Page 138 of Barinov

Haley and Cade had this bright idea to throw Ellie a welcome-home-happy-birthday-congrats-on-winning-worlds celebration today. Trying to maintain a sense of normalcy or some shit.

Well happy birthday, welcome home, and congrats Little Whitmore. I love you, but we have bigger fish to fry right now.

Like a missing girlfriend to find.

A psycho foster-uncle to kill.

And a fight night that’ll draw said psycho out to start organizing. Actually, Ellie will probably be a major help with that one.

Jesus Christ, where is she?

The door at the top of the stairs creaks open. A cowboy hat cuts into the light first.

“Finally,” I mumble, pushing up from the bar just as Knox snaps the lights on.

“Surprise!” the room erupts.

Haley’s already moving before the word even has a shot to land. She’s sprinting toward Ellie like she might actually tackle her. Cade’s right behind her, laughing as Ellie lets out this bright, startled squeal that doesn’t belong anywhere near these last forty-eight days.

I hang back a step and let them have their moment.

Haley throws her arms around her. Cade and Cal follow, squeezing their sister tight with wide grins. Knox pulls her in next, murmuring something in her ear that makes her full on cackle.

Ellie turns to me, her ocean-blues a tad softer now.

I hand her the bag. “Happy Birthday, Little Whitmore.”

Her brows lift when she spots the Gucci logo.

“Lex…”

“Blame Haley,” I mutter, shrugging. “She threatened to add my balls to her collection if I got the wrong one and I’m pretty fond of them.”

She laughs and wraps her arms around me.

“Thank you,” Ellie says, her soft voice muffled by how hard her face is shoved into my chest. She pulls back enough to look at all of us. “Seriously, thank you. This…” She gestures around the room at the pink and yellow, the glitter literally everywhere, the banners, the tulips, and even Laing’s smug ass in the corner. “This is everything you guys! This is all so great, but…”

Her expression hardens slightly as she takes her focus back to me.

Shit. Here we go.

“Please tell me you didn’t already send out the info for your stupid fight night plan.”

My jaw ticks. “The fuck you mean, stupid?”

She sets the bag down on the table. “Lex, I love you,” she says quickly, holding up a hand. “But another lame-ass fight night—no matter how flashy Knox makes it—isn’t going to drag Luca out of the shadows. Not when he already has you bleeding for him whenever he feels like it.”

“Hey,” Knox mutters, his arms wrapping Haley up from behind. “Leave me out of this.”

Ellie exhales. Her shoulders drop as she reaches out to grab my hand. “You’re thinking too small.”

I glance over at Cade who doesn’t say shit. The guy just watches us like he already knows where she’s going with this. Like this is a conversation they’ve already had multiple times now.

Well, a little heads up would have been nice, babe.

“What do you have in mind?” I ask, my voice rougher than it probably should be but who cares.

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