“Don’t worry, I’ve got some dark goth colors in my kit, too, so you can just look like an emo kid.”
Sighing, I glance back to Camile, but when I see the light shining in her eyes, I can’t say no. She seems so happy in this moment with her friend here with us, and it warms my heart. I take her hand, lacing my fingers through hers, and walk back into the living room with her.
Mackenzie is sitting by Kirill, on the floor, with her legs drawn up, and she has one of his hands resting on her knee as she paints his nails a shocking pink.
“That suits you.” I smirk.
He shrugs lazily. “I like pink. It’s one of my favorite colors.”
Mackenzie nods as she carries on carefully painting his nails. “Kirill is very secure in his masculinity, and he doesn’t give a damn what other people think, do you?”
Kirill smirks. “No one matters but you,Kukla.”
“What doesKuklamean?” I ask, curious.
Mackenzie blushes, and Kirill’s smirk widens into a grin. “It means doll. My pretty, perfect doll.”
Well, fuck. I don’t quite know what to say to that. Luckily for me, I don’t have to reply, as Camile sidles up to me and pulls me to sit next to her on the rug.
“Your turn,” she says. “We’d better do this on the floor. I don’t want to spill any nail polish on the couch.” She rummages through the supplies Mackenzie brought with her until she finds a dark bottle and holds it up in front of me. “Is this suitable, do you think? It’s almost black. You’ll look like that singer, you know the famous one everybody lusts after.”
I have no clue what singer she’s talking about, but I nod and give her the go-ahead to start painting my nails.
Christ, I really must be madly in love. I wonder whenI can tell her. What will she say back? What if I scare her off? I know I can be too much for people.
She works away diligently, and her pink tongue pokes out of the corner of her mouth as she concentrates. I want to lean forward and kiss her and take that divine pink tip into my own mouth, but I don’t. I let her continue what she’s doing because it’s quite clear she’s loving every minute of this.
Once she’s finished, she sits back and admires her handiwork. “They look great, if I say so myself. I think the guys will dig this.”
“I’ll probably get beaten to a pulp, but it will be worth it. If it makes you happy.”
“Oh, look how much he cares about you.” Mackenzie is grinning at us.
The girls both pick colors and paint each other’s nails, chattering away as they do, and I’m mostly content to sit back and watch them. It seems that Kirill is, too. Every now and again, we chat about bikes and cars, but we don’t have a lot in common, so much of the time, we simply sit and watch our women. Still, he seems like a decent guy.
At some point, I grab us another beer, and the girls down more shots of vodka as their nails dry, and they start gossiping about what’s going on at the college, and who is talking about who. Camile’s face suddenly grows serious, and she picks at some imaginary lint on her jeans as she looks up at her friend from under her lashes.
“What is everyone saying about me?”
Mackenzie glances at Kirill then back to Camile. “There have been lots of rumors, some of which are kind of wild. I even heard someone say you disappeared and will never be found. Someone else said that you’d beenkidnapped by a gang of feral people who live in the woods.”
“Feral people who live in the woods?” Camile repeats, her eyes wide. “Well, I guess that’s not what I was expecting. But hey, thinking about it, can you try to spread those kinds of rumors?”
“What?” Mackenzie’s eyebrows draw together.
Actually, what Camile has said makes a lot of sense, and I hum in agreement. “Yeah, if you guys could spread some false rumors around the college, that would be helpful. The fewer people who know where Camile is, the better. She could still be in danger.” I don’t go into any further details about exactly what kind of danger. Still, Mackenzie is Camile’s best friend, and Kirill is one of her men, so I assume we can trust them. “If they believe she’s been taken by some freaky wood dwelling people?—”
“Like The Preachers,” Kirill interrupts with a smirk, and is delivered a swift elbow in the ribs from Mackenzie.
Unsure exactly what he means, I continue. “Or being held somewhere by a gang, or even that she’s been taken out of state or out of the country, that would actually be good.”
“You’re still in danger?” Mackenzie’s eyes grow wide, and she blinks rapidly as if trying to fight back tears.
“She’s with us, and we’re all looking out for her,” I reassure her friend. “The security here at the compound has been overhauled, and she’s always got club members with her, but it would still be helpful if people didn’t know where she was. Anything that can act as misdirection helps us while we’re trying to sort things out for Camile, that’s all. There’s no need toworry, because we won’t let anyone touch a hair on her head.”
Guilt hits me as I think about how we failed her before, and most certainly did let people touch a hair on her head. We let strange men touch herall over,and I will never be able to forgive myself for that.
The moment when we first found her, and the way she’d looked at us, all abject and cowed, will haunt my nightmares forever. I’m pretty sure Jack and Ghost feel the same way. As for Rook, he’s going to be dealing with the aftermath of this whole situation for the rest of his life. You don’t just recover from something like that. Not fully. You carry on, of course, and the scars slowly heal over time and the deep cuts to the soul knit together, but they’re still there, etched in your psyche.
