The Bedlam Boys: Complete Series

Chapter Seven

Cairo came back for me almost an hour later.

The lights were dim in the house. Stepping in, I saw it was because a fair amount were burned out or flickering.

Stale beer hit my nose. Pushing down the urge to cringe was easy since I didn’t have the energy to do it.

In Bedlam there are diamonds.

What did this mean?

There were diamonds on my farm? For years, someone or someones tried to drive Gran out—get her locked up, and us sent away, for greed.

The whole thing made no sense, and yet, everything was falling into place.

Why Gran was so determined to leave this legacy to me and Ivy. Why people tried to take it from her.

But it wasn’t just her. I was supposed to believe our whole town was sitting on a treasure trove and out there was a she employing the Bedlam Boys to protect the secret and take out anyone who brings unwanted attention on us?

Cairo led me through the sparse wicker-chairs living room, holding tight to my hand.

“Why—?”

“Don’t ask me questions, Rain. I can’t answer them.”

“But why do you have to collect payments from people if what you said is true?” I plowed on. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

“We don’t get a cut,” he hissed.

“Why?”

“Rain—”

“We’re alone, Cairo. Why can’t—?”

“Because we’re not.” He whirled on me, then his gaze traveled up. “We’re not alone, and when we are, I still won’t talk about this. Look at me, Rainey. This is serious. You don’t know the danger I put us both in by telling you, so I didn’t. You don’t know. Nod if you’ve already forgotten.”

Slowly, I nodded.

“Good. Dad keeps his files in the office. Stay close to me,” he said, taking off upstairs. “Don’t wander off.”

“I want to see your room.”

“You’re having a lot of trouble listening tonight.”

I was having trouble with everything that night. Trouble with the thought the place I slopped around in the pigpen and chased chickens might hold riches in its soil. Trouble with my gran becoming a casualty in the battle to keep it in our family, and me taking on the fight clueless and unprepared.

Did she know?

Would she have worked so back-breaking hard her whole life if the option to retire in the French Riviera was beneath her fingertips?

But if she didn’t know, how did Andrew Clein and AgriProspects?

It suddenly made sense why a dying business came for us so hard. It was a stroke of luck too late, they didn’t get what they were after in the end.

We topped the landing.

A thunderous snore slipped under the first door on the right. A familiar rush of hatred flooded by senses. Cairo was on a hunt for the truth, and of course I wanted it too, but as far as I was concerned, there was nothing we would uncover that would sate my need to watch that man carried out in cuffs. Cairo would get over it.

I stroked his back. I’m here for him now.

“In here,” he said, ducking into the room at the end of the hall.

We passed a third closed door on the way. I would see inside it eventually—when Cairo wasn’t raw and prickly from being more vulnerable than he expected to be that night.

Jack Sharpe’s office was a simple space. His desk and computer against the wall, looking out over the window. A liquor cabinet beside it and blown-up pictures of Jack fishing as decor. A few of them with a young Cairo holding his flopping fish for the camera.

Cairo crossed to a photo of him and Jack sitting on the rim of a boat, and swung it open. A green wall safe drew me in.

“Kind of an obvious place to hide this,” I spoke up. “Shouldn’t a sheriff know to be more creative?”

“There’s a world of stupid criminals, Rain, but very few are dumb enough to rob a sheriff. He could leave his money on the hall table. It’s not going anywhere.”

“Fair point.”

I rested my chin on his shoulder, studying him while he studied the lock. “What have you tried?”

“His birthday, his parents’ birthday, my birthday, and Paris’s. I tried his and Nora’s wedding day, and the day they met.”

“Did you try their honeymoon?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Nothing.”

“What about on his phone? I’m not going to lie, I’ve got a few passwords saved in my notes.”

He was shaking his head before I finished.

“His cell is a half-useless brick that he forgets at home or in his office every other day. He’d care a lot more if passwords were on it.”

“That’s true,” I muttered.

I worried my lip, cycling through the options. People were predictable creatures and they liked shortcuts. An important day in your life was easy to remember, and the sentimental liked to link the combination to the precious things inside.

“You said he keeps case files in there. Maybe the combo is related to him being a cop. Have you tried his badge number or the day he joined the force?”

Cairo snapped his fingers. “You’re as smart as that pussy is sweet. Stay here.”

A smile tugged at me while I leaned against the wall waiting for him. He was getting generous with the compliments and the kisses these days, but a rare breed like Cairo Sharpe didn’t bring anything straightforward.

He returned with his father’s badge. Cairo twisted the dial, swinging to the last number, and pulled the handle.

Nothing.

“Shit. I don’t know the date he joined,” Cairo admitted. “I’ll ask him in the morning. How long are we doing this tonight?”

“Till the morning.”

He dipped his chin. “Give me more, de Souza. What else you got?”

I suggested every possible day in the man’s life. I even got Cairo to pull out his yearbook and spin in prom night. All my ideas exhausted, I fished out my phone and we tried the internet for other possible significant moments.

It gave us his first road trip. The day he received his first paycheck. Also, the days he lost people important to him.

We did our best to try them all. Over fifty possible combos, and the safe did not open.

Cairo bundled me in the car the next morning, ignoring my arguing that we had time to try a few more.

“I have to come back and get him up for work,” he said, carrying me to the car. “You can’t be here when I do. He’ll lose his shit if he sees you.”

“You have to get him ready for work?”

I stroked his cheek as Cairo placed me on the passenger seat and buckled me in. “Just how much do you do to keep your father going, baby?”

He said nothing—just removed my hand and went around to his side. And I finally understood what Nora Keller did to him.

Nine years old, she abandoned him to be the only support for his broken, drunken father—crushed under responsibility that grown adults would struggle to carry. And when he naturally had a hard time processing this and the loss of his family, she told him it was his fault and chained her grand mansion gates closed in his face.

