Chapter Twenty-Three
Lark
One week later, the clubhouse looked less like the headquarters of a motorcycle club and more like a poorly supervised daycare for grown adults.
The front door had barely closed behind me before Alice shouted from somewhere near the kitchen. “Don’t let Wrecker see the box!”
I stopped with my hand still wrapped around the doorknob and looked across the room. “Which box?”
“The one you’re holding!”
I glanced down at the cardboard box tucked against my hip. The words Cards Against Humanity were printed across the front in large black letters. “I’m pretty sure the name is going to give it away,” I called.
Alice appeared in the kitchen doorway with a wooden spoon in one hand and a smear of something white across her cheek. Flour, frosting, mashed potatoes—I honestly couldn’t tell. Whatever she was making had clearly put up a fight. “Hide it under your shirt.”
I looked down at myself and then back at her. “I don’t think I have enough shirt.”
“Then use your boobs.”
“They’re currently busy holding up my bra.”
“That thing needs to start earning its keep.”
Demi snorted from the couch.
I turned and spotted her sitting beside Drew with Eden and Bell crowded around them.
Demi had one leg folded underneath her and a drink balanced on her knee.
Drew sat a little straighter, still carrying a touch of the carefulness she’d had since arriving in town.
She smiled more easily now, but she still watched the room like she was waiting to learn the rules again before she fully joined in.
The problem was there weren’t rules at the Fallen Lords clubhouse.
There were only varying levels of chaos.
“You heard her.” Demi nodded toward my chest. “Put the game in the vault.”
“I’ve known you for a week, and you’ve already betrayed me.”
“I’m trying to fit in.”
“You’re doing amazing, sweetie,” Bell told her.
Demi lifted her drink in acknowledgment.
The clubhouse was crowded, which wasn’t unusual anymore.
Adley sat at one end of the couch with her feet tucked beneath her while Star and Clove occupied the other.
Calla was on the floor in front of the coffee table, sorting through a pile of napkins and paper plates that looked as if Alice had dumped them there and told someone else to deal with them.
Penny hovered near the kitchen island, periodically stealing pieces of cheese from a tray every time Alice turned her back.
Ever was leaning against the counter with a glass of lemonade in her hand, watching Penny with open fascination. “You know she can see you, right?” Ever asked.
Penny popped another cube of cheese into her mouth. “She can’t prove anything.”
“There are cameras in here.”
“Then I hope they get my good side.”
“You don’t have one,” Eden called.
Penny pressed a hand to her chest. “That’s incredibly rude.”
“It’s also accurate,” Calla said without looking up.
Penny grabbed two more pieces of cheese just to prove she couldn’t be intimidated.
I carried the game farther into the room and set it on the coffee table. Drew leaned forward enough to read the label, then immediately leaned back. “I don’t think I’ve ever played that,” she admitted.
Drew looked between us. “What?”
Demi slowly turned toward her. “You played it with me at Aunt Connie’s.”
“That was Apples to Apples.”
“No, it wasn’t.”
“Yes, it was.”
“There was a card about a naked grandpa.”
Drew’s eyes widened. “I thought someone wrote that in.”
Clove dropped her head against the back of the couch and laughed.
Star covered her mouth, but the sound still escaped through her fingers.
I stared at Drew for a second before pointing at the empty chair beside me. “You’re sitting next to me. I feel like you’re going to need supervision.”
“She always needs supervision,” Demi said.
Drew shot her a look. “You’re the one who tried to dry a wet sock in the microwave when we were ten.”
“It was taking too long,” Demi complained.
“It caught on fire.”
“It got dry,” Demi shrugged.
“That does not mean it worked,” I pointed out. I looked toward Adley. “I like them.”
“Mason warned us they were trouble,” Adley said.
Demi shrugged. “Mason thinks anyone who talks back to him is trouble.”
“Then he must think this whole building is a prison yard,” Ever muttered.
A motorcycle engine revved from the garage, loud enough to rattle the glasses in the cabinet.
Every head turned toward the open doorway.
“Whoever that is better be fixing something,” Alice yelled.
A second engine answered her.
“That sounded sarcastic,” I said.
“It was Arlo,” Penny replied confidently.
“How can you tell?”
“Because Oliver would never be that obnoxious.”
I didn’t need Penny to tell me where Oliver was.
I already knew.
Oliver had been in the garage working on one of the bikes with Pipe and Arlo.
I’d caught a glimpse of him through the open doorway when I came in.
He’d been bent over the side of a motorcycle, a wrench in one hand and a dark T-shirt stretched across his shoulders.
There had been a streak of grease along his forearm and a look of complete concentration on his face.
I’d only looked for a second.
