Page 54 of Stealing Blinds

“Jax likes blue,” I volunteer while glaring at my family.

“Like the ocean,” he sings with a creepy-ass grin, as if he’s fucking Willy Wonka.

Sylvie shivers beside me, and I can’t blame her. We might as well be trapped in a trippy funhouse.

Enter Remy. Apparently, no one is too young to be an active participant in this bedlam. He blasts through the great room, his hands stained blue and Bernard—the dog—nipping at his heels and wearing a T-shirt with the same illustration.

“You had Remy help paint the vag—Venn diagram?”

“His talent knows no bounds,” Maddox quips.

“I swear to fucking hell,” I start, my hand diving into my hair, only to be interrupted by Zara stepping forward.

She opens her arms to Sylvie and laughs hysterically. “That was a beautiful performance.”

Sylvie hugs her back in a long-lost-friend embrace. “Thank you for including me. It was the highlight of my day.” She peers over at me. And winks. “You ganged up on me with my mom first.”

Evil. Vixen.

“She’s got one hell of a poker face,” Axel commends, hands in his pockets and donning the pride of the duplicitous godfather.

Ryker piggybacks on that. “And she’s a damn good bluffer. It was a convincing panic attack.”

Maddox feels mildly guilty, so he finishes by laying out the brutal reality. “She really had you goin’, but it’s all good, man.”

They set me up and sat in here like hysterical schoolgirls, watching it all play out on some security screen. And Sylvie jumped at the chance to give them a show. Of course, the only moment I wish were part of the ruse wasn’t. I wonder if them alluding to us being more—like she was against—is bothering her. Maybe they didn’t fill her in on all the particulars.

“You were in on this?” I wave my hand around, from the no-longer flashing lights to the weird vagina diagram.

“Zara gave me her number in San Francisco. I contacted her earlier, and she added me to a chat. We’ve been texting since I decided to come. I wasn’t sure about staying with you, but they assured me it would be worth my while.” She beams, practically glowing, too cute to strangle—or not. “It definitely was.”

The family greets her with hugs that seem far more familiar than I expected, and she laughs the whole time, proud of pulling one over on me, while I simply observe. Although, once in a while, she shoots me a skeptical glance.

When she gets to Jax, he wraps her up with an ear-to-ear grin. “Got the bike. I love the new paint job.”

I arch an eyebrow in question because I haven’t heard shit about this.

“Sylvie sent me the Yamaha, painted blue.”

My pulse ratchets higher, and my throat dries. “And you failed to mention this because …”

Jax does that thing where he sees too deep. He flicks his pale blue hair off his forehead, gathering his thoughts. “It was before Cinco de Mayo. She was just … returning what she’d borrowed. It slipped my mind.”

It didn’t slip his mind. He mentioned when it was because what he doesn’t want to say is that he thought I’d get in my head about it, which might have kept me from going after her in Texas. He’s right that it would’ve fucked with me—her sending him something, even for a valid reason, when she kept brushing me off. But I don’t think anything could keep me from chasing this girl. It’s like there’s a force propelling me toward her. The same force that’s pushing her away maybe.

Of course, this afternoon, she chased me down in that hallway to tell me she’d come here. And whether she knows it or not, that had something to do with our kiss in the ocean.

She thinks I’m pissed that she bonded with my family and conspired against me, but she’s got it all wrong. Her fitting with the people who mean the world to me only has me ready to double down.

I shrug off my jacket, fold it over a dining room chair, and lean to rasp in her ear, “You aligning with my family makes this a whole new game, Sly.”

She rolls her shoulders back, her fierce confidence meeting me toe to toe. “Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah. Welcome to La Lune Noire, baby. All bets are off here.”

Fuck leaving anything on the table. She’s mine.

SYLVIE