Yeah, a mother like that would quickly become “Nora” for me too.

“I’m sorry,” I said softly.

I wanted to say more, but if I did, I wouldn’t stop. Just imagining the pain that sweet little boy in the picture felt for so much of his life broke me.

“I’m sorry too.” His voice scraped from his throat. “Your grandmother. Sounds like she was one of the few decent people left in this town. She deserved better.”

I laced my fingers through his. “We’ll get her justice, won’t we?”

A ghost of a smile crossed his lips. He heard what I truly said.

I forgive you.

“We’re barely through the list of possible combos,” he said. “I’ve got nothing for the next several nights. I’ll pick you up at midnight.”

“It’s a date.”

JACQUES

I woke before the sun Wednesday morning.

A light sleeper, I heard her moving downstairs a floor up and behind closed doors. Flipping over, I read six a.m. on the clock.

In two hours, her presence was required in front of Bedlam Hall to receive a gift. Behind her back, Cairo, Arsenio, Roan, Legend, and I argued ways to get her out of this and the consequences if we did.

Rainey wasn’t willing to risk another murder—especially if the Letter Man set Paris in his sights. We were up for another murder—his.

Minutes after Rainey’s call to Cairo about Craig Brown, he was on the phone to us confirming Blake Jensen did exist. Rainey didn’t know we were tracking him down ourselves. Monday night, Cairo used our dinner invitation with the boss to ask her about black letters and families with the last name Jensen.

“What is the relevance?” she asked, polite tone clashing against the intensity in her gaze. “Is there a problem I’m unaware of?”

“I’m not sure if it’s a problem,” he said. “I got a black letter in the mail. There were threats made against me and the guys. I assumed at first it was the Crows, but black letters in the mail seem dramatic even for them.”

She smiled, though it didn’t reach her eyes. “I’m sure it’s nothing. Someone being dramatic as you said. The Bedlam Boys have collected their fair share of enemies. If you receive another, bring it to me. I’ll decide if the threat is worth acting on and how to proceed if it is.”

“Sure,” he said. “Thanks.”

“How is the name Jensen related?”

“It’s not,” I answered. “We’re looking into possibilities for the new Dante. This guy is bolder and begging to attract the wrong attention by posting revenge polls. Jensen was the last name of a guy who bought sound equipment from the pawnshop on Third. Owner didn’t catch a first.”

Her lips twisted. “Dante. A thorn in Bedlam’s side for a hundred years, and now it seems the mantle was taken over by a silly boy playing a big man behind the microphone. Find him,” she ordered. “I cannot think of a Jensen that fits that description off the top of my head. I’ll get back to you.”

We hoped she’d have more. Wednesday morning dawned and she hadn’t called.

Getting up, I slid pants up my bare ass and left my shirt hanging in the closet. I was going down to meet Rainey. I only needed a belt.

Padding downstairs, I paused in the entrance, watching her chop bananas and toss them in the blender.

No one told her she had to make our breakfast. Honestly, it was a task none of us minded doing, and in respect of more honesty, we didn’t mind her cooking for us either. Rainey de Souza took care of everyone around her. Even if they didn’t deserve it. Even if they were us.

She looked up healthy meals for me. Ran out to get ice packs. Soothed Cairo when he was pissed. Let her ass be stress relief for Legend. Indulged the darkest side of her for Roan. Crossed the razor-thin tightrope of Arsenio’s self-control to meet the man on the other side.

I sensed when Cairo told us the name of Cavendish’s killer that she’d be dangerous for us. Both innocent and deadly, she’d feed a brutal side of our souls that needed no more encouragement.

I didn’t consider at the time what she’d do to the rest of us.

“Breakfast is almost ready,” she called. “I’m making your smoothie and a sweet potato breakfast hash for all of us.”

“Is this distraction helping you?”

She froze, then continued on, taking the milk out of the fridge. “It’s not hurting.”

“Would it also help if I went with you?”

“Thank you, but Legend is going to be there. Who knows what’ll provoke him, but I can’t carry the cost of him changing his mind and opting for punishment because he figured out I told you all about our game.”

“We will find out who he is.”

She gave me a worn smile. “I know we will. Gold is looking for Dante. I’m looking for Blake Jensen. One of these paths will lead to him.”

“Have you considered what you’ll do once you unmask him?”

“I’m throwing him at the cops. Let them put that animal in a cage.”

“Well then, I’d better get to him before you.”

My words hung in the air.

Rainey dropped her forehead on the blender. “Please, Jacques, just tell me everything’s going to be okay.”

“I can’t do that, Rainey.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’ll do a lot of things, but I won’t lie to you.”

She barked a mirthless laugh. “That should upset me. It doesn’t. There isn’t much point of false hope at a time like this. There’s just being smart, and one step ahead.”

“The latter is my specialty.” I unbuckled my belt. “So is providing distractions. Hands and knees. Face the couch.”

The stove shut off with a faint click. Rainey came around the island—clad in a see-through negligee and thong.

It was Cairo’s idea to toss out her “farm girl” clothes, and Legend’s to upgrade her to slinky dresses and lingerie. Mother once asked why I spent time with boys who weren’t as clever as me.

I traced the lace pattern on her breast.

Because they were smarter. Bless Legend for the genius he is.

“No.”

My hand stilled between the valley of her breasts. “Excuse me?”

“No,” she repeated. Her smirk tugged a frown from me. “I won’t get down. If you want me on my knees, you’ll have to put me there.”

“Five.”

She caressed my bare chest. “Go ahead and count me up. What number will you hit before you can’t take it anymore? Tell me, Jacques.” She whispered my name like profanity—forbidden on her tongue. “How high till you lose control?”

“Six.”

Rainey brushed her lips along my jaw, licking the small cleft where it met.

“Seven.”

