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“Don’t make me feel bad for the man, Bills. I need to threaten to cut off his balls and shit in the near future,” he said, smiling at me.
“He’s the right one, Dad,” I told him, nodding. “No one has ever felt right before. Because it was always him all along.”
“I’m happy for you, baby,” he said, coming close to press a kiss to my temple. “But he still gets the threat of castration with a dull knife,” he added, making a laugh burst out of me as he took the coffee I was making for Rowe, and walked in the direction of his room.
I took my tea, going into the living room, and finding Layna, Vi, and Hope all sitting there waiting for me.
“Oh, hey guys. Did you stay here last night?”
“We had to crash with Voss and Valen in the basement,” Hope grumbled. “Do you know he makes dream-threats?”
“Valen or Voss?” I asked.
“Voss,” Layna clarified. “He’s a scary bastard.”
“Oh, keep your panties on,” Hope said, rolling her eyes. “You will get him kicked out if you sleep with him.”
“Hey, is it my fault that I have a type?” Layna asked with a smirk.
“When that type is ‘homicidal maniac with a good beard,’ then yes, yes it is your fault,” Hope said, but she was smiling. “We stayed because we wanted to talk to you. We didn’t get a chance with all the family around.”
“Talk to me about what?”
“About Rowe, mostly,” Layna said.
“And getting kidnapped,” Hope said, rolling her eyes.
“We are mostly concerned with his level of grovel,” Vi said, kicking her mismatching sock-clad feet up on the coffee table.
“He saved her life, Vi,” Layna said, rolling her eyes. “That’s pretty grand and over-the-top, don’t you think? I mean the man ran out of here with a broken back, rode his bike across town, ran through the neighborhood, then put a plug in some dude’s head. I think we can forgive him for making her sad for a little while.”
“I want to know he felt bad at least,” Vi said, shrugging.
“He did. And he said a lot of nice things,” I assured them.
“We don’t mean nice sex words, Billie,” Vi said, smirking.
“Well, he said those, yes. But no. I meant just regular nice things.”
“Well, fine then,” Vi decided.
“If it makes you feel any better, my dad is in there now giving him all the warnings. Before he’s had his morning pain meds.”
“That’s sufficiently sucky,” Vi declared. “So, how are you dealing with the other stuff? The kidnapping and such?”
“I’m okay,” I admitted. “I reserve the right to feel about it in the future. But… I’m okay. It was scary, but a part of me knew that I would get myself out, or one of you would get me. I’m more upset that they kind of tainted the sacredness of my class. And now, what? I have to go in there and lie and say I don’t know what happened to Reggie and Lizzie?”
“Well, technically, Bills, you didn’t see anything,” Layna said, shrugging. “And you…what’s up, Brooks?” Layna asked as he came in the front door.
“Got someone here to see Billie,” Brooks said, looking confused.
“Me? Who?” I asked as a tall, bearded guy came walking in holding a box.
“This is Finn,” Brooks said.
“Finn?” I asked.
“He works for Quinton Baird,” Hope supplied. “He’s a fixer.”
“A fixer of what?” I asked.
“My guess in this case, crime scenes,” Hope told me. “What’s up? Do you need to talk to Fallon?”
“No. I, ah, I have this for Billie,” he said, holding out a box.
“Listen, it better not be a body part or something,” Layna said, hopping up to follow me over toward Finn.
“It’s not. You, ah, you lost your earring at the house,” he said, making my gaze shoot up. “It was broken, though.”
“Damn,” I grumbled. “It was my favorite pussy flower. You brought me the pieces?” I asked, taking the box.
“No,” Finn said as I pulled off the lid.
And then there in the pretty cushioned box was a new pair of pussy flower earrings. But with purple and yellow petals instead of the pink and yellow I’d lost.
“Where did you find these?” I asked, mouth falling open. I’d made my pussy flower earrings for fun with my mom. I’d never seen anyone actually selling them. Least of all in town, which is where he must have found them if he got them to me so quickly.
“I, ah, I made them.”
“You made them?” Layna asked, brows raising. “You re-created her pussy flower earrings in the spare time you had after cleaning up a crime scene?”
“Something like that,” Finn agreed. “I, ah, I didn’t have any pink.”
“You have polymer clay on hand?” Layna asked.
“Me? No. My niece. I stole it from my niece.”
“This is… this is very sweet. Thank you so much.”
“Welcome,” Finn said, nodding, then turning and leaving without saying anything else.
