Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
Legs
I open the door when I hear the knock and quickly find myself wrapped up in Lil’s arms. And before I know it, we’re both crying like babies.
“I’m sorry,” I hiccup.
“No, I’m sorry. I’m so used to people leaving me, I push them away before they can do it,” she admits.
“Hey, me too.” I chuckle, pulling back to wipe my eyes.
“I am so uncomfortable right now,” Amity mutters from behind Lil, making us both burst into laughter, knowing how she feels about shows of affection.
With a devious look at each other, we both quickly launch ourselves at the woman who we know could have us pinned to the floor in a heartbeat if she wanted to.
She lets us hug her tight while complaining loudly. “Ick gross, get off me. You’re both leaking all over me,” she whines, making Lil and me laugh harder.
The sound of snickering has us all turning to find Nevaeh recording it all.
“I’m going to kill you,” Amity warns her.
“Not until G sees this, though.” She cackles as she ducks around us and heads into the apartment.
“Oh wow, it looks good in here. I heard Midas was doing it up. I just didn’t know it would look this good.
Of course, I didn’t know what it looked like before, so I can’t make a comparison. It might have looked amazing—”
I disengage from the others and walk over to Tink as she babbles nervously. I wrap my arms around her, shutting her up.
She grips me tightly, but she doesn’t cry like Lil, thank god.
“I’m okay.”
“Really? Because even I can see you’ve lost weight and—” She pauses before pulling back and looking down at my stomach. “Did your baby just kick me?”
“Doesn’t like you picking on her mama,” I tease.
“I wasn’t picking on you. You’ll always be beautiful to me. I just worry.”
“I know, I’m just messing with you. As for losing weight, I’m not starving myself or anything. I was struggling to keep much of anything down. Touch wood, it seems to have settled lately. So hopefully, I’ve passed the worst of it.”
“And you did it all alone?” She looks horrified, her bottom lip wobbling. “God, we’re horrible friends.”
“No, you’re human, and I’m at fault here too. It was a difficult situation for us all to navigate.”
“And we sucked at it, which is weird for me. I’m usually good at everything,” she states, making the rest of us laugh.
“Alright, Wonder Woman. Please leave your modesty at the door next time.” Amity sighs.
Nevaeh rolls her eyes at her best friend.
“How’s your sister doing?” I ask quietly as we all head to the sofas.
“She’s doing okay. Or at least that’s what she tells me. But I’m not sure anyone can ever be okay after what she went through.”
“This is going to sound fucked-up, but what you think doesn’t matter.
And if you treat her like you expect her to break every time you speak to her, you’re telling her without words that she’s not strong enough to beat this when she absolutely is.
She survived a monster. Now she has to learn to live with his ghost.”
“Jesus.” She rubs her eyes. “I don’t want her to be haunted by that pig. She should be free now he’s dead.”
“That’s not how it works, and you know it. She has a secret weapon, though, something that will give her strength and a reason to carry on even on the days she doesn’t want to.” I rub my stomach as I speak and see Nevaeh’s lips part in understanding.
“Star.”
“Star.” I nod. “She loves that little girl more than her next breath. And if you wish away the man who hurt Citi, you wish away the little girl who saved her—who keeps on saving her. I’m not saying it will be easy.
Far from it. But with lots of therapy and people she loves around her, she’ll carve out a life for herself and her little girl—one where she’ll be happy.
But you have to understand that she will never wake up one day and forget what happened to her.
It’s not something she’ll ever get over. ”
She sighs and leans back. I glance around and realize Amity and Lil are watching us quietly.
Lil, with a knowing gaze that I hate. She looks away as if worried I’m able to look inside her head and pull out all of her carefully guarded secrets.
I wouldn’t, though. I know how important it is to find the strength to stand up and tell your own story without having someone come along and tell it for you.
Your pain can only be expressed in your own words for it to truly be felt by others, without them ever having to shed the blood that you did.
“So, Midas said your things were ruined?” Amity breaks the silence, giving Nevaeh a second to collect herself.
“Did he tell you how?”
She shakes her head. “Said you’ll fill us in.”
“I bet he did.” I sigh, curling my feet underneath me, which is getting tricky now with my ever-expanding bump.
I open my mouth to give them the abbreviated version and find myself spilling my guts and telling them everything, even the part about me and Midas sleeping together. Once I’m done, I’m not sure who is more surprised, me or them.
