“Tonight, at midnight,” Prince said. “Come to the clubhouse in North Las Vegas. I trust you can find it.”
“I’m sure I can,” I said. Dante would know where it was; it wasn’t exactly something Google Maps would turn up easily.
“Don’t be late.”
The line went dead after that. But that was okay. I wasn’t looking for a commitment over the phone. I was only looking for a chance.
A terrible irony, I thought as I broke apart the phone. Sarah hated my guts for wanting to get them under my grasp. Now, to protect her, I had to do exactly what she feared most. She wasn’t going to give me the benefit of the doubt just because it was more of a partnership than a controlling interest.
I could only hope that when she understood the full picture, she would understand.
20
SARAH
Despite it having been Thanksgiving weekend, all the girls responded within half an hour, and we had plans for the following day, Black Friday.
As I had before, I asked all the girls to meet in Summerlin, more specifically at Sunny Side Up. There was comfort in returning to a spot that we’d met at before Cassius had become such an integral part of my life, before I’d made the stupid decision to sleep with him, before all the obvious warts and flaws had blown up as they had so fucking predictably done so. Right now, I just needed some comfort, some level of happiness in my life.
True, I knew happiness would be fleeting. I knew that whatever laughter those three girls would give me would vanish within the hour, if not the minute, of my leaving the restaurant. But you know what? I fucking needed that two-minute laugh. I fucking needed to just be with my friends, to pretend all this bullshit with the Black Reapers wasn’t happening, and to just… be.
Just be. That’s all I really wanted. Not to think. Not to act. Not to go anywhere. To just be.
As I had before, I walked in to see Delilah, Talia, and Bridget waiting for me, making me the last one to arrive. I swore to myself that they were just incredibly prompt friends; I looked down at my watch. Sure enough, I’d asked to meet at ten a.m., and it wasn’t even that time yet. It paid to have friends who didn’t just do what you asked of them, but went above and beyond in doing it.
Bridget saw me first. She rose, walked over to me, and embraced me tightly. She didn’t say a word at first; she just held me there. I knew that her sister and her Black Reaper had been doing well, but if anyone truly understood the mental anguish that club could cause, it was Bridget. She knew that when you found yourself ensnared in their world, you just needed someone to hold you and say it would be OK.
“Hey, Sarah,” Bridget finally said.
“Oh, you look good for someone dealing with an asshole!” Talia said, drawing a laugh from all of us. Sure enough, the laughter left me first, replaced by the anger and heartache Cassius had left me.
But yes, I did appreciate, however fleeting a moment it was, to have that laugh. She, too, rose and gave a hug, and she tempered her quip with words of reassurance.
Delilah was the last to hug me, purely by where she stood at the table. She embraced me and had little to say, but I understood why. She’d already provided me with the greatest words of wisdom at theAllurephotoshoot—that the Black Reapers might still be involved. She had saved me, really.
Really.
There was nothing about what Cassius had said that could compare to what Delilah had said.
“I came to you intending to destroy you, Sarah.”
I took it back. Cassius could say something that could compare to what Delilah had said. But it didn’t really matter, as Sarah had been first.
“You want to know the whole truth, Sarah? I want the Black Reapers. I want them under my hand and in my control.
But I’m also not a fucking idiot. I don’t pursue what will never work out if it won’t work out. I will not let anyone I am associated with, you included, be tainted by them or touched by them.”
“Sarah?”
I shook my head. Delilah was staring at me as if I’d just had a seizure at the table. Which wasn’t medically true, but the way thoughts of Cassius could seize my brain, it could sometimes be metaphorically true.
“Sorry, lot going on.”
“Understandably so,” she said, motioning for me to take a seat. “So, word has it that you are intending to leave Las Vegas?”
I nodded.
“I don’t really know how I can stay here,” I said, doing my best not to let my temper or frustration get the best of me in public. “I never actually signed a lease or bought a place here, which means I’m currently entirely dependent on Cassius paying my hotel bill. And, as you picked up by text, that’s over and done with. I doubt if I ever see him again, he’ll speak to me, let alone apologize for what he’s done and might still be doing with the Black Reapers.”