If she noticed the croak in my voice, I couldn’t tell. But my cock, nothing was small about it straining against my zipper to do what I wasn’t. Touching her, seeking her, begging for her.

Of course I didn’t have sex. I had complete control of my mind, habits, food, mannerisms, and even my shits. But I had no control over this.

Rainey palmed me through the lining.

It jumped in her hand as I said, “Eight.”

Backing away, she trapped my gaze as she pushed one strap, then the other off her shoulder. We moved in sync—the negligee falling in a pile of lace at her feet, and my belt buckle skimming the floor.

“Get on your knees,” I growled.

“You first.”

“Nine.”

Rainey turned and wiggled out of her thong. Holding on to the kitchen counter, she bent and ground her ass on my erection.

Thwack.

“Ah,” she cried out, and ground harder.

Thwack.

Thwack.

Blossoming spots of red spread on her ivory cheeks—the world’s naughtiest Rorschach test. What do you see?

The last of my control evaporating into smoke.

She reached between her legs and snaked down my waistband.

I broke.

Lifting Rainey off her feet, I gave the woman her wish—dropping Rainey on all fours on the couch. I held her head down, partially muffling her moans in the cushion. My belt fell, gifting those quivering cheeks two more slaps.

The damned infuriating creature hadn’t let up through the whole thing.

She tore my zipper, ripping it down. I grabbed her wrist and the other came at me, freeing my weeping cock from my boxers.

Does she fucking have eight hands?!

Rainey stroked me hard and fast—rough, jerky tugs that about punched me in the gut, doubling me over her.

“Yes,” she hissed. “More. Give me more.”

“N-nine.”

“You already said nine, baby.”

“That’s how high.”

I pulled her hand off, hooked Rainey around the thighs, and pushed inside her with one hard thrust. Then another. Then another.

Then another.

A red mist descended on my vision, focusing the world on a single point in time and space.

Rainey de Souza.

I pumped hard and wild. No discernible rhythm or technique. I wasn’t half an inch out before I was plowing back in her again. It wasn’t entirely clear if I was trying to fuck her, or merge our bodies into one.

“Yes. Yes. Yes!” she screamed. “Harder, Jacques. Don’t hold back. Not with me.”

The answer to every and all questions in my life were finally answered. This is what I needed. She was what I’d been searching for.

People were cattle, and all my life I’d been my own brand of beast, unwilling to mingle outside my kind. But now, I found her.

Cairo and Legend trotted into the living room. They cast a curious glance to the end of my four-month no-sex streak, then resumed cooking Rainey’s breakfast.

Their presence didn’t slow her at all.

She grabbed the couch arm, bracing herself to meet me thrust for thrust.

“Ah, ah,” she cried. “I’m going to give you a number... for making me wait so long for this.”

I laughed—a half-insane sound that was becoming foreign to me.

She tightened around me. I knew her changes in breath, the shifting flush to her skin, the rising pitch of her cries—and I knew what it all meant. Her orgasm was coming in seconds, not minutes.

I rolled her clit under my thumb and angled my thrust to hit—

“Ah!”

Rainey came screaming into the cushion, clamping down so hard around me, I tensed as the punch-in-gut sensation swept me under.

I exploded inside of her.

The last of my strength went with it, and I dropped in her waiting arms. She stroked my damp locks, dropping kisses on my forehead. I felt her smirk in the print of her lips.

No one could argue Rainey won this round. And possibly the next three coming.

“It’s almost seven,” Legend said, shattering the reprieve. “You should get dressed and eat something. We want to be there early to scope it out.”

My head bobbed on her sigh. “Okay. I’m up.” She kissed me again. “You’re right. You are excellent at distractions.”

She wriggled out to leave and I was two steps behind her. That morning, she was sharing her shower with me.

RAINEY

“You alright, de Souza?”

He wasn’t talking about the hitch in my step, courtesy of Jacques.

“I’m scared, Legend.”

Together, we passed a couple riding bikes and tossing conversation back and forth. You could almost believe we were as carefree. Legend held me close, rubbing slow circles on my throat, and I relaxed my head on his shoulder—drawing in all the comfort he’d give me.

“I’m scared, and it pisses me off. I hate that he has this power over me,” I cried. “With a single note, he can tell me to go here or do that. He can take a perfect morning with Jacques and... Well, I don’t know and... What am I about to walk into?”

“Whatever it is, you’re not walking into it alone.”

I tilted up to him. “You can be sweet when you want to.”

“I thought I saved that for Roan?”

“Hmm. I must be growing on you.”

“Don’t know about that,” he mused. “I’d put my money on your skills around a blow job.”

“We’ll see who’s right.”

Our flirting kept up till we came in sight of Homer Green.

Bedlam Hall dominated the quad. Rising higher than its surrounding buildings, it boasted refinement in its spires, history in the molding, and memories in the famed graduation photos that took place on its steps.

Together we climbed those steps. On the third, we stopped in the midst of student traffic and turned toward the green.

“How much time left?” I wiped damp palms on my skirt.

“Twenty minutes.”

Legend’s gaze was hard, sweeping the expanse for a sign of... anything.

Students stretched out on the grass eating breakfast, doing homework, catching up with friends. It was another normal morning, barring the ten security guards I counted, then counted again.

“What did Roan tell his mom for her to approve more security?”

“He mentioned Jeremy got his ass handed to him the other night and he’s not taking it well. There’s already been a car fire and two young women beaten in broad daylight. She approved more security for the entire campus.”

“Good.”

I lit on a blond guy smoking at the bottom of the steps and bore a hole in his skull. He must’ve felt it because he looked up, saw me staring, and made faces at me. When he saw I wasn’t letting up, he loped off.

I didn’t look away till he rounded a corner and was gone.

“I haven’t met the dean in person yet. What’s Roan’s mom like?”

“Distraction?”

“Please.”

He answered, though neither of us stopped searching.

