“You look like shit,” Gray said, shoving his phone in his pocket.
I don’t know if I’ve slept, really slept, since that night.
“Where are you staying?” he asked.
I arched a brow. “Miss me, Crowne?”
I’d been staying at the one motel in Crowne Point, a little thing inland, up on a hill, with a view of the ocean. I kept saying I’d leave. This place was never meant for me. But every day I thought of something new Abigail needed.
“You’re the ant infestation I’ve been trying to rid us of for years. You’re almost gone. Just a few more bug bombs and your ass is finally out of our lives.”
He grinned, and, done with catching up with Gray fucking Crowne, I moved on with the point of meeting him. “Did you get the cake?”
“Yeah—”
“Presents?”
“Yeah—”
“And you went? All of you?”
“Yeah, but”—he snapped his fingers—“I think you’re forgetting something, dog.”
I pulled out the last of my cash and shoved it at Gray’s chest. “That’s the last of my savings.” Gray scrambled to keep it from blowing away in the salty air. “You make her feel like a fucking princess. A real one.”
Gray arched a brow without looking up, counting the cash I gave him. “You’re a thousand short.”
“Something came up.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he said, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out a lighter. He put the flame to the green corner of the stack.
Nineteen thousand dollars. All the money I’d managed to save working under Crowne.
Gone in an instant.
The last of it fluttered in the wind, glancing my cheek like butterfly wings.
“I didn’t even want this,” Gray said. “I just wanted to see the look on your face. It’s… underwhelming.” He sighed like I’d put him out.
Prick.
Whatever. Whether he wanted to use it, burn it, or shove it up his ass. It had served its purpose. At least I was done with him. I turned, not wanting to stay another second longer than I had to with Gray Crowne.
“Why are you doing this?” he called to my back. “You lost. You’ll never be one of us.”
Leave it to Gray to assume that was why I was ever here.
Someone had to stand behind that girl. Someone needed to be her dog.
Thirty-Two
ABIGAIL
They were making my birthday up to me.
Up to me.
A Crowne didn’t apologize, let alone make amends. It was so surreal. They’d rented out the pier so we could have a family day, and I wondered if I’d stumbled into an alternate universe, one where my family members loved me more than Theo Hound. My mother even let me wear the Crowne tiara and would join us soon.