Chapter 7
Raeleen
“What is that?” Harlow asked, raising an eyebrow as she looked over at my pet.
It was a week after the bar incident and I’d invited my friends over.
I mostly just wanted to hang out with them, but I was also trying to figure out if I should try to speak with Pyre about what’d happened.
I was very good about sticking my head in the sand when needed.
And I wasn’t sure what to do about him. I mean, a whole week and no contact?
If he’d really tried to kiss me, like Ainsley thought, wouldn’t he have tried to get a hold of me?
I’d been about to just give up on it all together, but that insistent part of me wanted to know for sure.
“It’s a sweater I made for Penny,” I told her.
“Oh my God it looks so cute on her!” Maya said, picking Penny up and cuddling her close.
Melody made a face. “Don’t kiss her!”
“Why?” Maya asked, after her lips had left Penny’s head. “She’s sweet.”
“She’s an opossum," Melody countered.
“A sweet opossum,” Mona said with a shrug, scratching Penny’s head as Maya held her.
Penny endured Maya’s cuddles with righteous indignation as she sat on the couch with her.
“Where did you even get her?” Kaisa asked. “Not many opossums around here.”
“I found her while I was on vacation in New Mexico,” I told them. “She’d been separated from her mom and looked too young to survive on her own.”
“So you kept her?” Ainsley asked with a grin.
“Yeah. I brought her home and nursed her back to health.”
“Of course you did,” Harlow said with a soft smile. “You have such a big heart, Rae.”
“Why the sweater, though?” Kaisa asked.
“Like you said, there aren’t many opossums in Wyoming,” I explained. “It gets too cold for them here. So I’ve made her some sweaters to wear to keep her warm.”
“That one is pink,” Melody pointed out.
“Well, she’s a girl.”
“You don’t even wear pink,” Melody continued.
“Yes, I do,” I said, “just not very often.” I didn’t mention that the panties I had on at the moment were pink. And they had Sunday scrawled across the butt in fancy lettering. They were a gag gift from my mother last Christmas.
“When is Lyric coming home?” Mona asked, settling on the couch next to Maya and Penny.
Kaisa shrugged. “Soon, hopefully. She’s in Chicago helping out her sister.”
“It’s been a couple months,” Harlow said with a frown. “Hopefully everything’s okay?”
“Well, Lyric is losing her mind chasing around Harmony’s four kids.” Everyone except Ains laughed at that.
“Four’s a lot,” Ainsley commented with a frown.
“And those four are monsters,” Kaisa told her.
“They’re not monsters,” I said. “They’re just…”
“Out of control?” Harlow suggested.
“Maniacs,” Maya said with a raise of her brows.
“Spirited,” I said with a laugh. “I was going to say spirited. But they’re sweet.”
“To you,” Mona countered. “To everyone else they’re little devils.”
“Rae has this way with kids,” Melody told Ainsley. “They adore her.”
“Yeah, they really love her,” Harlow said with a nod.
“And they actually listen to her,” Kaisa added.
“Those kids don’t listen to anyone. Not even Harm or their father.
Certainly not to their auntie Lyric.” She shook her head as though that would remove some of the unpleasant memories of the things the kids had done.
“But she said she should be home soon, the last time I spoke with her.”
“Good,” Harlow said. “We can’t get anything done with you and Maya being the only two County Commissioners here. We need a tie breaker.”
“We’ve gotten stuff done,” Maya complained.
Harlow huffed out a breath. “Not much.”
“It’s Sunday,” Kaisa said, “and I don’t want to talk about work.” Her eyes flashed to me and I didn’t like the glint I saw in them. “I want to talk about you.”
“Me?” I asked, clearing my throat when the word came out as a squeak.
“What about me?” I made sure I didn’t make waves.
That way no one could talk about me. It didn’t matter that I’d brought them here to ask about my dilemma.
The idea that they were already coming here with something on their minds made me nervous.
“From what I heard,” she grinned over at Ainsley, “you almost kissed Pyre.”
“No, no,” Harlow said, “it was that Pyre almost kissed her.”
“Is there a difference?” Kaisa asked.
“Oh there’s a difference,” Mona replied with a wide smile. “We already figured out that Rae is into Pyre-”
“All I said before was that he was handsome,” I argued. “They all are.”
“Uh huh,” Mona said, getting that look on her face that she always had when she got the inside scoop for a story.
She was like a dog with a bone. It was hell having a friend who was a reporter.
She dug until you surrendered all your secrets.
Not that Ainsley being a former cop made her much better.