“She’s everything you’d expect of a woman in power. Tough, doesn’t take any shit, but also fair and has a wicked sense of humor.”

“I can’t forget what Roan said. That even he knew not to test his mom.”

“I did mention she doesn’t take any shit.”

I bit my lip, nerves tingling my skin as I physically felt the seconds counting down.

“Should we have told her the whole story?” I burst out. “Or the police? Secrecy isn’t worth it if it gets people hurt.”

“Hey.” His hand slipped into mind. “The truth can cause just as much damage, Rainey. Trust me.”

“In Bedlam there are diamonds.”

“I do,” I said. “That much I trust.”

“Plus, we talked about this. All we have is an old photo and a radio host. We can’t point the police at anyone. We can’t give them details or a target,” he said. “All they would do is exactly what security is doing. Keeping an eye out.”

“I know you’re right, Legend, but I can’t relax.” My chest constricted. “Because it’s eight o’clock.”

Legend and I didn’t utter another sound. His only move was to stand closer to me, drawing me in as if shielding me from a coming threat. Legend’s speech that night in his bedroom came back to me.

“You did indulge your little fantasy that we were your boyfriends. Well, let me be the one to break it to you, this is all there is. We’re not waiting for you at the end of it. There won’t be grand confessions of love, or sweet speeches about wanting you all along, and now we can finally be together.”

I wrapped my arms around his waist, loosening as he held me tighter. So that’s why you tell lies, St. James. You believe the truth is too dangerous. If only your actions were let in on the deception.

“Do you see anything?” he asked.

“No. Nothing out of the ordinary.”

A minute passed.

Two minutes.

Five.

Ten.

“Was this a trick?” I spun around, searching the faces coming out of the hall. “What’s the point of making me stand here?”

Legend gripped my arm. “What if he wants you here so that you’re not where you should be?”

Panic choked me. “Legend, the Bedlam House! Are Arsenio and Jacques still there?”

“They don’t have classes till after noon. There’s no reason they wouldn’t be.”

“We have to—!”

Something flickered in the corner of my eye. In the split second my brain processed the information, a guy dropped his backpack at the foot of the stairs, scattering notes that flew away with the wind.

Shock bleaching his skin, he clutched the arrow sticking out of his chest.

“Ahh! Ahhh!”

Students screamed—shoving, crying, and running in every direction. But the loudest screams were mine.

Legend carried me away as security rushed in, shouting for all to get inside. He ran with me clear across campus to the Bedlam House.

A black letter lay on the welcome mat.

“HOW LONG HAS THIS BEENgoing on?”

“Months,” Henry replied.

The investigator squeezed my shoulder and Cairo was there in an instant, drawing me out of his reach and moving me between him and Legend.

His automatic possessiveness would’ve made me smile if that was something I could still do.

“Do you still have the letters?” asked the detective.

Samuel Ribecco, Henry’s friend on the force, was an older, weathered man. Gray hair, furrowed brow, and ingrained weariness in his blue eyes gave the look of a man who’d seen and lived through it all.

Henry was the first call I made after Legend rushed me home. The next morning, the three of us drove to his office in Hunter’s Crest where the two of them waited for us.

“Yes,” I rasped. “Some of them. Here.”

I handed over the ones I had left, including his latest.

Don’t say I never give you anything.

Someone had to die for your betrayal, but as a gift to the Bedlam Boys who I’m sure are reading over your shoulder right now, I decided that someone didn’t have to be Paris or one of them.

At this point, I’m certain we understand each other and we won’t have this problem again.

Love ya. XOXO

Ribecco read with a rapidly worsening expression. “I see,” he said. “How is the kid who was hit?”

“Critical condition,” Legend said. “Though he meant to kill him, his aim was off. Missed his heart. But it’s still bad.”

Ribecco pierced me through. “You should’ve gone to the police straight away.”

“You don’t know how this goes by now, detective?” I glared right back. “I didn’t forget to put a trip to the station on my to-do list. He threatened me if I told, then he revealed he has friends feeding him details of a murder investigation. I was trying to stop more people from getting hurt, and I’m here now because I obviously failed. So, are you going to help or just sit around banging on about what I should’ve done?!”

“Easy, Rainey,” Mr. Gold said. “Sam didn’t mean anything by it. We all want the same thing here.” He gave his friend a pointed look. “This madman behind bars. Sam, the letters are no longer being hand-delivered. He’s too smart to walk into a post office, so I say we stake out the mail drop boxes in town. See who shows up with a black letter.”

“Not a bad idea,” Ribecco said, tucking the letters in his coat pocket. “How often does he send you these letters?”

“Once a week. Maybe more.”

He bobbed his head, scratching his stubby beard. “A week. Bedlam’s a small town. There won’t be many boxes for us to cover. Go easier if you could lend some of that fancy surveillance equipment, Henry.”

“It’s yours.”

“Bedlam is a special case,” Ribecco told me. “I am allowed to make arrests in that jurisdiction. Even so, the HCPD usually extends the courtesy of a heads-up before we move in on another sheriff’s turf.”

“It’s too dangerous,” I said. “The Letter Man doesn’t need to kill any more people to prove he’s serious. If he finds out I handed these over to you...” I tossed my head. “I don’t want to think about what’ll happen. Part of me didn’t want to come here, but Mr. Gold said I could trust you.”

“You can. Henry and I got it from here,” he said. “You go home and get some rest. If another letter shows up, contact me immediately. Before you even open it.”

“Okay.”

Henry led us out.

“Give us a week.” He opened the door to a deceptively beautiful morning in a worry-free town. “One week, and we’ll have something for you.

“Good luck, Rainey.”

TEN DAYS LATER, MYphone hadn’t rung.

I broke down and called Gold on the eighth day. I got an answering machine and a recorded voice promising to call me back. Two days and I was still waiting for that call.

“What if something happened?”

