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I’m flicking through my Instagram when Evie’s selfie pops up on my phone. The photo taken after one of our weekend antics. One I desperately need to repeat. Evie has her whiskey-colored hair pulled up in a high pony, the natural swell of her lips the kind girls throw money to have.
My constant woman. The lucidity in my delirious life and family.
I swipe it to answer.
“Hellion…”
At the sound of her voice and the nickname she hardly uses unless she’s pissed at me, my muscles relax, and I forget where I am for a moment.
“I have been trying to get ahold of you!”
I can imagine her standing with a hand on her hourglass hip, a plucked brow raised and the deep vertical frown lines between her eyes.
“I know, I’m sorry!” I stand from the log I’m sitting on. I need to get away from Katsia anyway, before I end up in another catfight. “I’m in—”
“Don’t tell me.” She sighs. After explaining to Evie more in depth about my family, I ended up giving her the option to know everything, or nothing. She chose everything. Which is ironic since she never wants to know what we’re doing while we’re doing it. “When are you coming home?”
I turn back to where I was just sitting to find River lying on her back, gazing up at the stars. Her ash blonde hair is sprawled out over the grass. “Uh…” I move to Stella, where she’s eye fucking one of the Lost Boys. The hairs on the back of my neck rise when I find Katsia’s eyes pinned on me.
“Tomorrow. We will be back tomorrow. Hey… I was going to ask about this weekend.”
“I’ll be there, Hales. I promised you I’d be there for your family’s thing because it’s important to you. I’ll be drunk enough to not think about all the ghosts, but…”
I stifle my laugh. “I miss you. See you tomorrow.”
“Love you.”
After hanging up with her, I continue scrolling over my texts and stop at a number. My heart slows in my chest as I fight the urge to spin around and check over my shoulder out of fear that someone is watching what I’m doing.
I open a new text and add the number he’s saved under.
You asked me what it felt like.
I wait a moment after hitting send, my thumb hovering over the screen. Goosebumps prick my skin as more seconds pass. When my phone vibrates in my hand, my stomach tenses but I open his new text.
And?
Shit. Before I can stop myself, I hit send.
Betrayal. It feels like betrayal.
I delete the message thread before anyone sees it and shove my phone back into my pocket, finding my way back beside Stella. I don’t even want to ask Katsia how long the boys are usually out hunting for, because I hate that she knows something I don’t. She knows a lot that I don’t, because of her connection.
Had War slept with her?
Of course, he had.
I sweep up the half-empty bottle of bourbon that’s tilted on the grass, blowing out a heavy breath as I fall back onto the makeshift chair.
I lift the bottle to my lips and let the poison sit on the tip of my tongue. “I thought we could at least play with them.”
My phone vibrates at the same time as Stella’s and River’s.
We all pause, before I lower the bottle back to the ground.
War Malum started a new group chat.
I hate the way my body leaps to life. War and I have never really texted, unless it had something important to do withPriest, or some random shit like Christmas or vacation, and he couldn’t get ahold of Priest. It never occurred to me that we didn’t have much of a relationship outside of the Kings, and I don’t know if that bothered or worried me.
