex acts she keeps getting talked into.”
“Fuck this,” Lips mutters, trying the door handle like she’s actually feeling like throwing herself out.
When the guys get lost in conversation again, I check the security footage of Atticus again, just to ensure he’s still in his bed resting like he’s supposed to be, and when I’m satisfied he’s not going anywhere, I glance back over to find Lips on her phone.
“Everything okay?” I murmur, a gentle prod to see if she’s working on anything that needs my assistance.
She blows out a breath and murmurs back to me, so quietly that I can barely hear it over the guys talking, “Colt is in trouble. Chance too. I’m trying to figure out a plan out for them both but it’s… fuck, it’s nearly impossible. I’m sending Harbin out to meet them and arrange a meeting, but Chance is twitchy as fuck and, fuck, Aves, everything to do with the MC is a mess.”
I nod slowly.
I’ve been ready for this, for the inevitability of her blood relations causing her stress and heartache, but meeting Colt has made me also feel responsible for him.
He was trying to get Poe clear of Grimm. That makes him one of the good guys.
“What can I do? Name it and it’s done, Lips. We’re in this together, your family is mine too.”
She smiles at me, her eyes still sad, and the strain there is heartbreaking to me. We’re supposed to be in the clear now, goddammit. She was supposed to come home to a city that had been wiped clean for her.
She waits until the guys are loudly arguing over something pointless before she says, “Grimm is trying to kill him. He’s put in safeguards to make sure Colt couldn’t just kill him and take his place. There’s rats in with the Unseen, the Serpents—he’s like fucking poison spreading everywhere. I can’t let them die, Aves. This is my chance to have siblings and… Colt doesn’t deserve this shit. He’s got a girlfriend. Apregnantgirlfriend.”
Jesus.
Okay, new priorities.
It’s not a huge shift, we already knew that Grimm and the Graves kids would have to be sorted out at some point. We might’ve been monitoring them for Poe, but Lips was always going to be hopeful to get to know them.
We need a plan.
