“You be good!”she challenged.“Love you.”
“Love you back.Bye, Abi.”
“Stay safe!”Abi yelled after me.
I was getting behind the wheel when my passenger door suddenly opened.Sammy sat down in my passenger seat.“Nice Porsche.You pick this out yourself, or was it a surprise from the parents?”
“Sixteenth birthday present,” I confirmed, starting the engine.Ali and Mom had picked it out, then Dad had it loaded up with all the extras.
“Sweet.”She fastened her seat belt, and I cocked a brow at her.“You’re so dang adorable.No, seriously.I’m so glad you’re gonna be my brother one day.”
“You plan on marrying Abi?Because I thought you already had a husband.Elias, right?”
She squealed and flashed me her huge engagement and wedding rings.“Yes.OMG.I love being married.It’s the best.And no, silly.I’m not going to marry Abi.She’s my best friendandmy sister.Weirdo.”
“O-kay.”Shifting into reverse, I backed out of the driveway.Obviously, she wanted to go with me.I didn’t know what I was going to tell my parents about her, and I still needed to figure out a good excuse for the bandages on my hands.
There was something about Sammy that set off strange vibes inside me.I knew she was dangerous, and not just because Bentley’s internet search on her had been unexpected.Samara Vitucci was mafia royalty.She was able to get us out of trouble because she had tighter connections than any three-letter government agency.Hayat said she gave off black cat disguised as a ginger cat, whatever the fuck that meant.Ali had agreed with a giggle, so I was sure it was a good thing.Maybe.
Fuck, I didn’t know with these girls anymore.It made Ali laugh, and that was all I cared about.
“How are the hands?”Sammy asked when I was out of the neighborhood.
“Tight, but they don’t ache as bad as they did yesterday.”
“You’re going to have some wicked scars.I showed Daddy a picture.He said it looked like you got in a fight with barbed wire wrapped around your hands.I’ve seen fights like that, though, and I can say with certainty that the scars left on the guy’s hands were not like yours.”
“Where the hell did you see a fight like that?”
“A few different places.There was this little hole-in-the-wall in…” She trailed off and stayed quiet for a long moment, so when she suddenly giggled, my hands tightened around the wheel reflexively.
“Christ, Sammy.I need you to not do that for me, okay?”I scrubbed a hand over the back of my head, feeling that damn itch.“I’m not good with surprises.”
“Sorry,” she whispered, making herself smaller.
“I just… I don’t want to accidentally hurt you,” I explained.
“No, I get it.It’s sweet of you to be concerned.I love that about you.Turn left at the next light.”I did as she directed without thinking about it, watching her out of the corner of my eye as I drove.“Anyway, I didn’t have any pictures of the scars from those fights, and I couldn’t find any when I did an internet search.Which meant I had to annoy my brother until he paused what he was doing to use his dark-web skills to unlock the photos.”
When I braked at the next light, she turned her phone to show me the screen.“See, barbed wire doesn’t leave the kinds of scars Elias thought.”
I wasn’t expecting how graphic and grotesque the picture would be.At my strangled reaction, she giggled again.“Take the next right, then straight for two miles.”
“You witnessed fights like that?”I asked as I took the right.
“Yup.”The way she popped the “p” did bad things to my head.I struggled to keep my attention on the road, fighting the wall.That picture showed terrible things.Things that shouldn’t touch anyone.
They could never touch Ali.
Fuck.
“How close were you to the fighters?”I gritted out.
“Close enough,” she said dismissively, giving me more directions that I followed absently.
Her answer didn’t satisfy the itch.“Front row?”She shrugged.“Sammy, wereyoufighting?”Her face blanked, and she didn’t answer.“Christ.Don’t talk for a few minutes.I gotta get the itch to stop before I wreck.”
“Been there,” she said with genuine empathy.Like she legit knew…and I believed her.People said they understood shit they had no real clue about all the time.They couldn’t possibly know unless they lived inside my head.
