“Do you have your own little bird?” I question, wondering if he has a girlfriend or wife out there that I’m unaware of.
“No,” James says. “But if I did, I’d make sure that no one ever hurt her.”
“You should go and take care of your knuckles. If Starling sees them, she’ll insist on cleaning them up for you,” I tell him, grateful that not only has he not betrayed us, but he also won’t resent us when we destroy his fucking asshole of a nephew.
“I’ll go and get started on that investigation. I want to make sure that the rest of my guys are clean before we have to leave the house again,” James states, ignoring my suggestion about his hands.
“I’ll come with you,” Clay offers, and the two of them leave together.
“Fuck, I like him.” Evan laughs. “He’s almost as crazy as us. But you were already planning on completely destroying Tom’s life anyway, weren’t you?”
“By the time I’m done, he won’t be able to get a library card, let alone a job, a credit card, or a place to live.”
“Fuck yes, I love psycho club,” he hoots.
“You weren’t saying that a year ago,” Hunter says dryly.
“Well, that’s before my sister forgave me, my wife tricked me into claiming her, and I tricked her and put my baby in her,” Evan says on a laugh.
“Starling and I are trying to get pregnant,” I announce.
“Does she know?” Evan scoffs.
“She’s the one who emptied her birth control pills down the drain,” I tell them.
“Fuck yes. Our kids will be the same age if you hurry the fuck up and put your baby in her,” Evan says excitedly.
“Fuck you both. Bunny is still refusing to even consider it until after graduation.”
“She’s only a junior, so that’s years away,” Evan says, horrified. “I’m planning to get started on number two the moment this one is born. I want a houseful of wild ones. I don’t understand why our parents only ever had us.”
“What if, apart from this one, they’re all girls?” Hunter asks, his face paling.
“Have you met my wife? I hope most of them are girls,” Evan gushes.
“And if they’re all boys?” I question.
“Then God help your daughters.”
FIFTEEN
STARLING
The four ofus fall silent as the guys walk away. “Do you actually have a plan for Courtney, or were you just saying that you do so that Sebastian doesn’t take over?” Bunny asks.
“I had a plan until I saw those texts. Now I think everything I had planned was too nice,” I admit.
“What had you planned to do?” January asks cautiously, like she’s not entirely sure she wants to know the answer to that question.
I shrug. “The usual. Kicked out of school, publicly humiliated, reputation ruined, that kind of stuff.”
“And now?” Sammy asks.
“Now, honestly, I’m not too sure. I know she needs to suffer. I mean, blackmailing me is one thing, but planning to get her boyfriend to actually hurt me? That’s so much worse.”
“Maybe you should just let the guys kill her. They could get away with it, you know they could. We’d all have alibis so we’d be safe, and I’m not sure that making her poor and a laughing stock is a suitable punishment for what she had planned for you,” Sammy says seriously.
Lifting her hands to cover her ears, Bunny shakes her head. “I don’t want to hear this. I need plausible deniability. I’m sorry. I love you all, but I’m not okay with anyone dying. I’m not sure I’m even okay with you plotting to ruin their lives, even though I know they both deserve it. I’m not like you, Starling.”