Arsenio’s hands were cold on my throat, draping the necklace between my collarbone.

“This silence isn’t like him. He’s never missed a call before. Plus, he promised an update in a week. What if something happened to him?” I stopped Arsenio from reaching for his tie. “What if the Letter Man found out he was looking for him?”

“There’s nothing either one of us can do about that tonight.” Arsenio shifted me out of the way of the mirror. He was that young boy in the bow tie and suspenders once again, except this boy was all grown up and devastating in a Burberry suit with his curls gelled into a bun. He looked like he walked off a modeling shoot.

“You and Ellis planned this dinner. Least we can do is show up.”

I slumped against his dresser. “I can’t focus when all I’m doing is waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

“Gold is fine, de Souza.”

“You’re just saying that.”

“I’m not,” he sliced in. “The crazy fuck you’ve been going up against is enjoying all this. The game, the chase, the clues in the Dante broadcast, the letters taunting you. If he discovered Gold was onto him, I guarantee you’d have gotten another letter filled with promises to make you pay for it.

“He’s not keeping you in the dark, de Souza. He wants the lights on, so you know there’s no chance of escape.”

The silence stretched long past comfortable.

“So what does that mean?” I asked. “What’s stopping Gold from calling me back?”

“You’ll find out when you hear from him.”

He tugged me back in front of the mirror. Grabbing my jacket off the bed, he helped me into it, laying the fabric over my curves.

The guys bought me a new dress for the night’s festivities. A formal dress with a swooping neckline and conservative hem. It was perfect for the dress code I set, in the town hall banquet room I booked, to meet the guests I put on the list.

Jeremy and Micah were all over me the last week and a half pulling things together for the party. Naturally, Daddy Ellis hired an event planner for the fine details, but the person who had to answer her questions, was me.

“Are you nervous?” I asked as he messed with a stray lock of hair that slipped the bobby pins.

“I don’t get nervous.”

“So, what’s all of this?”

He winked. “Can’t a guy fuss over his girl before she meets his mother?”

“Well, now I’m nervous.” My smile didn’t last long. “Jeremy told me all your parents rsvp’d.”

“They’re as invested in the future of this town as we all are. Especially the woman governing it.”

“Steven Ellis will be there. Some of Foundry’s board members too,” I said. “This dinner could be a good thing. Get what’s happening out in the open. Let Steven Ellis come up with excuses to our faces for why his sons are using such extreme methods to push the vote for Crystal Canyon.”

“I’m sure those actions will be introduced as dinner topic in the subtle, backhanded way politicians and businesspeople work.” Arsenio stepped back to admire me. “Tonight, I’ll stick close to Steven Ellis. We can listen to the Crows bluster all day long, but he’s the true power behind this. We’ll probe him,” he said. “Get him to admit what he truly wants to do to this town.”

I cast a glance at the door, imagining I saw through to Cairo getting ready in his bedroom across the hall.

“Do we have a chance of stopping this, Arsenio? The Crows haven’t done a great job endearing themselves lately. Jeremy is convinced they can’t get anywhere without forcing the Bedlam Boys to leave town, and he’s making stupid moves because of it. But I’ve heard what people are saying.”

“What would that be?”

“That Bedlam is stuck in the past and eventually the future is going to leave it behind. People aren’t interested in getting in bed with the Crows, but they are on board with changing the way things run around here.”

“What you’re saying is this little dinner of yours may give Foundry exactly what they want.”

“When you put it like that, I get the impression you’re pissed I came up with this ‘little dinner of mine.’”

He laughed. “I’m not. Honestly, I’m not. Foundry has the forum to defend themselves and their actions tonight, but so does Bedlam. Their claims will be challenged. Their promises will have to come with receipts. All of Bay Avenue and the business owners of Bedlam are coming tonight, yes?”

“Yes.”

“They’re not a bunch of college students dreaming of smoke shops and a Panera Bread. They carry weight in this community, and they won’t be so easily convinced.”

“But there’s something that might end the war for good,” I said. “Stop the collections.”

“Excuse me?”

I closed the distance between us. “Think about it. I know you’ve helped a lot of needy families, but has it been enough? Foundry’s already bought up a chunk of property in this town. The thing is he can’t do anything with it unless the town splits.

“As long as he’s under the power of town hall, he’s stuck, so it doesn’t matter if he buys up every blade of grass. Year after year, we keep the people on our side and ensure they vote no. They’ll happily do so if living here didn’t come with a separate tax and violent collectors.”

“Hmm.” Arsenio pulled me close tying my coat’s drawstrings. “Under normal circumstances, this would be a sensible, wise suggestion that’d be rewarded with your pussy on my face. But it’s not that simple, Rainey. Keeping as much property out of his hands is our first, second, and third priority. Laws are all well and good, but once he has the land, the ‘asking for forgiveness instead of permission’ route becomes a lot easier to take under cover of darkness. I know you don’t understand this.” He pressed a soft kiss on my forehead. “But we’ve done what is necessary. Just as we will tonight, and every day coming.”

My eyes fluttered shut.

I did understand. Thanks to Cairo, I understood all too well. Arsenio was right. If they had the land, they could fence it, block it off, chain it up, and who’d know what they were doing till someone finally busted in. By then, Steven Ellis could make off with exactly what he came here for, and after what was done to Paris, it was my life’s mission to ensure he didn’t get it—no matter how many dinners they made me plan.

Jacques, Cairo, Legend, and Roan waited at the bottom of the stairs for us. We split into two cars, and not a lot of chatter went on in mine.

Legend and Roan rode up front. Arsenio sat next to me, absentmindedly stroking my nipple through the fabric, just to have my mind well and truly scrambled before we arrived.

In the distance, Bedlam Town Hall rose over the horizon.

Our town hall builder stole his design plans from the same blueprints used for others around the nation.

