I laughed, my heart feeling light for the first time since I found out about Pyre’s deception. Granted that had only been four hours. I’d managed to get in a good hard cry, and then a nap to take care of the headache that the crying had caused. Then my phone started blowing up.
I’d been just about to answer when my doorbell rang. And there they’d been.
Harlow had an entire chocolate cake in her hands. Mona had brought ice cream. Kaisa looked like she’d bought out all the chocolate in town. Maya had brought lunch, Chinese food, and Melody had an entire box filled with wines and hard liquor. By the end of this visit I’d have to run fifty miles to burn all the sugar off.
Ainsley had given me an apologetic smile and a shrug. “I figured they had all the food and liquor taken care of so I brought this. She held up her phone.
I raised my brows. “Are we going to prank call people?”
She scoffed. “Like we can do that anymore thanks to caller ID. I’m supplying the tunes. All the scorned angry woman music we could ever ask for.”
They had gathered around me, plying me with chocolate, listening ears, and comfort.
“Well, he is,” Ramona said, defending her last statement. “You don’t break into your girlfriend’s business and steal from her.”
“She wasn’t his girlfriend then,” Melody pointed out, ever the levelheaded practical one of our group. Well, her and Ainsley.
“He was dating her,” Kaisa countered. “She makes a valid point.”
“He deserves so much more than one punch to the face,” Maya added.
“I shouldn’t have done that,” I said with a sigh. The regret of my actions had settled in not long after I woke up.
“It’s-” Everyone looked over at Ainsley and she sighed. “Look. It was an asshole move on his part,” she said to the group. “But one thing you all have to realize,” she met my eyes, “especially you, is that these guys will do whatever is necessary to finish club business. They follow orders-”
“So she should be pissed off at Cypher,” Harlow said, eyes narrowing.
“No. No, that’s not what I’m saying,” Ainsley said hastily. “Honestly, half the time these guys go off half-cocked and Cypher ends up cleaning up the mess.” We were all staring at her. She held her hands up in a peaceful gesture. “I swear I didn’t know they broke into your place, Rae. I would’ve told you. Which is why they made sure I didn’t know about it. They operate instraight lines, but crooked morals. If they need something they bulldoze straight to it, then deal with the repercussions later. Right and wrong, boundaries…they have their own definitions to those things.”
Eyes softened and shoulders relaxed as they continued listening to Ainsley. “I’m just saying that the things they do for the club, for Cypher’s security firm, in a way…they’ll always come first.” She paused and tilted her head. “Not first… That was a bad choice of words, but they are a high priority to these men. If you’re their old lady they’ll tell you what’s going on and what they’re going to do, but the odds of you convincing them not to? Slim to none.” She shrugged. “Why do you think I had to resign as sheriff? I figured out pretty quickly that I’d always end up in a compromising situation if I dated Warrant and stayed. So I made the choice I could live with.”
Everyone was silent for a few moments, letting that sink in.
“I work with Owen all the time,” I finally said. “With Cheyenne and even other nearby law enforcement.” A grimness settled over me. “Does that mean I need to resign as the medical examiner if I stay with Pyre?”
“Not necessarily,” Harlow said with a shake of her head.
“It would be a huge blow to the town if you did,” Kaisa said, a worried look on her face.
“Not to mention the sheriff’s office and my offices too,” Melody added. There was a look of panic on her face. “We close cases so much quicker because of you. If we had to wait for Cheyenne to get us back their ME reports…” She shook her head as if she couldn’t bear to say the words.
“That’s up to you,” Ainsley said, giving them a firm look. “But honestly Rae, you’re not law enforcement. You could still do your job and keep the guy.”
“Not if he’s going to demand sensitive information from me,” I pointed. Then a frown crossed my face. “Right?”
Maya shrugged. “How often are you really going to run into this kind of thing?”
We all looked over at her in surprise.
“I mean, this is Sentinel. It’s pretty boring most of the time. I doubt something like this will even come up again-”
“Shhhh… Ugh,” Mona groaned. “Don’tsaystuff like that!”
Maya rolled her eyes. “Really? I didn’t take you as the superstitious kind, Ramona.”
Mona pulled out her keychain and waved a rabbit’s foot at Maya. “Of course I am.”
“You’re a reporter. You report facts. Not silly super-”
