Chapter 13
THIRTEEN
I wake up hungover, in my underwear, and alone.
There’s a tall glass of water and some aspirin on my bedside table, but no other signs that Harley had ever been here.
Ignoring the meds, I guzzle the water down like it’ll fix everything, but instead I’m forced to reassess my life choices because, boy, did I make some choices last night.
When I finally drag my ass out of bed and into the shower, I’m in full sulk mode.
Not Morrison levels of sulk, but enough that I’m not leaving my room. Avery has different plans for me.
Stop being a hermit and join us for dinner. Harley said you haven’t come out all day and I can’t be bothered cooking.
Dinner? I glance at the clock and, fuck me, it’s after five. I’ve slept and moped the whole day away.
I think about texting her back some bullshit excuse but she’ll tell Harley and he’ll rat me out, so I throw on an oversized sweater and Avery’s yoga pants before trudging down to the dining hall like I’m heading to the executioner's block. When I open the door I find Harley scowling down at his phone waiting for me. I open my mouth, not that I know what the fuck I’m going to say, but he turns away and grabs a tray.
“Risotto or salmon? There’s pizza, too, but it looks awful. ”
My mind goes empty like an idiot as I stumble along behind him, but when he gives me a pointed look I finally muster up a reply before he fills the tray with our food.
It’s chivalrous and sweet, but he won’t meet my eyes or say a word, and his jaw is clenched.
I’m embarrassed about making out with him last night, but he looks pissed and I have no fucking clue what I’ve done to warrant that, so I keep my mouth shut and watch him from the corner of my eye instead.
The twins are already eating in their usual seats and Blaise is nowhere to be seen.
When we get to the table, Avery tucks her arm into mine and Ash does a double take when he sees my face. Fuck, do I have toothpaste on my chin or something? He stands and takes off without a word. What the fuck is going on?
“Why do your lips look all red and pouty?” Avery asks with narrowed eyes. I refuse to blush. I refuse, but my body doesn’t listen. Fuck. “Is that a hickey?”
I clear my throat but I can’t think of an answer so I grab my plate and tuck in. The risotto tastes like ash because of my anxiety and, just once, I’d like to enjoy my food. Just once.
Harley arches an eyebrow at me and I don’t know what the hell to say because he’s acting so weird.
“Did you forget your morals for a second and mess around with a Hannaford guy?” he sneers, and I want to stab him with my fork. I didn’t ask him to get naked and kiss me! He has no right to be a dick to me!
Avery looks between the two of us and then snaps at Harley, “This is about safety not morals.”
He frowns at her and I butt in before she says too much. “I drank too much at the party after we dealt with Joey’s threat and then I made out with someone. It was nothing major, I just forgot myself for a second. Don’t worry, Aves, I won’t do it again.”
Avery purses her lips and glances at Harley. I can see her measure out her words before she speaks them. “I just need you to be safe, Lips. I don’t want you to get carried away and risk something happening to you.”
Harley pins me with a searing look like he’s trying to pry my brain open with his eyes and learn all of my secrets. I ignore him and steer the conversation onto safer topics.
After we finish eating Harley insists on walking us back to our room.
Avery tucks herself under his arm and tells him all about her recital.
I’ve already watched her entire performance, thanks to Blaise’s recording.
When we make it back, I find clean piles of folded clothing waiting outside our door and I grab mine, noting a complete lack of underwear yet again.
Every pair I’ve sent down to be cleaned has gone missing and I’m running out!
Avery lets us into the room and Harley holds the door open for me.
“Remind me tomorrow that I need to talk to the laundry personnel, my underwear is missing again,” I grumble quietly as I pack away my clothes.
Harley, of course, overhears me and snorts out a laugh. “You sure you don’t have some pervert stalking you?”
I shudder. I certainly do have a sociopath stalking me, I guess. Avery grabs her pajamas and heads to the bathroom. “Ask Harlow, maybe she’s moved onto stealing lacy unmentionables instead of my fucking shoes.”
I cringe at her swearing and I don’t notice I’ve been left alone with Harley until it’s too late.
“Why is your safety a concern for what we did last night?”
