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“It’s me. Can we talk?”
“Hang on.” I hear her shuffling around in the background, and I rest my phone against my ear, turning to see what the Dolls are doing. Wolf has turned the TV on, the volume on the speakers climbing a high enough level to drown out the conversation I’m about to have. “Okay, I’m all ears. I would have come over there, but I’ve started a ritual where I don’t go outside once the sun goes down. I bathe, face mask, listen to trap music, and cook dinner. I’m trying the whole motherhood thing, which I probably will still fail at,” she rambles, and my eye twitches. I don’t know how someone like King handles her, but then again, if she’s anything like Bear, which I’m guessing they’d have to have some similarities, she has a whole secret box of personalities she only opens for the people she loves. “Sorry, I’m rambling. Pregnancy has made me weird.”
Yeah, I’m sure that’s it…
“It’s okay. If it means anything to you, which I’m sure it doesn’t since you hate me and all that, I think you’ll make a great mother.”
She pauses, and I hear a whine before a heavy exhale of breath. “I don’t hate you. I did hate you, but that was because I thought you were here to hurt my family. Kyrin is my family, just so we’re clear. These boys, they act tough and hard, but deep down, they all need someone to take care of them, and until they have their own, I’m that person. When you came on the scene, I didn’t like you instantly because I knew. I knew you were with Patience and I was right. Though I’m glad everyone from there is now dead.”
I freeze, my finger that was tapping against the marble counter pausing in the air. “All dead? Is that what they told you?”
“Well, aside from the ones they kept in the bunker, and The Dolls as they call them, yes.” She doesn’t know that Dove is alive.
King is so fucking dead.
It’s not my secret to tell, and Perse and I aren’t close enough friends for me to feel obliged to tell her, so I move on to the reason why I called her. “Yes, that’s actually why I’m calling.”
“You want them to stay on.”
“Well, to be honest.” I stand from the barstool and make my way to the fridge, searching for a drink. Something nonalcoholic. I settle on milk. “I wasn’t sure if I wanted to stay on.”
“Nope,” Perse says, biting into something. “You have to. You’re Kiznitch, and besides, you know too much…” So they told her something, because she knows that my mother is originally from Kiznitch. I hate lies and secrets. They’re just verbal land mines. You never know when you’re going to stand on one.
“Well, I’m staying, I’ve decided. I need to perform. I need to be free, away from everything and everyone even if it is only for a few minutes.”
“I’m actually giving you more than a few minutes.”
“Let me say what I need to say first.” I take a sip of milk, wishing I had a joint to calm my nerves. Damn Kyrin and Eli. I liked me better when I didn’t care. “The Dolls, I need them to stay on. I can manage them to make sure they have a different set each time, but I think they can be useful for the show. Do something different.”
“Hmmm,” Perse mutters. “What do they do?”
“It’s more what can’t they do. They all obviously dance, act, sing. But they can do anything so long as they’re together. I was thinking poles. A sexy scene with them would get people hyped, and I noticed you didn’t have any pole dancers.”
“True. It was something I was looking into doing, but the way everyone is getting loved up lately, the probability of getting any of the girls on the pole is slim, considering The Brothers seem to have a psycho streak once they’ve pissed on their spot.” I blink. The more I talk to Perse, the more I feel myself warm to her. Her rumbustious nature is refreshing after being bitten with her rancorous bite when I first met her. It’s all slowly falling to the back of my mind.
“So what do you say?”
“I say yes,” she agrees, and hearing the answer come from her instantly puts me at ease. Now I can think of ways that I can work them in. “As long as you understand that anything they do, you are held responsible for. I can rest knowing that Patience is dead now, and by what King has told me, those girls look at you like a god, so I’m counting on those two things alone to allow this. Keep them in line.”
“I will.” I push my glass away, squeezing my phone in my hand. This should give me something to do for three days.
