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I squeezed the bridge of my nose with my thumb and forefinger. Just the sound of his voice irritated me. He was why my life was a total shitshow right now. It was one hundred percent because of him that I was in this situation. But to him, I was expendable. It hadn’t mattered that I might have gotten caught or killed if I did what he wanted. Lucky for me, I still had some sense of self-worth and had come up with a Plan B for Mom’s sake. “Maybe. I’m not sure. I need to confirm it. How well does that girl you sent up here not long ago know these people?”
There was a pause on his end where I heard him moving around. Moments later, he lowered his voice. “She knows them extremely well. Is this something big?” I could practically picture him rubbing his greedy hands together, imagining all the things that could possibly happen to pay back the MC for what his warped mind thought they did to Kevin.
“Potentially,” I assured him in a bored tone. “Send her up here so I can confirm it before I take this to that DA creep. I don’t want him snooping around and making things difficult for me if it’s not.”
“When?”
“Sooner the better, right?” He grunted an agreement. “Tell her not to come to that hotel again. Someone saw me there last time, and I don’t want people asking questions if they see me there a second time.”
“Where, then? I’ll send her up there tonight. I want those sons of bitches behind bars as quickly as possible.”
“That just might happen.” I gave him the address of the place Raven and Flick both decided worked the best. “Midnight. I’ll say I’m going to work and meet her there.”
“I’ll make sure she’s there. Good work, Kellianne.”
My eyes widened at the praise. When had my father ever said those words to me? Never. Not until right then. Gritting my teeth, I said goodbye and hung up, hating him a little more. If he thought that something so small so late in the game might make me switch sides, he was out of his mind. Now, after everything that had gone down, the only side I was on was my own. Fuck him and everyone else.
“It’s done.”
“Not quite,” Raven said as she got up and lifted Max out of his pen. He immediately ran and threw himself into the arms of Flick, his favorite person, jabbering to her excitedly. “You’re going with us tonight.”
I shrugged. “I was expecting to go with you.”
“It’s just going to be the three of us. If shit goes south, I need you to have our backs.”
I leaned forward, my gaze never flickering from hers. “I thought you trusted me.”
“I do, but I’m not stupid. I want your promise that if something goes wrong, you’ll shoot Bubbles in the head.”
“Done,” I assured her without hesitation, not really expecting to have to follow through. Raven wasn’t going to let anyone touch Bubbles, least of all give me a chance to shoot that cunt in the back of the head.
Standing, I headed for the door. “Until this is over, keep your stupid-ass brother away from me. He seems to think that just because he says he’s sorry, I’ll forgive and forget. But as soon as this shit is over, I’m out of here.”
“Really?” Flick sounded skeptical, and I glanced at her over my shoulder with one hand on the doorknob. “You’re just going to walk away? Isn’t that the easy way out?”
I shrugged. “I’ll take easy over having to watch my back, wondering when he’s going to pull that crap again. Not that you can talk. You walked away from this place and your man, if memory serves.”
“True,” she agreed, looking sad. “But I still missed everyone who loved me.”
I turned my gaze back on the door in front of me, my heart aching so badly it burned. “See, that’s where we’re totally different, Flick. You have people here who loved and missed you just as much as you missed them. There’s no one but maybe Quinn here who loves me.”
Raven made a sound of disagreement, but before she or Flick could argue, I opened and walked out the door. My eyes burned at the realization of just how few people in the world cared about what might happen to me. Before, the small number hadn’t mattered. Nothing had back then because I knew the only person I could rely on was myself. Now, even though that was still the truth, I ached to have someone care about my outcome in the world.
Blowing out a pent-up breath, I walked through the clubhouse and into the kitchen. This room always seemed to be occupied by at least one person cooking at all times. With as many mouths to feed as there were in the building, someone was hungry every minute of the day. Rory and Gracie were at the sink, washing vegetables for salad and sandwiches.
“Hey,” Gracie greeted with a welcoming smile. “You hungry? We haven’t seen you all day.” She offered me one of the sandwiches minus any lettuce or tomatoes, and I took it.
Adding a little deli mustard to the ham and cheese, I took a hungry bite and leaned back against the counter beside her. On her other side, Rory was throwing the green and red peppers she was washing into the strainer, her jaw clenched as she took out her anger on the poor produce.
“What’s with you?” I asked after half my sandwich was gone. “You look like you could chew nails into bullets.”
“Just pissed at Matt,” she mumbled. “Don’t mind me. I’ll get over it.”
“Why should you have to?” I asked with lifted brows. “If he did something stupid that pissed you off, just kick him in the junk and tell him to fuck off.”
She exhaled slowly, her shoulders drooping as she wiped her fingers on a dishcloth. “Because I don’t want to kick him in the junk or tell him to fuck off. Hurting him isn’t something I want, even though his past does nothing but hurt me. I just want to erase the last three years and make it so that my dad’s BS didn’t separate us to begin with.”
“I’ll get right on finding someone to make us a time machine,” Gracie said with a soft smile.