Columns lifted the triangular roof and its sign bearing our name. Two stories of red brick, a meeting room, offices, and banquet hall for seasonal parties and the rare times VIPs dropped onto our patch of land for a visit. It was the simplest of simple spaces—designed for function, not fancy.

Until Palmer Baskin got her hands on the place.

My mouth fell open when I walked in. Ellis’s event planner spared no expense. Each white linen-covered table was topped with oversized wineglasses that spilled flowers over the rim. Curtains were brought in to drape along the walls, cutting scarlet lines through the room. On stage, a string quartet serenaded the arriving who’s who of Bedlam and Hunter’s Crest.

A warm hand fell on my back. “Would you like to meet the woman who bore me?”

“Yes,” I said, turning into Roan’s arms. “I want to know if there were any early signs after you were born. A six six six on your scalp or maybe horns sticking out of your curls.”

He laughed. “I’ve progressed from an imp to the devil. Loving the promotion, honey lips.”

“Please, don’t say anything that’ll make me blush in front of your mother.”

Roan whispered in my ear. “No promises.”

Roan was handsome in everything he wore from a suit to a saddle. That said, he gathered his wicked, devilish aura and channeled its power to become the sexy, tight-suited picture before me.

His untamed locks were battled into submission, and swept back from his eyes—gifting all their full intensity. Roan put something on his lips that enhanced their natural pink. His kiss told me it tasted of cherries.

Roan led me off, strolling slow around the tables. “How many of these faces are familiar?”

“Not many,” I admitted. “I recognize Legend’s mom and dad over by the stage, and who they’re talking to—Nora, Jack Sharpe, and Paris’s father. Otherwise, it’s just a bunch of faces I’d sometimes see when Gran and I came into town for supplies.”

“That’s all right because there’s one face that’s more important than the rest.” Roan gestured with his chin, drawing my eye two tables over.

He didn’t have to tell me his name. One look, and I saw Jeremy in his eyes and Micah in his long, tended locks. Steven Ellis tossed his head back laughing and his hair flipped, catching candlelight in his strands. Small-framed glasses hung on a nose slightly crooked as if from a break.

Steven spoke to a woman whose black hair pulled tight from her face. She did not laugh with him. Actually, she didn’t so much as smile, though he was having the time of his life talking to her. She just nodded along, delicately sipping her champagne and looking refined in an empire-waist dress.

“Eileen Stone,” Roan said.

“Jacques’s mom?”

“Yep. I know what you’re thinking, and I’ve had the same fantasy.”

“You do not know what I’m thinking, because it most definitely wasn’t that I’d like to sleep with my boyfriend’s mom.”

“Your boyfriend, is he? Damn. Guy has sex with you once and enters into a commitment.”

I bumped his shoulder. “Imagine what that means for you.”

“There’s a storage room at the end of the hall. More than enough room.”

Checking to make sure no one was looking, I scraped his lobe between my teeth, biting down. “We can’t now,” I murmured. “I want to, but I got us into this mess. I can’t abandon the guys in it.”

“Mother.”

I straightened, turning fast to greet the slim, red-haired beauty making her way over to us.

“Darling.” She kissed Roan’s cheek, and in typical mom move, fussed with his hair. “How are you, dear? You’re so close, but you never come to see your mother.”

“Don’t worry. This bird isn’t destined to leave the nest.”

Her eyes danced. “Does it make me a bad mom to be the tiniest bit relieved?”

Paris’s comment about a mother’s blind spot came back to me. There was an entire town who’d like to see my devil love leave the nest. One of them tried to help him along via knife. But Josephine Banks didn’t see any of that looking at him.

“Introduce me, Roan.”

“Rainey, my carrier. Carrier, this is Rainey.”

My dean shook her head, smile playing on her lips. “What happened to the days he called me mommy? Nice to meet you, dear.” We shook hands. “Do you go to Bedlam U?”

“Transferred in at the start of the semester.”

“What do you think so far?”

“I love it,” I said honestly. “I love the library and butterscotch muffins. I love my lectures and having actual classmates. I love sitting out on Homer Green with Paris and an iced latte. That’s why these last few weeks... All the stuff that’s happened...” I dropped my gaze. “I don’t want the bad to be what I remember when I look back on these years.”

Dean Banks was gentle pulling me in for a hug. “I don’t want that for any of you. It does seem it’s been one disaster after another since Ruckus Royale.”

An odd note in her tone made me look up.

Josephine was fixed on something over my head. I turned and landed on Jeremy and Micah Ellis—decked out in their finest. They chatted with a couple of the other Crows, knocking back drinks and laughing about a funny thing Gael said.

Jeremy caught me looking and winked.

“But I never imagined there’d be an attempted murder on my campus. From a kidnapping to a brawl, and now poor Mr. Binari, struck down by an unknown assailant while walking into administration,” she said. “It was suggested I close the school for the rest of the semester. Though I’m tempted, I can’t do it.”

“Why, may I ask?”

Josephine leveled a serious look. “We have students from all fifty states, the territories, and other countries. If the owner of that arrow is a student, the last thing they should be given is permission to pack up and fly out of reach. Colton Binari will have justice.”

“He will. I can promise you he will.”

“I believe this is the right decision, but I can’t shake the feeling I should be doing more.”

“I noticed there’s more security patrolling. Also, you allowed midterms to be pushed to next week. A lot of students are scared and can’t focus right now, and we can all see you care about that, Dean Banks.”

She squeezed my forearm. “Please, Rainey. Call me Josephine off campus. Which is the last thing I’ll say about myself. Tell me about you. Are you and Roan dating?”

“We...” I trailed off, glancing at him for help. How much did his mother know about Legend and their habit of adding a third to the relationship?

“We are,” Roan said clearly. “Legend and I fell for her instantly. Like the strike of a match.”

“Oh, how sweet,” she crooned. “And did you say this was your first time having classmates?”