Fuck. Here we go. Dealing with it head-on and getting it over with will surely be better than trying to brush it under the rug, because I can’t stand the writhing mess of nerves in my gut. It doesn’t make it any easier, though.
With a deep breath, I turn back to him and square my shoulders like I’m preparing to take a hit. “Why?”
“What?” He frowns at me.
“Why do you care? You were just sick of your celibacy, right? You were drinking and made a mistake because Annabelle is off the table. So what does it matter?” I’m snippy with him but his attitude is grating on me.
Harley stalks over to me, grabs the shirts I’m holding, and throws them on my bed.
“Maybe it matters because I’m fucking worried about you.
Maybe it matters because if someone is threatening you, I want to know about it.
Maybe I take this friendship pretty fucking seriously. You gave up a diamond for me.”
I groan and scrub a hand over my face. “You don’t owe me for that. I made a decision and the cost of that lands with me.”
Harley’s hands wrap around my elbows and squeezes firmly.
“When I beat Hillsong for you last year, called Avery off, told all of the guys they couldn’t approach you, I did all of that because I wanted to be your friend.
So let me in. Tell me why you don’t want to get involved with someone who goes here. ”
I squirm under the intensity of his eyes and I try to tug away from him, but he won’t let me go. Fuck. I have to tell him something. “It’s not about whether or not I want to, it’s just not a good idea for me to get involved with someone from Hannaford. I don’t want to talk about it.”
He glares down at me before blowing out a breath and stepping back. “One day, you’re going to trust me to have your back, Mounty.”
Avery uses my missing underwear as an excuse to get a day pass from our classes to go into Haven together the following day. I can’t believe it’s as easy as that, but then again, she’s a Beaumont.
She wears a dress, stockings, and heels, with her hair curled and perfect makeup.
I throw on jeans and a jacket, a messy bun, and a touch of mascara.
We might be polar opposites in our tastes, but we’re not in the ways that count.
Avery tucks her arm in mine like there’s no question we’re best friends and then cackles at the looks we get from other students.
I laugh because, I mean, what else can I do?
A town car drops us off in front of the small cafe I went to last semester and I smile at the waitress, Emily, as we take a seat in one of the booths.
Avery rolls her eyes at me, thoroughly bemused by my insistence on being friendly to people, and we each order our drinks.
I know it’s coming before she speaks so I’ve already resigned myself to spilling my guts to her.
“Are you going to tell me who you kissed or am I going to have to pry the information out of you?”
I sigh. “It was Harley.”
“I fucking knew it.” She’s smug, and I think about pinching or slapping her or something. She knows she’s treading a fine line and sticks her tongue out in an entirely non-Avery way, and I roll my eyes.
Rather than wasting time being coy about it, I just spill because we both already know I’ll tell her. “We went to the party, had our little showdown with Joey, shared a bottle of whiskey and danced, came back to the room, and then made out.”
“No sex?”
“No.” My cheeks probably look sunburned, for Christ’s sake.
To her credit, there’s no judgment on her face, despite the fact it’s her cousin we’re talking about. “I’m glad you showed some self-control. I mean, he wouldn’t have claimed the sweep but you guys couldn’t keep that a secret.”
I can’t look her in the eye. I know who had the self-control that night and it certainly was not me. I had the raging hormones and the soaked panties. I had taut nipples and gyrating hips, but I definitely did not have any sort of restraint.
I groan and scrub a hand over my face. “Can we just forget about it? Harley has and I’d like to.”
Avery narrows her eyes at me and shrugs. “Sure. Tell me about the henchmen Joey had there?”
I wait until Emily has brought us our drinks and then I smirk. “You should have seen his face, he was so pissed his little surprise backfired.”
Avery laughs and I go on. “They were both bottom rung guys, you know, like the lowest on the ladder, but they knew exactly who I was. Trenton’s done some work for Luca and he’s around a lot.
Daniel spends most of his time dealing at the docks, so he’s a familiar face.
He nearly shit himself, I’m surprised Harley didn’t ask me about his reaction. ”
She nods and props her chin up on the table with her fist. “I think he’s made some assumptions about who you are, but every time he gets close to figuring you out you switch things up and he has to start all over.”
