Chapter 21
Sixx
Rubbing my thumb over the bandage on my hand, I sat down at the kitchen island to eat the eggs and toast Bentley cooked for everyone Sunday morning. Ali was stuffing her face with any food she could reach, starving now that she didn’t have a thousand pounds of worry beating up her stomach.
Abi nibbled on a slice of toast, notably dry rather than smothered in jam or one of her favored nut-butter spreads.
When she was on her period, she would reach for the cookie butter and smear it a quarter-inch thick on any carbohydrate she could get her hands on.
While Ali mostly craved salt during her cycle, her sister gorged on sugar.
That Abi was barely eating at all hadn’t gone unnoticed by anyone.
She could say it was from the pain in her face, a very plausible excuse, but something else was going on.
When she caught me staring at her barely touched, very plain, practically burned toast, her eyes glittered with tears that she quickly blinked away before I could question her.
Like a math problem, the numbers started lining up. Fucking hell. “You good?”
Her nose wrinkled up almost identical to how Ali’s did when she was annoyed. Kin’s did that sometimes too. It was kinda cute.
“I’m fine,” she gritted out.
Not believing her, I cocked a brow. She hastily glanced around at Bentley and Evan, who were watching Ali with gaped mouths as she inhaled an entire slice of toast in two bites.
Toast that was slathered in butter and strawberry jam, thank Christ.
As much as I looked forward to the day we started our family, I didn’t want to have to share my daisy girl anytime soon.
We had at least ten years before we started talking about bringing kids into the picture, maybe longer, depending on how I was mentally.
I might never be in a stable enough headspace for parenthood.
Ali was okay with that. When we said all we needed was each other, that was exactly what we meant.
Sometimes I wondered if I could share her attention. A baby would need her full focus. So, yeah, we would have to wait and see where my head was before we decided if we were ready to bring kids into the equation.
With everyone else distracted, Abi made a zip-it motion and narrowed her eyes in a way that promised pain if I didn’t heed her warning. I decided to let her keep her secrets for the moment, but only because I didn’t think it would impact Ali.
Dipping a triangle of toast into my egg yolk, I lifted it to my girl’s mouth. She accepted the bite with a happy hum.
Bentley watched Ali for another few minutes before he stood and grabbed his keys.
“I gotta get home, cuz. Caprice keeps text-bombing me, and Mom is on my case about not being home all weekend. She gets cranky about family time right before a tour, so I gotta shower her with all the love until then.”
“Don’t let us keep you,” Abi snarked, taking another itty-bitty bite of her toast.
“I’m gonna miss you too, Abs,” he said with a roll of his eyes. “But I wasn’t talking to you. Ali, you need me, you call me.”
Jumping up, she hugged him hard. “I wish you were coming on tour with us. They’re not the same anymore without you.”
“Sorry, sweetheart. I’m trying to fast-track through undergrad. That means summer classes.” He smacked a kiss on her cheek then pointed at Evan. “You want a ride home?”
“Yeah, sure,” he grunted, unfolding himself from his chair. His aquamarine eyes tracked Ali with longing. When she didn’t spare him so much as a glance, his shoulders drooped. “Abi, are you going to be okay if I go?”
Hayat had left the day before. Bentley said some guy named Jamie had picked her up.
I was surprised she’d gone with him after everything that had happened at the warehouse.
She was keeping secrets too, but I was too tired to try to keep up with her shit.
Hayat was extra, and I liked that about her. Mostly.
“I’ll be fine,” Abi assured him, giving him a grim smile that only lasted a second.
Her face must have hurt like hell. Just seeing her all bruised up from taking an elbow from someone at the fight club caused that burning itch deep inside my head.
“You should go home. Ali and I are going to camp out on the couch and watch a movie until Mom and Dad get home.”
“Well, call if you need anything,” he said, sending Ali another longing look that she didn’t see because she was back to stuffing food into her mouth.
“See you, Sixx,” Bentley called.
“Later.” I picked up my plate and took it to the sink, cleaning away the mess we’d made. “Daisy girl, do you want anything else to eat? I’ll make you a bagel.”
Forking the last bite of egg into her mouth, she shook her head. “Thanks, babe, but I’m officially full.”
Crossing back to her, I took her plate and smirked at Abi. “What about you? You full?”
“You make loving you so hard, asshole.” She broke off a piece of crust and threw it at my head.
Barking a laugh, I loaded the dishwasher and wiped down the counter before reluctantly grabbing my gym bag out of the laundry room.
I’d washed my workout clothes and the extras that I’d gotten blood all over.
Sammy had been in and out of the house most of the previous day, and she’d shown me how to get the bloodstains out of my shirts.
Ali saw the bag slung over my shoulder, and her chin started wobbling. “I wish you could stay.”
“Me too, baby.” Stroking my thumb over her trembling bottom lip, I groaned. “I have homework that I need to finish. Mom’s been texting me all morning, and I still haven’t explained these stitches to her.”
She grasped one of my bandaged hands and kissed the back of it. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault.”
“Nope, we’re not doing that shit again. You don’t apologize for my choices, Ali.
” Kissing her quickly, I stepped back while I still had the self-control to leave.
