All Grown Up (Eden High)

That’s not what’s been bothering me for the last couple of days, though. Ever since Mancini disclosed the truth about my mother’s murder, I’ve felt like there were live ants crawling under my skin. I need to get out and do something to relieve the energy that’s been boiling beneath the surface ever since I heard about it, but there’s nowhere to run and no one to take out my frustrations on-on an island of women and children and a group of men who seem to have the me values as my husband and I.

Not to mention, these women, who my husband seem to think could teach me a thing or two about being a housewife, as if his past attempts at domesticating me like I was a damn cat hadn’t failed, seem to get up to more shit than I could in a month of Sundays. So while he’d put his foot down about me joining the men, as is my right, I’m finding that the women have their own shit going on.

All they needed was I to help them move things to the next level. The only hiccup is the Fed. I’m going to have to maneuver my way around her, but it can be done. After their earlier powwow, I’d done some digging of my own. All it took was asking a few of the other women, and I got the whole story about the kids in Cali and their place here among these men.

Sounded like a domestic dispute on the surface. A jealous ex out to destroy her lover’s new flame, but that was until you looked beneath the surface. I’m not one to get involved in personal bullshit, but the women seem to think that it’s more serious than it appears, which is why I’m giving it more thought than usual. She must be one hell of an opponent if she’s giving this much trouble from behind bars.

I was halfway to a solution when I heard uncle Al’s voice. It’s good that no one was around to see the smile on my face when I rushed outside to greet him and the others that had just shown up.

Alex

“Okay, the coast is clear, the women are outback, what else do you know? Other than it’s Liz who sent the notes, I mean.”

“That’s it really, other than the fact that Mandy seems to be trying for a new trial. I’m not sure how she plans to pull that one-off, but apparently she’s looking for loopholes and trying to use the men she once roped into her bed to help her. We don’t know for sure, but from what her cellmate reported, that seems to be the track that she’s on.”

“I guess I can understand that, but I don’t get why she’s still going after my girl.”

“That’s easy, one she can’t get to Sian, Belle, or Tammy because she knows better than to cross the three of us, and she wants to live so Valerie won’t even cross her mind.” We all looked at Track with a grin when Jace said this. “The only one left out in the open for now is little Cass…”

“Can you not call her that?” His words invoked visions of a little kid with pigtails and two missing front teeth. Not the image of my girl I want in my head. He just rolled his eyes and carried on. “Not only is she the only one left here, but she’s also the only one whose family is involved with what went down that night.”

“I never pegged Mandy for being this smart, but it’s like she’s playing the long game.”

“No, Shane, she’s not, but she’s a survivor; she’ll use whatever is at hand to get what she wants.”

“But why didn’t she use this as a bargaining chip before she got sent up?”

“Because one thing has nothing to do with the other. She got sent up because of her crimes. If she spoke up, then all that would’ve happened is that Cassie’s parents would’ve been arrested for attempted murder; well, one of them would’ve been; the dad could’ve wiggled his way out of that one. That wouldn’t have been of any help to her. This way, she can put pressure on them to help her, and since she’s out of reach, the fear of being exposed might persuade them to do something.”

“I guess she is smart after all.” Shane leaned back in his chair with a sigh.

“Diabolically so! Anyway, the first thing we need to do is deal with these notes; once we ascertain for certain that they’re coming from Liz, we can go from there. You won’t be here for that since it’s your girl’s birthday, so the rest of us will deal with it.”

I knew he was going to work his way around to that shit at some point because he can’t keep his nose out of other people’s shit. “Jace, that’s not the deal. I can’t just let you guys handle my girl’s problems while I do what?”