Page 204 of Rebellious

Because why wouldn’t he? He was Uncle Christopher’s son.

Mattie’s face crumpled.

“We aren’t here to hurt your brother, Mattie,” Grant said. “CJ wanted to personally invite him to Axel’s birthday party.”

Rory widened his eyes.

“I was in my room, w-working on the tasks Rebel gave to me.”

“Did we all get lists?” Grant asked, lowering Rory’s spirits.

He hadn’t.

“I still have shit on my list,” CJ grumbled. “Rebel is more extravagant than Mom. It’s not a milestone birthday for Axel.”

“You’re slow,” Ryan crowed. “I’m already done. And, you, asshole, are still jealous. Aunt Meggie isn’t here. She probably gave Rebel free reign to be as over-the-top as possible.”

“I’m not jealous!” CJ fumed, returning the thump Ryan gave him a few minutes ago. “Stop saying that.”

“Nope. As a matter of fact, I might buy you green paint to go with your green emotion.”

CJ flipped off Ryan. “What are you working on, Mattie?”

“Naming the mocktails, so I can send them to Diesel. He’ll get them to Potter and Kenny.”

“Mocktails?” CJ asked dubiously.

“Yeah,” Mattie answered. “Uh, I’ve come up with the High Octane and Nitrous Boost to go with the ones with dry ice. Rebel said they’ll be easy to adapt to actual cocktails.”

“C-can I p-participate?” Rory asked, hope surging into him.

If CJ wanted to personally invite him, that accounted for something.

Everyone looked at CJ.

Gnashing his teeth together, CJ nodded. “I will send you the deejay’s contact information. I want you to make up playlists with Axel’s favorite songs.”

The task sounded easy, but Rory didn’t know Axel’s music tastes.

“Make sure it’s loaded with songs by Megan Thee Stallion, Taylor Swift, and Beyonce,” Mattie advised. “Leaning more on Megan Thee Stallion.”

“Are you sure?” Rory asked.

Mattie nodded. “Trust me on that. Text Harley. She can help you. I think all her tasks are done.” When no one added anything, she backed into the hallway. “Yeah, uh, bye.” She turned and ran away.

Because Kaia was out running errands for her, Bishop drove Rebel to the club and helped her to her table. Luckily, the club was almost empty, which she’d suspected since it was a Thursday night and nothing special was going on.

Not long after he got home, Axel began barging into her room every twenty minutes, demanding to know the plans for his club party. He was excited, so before she lost her patience, Diesel suggested that she find someplace else to send out the last of her instructions to their brothers and cousins and then finish drawing the last of her signs.

He’d called her to check on her, though his cool tone suggested he was still upset with her.

She wasn’t good at drawing like Kaia, but she’d given him enough to do so she decided to create the signs herself. Sipping the glass of water Potter brought to her when she first arrived, Rebel got back to work.

“Mind if I sit?”

At the sound of Torrin’s voice, Rebel raised her head long enough to nod, then studied the green glitter. Maybe she shouldn’t have used glitter. Axel might not like it.

Torrin gulping beer drew Rebel’s attention back to him. “I’m perfectly capable of hearing while I finish this,” she said. “If this is another lecture about Diesel, though, I will tune you out.”