Maybe two.
Long enough for him to glance up and catch me.
He hadn’t smiled. Not fully.
The corner of his mouth had lifted, though, and that tiny movement had warmed something low in my stomach before Alice started yelling about hiding the box.
It had become a habit without me noticing. Every room I walked into, every conversation I had, some part of me always knew where Oliver was.
If he was close, I felt it. If he left, I noticed. If he laughed, even from across the clubhouse, my attention found him before I could stop it.
It should have embarrassed me. Instead, I liked it.
Alice marched into the room and pointed the wooden spoon at the game. “We need teams.”
“No teams,” Bell said. “That makes it too easy for people to blame someone else for their terrible answers.”
“That’s half the fun,” Alice argued.
Wrecker appeared in the garage doorway as if he’d sensed her trying to organize something without his permission. His gaze moved from Alice to the box on the coffee table, then back to Alice. “No.”
Alice smiled brightly. “Nobody asked you.”
“I’m not listening to you people play that again.”
“You don’t have to listen.”
“You scream every card,” he retorted.
Alice put her hands on her hips. “Because some of us know how to have fun.”
“The last time you played, Nickel nearly choked on a pretzel.”
Alice raised her hand. “That was his fault for chewing during my turn.”
Wrecker stared at her.
Alice stared back.
There was a full conversation happening between them without either one saying a word. It ended when Alice lifted the spoon and pointed it toward the garage. “Go play with your motorcycles.”
Wrecker’s jaw tightened. “This is my clubhouse.”
“And yet everyone likes it better when you’re in the garage.”
The room erupted.
Wrecker looked around at all of us, clearly assessing whether throwing every woman out of the clubhouse was worth the consequences.
It wasn’t.
He knew it.
We knew it.
He muttered something under his breath and turned around.
Alice cupped one hand beside her mouth. “Love you!”
Wrecker lifted one finger over his shoulder.
“See?” Alice looked pleased. “He loves me too.”
“That wasn’t the love finger,” Drew whispered.
Demi patted her knee. “You’ll learn.”
We dragged chairs closer and spread out around the coffee table.
Alice abandoned whatever she’d been doing in the kitchen and claimed the armchair like a queen taking her throne.
Ever sat on the floor beside Calla. Star squeezed between Adley and Clove, while Bell, Eden, and Penny crowded together on the loveseat.
Demi sat beside me, leaving Drew trapped between us.
“For supervision,” I reminded her.
Drew looked nervous. “Do I need to know anything?”
“Never explain why you played a card,” Demi said. “It ruins it.”
“Don’t let Alice read too quickly,” Adley added.
“I read perfectly fine,” Alice said.
“You pronounced ‘aphrodisiac’ as ‘Afro-dizzy-ack,’” Star reminded her.
“That’s how it’s spelled.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“Close enough.”
I opened the box and handed out the white cards. Drew studied hers with growing alarm.
“Oh,” she whispered.
Demi leaned over. “What did you get?”
“You said not to tell anyone.”
“I’m your sister.”
“That makes you more likely to use it against me.”
Demi looked at me. “She’s finally learning.”
We started with Alice as the judge. She drew the first black card and squinted at it. “‘What ended my last relationship?’”
“A lack of sexual imagination,” Cora called.
Alice pointed at Cora. “That’s not on the card and you are rude.”
Cora popped a handful of popcorn into her mouth. “I’m setting the mood.”
“You’re traumatizing us,” Calla muttered.
Cards were tossed facedown into the middle. Alice gathered them and shuffled with all the subtlety of someone trying to start a lawn mower. Then she read the answers one by one.
“‘What ended my last relationship? A tiny horse.’”
Penny frowned. “That doesn’t even make sense.”
“That’s why it’s funny,” Eden said.
“‘What ended my last relationship? Poor life choices.’”
“Too real,” Ever murmured.
“‘What ended my last relationship? A disappointing birthday party.’” Alice nodded thoughtfully. “Valid.”
“‘What ended my last relationship? A cooler full of organs.’”
Drew made a choking sound.
Demi leaned closer to her. “You okay?”
“I’m just trying to figure out which one of you owns that card.”
“We all own the cards,” I reminded her.
“That doesn’t make me feel better.”
Alice continued reading until she got to the final card.
“‘What ended my last relationship? Getting crushed by a vending machine.’”
Silence held for half a second.
Then Demi burst out laughing so violently her drink sloshed over the rim.
“That one,” Alice declared. “I don’t know why, but that one.”
Drew quietly reached for the black card and every head turned toward her.
Demi slowly pointed. “You?”
Drew’s cheeks turned pink. “It seemed unexpected.”
“I thought you were the nice one,” Star said.