“Okay, that’s a lot,” Nevaeh says, making me laugh. Pretty soon, the others join in.
Once we calm down, Lil leans forward. “That’s why they gathered the club girls together, isn’t it? Someone is targeting them. Havoc gave Amity and me a warning about staying safe, too.”
“That’s the theory they’re working with.”
Lil leans back and sighs. “I’m not sure if I’m supposed to feel bad that I’m not being singled out, or relieved.”
“I get it. I think there’s some comfort in knowing it’s nothing personal.”
“Unless you die for a cause that has nothing to do with you,” Nevaeh says, absently rubbing her neck. I know she’s thinking about Driller and his vendetta against Havoc.
“So the plan is for you to stay here until the men have dealt with the situation?” Amity questions.
I nod. “Though I doubt I’ll go back to the apartment, regardless. I won’t feel safe there anymore. However, I do need to go back and clean it up. I’ve already paid my rent in advance, so that’s lost money, but I could really do with getting my deposit back.”
Amity stands up. “Okay, so let’s go clean it up. We’re all here, and we’re all free. I can call G and get a prospect to join us. You’ll only stress about it until it’s sorted.”
I look up at her. “You guys don’t have to do that. Seriously, I love you for it, but it’s pretty bad.”
“As if we’d leave you to deal with it alone. Amity’s right. We can help. You’ve gotta let us.” Lil stands next to Amity.
“I get wanting to stand on your own two feet. I commend it even, but we want to help you, Legs. We still feel bad for how things played out. Let us help make it up to you,” Nevaeh says softly.
“Ugh everyone wants to make it up to me somehow. It’s not necessary.”
“We’ll just beg to differ.” She stands up and moves next to Amity, presenting a united front.
“Okay, fine.” I give in, wondering if I can summon the energy, but maybe Amity is right. If I get it over and done with, it will be one less thing to stress about.
“I’ll head down and let Midas know what the plan is. Call G to see if he has anyone spare to accompany us. This asshole targeting club girls knows where I live and has already proved he can get in. I’m not risking any of us for a security deposit.”
“I’ll call him now,” Amity agrees, pulling out her cell and walking across the room where it’s quieter.
“I’ll see what kind of cleaning supplies Midas has.” Lil heads off to the kitchen, leaving me with Nevaeh.
“I’ll take care of the most important thing then. Food.”
I chuckle because, despite being smaller than us all, she out-eats most of the brothers.
“Have I told you lately how much I missed your cooking?” She pouts.
“No, but as a thank you for helping me, I’ll make you a stack of those chocolate peanut butter cookies you like.”
“See, this is why you’re my favorite.”
“Hey, I heard that,” Amity yells out, making me grin.
“I’ve got to tell Midas.”
“I’ll order us some food and arrange for it to be delivered. Oh, wait. I need the address,” she admits, looking flushed.
I reel it off before heading downstairs, where I find Midas finishing up with a customer. I wait until he’s done before I approach. He must sense me because he whirls around and hurries over to me.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. The girls want to help me clear out my old apartment so I can hopefully get my deposit back.”
“I can do that for you—”
I hold up my hand to cut him off. “I need to do this. I need to take back some control. Amity is calling G and getting him to send someone over to accompany us, plus Amity is a force to be reckoned with on her own, plus it’s the middle of the day.”
He stares at me, and I can see he doesn’t like it one little bit. I watch him fight with himself and find myself surprised when, instead of trying to steamroll over me, he backs down.
“Alright. I can’t come with you because Powers isn’t back yet, but I’ll head over and join you later.”
I tilt my head and stare at him. Who the hell is this man? “Okay, that works for me.”
“Good.”
“Good,” I echo, taking a step back.
I don’t get far before he tugs me forward and kisses me.
I’m surprised at the move and freeze in his hold, not that he lets it deter him.
He kisses me until I slowly give in and return it.
The problem is that it’s harder to guard my heart against the man when he invades my senses like that.
I pull back, needing to put some distance between us.
“Too much?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m not sorry. Not even a little. I’m fighting for my life here, Legs.”
I offer him a sad smile and swallow. “Me too, Midas. Me too.”
I don’t think about how this is gonna play out until we pull up outside my apartment. We all climb out of Lil’s car as Dice rides up beside us on his bike.
I give him a wave just as the bus pulls to the bus stop. “Guys, give me a second.”
I hurry over to the bus and wait for people to climb off before I step on and see Gene smiling wildly at me.