“Four’s a lot,” Ainsley commented with a frown.
“Andthosefour are monsters,” Kaisa told her.
“They’re not monsters,” I said. “They’re just…”
“Out of control?” Harlow suggested.
“Maniacs,” Maya said with a raise of her brows.
“Spirited,” I said with a laugh. “I was going to say spirited. But they’re sweet.”
“To you,” Mona countered. “To everyone else they’re little devils.”
“Rae has this way with kids,” Melody told Ainsley. “They adore her.”
“Yeah, they really love her,” Harlow said with a nod.
“And they actually listen to her,” Kaisa added. “Those kids don’t listen toanyone. Not even Harm or their father. Certainly not to their auntie Lyric.” She shook her head as though that would remove some of the unpleasant memories of the things the kids had done. “But she said she should be home soon, the last time I spoke with her.”
“Good,” Harlow said. “We can’t get anything done with you and Maya being the only two County Commissioners here. We need a tie breaker.”
“We’ve gotten stuff done,” Maya complained.
Harlow huffed out a breath. “Not much.”
“It’s Sunday,” Kaisa said, “and I don’t want to talk about work.” Her eyes flashed to me and I didn’t like the glint I saw in them. “I want to talk about you.”
“Me?” I asked, clearing my throat when the word came out as a squeak. “What about me?” I made sure I didn’t make waves. That way no onecouldtalk about me. It didn’t matter that I’d brought them here to ask about my dilemma. The idea that theywere already coming here with something on their minds made me nervous.
“From what I heard,” she grinned over at Ainsley, “you almost kissed Pyre.”
“No, no,” Harlow said, “it was that Pyre almost kissed her.”
“Is there a difference?” Kaisa asked.
“Oh there’s a difference,” Mona replied with a wide smile. “We already figured out that Rae is into Pyre-”
“All I said before was that he was handsome,” I argued. “They all are.”
“Uh huh,” Mona said, getting that look on her face that she always had when she got the inside scoop for a story. She was like a dog with a bone. It was hell having a friend who was a reporter. She dug until you surrendered all your secrets. Not that Ainsley being a former cop made her much better. “But if Pyre almost kissed her, now we know he’s into her as well.”
“Do we?” I asked with a skeptical glance in her direction. That was the question I’d been wondering all week. It didn’t matter that Ainsley had heard from Warrant that he was. I wasn’t sure I trusted them to actually know.
“Oh, we do,” she replied. “But don’t worry, I’ll find out for sure.”
“Ramona,” I gasped, shaking my head at her. “Don’t you dare!”
“Why not?” she asked with a pout. “I can find out exactly how he feels. Trust me.”
“I don’t think your reporter magic will work on him,” Maya said.
“Magic?” Mona asked with a roll of her eyes. “It’s not magic, it’s good old fashioned investigating.”
“Warrant already confirmed that Pyre’s into her,” Ainsley told the group.
“But do we know that Pyre didn’t lie to him?” Mona countered. “That he’s not fucking with Warrant? We don’t want our girl led astray here. We need to find out the truth.”
Ainsley considered that, then shrugged as if it was a good point. I was pretty sure Mona was just bored and needed something to do.
