“Shit. It’s already five?” I said in surprise, pulling my phone out of my pocket to verify. I’d slept almost an entire night.
“Already five? Jesus.” Heather shook her head. “It’s the middle of the damn night.”
“Not a morning person?” Amy asked as she handed Heather her coffee.
“Understatement,” she mumbled back, smiling. “I need my beauty sleep.”
“You look fine to me,” I said, making Heather glance at me in surprise.
“Well, I don’t feel fine,” she replied after a moment, rolling her eyes. “I feel like I got run over by a truck. Did you know that every fucking man in this clubhouse snores? It’s like a symphony of snorting and phlegmy breathing all night long.”
I laughed hard. I knew what she meant. My dad was the worst, but uncle Casper and Poet played their part, too. I didn’t know what it was with old men, but I’d never met one that didn’t snore like a bear.
“Sleep in my tent tonight,” I said, lifting my coffee to hide my smile when she began to scowl. “Nothin’ but quiet out there.”
Poet chuckled and Amy scoffed.
“Get the fuck outta here,” Heather said dismissively, making Poet laugh even harder. Then she looked down at Rebel. “You hungry, Sparrow? Tommy’s going to make us something to eat.”
Her eyes met mine, and for a second I was completely frozen. She was giving me shit. Challenging me. But at that moment I couldn’t think of a single reason to fight it.
It looked like I was going to be making breakfast.
Chapter 3
Heather
“Seriously?” I whispered to myself as I stared at my phone.
I’d been texting with the guy I was seeing, flirting as best I could while I was stuck on the Aces’ compound. Life was moving around us like everything was just fine, but tension was building behind the gates. I didn’t have any idea what was happening with the boogiemen that were out to get us… okay, that wasn’t fair.
I knew the people the Aces were fighting with were bad. They’d killed Molly’s dad and beaten the hell out of her. I knew there was something big going on. So maybe they weren’t fictional boogiemen. But even knowing that the Aces were facing a real threat didn’t make the threat seem any more real to me. I wasn’t even a part of the Aces and frankly, I was sick of sleeping on the floor and being stuck behind their stupid fence all day every day.
I stuffed my pillow farther under my neck and gritted my teeth when it still didn’t prop my head up far enough to be comfortable. I was so fucking annoyed. The men were snoring like fucking chainsaws again. It was the whole reason I’d even texted my guy, Brian. I’d hoped that a little conversation would make me sleepy enough to fall asleep again. Instead, I was even more keyed up. I’d texted like I always did, trying to be flirty and sexy, but I’d known by his first reply that something was off. I’d carried on like I didn’t notice his abrupt responses, but the last one he’d sent left nothing up for interpretation.
Apparently, we’d never been exclusive, so when I’d left suddenly for Seattle—that was the excuse I’d given him for dropping off the face of the earth—he’d started seeing someone else. And now he was exclusive with her.
Dammit. I’d liked him! He was cute. He had a good job. He was a good kisser. We liked the same movies. I mean, sure, it wasn’t like I was ever giddy to see him, or anything like that. But I was getting a little older. I was an adult. I had my own life and too many plans to get wrapped up in some guy.
Someone down the hall coughed loud enough to wake the dead, and I almost screamed in frustration. I had to get out of there.
I crawled out of my sleeping bag and tiptoed out the open door. The room I was sleeping in was filled with all the teenage girls at the club. Apparently the teenage sons could pitch a tent outside to sleep in, but the daughters? Well, they needed their own private space. I hadn’t really made friends with any of the girls my age, but they seemed friendly enough. Tommy’s little sister Rose was a sweetheart, and so was his cousin Lily. They were quite a bit younger than me though, and caught up in their own little world. His cousin Cecilia was nice, but honestly? She seemed really unhappy. Like, a bone deep unhappiness that didn’t seem to go away no matter what she was doing or who she was with. She also seemed to have two guys locked in a cold war over her. It was interesting to watch but I didn’t want to get in the middle of that.