The three of us talked while the room filled to bursting. It seemed everyone rsvp’d to this dinner.

“Josephine,” I began. “What are your thoughts on the town splitting?”

“Ridiculous.” She bat the question out of the air. “It’s completely ludicrous and not a thought I entertained for a millisecond. We were chanting Bedlam forever since I was in diapers. It’ll be our chant long after I’m gone.”

She waved over my head.

“Eileen is calling me over,” Josephine announced. “You two, enjoy your dinner.

“Bub.” She smooched Roan’s cheek. “Don’t leave without saying goodbye.”

He saluted her off.

“She’s great,” I said. “So sweet and sincere.”

Everyone was beginning to find their seats. I assumed the Bedlam Boys would sit together and me with them, but Legend was at a table with his parents. Cairo sat beside his father at a table near the front, which killed the thought I’d be eating with him. While Arsenio and Bedlam’s mayor claimed a table with Judge Stone, Jacques, Steven Ellis, and his boys.

The only people smiling at that table were Steven Ellis and Mayor Creed.

“Shall we?” Roan pulled out a chair at an empty table.

I sat, indulging this time alone with him.

“I know what you’re asking yourself,” he said, dropping next to me. “How did that sweet, sincere woman pop out a guy like him?”

“I wasn’t asking myself that. Goodness, you’re doing a terrible job reading my mind tonight.” I laced our fingers under the table. “The show people put on outside isn’t the same one playing behind closed doors.

“Gran was tough as nails—barking at farmhands, getting in the faces of cheats trying to overcharge us on repairs and equipment. But when it was just the three of us, she was the calmest, most patient person you ever met. Only raised her voice to tell Ivy to turn the music down.

“I don’t know what made you the man you are today, Roan. All I know is I want to ride that man and be the bread to his threesome sandwich.”

“Not tonight, gorgeous.” He spoke as an elderly couple joined our table. “Tonight we’re spit-roasting you till we pass out.”

I crossed and uncrossed my legs, fighting to ignore the pressure building at the mere thought of what Legend and Roan were going to do to me.

“Everyone, may I have your attention?”

A deep, silvery voice echoed out of the speakers.

Steven Ellis found his way to the stage. His smile swept over us, reminding me of the disarming grin on Jeremy’s lips when he apologized for hurting me. Again.

“I want to thank everyone for coming out tonight,” he began. “I’ll have you know this dinner wasn’t my idea.”

Panic climbed my veins.

“It was my sons who suggested to me and my fellow board members that we come out, meet the good people of Bedlam, and discuss your concerns and hopes as Foundry becomes a partner with your town. All the shop talk comes later, I promise.” He paused for polite laughter. “Until then, please eat and enjoy.”

The servers—hired by Palmer—brought out the first course. I murmured thank you as he set down a bowl of chilled avocado and prawn soup. I tried a sip, and moaned.

“Dammit, even her menu is delicious. Something about this night has to go wrong.”

Roan brushed his lips on my cheek. “Don’t worry about tonight, Steven Ellis, or the Crows. More ruthless than them have regretted underestimating Bedlam.”

We worked our way through the rest of the meal. Roast chicken, potatoes, and carrots. For dessert, my new best friend, Server Brooks, brought out chocolate clementine tarts. I asked him to marry me and he laughed till Roan told him to fuck off.

“So, the possessive streak is one you all share,” I said.

“Thought you knew that by now, babe.”

Steven Ellis cleared his throat into the speaker, bringing an end to the scattered conversations.

“Once again, good evening,” he said. “Now seems like a good time to give my spiel. While you’re all still smiling from the delicious food.

“My intention is for tonight to be a discussion— No, a conversation. We’re here to get to know you, and for you to meet our Foundry family. To start off, let me share our vision of Bedlam with you.”

Ellis launched into a fairy tale of shopping centers, affordable housing, more daycares, entertainment, and a new student bar that’ll funnel its proceeds toward improving security around campus.

I stifled a snort. That’s rich seeing as your spawn is one of the biggest threats to security.

“But that’s enough of me,” he said with a laugh. “I’m going to walk around, the music will play, and feel free to talk to me, or my partners with your ideas of how we can grow together. Thank you.”

Applause followed him to his seat—louder than I’d like.

The guests got up to continue their mingling. Most of them circled Steven Ellis, waiting for their chance to speak to him. Arsenio caught my eye and gestured for me to join them.

“Excuse me.” I kissed Roan, then drifted over to Arsenio, Jacques, their mothers, Steven, and his sons. They formed a little semicircle that allowed some to come in and out, but neither of them went far.

“Good evening.” Steven kissed the back of my hand. “It’s great to have you here, Miss...?”

“De Souza,” I finished.

“Miss De Souza, lovely to meet you. I’m especially interested in your thoughts about the future of Bedlam, because you are the future of Bedlam.”

Does this guy always talk like he’s running a political campaign?

“Where would you like to see your town in ten years?”

Marjorie’s and Eileen’s eyes were on me. Did they know about my relationship with their sons? And was I about to torpedo their first impression of me?

“To be honest, I lived most of my life on the outskirts of Bedlam,” I said. “I grew up on a farm with my grandmother and older sister. Living the way I had—working together, seeing my efforts take root, learning to care for other creatures better than myself. It’s shaped what I want for the future, and that I want it to be more like the past.”

Ellis’s grin twitched. “How so?”

“Gran would tell me of the parades they’d throw when she was a girl. People from every corner of the town came out to celebrate. On Thanksgiving, her family and the neighboring families set up a table that stretched across the field, they’d fill it up with food, and everyone was welcome to join.

“They stopped doing all of that by the time Ivy and I were old enough to miss it. Maybe we grew up more isolated than we had to be because we lost our Bedlam family, and became another family of three.”

Heat crawled up my neck. Couldn’t remember the last time I was stared at for this long.

