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Pulling out my phone, I shoot off the text to Rhys with the address and let him know I made it safe and sound with no incidents. Before I can second guess myself, I also send a text to Riggs and let him know that I’m not mad and I understand his demands were coming from a good place. I don’t like being on the outs with any of the guys, even Adam. It makes me feel anxious. They’ve become my family and that means we’ll get on each other's nerves, but I don’t want the fights to be prolonged anymore than can be helped.
“How are you doing?” Juliette asks as she comes in, laying Danni down on a donut type pillow that actually looks super comfortable. “You said the three sexy guys you’re living with were pissing you off?”
Groaning, I cover my eyes, letting out a heavy exhale that makes my cheeks go puffy. “So much. They’re all super protective, hovering types. It’s endearing most of the time, but today it’s just pissing me off. I needed away from them for a while.”
“Well, you’ve come to the right place. This is an estrogen fuelled house, no dick’s here.” Juliette spells out dicks, making me laugh. “The food should be here in about twenty minutes and little miss here should be down for bed then. After that it’s just us and we can eat and drink until we forget the world!”
“Sounds like a good plan to me,” I say with a laugh, her enthusiasm infectious.
This right here is definitely what I needed after the disaster of the last little while. When Danni goes to bed, we do exactly as Juliette says and eat our weight in food and margaritas. We talk about her past toxic relationship and how she’s coping with being a single mom. We talk about me seeing three men and what our ideal foursome positions are. It takes so much of the anxiety and fear of me that’s been weighing me down since the moment I heard Declan was gone.
"Go get your orgy, girl!" Juliette encourages me with a laugh as I get ready to move out the door.
Making plans to do this again, I head back out to my car a little past eleven and text all three guys that I’m on my way. Riggs is surprisingly the one that messages back, saying he’ll be up and waiting for me when I get there. Probably planning on giving me that apology that Rhys promised he would have.
The drive back takes no time at all, my head swarming with the foursome conversation we were having before I left. I have no idea if that’s where this whole thing is headed with the guys, hell I haven’t even kissed Adam yet, but I would be lying if I said it wasn’t where I wanted it to go. It may seem odd to some people or fast for me, but I’m tired of trying to live by the world’s rules, I deserve some fucking happiness of my terms. It’s not a typical relationship, one woman and three men, but I’m also not a typical person so what the fuck do I care?
Riggs is standing on the porch when I step out of the car, his face in complete shadow so I can’t tell what his mood is as I walk up the driveway. If he wants a fight, I’ll give him a fight, but if he’s ready to move past his overbearing caveman behaviour, I am too.
“Hey, Big guy,” I murmur, keeping my tone even and friendly.
“Hey, Lay.” Riggs brushes a hand across my cheek, his face soft and full of regret. “I’m sorry for earlier, I didn’t mean it the way it came out. I know you’re an adult who can make up her own mind and take care of yourself. I just want to keep you safe.”
“I know,” I whisper, leaning into his touch. All of their soft touches, while sweet and romantic, are starting to not be enough. I want more from them, my body starting to crave them in a deeper way. That chat with Juliette only fanned my flames, making them burn super hot.
“Will you go on a date with me tomorrow night?” he asks, a vulnerable look passing through his eyes.
My heart starts fluttering, the thought of a date making those crazy killer butterflies invade my stomach again.
“I would love to go on a date with you,” I answer, pushing onto my toes to press a kiss to his lips that he returns with gusto.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Rhys
That son of a bitch took the first kiss with Alayna and now he’s taking the first date too. Adam and I are sitting here eating pizza and sorting through even more of Declan’s ramblings. It’s starting to make my head hurt and my eyes blur, trying to read all of the notes Declan put together. I use notes sarcastically because they’re basically all just slang and point forms that make sense to no one but him.
I still can’t fucking believe he killed himself to connect us with Alayna. The moment I read what he left for Alayna, the pain I felt over his death turned to anger and frustration. He was looking for a way to justify what he did and he thought he valiantly found it. Of course, that’s a load of bullshit with a side of disgusting selfishness. Declan’s gift to her should have been a fucking reunion with him where he introduced us like a normal fucking human being.
“Dude,” Adam drags out, groaning in irritation. “Declan had to have been on something when he was writing this shit out. What the fuck does this mean? Car paces, no way to catch the blue without a wee-woo.”
“What?” I snap, grabbing the piece of paper and examine it to see if maybe Adam read it wrong, but nope. That is legitimately what this fucking says.
“I don’t know how much more of this I can take,” Adam mutters, rubbing around his amputated leg. “The letters are semi-helpful, but whatever drugs Dec was on have made his notebooks barely decipherable.”
Pushing my hands through my hair, I grudgingly have to agree with him. There’s nothing remotely helpful in this pile of shit. Declan tried to give us a way ahead of whoever is after Lay, but he fucked up when he took the one person who could understand his ramblings out of the equation, himself. Now we’re just stuck with gibberish and vague letters from a deranged individual.
“Pass me the letters again,” I ask, holding out my hand for the small stack of papers we put off to the side as we tried to deal with the rest of it.
“Sure. You’ve been through them a million times already, though. I don’t know what else you expect to find.” He hands them over then grabs his crutches and pushes himself off the couch. “I’m headed to bed. I have to be at the community center super early for a meeting with a new case worker in the area. Let me know if you find anything else.”
“Night,” I mumble, already getting absorbed into the words that have been rolling around in my brain since yesterday. One in particular keeps standing out to me, but I can’t put my finger on why that is.
My patience is wearing thin. GIVE ME ALAYNA or I will make your life a living hell. You’ve been fucking warned, do not test me. I’ll make your past look like a walk in fucking Candyland. There won’t be enough left of you to identify when I’m through with you. You think you can keep her to yourself, you always did, but you can’t. She’ll be mine one way or another, so ask yourself this. Will you die for only delaying the unavoidable? Because I promise you, that cross still has your name on it.
—J
This guy is so confident that he’ll get his hands on Alayna to the point it’s unavoidable to him. Also, that last line about the cross is bothering me. My first thought would be a literal cross with a name on it like a gravestone, but Declan wasn’t religious so no crosses were used for him. That doesn’t mean J isn’t using religion in some sort of convoluted way.
