A Week Later
When I barged into the pink room, most of the Posse, apart from Giulia, twisted around to stare at who’d intruded upon their space.
Tiffany shot me a smile and asked, “You’re joining us today, Star?”
I grunted and slouched toward the remaining empty seat around the table.
I refused to feel touched that they’d left a chair out for me when I’d only attended their group meeting the one time. Especially when I wasn’t here to talk.
“Communicative as ever,” Indy mocked.
Stone chuckled. “Leave her alone. She woke up today and chose peace or I’m sure she’d be chewing us all a new one.”
“What’s with the dog?” I asked, staring at the ugly chihuahua at Giulia’s feet.
When it bared its teeth at me, I bared mine right back.
Giulia’s cheeks flushed. “It won’t leave me alone.”
“I told Nyx was your spirit animal,” Amara said around a chuckle. “You bite first, ask later questions.”
“Giulia’s got a dog that really needs to go to the vet. We get it,” Stone sniped. “Rachel, dammit, I want to know what happened in LA.”
Rachel settled her gaze on me, and without us even having to utter a word, I knew she knew I was there for her.
Slowly, her eyelids drifted down in silent assent, confirmation we were on the same page, before she murmured, “We took Wynter home, and Rex explained to her mom that she was coming to stay with us for the rest of the school year.”
“Did she take that badly?” Lily asked.
I snorted. “How else could you take that? What do you expect her to do? Thank them?”
“The home situation wasn’t great, Star,” Tiffany chided.
“In my experience, few home situations are. But we make do. Is Wynter okay now?”
“She’s settling in,” was all Rachel said. “She’s spoken with her parents a couple times, but the calls end in arguments. Her mom’s drinking too much.”
“Ironic considering that’s what’s killing her husband.”
The Posse blinked at me.
“He has cirrhosis of the liver and needs a transplant,” I explained. “That’s why Wynter’s dad’s in the hospital.”
“How do you know that?” Stone asked.
I scoffed. “Like he didn’t consult you about that.” I got my answer when she flushed. “Rex wanted me to get involved.”
“Do we even want to fucking know how?” Indy groused.
Amara chuckled. “I hope he has you fuck with list. How you say new organ list. Bastard deserve to die.” She kissed her fingers. “Self-destruction. Perfect.”
I rolled my eyes but confirmed or denied nothing.
“Anyway, I just hope Wynter isn’t going to regret how things ended with her dad,” Rach murmured.
“What happened? How bad was it?” Giulia questioned.
“It was awful. She’s such a sweetheart, and he didn’t even look at her. Didn’t even say goodbye. I’m glad that I told Rex to wait by the car, because I think he’d have beaten the shit out of him which would have been hard to explain away as self-defense when the man’s still in casts.
“I never imagined how bad it could be to be frozen out like that.”
Another snort escaped me. “How ironic considering your nickname was Ice Queen.”
Rachel’s mouth pursed. “Trust me, I know. I didn’t realize how devastating it was to be on the other side of that.”
“We rarely know the damage we cause,” Tiffany assured us.
“But it’s good that, after some self-reflection, you picked up on it.
In the future, you can try to make sure you have a better way of communicating your issues and that freezing someone out isn’t a coping mechanism you constantly fall back on. ”
This time, I didn’t roll my eyes, but I felt like doing it.
Psychobabble bullshit.
“So, she’s staying with you long term?”
“I think so,” Rachel answered Alessa. She sounded excited. That surprised me. “I hope she does. It’s great having her around. She’s talking about attending Columbia and cross-registering with Juilliard.”
Stone laughed. “It’s a good thing you and Rex are loaded.”
Rachel grinned. “It is, but it’s worth it. She’s excited and I am too.”
“How’s Rain taking it?”
“He’s acting like he’s ten years older than her and not just a year.” Her grin widened. “It’s hilarious.”
“You look happy,” Stone mused. “It’s good to see.”
Rachel shrugged. “I feel happy. I didn’t realize that she was what we were missing.”
“How’s the baby?” Giulia asked.
“Fine. I gained some weight so that’ll shut the doctor up at my next appointment. How about you?”
“I’m ready to pop,” she said miserably. “But it’s all good.”
Tiffany cleared her throat. “Rachel, Giulia’s dealing with some guilt about what happened in the cemetery. She’s finding it hard to express herself—”
“Tiffany, dammit to hell. I told you not to say anything.”
“And I told you that repressing this is bad for you. Plus, Rachel doesn’t resent you, do you?”
“Honestly, no. The last month has been so chaotic, it’s just one extra piece of baggage to deal with.”
“That’s the point,” Giulia muttered. “I wanted to ease you of that burden. Instead, it made it worse.”
I watched as Giulia, for the first time since I’d ever met her, actually looked apologetic.
It wasn’t a great look on her.
