“It’s because we’re fucking hard as nails. Many of us truly don’t give a fuck, but most of all, it’s because we’re loyal. You can’t just join, you must work damn hard to be accepted, and once you are, there’s no way out. We’d rather die than snitch. All of us. We are brothers. We will die for each other and the club, and we have so many fucking weapons it would make a military unit weep.”
“It’s true,” Vani supplies cheerfully. “They have so many guns and other things. It’s insane.”
“If they want to come after us, let them. They’ll have a fucking war on their hands,” the one called Ace says. “I could do with the excitement, anyway.”
“They had people under eighteen in that place.” Ghost’s voice cuts through the noise, despite being so quiet. “Kids, basically, and they were treating them like animals. I fucking hope anyone else linked to that shithole comes for us. I want to enjoy torturing them.”
“That’s not a euphemism,” Ace adds. “He really can be creative with his methods.”
I shudder at the thought but tamp it down when Jack looks at me. His shrewd gaze takes me in. “You’re strong, you know, to survive all you have. My Vani here told me some of it. Out of allof us in this room, you might be the strongest of us all, Ophelia. Never let anyone tell you otherwise.”
My cheeks heat at his words. The praise gives me a sense of pride but also makes me squirm because now everyone is staring at me. Luckily, Mackenzie walks into the kitchen space, cutting the conversation off. She leans against the wall, where she can still see the living area, smiling as Kirill continues to dance.
Her head turns as the door opens again, and she gives a low whistle.
“Holy hell, I didn’t know she had that kind of outfit in her closet.” The words are said with affection and a touch of awe, and I peer to look, in time to see Camile sashay into the water tower.
And holy hell, indeed. She’s wearing a garment that looks more like a handkerchief than a dress. Silky material, in turquoise and teal, shot through with threads of gold, drapes her curves. She turns to close the door, and I see the back is basically a short skirt, and above that tanned flesh, and then a large knot, tied to secure the dress, and then more flesh. Nothing else. She walks through the room, her hips swaying, before spotting us and making her way to the kitchen area.
“Camile, oh, my God, you look amazing,” Mackenzie shrieks. “Where have you been hiding this body?”
Camile often wears clothes that I consider revealing, but she’s always classy. This is more, full onlook at me and my smoking body.
Suddenly self-conscious in my simple sheath dress, which is daring for me, I glance at my men, but see Cain and Mal are in a heated debate about something, and Roman … well, Roman is looking right at me, and the heat in his gaze tells me I have nothing to worry about.
“Did you find you didn’t have any clothes left, so you had to wear a scarf?” Kirill asks as he bounces into the kitchen like a big, blond, Russian Tigger.
Camile sweetly gives him the finger.
“Ignore him,” Mack says. “You look amazing, doesn’t she, Vani?”
Vani nods. “Yeah, amazing.”
There’s something in her tone though that I can’t quite figure out.
Camile smiles sweetly at us all, and then her gaze hits Jack, and her smile falters.
I glance at Vani’s dad to see his eyes raking down Camile’s body and he looks… angry. Why is he angry?
I’m pulled out of my consideration of the suddenly strained dynamic by my cell ringing. I glance at the screen to see it’s my mom calling.
“I need to take this,” I say to Roman, who has come to stand by my side.
Sneaking away, I head up the stairs and into the bedroom where I take the call.
“Darling?” Mom asks as if she’s not just called my cell.
“Yes, it’s me, Mom.”
“How are you doing, Ophelia?”
“I’m good, Mom. Truly. A lot better.”
“And your… um, your friend? The one who got hurt?”
“Roman? He’s a lot better.”
“Oh, that’s good. That’s really good.”