“But if Pyre almost kissed her, now we know he’s into her as well. ”
“Do we?” I asked with a skeptical glance in her direction. That was the question I’d been wondering all week. It didn’t matter that Ainsley had heard from Warrant that he was. I wasn’t sure I trusted them to actually know.
“Oh, we do,” she replied. “But don’t worry, I’ll find out for sure.”
“Ramona,” I gasped, shaking my head at her. “Don’t you dare!”
“Why not?” she asked with a pout. “I can find out exactly how he feels. Trust me.”
“I don’t think your reporter magic will work on him,” Maya said.
“Magic?” Mona asked with a roll of her eyes. “It’s not magic, it’s good old fashioned investigating.”
“Warrant already confirmed that Pyre’s into her,” Ainsley told the group.
“But do we know that Pyre didn’t lie to him?” Mona countered. “That he’s not fucking with Warrant? We don’t want our girl led astray here. We need to find out the truth.”
Ainsley considered that, then shrugged as if it was a good point. I was pretty sure Mona was just bored and needed something to do.
“I could help with that,” Ainsley pointed out.
Mona sat up straight. “Good. You have more access to him than I do. A former cop and a reporter? Pyre won’t stand a chance.”
“Not to mention I have a man on the inside, and he can’t keep secrets from me. Not for long anyway,” Ainsley said with a wink. “I’ll figure out if he thinks Pyre’s interest is legit or not.”
Harlow snorted in amusement. “These guys were military. They’re not going to break for you two.”
“They could. Being former military doesn’t mean they know how to evade questioning,” Mona pointed out.
“Ever heard of SERE school?” Harlow asked in disbelief.
“Yeah, SERE stands for survival, evasion, resistance, and escape,” Melody said. “The guys were literally trained not to give away national secrets. You think they’re going to tell you who they want to bone?”
“Melody,” I groaned, covering my face with my hands.
My friends brought out the real me like few could.
My family, of course managed it, but these women had done so in record time.
To the public I looked quiet and aloof, except when I was speaking to the families of the dead.
Then I did my best to be comforting. “He doesn’t want to… Do we have to call it that?”
“Fine,” she said with a smirk. “Make love to.”
Nope. That didn’t make it any better.
“Why don’t we change the subject?” I suggested. It no longer mattered that I had wanted to ask them about this very thing. The conversation was slipping out of my control too quickly for my liking.
“Not happening,” Ainsley said with a laugh.
“Not all the guys were special forces though,” Kaisa said in a thoughtful tone. “They may not have all gone through SERE school.”
“If they didn’t, you know Cypher put them through something like that of his own,” Harlow argued. “He only hires the best of the best. And he refuses to let them say anything to anyone.”
We all looked over at Ainsley.
“What?” she asked. “You just said it yourself. Cypher doesn’t let us talk.” She gave us a wide grin.
She’d started working for Cypher after resigning as the town’s sheriff a few weeks ago.
But she was pretty hush hush about what she did for them.
I couldn’t blame her. You didn’t want to cross a man like Cypher.
Or his motorcycle club. The fight the other night in the bar proved how dangerous the men of The Berserker’s Rage were.
“Besides,” Harlow continued, ignoring the fact that Ains hadn’t given us anything to work with, “Cypher was CIA at some point. So more of those guys probably were too.”
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Mona said, squirming in her chair. It was as though she couldn’t sit still until she heard the juicy gossip.
“I’m the mayor,” Harlow said with a sniff. “I know things.”
“Bull,” Kaisa said with a laugh.
“Yeah, spill it,” Maya said, bouncing Penny in her arms like she was a baby. Penny was not amused.
My opossum was on her back and she turned her head until her beady black eyes landed on me.
Her gaze was screaming, ‘help me’. I bit my lip to keep from laughing.
It was good for her to socialize with other people.
We both kept to ourselves too often for our own good.
The last few times I’d had my friends over she’d hidden under the bed in my bedroom.
I hadn’t allowed her to stay there this time.
Harlow shook her head. “I’m not giving away my secrets,” she said. “Then I won’t be able to dig up any dirt on any of you when I need to.”
“You could tell us how you know Cypher was CIA, then just ask us about any dirt you want on us,” Mona countered.
Harlow scoffed. “Like you’d tell the truth.”
“I thought Cypher was military?” I asked.
“He was,” Harlow replied. “But then he did a stint with the CIA.”
“Like after he retired?” Ainsley asked.
“Or while he was still active with the military?” Melody added.
“I have no idea,” Harlow admitted. “I didn’t find that out.”
“So all you know is he was CIA?” Kaisa asked.
Harlow shrugged, then nodded.
Kaisa fixed her gaze back on me. I fought not to shrink back into my recliner as they all focused on me again.