Funny, that’s how I feel about him. I thought I’d finally gotten a handle on what it means to be friends with Harley Arbour, then he handed me a bottle of whiskey and I’m back to square one.
I shrug. “The O’Cronin’s run in a lot of the same circles as the Jackal and others. The only members of the Twelve who stay out of lower society dealings are the Crow and the Tiger. Well, them and the Lynx, sort of.”
Avery looks around but I’ve already done a sweep of the room. No one can hear us from where we’re sitting, and I can see who’s coming in and out of the cafe. I raise an eyebrow at her and she clears her throat before whispering, “Can you tell me more about them? What they each do?”
“The Crow deals in information. The type of information you deal in. I’ve always guessed that he’s the bastard son of a big player or a politician or something.
The Tiger is a lawyer. He’s actually a decent guy, dirty as they come but he makes bank by digging people out of shit.
He’s married, got kids, lives a white picket life while being a member of a criminal institution. It’s fucking weird.”
“The Lynx?” Avery takes a gulp of her coffee and I remember I have mine to drink as well.
“She’s a mafia princess. Well, queen I guess, she’s in her fifties.
Her family has always had a member in the Twelve and when her father died, both her brothers were locked up and couldn’t enter the Game, so she did.
She was the first woman to win it. Her brothers both despise that she’s their representative.
They can’t touch her because of her power and they have to run all of their business decisions past her and give her a cut of everything they do, all while she gets to keep her hands clean. It’s hilarious.”
Avery chuckles and absentmindedly rearranges sugar packets. “So, who are the others then? What do they do?”
“The Boar runs an MC and his club handles imports and exports, the Viper is a bookie, mostly, who runs an underground fighting ring and owns a string of dive bars around the city. The Bear runs chop-shops and does cleanups on the side, the Fox owns the docks and holds the parties down there, the Ox runs protection and enforcing, the Coyote is a hacker, and the Vulture sells skin.”
“Is that the guy who paid you with a raging boner down at the docks?” She shudders delicately.
“Yeah. He’s… fucking disgusting. He offered to double my money for Harley. Dickhead move, I could get at least five hundred grand for him in the right circles.”
Avery chokes on her coffee and fixes her watery eyes on me. “Excuse me?”
I laugh. “Aves, he’s hot. He’s built, pretty, tattooed, and he’s not at all lacking in the dick department. I’d get half a mil easy.”
Avery slams her cup back on the table and glares at me. “Firstly, how the hell do you know what his dick length is if you didn’t have sex with him? And, secondly, but most importantly , he is my cousin and I never, ever want to talk about his dick with you. Ever.”
I blush and fidget in my seat. “We only kissed but I got close enough to him to know what he’s working with.”
“Ugh, hand me some fucking brain bleach,” she snarls and picks up her phone.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I hiss and try to snatch the phone out of her hands. She glares and turns away from me.
“I’m letting him know that you’re off limits. Jokes! I’m joking, I’m congratulating him on his dick.”
I could fucking die. “Avery, we’re no longer friends. If you hit send, I’m leaving you.”
“Yeah right, I’m your favorite, remember?” she says, cackling like the evil witch she is.
I grumble under my breath as we get up and head out of the cafe.
Avery directs us both to a tiny boutique store that sells ridiculous underwear that are basically scraps of lace for hundreds of dollars.
When I say this to Avery she glares at me and throws me a basket, demanding I fill it up.
I put three pairs in and refuse to get any more.
She makes a joke about showing them off to Harley and I pray the ground will swallow me whole.
When we’re finished and safely buckled back into the town car, Avery grabs my hand.
“You know, you didn’t tell me what you and the Jackal do.”
I bite my lip. I don’t want to answer this question at all, but I’ve trusted her with everything so far and she’s never let me down.
“The Jackal does everything. Drugs, guns, extortion, kidnapping, fucking everything. He’s a gang leader, through and through.
And the Wolf… is invisible. Collects things.
Does things no one else wants to do and the stuff no one else can do. I’m good at not being seen.”
She squeezes my hand. “I think you’re good at being underestimated. Joey’s proved that over and over again.”