Lion grinned tiredly, pulling her around his front to sit in his lap. “Yeah, Rosie, idiots, the lot of them. But I’m only allowed this much access because Hutchinson is in with the club, and technically, I’m on the case. The T-Squad hired me.”
“The fuck?” Zeus barked. “Why the fuck am I just hearin’a this, Lion? We’re hostin’ them for a damn meetin’ and beers today, and you didn’t think I should fuckin’ know that?”
Lion shot him a sidelong look, knowing he’d bought Z’s wrath but not particularly cowed by it. “My business is private, as I think I’ve told you fourteen thousand fuckin’ times, Zeus.”
Zeus’s scowl was interrupted by Angel, who played calmly on the ground at his feet until she decided she wanted some attention from her favourite man, so she stood on shaky legs to reach out for him. He picked her up instantly, face softening like melted butter as he brushed his bearded lips over her cheek to hear her giggle.
When he looked back at Lion, his glower was even more fierce. “They ask you anythin’ ’bout club business…”
“I’ll tell them the same as I tell you,” Lion drawled. “It’s private.”
“You invited their prez for a meeting today, Z,” Loulou pointed out from where we’d taken a seat on one of the four leather couches. “You were planning on telling them club business already.”
“Shut your mouth, woman,” he growled but with a sparkle in his eyes because he loved my sassy sister.
Lou winked. “Make me.”
“Okay, ew,” Harleigh Rose complained even though Lion was currently grabbing a handful of her ass in her lewdly ripped jeans.
Loulou rolled her eyes.
I closed mine, leaning back against the soft cushions.
“You okay, honey?” Cressida asked, stroking back my hair.
I murmured something, forgetting the words as soon as they were spoken. After a night of raucous sex with Priest and an early morning finding a dead body on my stoop, I was bone tired and shaken. Honestly, it was hard not to feel terrified knowing that a serial killer had been in my backyard, that maybe he was watching me live my life and taking fucked up notes on my habits. I almost wished I knew what he wanted with me to have some kind of context for his obsession. Being so in the dark was horrifying and cast new light on the murders I studied for my podcast.
Surrounded by men who would fight to the death to protect me and women who would support me until their dying breath, I let myself relax again.
That was, until Ransom ushered Phillipa into the room, obviously sent out to bring her to the haven until we knew what was really going on.
Bitterness welled on my tongue, coffee grounds left over from our dinner with the Linleys.
She took one look at me sandwiched between Cress and Lou, and the look I must have had stamped on my face spoke of my unhappiness because she froze.
I did not.
I was on my feet, dislodging Cressida’s soft hands and Lou’s hip as I surged out of my seat. They called after me as I stalked to my mother, aware that in my pleated skirt and vintage University of British Columbia crewneck, I didn’t exactly look threatening.
But I meant business.
The scowl on my face felt strange, the muscles unused to contracting in anger. I wasn’t a woman who angered easily or held a grudge. Forgiveness, to me, was divine, and patience was the penultimate virtue.
I’d just run out of it where my weak mother was concerned.
She was already tearing up when I reached her, which took some of the wind out of my sails as she knew it would. I had no defense against someone crying, and she knew it.
“Beatrice,” she whispered, “I’m so sorry.”
I just blinked, watching the way she wrung her hands together, noticing the lack of a massive diamond ring on her finger. “You took off your wedding ring?”
She sniffed, eyes darting over my shoulder to the group that wasn’t even pretending not to watch us. “Well, I figured it was time.”
“Past time,” I scolded, which was about as strongly worded as I got despite my best efforts. Frustrated with myself, I forced my face into a fiercer glower. “You disappoint me, Mum. After all these years with The Fallen, the way they took us in and made us family when we used to stand against everything they were, when dad actively tried to take them down… I just don’t understand how you could not only stand by while someone talked badly about them, let alone seek out advice on how not to be…what? Corrupted by them?”
“Don’t judge me,” she whispered harshly. “You girls had it so easy because of your father and me. We looked after you, made sure you had everything a little girl could need!”