Chapter 29
ASHLEY
Ashes: Thank you. Royce refuses to tell me how he got the ’Cuda but I know it was yours. It’s too much…
Heath: But you love it?
Ashes: YES!! But I can’t keep it.
Heath: Well, the title is already in your name so…
Ashes: Heath!!!!!!!!
Heath: You’re worth so much more than any car, Ashes. I’m just dirty that Royce got to give you this one. Next time I wanna see your reaction firsthand.
Ashes: What the hell do you mean “next time”????
Ashes: Hello???
Ashes: Okay, very mature.
Ashes: Heath, we’re not done with this conversation.
Heath: I love you.
Ashes: I love you too.
“ G et in, loser. We’re going shopping!” I yelled to Carly as she jogged out of her dorm with a shocked look on her face. She gaped at my new ride with awe, then slid into the passenger side with an impressed whistle.
“Heath let you drive his baby? I’m shocked and amazed,” she commented, running a hand over the leather dash.
I quirked a brow at her suspiciously. “Heath? Royce claimed credit for this one, but he did imply that it hadn’t cost him much, so I wonder if they had it in a wager.”
Carly snort-laughed. “Almost definitely. This is what Royce asks for in literally every bet the two of them place. And now it’s yours? Damn, girl, you have those boys firmly tangled around your little finger. I’m very impressed and more than a little jealous.”
With a happy sigh, I shifted the car into gear, accelerating a lot faster than necessary to leave the parking lot.
I was just loving the sound of the engine too much to drive safely, but I also wasn’t taking any dumb risks.
It was hard enough convincing the boys to let me leave the apartment alone—the last thing I needed was to end up in a silly accident and hurt my new baby.
And myself. I knew which part I’d be more upset about.
“You wanna tell me your boyfriends don’t gift you extremely rare, stupidly expensive vintage cars to say sorry for crashing yours?” I grinned at her as I drove, and she flipped me her middle finger back.
“Far from it,” she sighed. “How does my hair look, by the way?”
I glanced over, taking better notice of her bouncy curls. “It looks good. Is that the new curling iron you just got?”
“Uh-huh,” she confirmed with an irritated sort of nod. “I had it perfectly pin straight and clean this morning when Ed paid me a little visit.”
Bemused, I shook my head. “So…why’d you end up curling it? I’m confused.”
She huffed a frustrated sound. “Because he blew his load fucking everywhere, and I had to frantically spot clean my hair and fix it. Don’t even get me started on how bad my headboard looks right now.”
Shocked laughter bubbled out of me. “Oh ew! Girl, your headboard is suede. You’ll never get it clean!”
“That’s what I said!” she exclaimed, throwing her hands up. “I swear, after seeing how Royce apologizes for ruining your stuff, I’m accepting nothing less than a brand-new bed if he wants a repeat of that position.”
Good on her for setting boundaries. Sort of. “Well, I have my fingers crossed for you. Where do you want to go shopping anyway? I’m still not super familiar with the area, to be honest.”
“Yeah, because literally every event we go to, you’re dressed in perfectly fitted custom couture.
Carter is single-handedly robbing us of important girl bonding time by being way too fucking thoughtful.
” She sighed dramatically, rolling her eyes.
“I suppose it’s sort of endearing in an intense, rich-person kinda way.
How is all that going now anyway? How’s Nate? ”
The evil, teasing grin on her face was enough for me to shoot her a sarcastic middle finger. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Uh-huh, sure .” She snickered. “Let’s head into Muscovy Street. I wanna get one of those new strawberry bag charms from Versace.”
I vaguely knew the area she was talking about, so headed in that direction. It’d be entertaining to shop with Carly, even if I couldn’t afford anything in her target stores. Not even a bag charm, no matter how cute they were.
As it turned out, Carly bought a lot more than just the strawberry charm, and I quickly made myself useful as her second opinion and bag carrier, while firmly refusing her offers to buy literally anything I let my gaze linger on for too long.
It turned into a game, which left us both in giggles as I tried to not look at anything at all in the luxury stores while she made it her mission to entice me into admitting what I liked.
Eventually, we took a break for lunch, which she made real clear she’d be buying since I wouldn’t let her buy me anything else.
“Who are you texting?” she asked after we finished ordering. We’d picked a cute little dumpling house, and Carly had ordered way more food than the two of us would ever be able to eat. Hopefully they allowed takeout for what was left.
I flicked my gaze up to hers, smiling. “Heath. Just saying thank you since I had no idea the car was technically his.”
“I bet you can thank him properly when you get home.” She waggled her brows suggestively as she broke her chopsticks apart in anticipation of food. “Oh ew, wait, that’s my cousin we’re talking about. Gross.”
I snickered, replying to Heath’s message again and stifling a groan as he insisted the car was already in my name. At the same time, though, he was making it easy for me to just accept it, no matter how wildly out of proportion the car was in comparison to my Firebird.
She did drive like a fucking dream, though, so maybe it wouldn’t hurt to put a pin in that discussion for a little bit? I couldn’t fight my smile as he replied again, and I sent my response.
“You have the most insanely lovesick look on your face right now,” Carly observed, poking my nose gently with a chopstick. “Have you two said it out loud yet?”