“This is my long-winded way of saying that what always made Bedlam great is how we band together when times are tough. We’re family,” I stated. “As long as we don’t lose that, Bedlam has a bright future.”

Steven, Mayor Creed, Arsenio, and Judge Stone clapped.

“Well said, Miss de Souza.” Steven shook my hand enthusiastically.

Glad you liked it, asshole. Just for you, a non-answer saying a whole lot, but not really committing to anything at all.

“The future you dream of is the future we see. Many small towns are losing that small-town feel. No one knows each other anymore. They don’t talk to their neighbors. They’re not gathering to celebrate together or one another. In the town we’re building, your family will be bigger than three.”

Brooks came over holding a tray of champagne. We each took one—Judge Stone the last to step forward and claim hers.

“I was also moved by what you said, Miss de Souza.”

I don’t know what I expected of Jacques’s mom, but the low, smoky voice of a smooth jazz radio host wasn’t it. Neither was the smile as she patted my shoulder.

“I remember those days too. My father would put me on his shoulders during the Westchester parade, and I’d collect so many balloons as we danced through the streets, I thought we’d float away.”

She stroked Jacques’s cheek. “I want that same sense of family and community for my son and his children. I don’t deny that we’ve lost a bit of it over the years, but I have to ask, Mr. Ellis—”

Eileen turned the stern, joyless gaze of countless life sentences and more to come on the smiling man.

“How does tearing our home in two, razing all that makes it unique and charming, then filling it with yuppie newlyweds checking off their bucket list buy vacation home where the locals say y’all, help us get back to the family we used to be?”

She sipped her champagne, waiting for the answer.

All eyes turned on him.

“That’s a great question,” Steven said, refusing to lose that smile. “And I believe my son, Jeremy, is the best person to answer. Jeremy, you’ve lived here for months. What’s your perspective?”

“It’s like this, Judge Stone.”

Jeremy was slick all over from the gelled hair, shiny shoes, and shit-eating grin. An incredible feat seeing as his arm was still in a sling, and his bruises were healing.

“I go to school with Rainey and the other students planning to leave this town two minutes after they graduate. They’re only stopping to kiss Mom and Dad goodbye on the way. The fact is Bedlam can’t get where it wants to be because the way it is now is driving people away. Rainey.”

I started at being addressed.

“You said you have a sister,” Jeremy said. “Where is she now?”

My teeth ground, sensing where this was going.

“She lives in Chicago.”

Jeremy held out his hands like that proved everything.

“See? Families are breaking up and people moving out, because Bedlam celebrates all the wrong things of its past, and ignores the good. There are no more balloon and dancing parades, but Ruckus Royale is held every year. I can’t buy coffee from national chains, but I can get beaten up and dumped in the woods because I’m the new guy.”

I stopped myself kissing my teeth. This guy can twist history to suit himself better than anyone I’ve ever seen.

Arsenio tucked me under his arm. I felt him headed for my nipple and quickly held his fingers, lacing them through as he chuckled under his breath.

I thought Roan was the one I had to look out for.

“Bedlam needs to be shaken up. Foundry is going to tear down, but then it’ll rebuild in her vision,” he said, gesturing to me. “A safe, modern town where everyone in it is family.”

Steven threw an arm around his son. “I could not have said it better.”

Eileen’s expression didn’t let up. “Jeremy, I’m truly sorry to hear you’ve experienced violence in this town.” She coughed, cleared her throat, and continued. “If you can identify your attackers, I encourage you to step forward. We don’t tolerate b-bullying in any f-form.”

Jacques grinned at Jeremy over her shoulder. His smile tightened.

“I’m fine, but what I went through is what a lot of students are going through,” he said. “Intimidation and bullying. In the new town, everyone will feel safe.”

“You speak as though... it’s a forgone conclusion—” Eileen burst into a coughing fit.

“Excuse me,” she wheezed. “Sorry, I just—”

“Mother?” Jacques held her shoulders as she bent over. “What’s wrong?”

“I— I can’t—”

Her champagne glass slipped through her fingers. Eileen followed its path.

“Mom!”

Jacques caught her before she hit the floor.

“Rainey, call Doctor Nash!”

“Oh no. Are you okay, Judge Stone?” Jeremy asked.

Her chest heaved, breaths laboring as she struggled for each one.

“Let me help—” The Crow grasped her arm.

“Don’t fucking touch her, you son of a bitch!” Jacques flew at him, punching Jeremy across the face. “You did this!”

“Hey!”

Micah, Steven, Arsenio, Mayor Creed, and three townspeople pried them apart.

“You’ll regret this!”

My insides curdled under the rage and loathing Jacques spewed at the Ellises. I’d never seen him, or anyone, like this.

“If anything happens to her, I swear you’ll find out how we got our name!”

“Hello?” The doctor sounded in my ear.

Suddenly Cairo was there. He took the phone from me. “Jacques, enough! It’ll be quicker if we take her to him. Get her in my truck. Now!”

The two ran out with Eileen, friends and the guys’ families on their tail.

“Oh, dear. I hope she’s okay.” Steven clicked his tongue, his arms slung around Jeremy and Micah. Jeremy cracked his jaw but otherwise would live.

“But this is the sort of thing we’re talking about,” Steven said to his growing audience. “Violence, menacing, accusations. My son tried to offer a hand, and that boy punched and threatened him. If I’m not mistaken, he’s the same boy who’s a part of the group that has so many of us concerned. I can assure you in the new Crystal Canyon, no one will fear their neighbor. All are welcome. All are safe.”

I drifted to Jeremy, meeting his eyes.

He winked.

I turned and walked out.

I’d catch a ride to the doc’s. I’d walk if I had to. All I knew was I wouldn’t spend another second in a Crow’s presence, and the next time I saw one, it’d be me they’d have to drag off.