Rachel shot her a smile. “It came from a good place.”
“Some things are meant to be left in the past,” Indy mused. “Digging them up is just asking for trouble.”
“You’d know,” she said sympathetically. “Has that PI been sniffing around again?”
“No. The cops have left me alone too.”
I snickered. “That’s because I left a nice trail of breadcrumbs for them both.”
“How?” Rachel demanded. “You’d better not have fucked this up, Lodestar.”
“Fucked what up? There was nothing to fuck up,” I sniped. “I just laid a trail for the PI to pick up. David went traveling around the East Coast, don’t you know? Stayed in a couple motels, and there’s even CCTV footage to prove it.”
Rachel demanded, “You doctored motel records and CCTV footage?”
I hummed. “Picked nice anonymous places with heavy foot traffic so he’d just be one small needle in a large haystack for the staff to remember.”
“You didn’t have to do that,” Indy said softly.
“Sure I did. You deserve to not have that hanging over you. If I could find Grizzly, I’d solve that too.”
“Look at you being Ms. Problem Solver,” Stone mocked.
“I know. It’s weird that I’m being helpful.”
“Very weird,” Giulia agreed. “And there’s really no lead on finding Grizzly?”
“I’m going through Bear’s murder board with a fine-tooth comb. If anything comes up, I’ll let you know, Rachel.”
“Thanks, Star.”
“Anyway, are we not going to talk about the fact that you’re wearing an engagement ring and that Rex came in for ink this week?” Indy teased.
Rachel blushed. It was almost nauseating how happy she was, but fuck, after what she’d been through, she deserved it.
“Let’s see it,” Tiffany crowed, and she snatched Rachel’s hand and peered at the diamond. Snow white. As cold as Rachel used to be.
A fitting gem for her, especially when combined with the two rubies bracketing the Princess cut.
Fire to warm up that ice.
“What ink did Rex get?” I asked.
“Scales of justice,” Indy murmured. “Rachel’s name on one of the scales, Sinners’ brand on the other.”
“The scales were tipped?”
Rachel’s blush deepened at Stone’s question. “They were. My name’s on the lower one.”
“As it should be,” Giulia said, her tone stout. Her gaze clashed with mine. “Star, you know what’s happening this week, don’t you?”
I arched a brow. “Many things, I’m sure.”
Including a visit to Kat’s school.
Her bully needed a broken arm.
Another one.
“Nyx’s going into the city with Harlow.”
Rachel frowned. “He’s talked about that with you?”
“Yes.”
“And you signed off on that?”
“I have,” Giulia answered as she reached for her glass of water. “I understand.”
“I don’t.” Indy’s tone was grim. “He made me a promise.”
Rachel questioned, “Has he spoken about it with you?”
“No, because he knows I’d call him out on his bullshit, and he wouldn’t be able to do this without feeling like a piece of shit for breaking that promise.”
“He isn’t breaking it. He’s just helping Harlow.”
“Ever heard of the term ‘aiding and abetting’ or ‘conspiracy to commit murder?’ Because I’m no lawyer, and I’ve heard of those,” Stone bitched.
Giulia scowled at her. “Harlow can’t do it on his own. He needs to learn how to leave no footprints behind.”
“Since when were the Sinners running a school for serial killers?” Stone sniped.
Giulia hissed, “Stone, I get that you’re attacking my man on his sister’s behalf, but I’m okay with this. I trust him.”
“You shouldn’t,” Indy retorted. “If he can break a promise to me, he can break a promise to you.”
“You do know that this plan is sanctioned by the head of the Five Points, don’t you?” Rachel threw out there.
“Like that means anything,” Indy said bitterly.
I derided, “It means more than you fucking know. Aidan O’Donnelly Sr. has one of the best hackers I’ve ever met as a son, and he has him jumping through hoops on the regular to meet his demands.
“Throw in the fact that his empire has been built over decades, and there isn’t a war he’s waged that he’s lost—you’re an idiot if you discount the level of influence he has.”
Rachel sighed. “I hate to agree with Star, but she’s right. I’ve seen his influence in action. It’s beyond impressive. Borderline disturbing. The way he can make the authorities dance tells me there’s something very flawed with our justice system.”
“What are you talking about?” Indy demanded. “How have you seen the Five Points’ influence in action? Are you their lawyer?”
“No, thank God. I have enough problems to handle without adding their bullshit to the mix.”
“Nyx told me about the speeding charge, Rachel,” Giulia murmured quietly.
Rachel’s eyes widened. “He told you?”
“He did.”
Giulia’s tone was bizarrely calm.
It was so bizarre, in fact, that it sent chills down my spine—which was a fucking feat in and of itself.
Giulia had the temper of an agitated scorpion.
That she was chilled was just proof that pregnancy was all kinds of wrong for the female body.