“I love you. For the rest of the day, I want you to relax. Then study for your finals this week. Everything else has been sorted out, daisy girl. If you don’t pass your classes, I’m gonna be grumpy. ”
“We wouldn’t want that,” she teased, stepping on her tiptoes to nibble on my bottom lip.
Catching her ass in both hands, I gave the perfect globes a hard squeeze before setting her away from me. “I gotta go. Be good.”
“You be good!” she challenged. “Love you.”
“Love you back. Bye, Abi.”
“Stay safe!” Abi yelled after me.
I was getting behind the wheel when my passenger door suddenly opened. Sammy sat down in my passenger seat. “Nice Porsche. You pick this out yourself, or was it a surprise from the parents?”
“Sixteenth birthday present,” I confirmed, starting the engine. Ali and Mom had picked it out, then Dad had it loaded up with all the extras.
“Sweet.” She fastened her seat belt, and I cocked a brow at her. “You’re so dang adorable. No, seriously. I’m so glad you’re gonna be my brother one day.”
“You plan on marrying Abi? Because I thought you already had a husband. Elias, right?”
She squealed and flashed me her huge engagement and wedding rings. “Yes. OMG. I love being married. It’s the best. And no, silly. I’m not going to marry Abi. She’s my best friend and my sister. Weirdo.”
“O-kay.” Shifting into reverse, I backed out of the driveway. Obviously, she wanted to go with me. I didn’t know what I was going to tell my parents about her, and I still needed to figure out a good excuse for the bandages on my hands.
There was something about Sammy that set off strange vibes inside me.
I knew she was dangerous, and not just because Bentley’s internet search on her had been unexpected.
Samara Vitucci was mafia royalty. She was able to get us out of trouble because she had tighter connections than any three-letter government agency.
Hayat said she gave off black cat disguised as a ginger cat, whatever the fuck that meant.
Ali had agreed with a giggle, so I was sure it was a good thing. Maybe.
Fuck, I didn’t know with these girls anymore. It made Ali laugh, and that was all I cared about.
“How are the hands?” Sammy asked when I was out of the neighborhood.
“Tight, but they don’t ache as bad as they did yesterday.”
“You’re going to have some wicked scars. I showed Daddy a picture. He said it looked like you got in a fight with barbed wire wrapped around your hands. I’ve seen fights like that, though, and I can say with certainty that the scars left on the guy’s hands were not like yours.”
“Where the hell did you see a fight like that?”
“A few different places. There was this little hole-in-the-wall in…” She trailed off and stayed quiet for a long moment, so when she suddenly giggled, my hands tightened around the wheel reflexively.
“Christ, Sammy. I need you to not do that for me, okay?” I scrubbed a hand over the back of my head, feeling that damn itch. “I’m not good with surprises.”
“Sorry,” she whispered, making herself smaller.
“I just… I don’t want to accidentally hurt you,” I explained.
“No, I get it. It’s sweet of you to be concerned.
I love that about you. Turn left at the next light.
” I did as she directed without thinking about it, watching her out of the corner of my eye as I drove.
“Anyway, I didn’t have any pictures of the scars from those fights, and I couldn’t find any when I did an internet search.
Which meant I had to annoy my brother until he paused what he was doing to use his dark-web skills to unlock the photos. ”
When I braked at the next light, she turned her phone to show me the screen. “See, barbed wire doesn’t leave the kinds of scars Elias thought.”
I wasn’t expecting how graphic and grotesque the picture would be. At my strangled reaction, she giggled again. “Take the next right, then straight for two miles.”
“You witnessed fights like that?” I asked as I took the right.
“Yup.” The way she popped the “p” did bad things to my head. I struggled to keep my attention on the road, fighting the wall. That picture showed terrible things. Things that shouldn’t touch anyone.
They could never touch Ali.
Fuck.
“How close were you to the fighters?” I gritted out.
“Close enough,” she said dismissively, giving me more directions that I followed absently.
Her answer didn’t satisfy the itch. “Front row?” She shrugged. “Sammy, were you fighting?” Her face blanked, and she didn’t answer. “Christ. Don’t talk for a few minutes. I gotta get the itch to stop before I wreck.”
“Been there,” she said with genuine empathy. Like she legit knew…and I believed her. People said they understood shit they had no real clue about all the time. They couldn’t possibly know unless they lived inside my head.
In my gut, I knew that Sammy truly did understand.
And that did not soothe the itch. She shouldn’t know, damn it. No one should have to know. I didn’t wish it on anyone.
Trying to fight to prevent the wall from snapping down, I thought of Ali’s face.
Her smile. Her laugh. How those pretty blue eyes softened when she told me she loved me.
The intense itch began to ease, and I could think straight again, the threat of the wall descending thankfully fading.
Blinking at our surroundings, I realized I’d been following Sammy’s directions without considering where she was guiding us.
“Why the fuck are we back at the warehouse?” I demanded.
“Oh, that. Sorry. I meant to ask earlier, but I got distracted. I’ve been tasked with dismembering Gaviria’s body. It’s one of my favorite parts. Do you want to help?”
“You’re fucked in the head,” I told her point-blank.
She grinned. “So, yes?”