I wet my lips, putting my phone away. “Yes…”
Carly’s jaw dropped. “What? When? Why didn’t you tell me immediately? Obviously I’m not shocked that he said it; he’s been in love with you since the moment you met. But you ? You practically break out in hives at the idea of expressing genuine emotions verbally.”
“Excuse me!” I spluttered in outrage. “I do not! I told Royce I love him too, thank you very much.”
“Fuck off,” my friend gasped. “Did you really? Aw, look at you dropping all the L-bombs this week like you’re about to die.” Then she winced and shook her head. “Ah, figure of speech. Bad one, at that. The incident at the lake feels like it was a whole lifetime ago, and it was only a week.”
I blew out a heavy sigh, nodding my agreement. “I know what you mean. Anyway, let’s avoid all subjects associated with murder plots and bombs and hypnosis?”
“And rogue eyeballs,” she agreed with a serious expression, making me crack a smile once more. I’d obviously told her all about the eyeball incident and how both Royce and I had reacted. She’d thought it was hysterical, and with the luxury of hindsight? Same.
Our food arrived then, and I had to mentally shove the image of eyeballs aside in order to eat the first dumpling without gagging. Thanks a fucking lot, imagination .
Thankfully, when we swapped our conversation to discuss an upcoming DB event, I forgot all about eyeballs as my stomach clenched in anxious anticipation of what fuckery Jocelyn might have lined up under the mask of the Society.
I hadn’t told Carly about the incident where I’d been abducted from work and nearly stabbed on a freaking altar.
We’d all decided to keep that one quiet, considering how many bodies were left behind.
“I dunno if I’m brave enough to attend another event so soon, if I’m honest,” I admitted after she’d told me a little about the weekend, which was an annual tradition for the DBS.
She mentioned that it wasn’t even held within our state and we’d have to travel to Alaska, where DB charters from all over the country would meet up.
It was a big deal to get an invitation and an even bigger deal to compete in the race that was the highlight of the event.
“If you wanted to sit it out, I don’t think anyone would blame you,” she agreed, plucking up another dumpling to eat. “But”—she paused to chew and swallow—“the race is right up your alley.”
Her eyes sparkled with mischief as she said it, and I groaned. “Oh no. You’re gonna talk me into this, aren’t you?”
Her laugh barked out louder than she intended, and she immediately clapped her hands over her mouth.
“Shit. Sorry. But yes. It’s ice driving.
The society provides the cars, so no one risks damage to their own priceless baby.
Typically, an initiate would never even get an invitation, but I heard that you have connections in high places. ”
I chuckled as I shook my head. “I feel like there’s a dirty joke to be made here, but my nerves are too frayed to find it.
I’ll talk to the guys and see what they think.
Maybe with it being in a whole other city and state, being run by different councils and everything… maybe it’s beyond Jocelyn’s reach?”
Carly shrugged. “Or it’s not and we all die.”
“Super helpful, thank you.” I squinted at her, deadpan.
“You’re welcome. Just pointing out that as much as I want you to go and as much as I want things to be normal , I also have concerns.
So don’t go making any decisions just because I made it sound like a bunch of fun.
Which it would be…assuming we don’t all die, of course.
” She snagged another dumpling and ate it whole, making her cheeks puff out like a chipmunk for a moment.
I snickered. “You’re a dork. That didn’t help at all—you know that, right?”
“I’m aware,” she confirmed. “Are you going to eat that?”
She was pointing her chopsticks at the pork xiao long bao in the basket in front of me, and I frowned down at them. My stomach was all knotted up with worry over this new DB event coming up, but at the same time…they were delicious.
“Yes, I am. Fuck off.” I swatted her chopsticks away with my own and placed one of the broth-filled parcels in my mouth.
Luckily I’d let them cool long enough so I didn't burn my tongue. “I actually need to buy some new underwear. Are there any stores around here that won’t put me in debt for basic panties?”
Carly snorted. “You’ve got a panty thief in your apartment, huh? My money’s on Nate.”
I rolled my eyes. “Carter, actually. And yes…which is actually becoming frustrating when I genuinely want to wear panties and can’t find any.”
Carly assured me there was a normal department store down the road, so we finished our lunch and walked down to restock my underwear drawer with basics—literally the cheapest panties I could find, seeing as I’d bet anything they would barely see my ass more than twice before disappearing in a puff of smoke.
She dipped out for ten minutes while I was in the boring panties section, mumbling something vague about grabbing something from another store, but she was back before I even finished paying, thanks to the line for the register.
We made our way back to my lovely car—she needed a name, but I hadn’t settled on the right one just yet—and Carly fished out one of her many designer shopping bags to hand to me.
“Here. This one is yours,” she announced before hopping into the passenger seat.
“What? Why?” I climbed into the driver’s side and narrowed my eyes in suspicion as she encouraged me to open the bag. Inside, I found an adorable leather dumpling key charm from Louis Vuitton. I grinned, shaking my head. “I love it. Thank you.”
I was also quietly relieved it was just that and not something ridiculous like the Hermès bag she’d tried to convince me was a necessity for carrying my class notes.
I asked her about her plans for the rest of the weekend while we headed out of the shopping district, and it wasn’t until we were nearly back at Nevaeh that I realized…we were being followed.