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There was something that felt like sorrow when Tony said that line. When they were in the coffee shop, I overheard something about her spot while she runs, but he met her there before I arrived. Clearing my throat, I wondered if we needed to go another direction. "Should we steal her father too?"
"No," Draven answered. "Dr. Carmichael does too much for places like this. His need is here, but I don't think we should cut off her communication to him. We'll have to figure out a healthy way for them to have a relationship after she settles into her new life at the manor."
"Does this friend not have a life?" I wondered how their logic for her father outweighed that.
"She's a stripper." Tony sat back for a minute.
"I know that," I reminded them both I had to be the one to go into the dump of a building to get the gift card that night. "Will she not be missed outside of that?"
"I don't believe so," Draven responded. "Sunshine mentioned she's all Kasey has too. They've bonded in not having many people in their life."
"The only other person is Tony's cousin," I added for the sake of having everything out. "Do we steal her too?"
"No." Tony hastily interjected. "No. Astrid doesn't want anything to do with our world. She got out, and I have no desire to force her back into it. We'd all give our souls to get out, so I won't ruin her little bubble of happiness."
A solemn sensation swept through us all, recalling our darker days and beliefs when we thought it to be a possibility. These two were brought up in the anguishing agony, but I walked into the trap of it. Giving myself up in shackles, I thought knowing my father would be better than the poverty my mother and I struggled in. Little did I know I'd be just as stuck as them all these years later.
With my title of being the best, no one would let me live in peace. They'd be too afraid I'd come for them while they slept. Power meant never losing it or it cost your life. "So it's settled. We'll steal her best friend but leave her father and Astrid."
"We can't forget her cat, either." Draven added to our list a second time.
"That ugly thing she shows me pictures of?" Tony made a face. "You know it's missing an eye, right?"
"It doesn't matter. That feline is her companion. She comes home to its love because her useless boyfriend is terrible at loving her properly. We need the cat."
"I'll be sure to grab it while I'm in her home grabbing her. Tony can pick up a cat carrier today to make our plan go off easier. We'll make it work."
"Where does one buy a cat carrier?" Tony muttered.
"A pet store," I grumbled back, forgetting how little he had to do for himself when it came to shopping. When he didn't argue, I figured we had our plan in motion. "Then it's settled. We can do it tomorrow night when I come in for my shift."
"No," Draven shook his head. "We wait until your next shift."
"Why?" My incredulous expression morphed under my fake beard.
Draven had this twinkle in his eye like he had a secret we weren't in on. It made me wonder if he forgot I watch over him when he has his sessions with her. Still, I waited for him to share. "She has book club tomorrow."
twenty-five
Millie
"Millie? What were your thoughts?" Fran asked, eager to hear my views on the ending.
"Oh, um." Being caught off guard, I wondered if she began to sense my unease with the group. Lately, I hadn't felt the same bond since Draven began claiming more of my time. "I enjoyed it greatly. I think my favorite part about it was that I still didn't feel whole after finishing. We got a happily ever after, but after everything she went through, my heart still bleeds for her. I love that I'm left with such a sensation because it'll stay with me."
"Really?" Helena paused sipping her wine, pulling a face of disgust. "I hated it. They were mean to her and then changed their tune."
She wasn't wrong, but she missed why. Helena showed us she liked more of a spicy read because smut fulfilled something she'd been missing in her marriage. Shaking my head, I understood the concept well. "If your husband up and disappeared and you assumed he left, how would you react to seeing him again years later? They were right to feel so vulnerable and raw, but they changed their tune when the truth came out. She didn't leave them to abandon them, she left to save them."
These debates sparked whenever the book didn't end with a woman unscathed in the dark world. It made me wonder what real women went through, but I knew I'd never ask Draven for the truth. Helena loved the rush of the dark romance, but she didn't like when the main female struggled in it. "It was too much. I mean, the detail alone was..."
"Accurate," Ava whispered. Her position as a therapist meant she probably had a client or two with sexual trauma of some kind. Most women did without ever knowing it because the world painted our hidden abuses as normal. I saw the darker side of things through the eyes of my best friend with the toxic environment she grew up in. She's why I ran the groups I did.
"Maybe that's why I connected to it so deeply," I agreed. "Maisie tried to keep her hope, but she often had to fight her circumstances to keep it."
"It was a heavy read, but I think we all needed it," Fran said from her spot beside me.
"Well, I'm in charge of the next, and I'm picking something less depressing." Helena poured into her empty glass. She sometimes drank more than Kasey, but Kasey couldn't be beat. After all her trauma, I knew the alcohol silenced the hardships, but I wished she'd sober up and face the world with her true power. Helena needed a vise to escape her dull reality. Maybe there was something there I didn't know, but she'd never share it with me.
