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Alex had moved to stand by Cohen, who’d drawn Amalia away from me.
Clint’s arm fell away from Ramsay as she moved into me, her front against mine.
Yeah, okay. Maybe I needed a minute, one fucking minute to process all of this.
It felt so good to hold her.
Alex spoke up, “I don’t know the shit that’s going on with your mom, but hearing who your family really is and knowing that kind of power and wealth tends to corrupt”—his eyes were on Ramsay as he spoke—“I can only guess the shit going down to make you return to that family. And now knowing that’s probably the reason you ended things with my cousin, we’re here, brother.”
He held up his fist, and I met it with mine. “Appreciate it.”
The doorbell rang.
I was looking down at Ramsay when Kira opened the door, saying, “Hello. Come in—what are you doing here, PJ? You’re not one of Scout’s inner circle.”
“Neither are you. Who’d you suck to get an invite today?”
“Oh my God! I didn’t—”
“She’s with us!” Theresa held up a hand with a half-eaten doughnut in it.
Everyone looked at her. Even me.
“What?” Ramsay turned, but I kept her back against my chest. I hung my arms over the front of her, and she settled in, linking our hands.
“Yeah. We, uh, we kinda—” Theresa ducked down, swallowing the last of her donut. “We don’t really know what all is going on because we’re not in the Williams family tree, but boy, are we glad that we decided to drop in on Ramsay.”
“What?” Ramsay stiffened in my arms.
Gem waved a hand, her head ducking a little. “Yeah. Sorry. We came here to see how you’re doing, and well; the guys arrived at the same time and Alred hushed us, told us to play along. We’re doing a catch-up with everything, but we’re here for you too.” The last statement was directed to me.
Alred was indignant. “I did not tell you to be quiet.”
Theresa said, “You did, but it’s not like we weren’t going to already do that. From the grim faces, it was obvious something was up.”
Clint started laughing.
Trenton flashed a crooked grin. “I dig that.”
Alex cringed. “We thought you knew.”
“Nope.
Kira made an exasperated sound, and stepped around, her hands on her hips. “And I’m here because we bonded at the dance. I asked where you”—she glanced toward Ramsay—“were, and Theresa didn’t know, and honestly, we just started talking. That led to some mutual respect being acknowledged. Some apologies that were needed from the past. And—”
“And they danced the rest of the night,” Gem spoke up.
Alred held up a hand, waving it. “Also, a manager guy came to complain about the glitter on my shirt, but Kira and Theresa had my back. It was beyond.”
Gem was nodding. “True story.”
“So, yeah. I invited her, but I didn’t know we were walking into this.”
Kira flipped some hair off her shoulder. “I needed to go home and make myself presentable, but I’m here. Consider me a part of this group. Teamwork, right?” She sent me a smile. “Kudos to you for being so wealthy. Is it Fritz Rothchelton? I know my dad’s been sweating about a Rothchelton being in the area. Now we know who’s the who, you know?” She tossed that all out as if she was informing us about the weather for the next few days and moved to join the donut group at the island, snagging one from a box there. “Also, hi, Cohen. You ditched me last night. Consider yourself my mortal enemy.”
He grinned at her. “Until next Saturday night, right?”
She rolled her eyes and turned her back to him, huffing.
Theresa scowled, moving to stand in front of her, blocking Cohen’s point of view. She lifted up a glass of orange juice and said before taking a sip, “We’ve shifted our alliance, so you know.”
“For now.” He didn’t sound too worried.
Ramsay had been stiffening more and more in my arms until she’d had enough. “Okay! I mean, seriously. We have a real emergency here. We need to think of something to do to keep Scout here.”
“A question.” Trenton raised a finger. “Why don’t you, like, not go?”
Ramsay was back to tensing against me.
I ran a hand down her arm, holding her firmly against me, more for me than her. “Because he’s hurting someone else, and I’m going in to protect them.”
Everyone got quiet again. Those eating ceased eating. All eyes returned to me.
Theresa lowered her orange juice. “Who are you protecting?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
Clint cursed. “Is it Ramsay? Did that motherfucker find out about her and threaten her or something? You’re going in to protect my cousin?”
“Our cousin.” Alex glared at him.
Clint rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean. When I’m heated, I sometimes don’t speak triplet. Flay me.”
Trenton snorted.
“Stop it.” Ramsay slightly leaned forward from me. “We need to brainstorm ideas and do it quick.”
