Evie grinned. “Sometimes I think to myself, what if we just said fuck it? We could move Rowan’s Keep somewhere overseas where no one would ever think to look for us. I’d take you, Ari if she wanted to come?—”
The fae’s face lit up.
“We could see if Tess and Ash wanted to come, and we could hand everything back over to Dad.” Evie grimaced. “He has a hard time keeping his fingers out of shit anyway. We could all lounge and sunbathe and explore all day. Flights are super cheap once we’re actually over there, so we could explore wherever and whenever we wanted.” She let out a soft sigh. “Wouldn’t that be amazing?”
I put my elbows on the table and plopped my chin in my hands. “Yes, but you know we’d get bored after a while.”
Evie snorted. “Says you. We lived in Joy Springs for a long time without getting bored.”
“Now look at you,” I teased. “Queen of the fae.”
She clicked her tongue. “I guess we could come back if we really missed it, but I don’t think we would. We could just move the entire Keep.”
Her eyes got that dreamy, faraway look that told me she was mentally scheming.
I nudged her. “First, let’s figure out how to kill my mother.”
Evie laughed. “Yes. First things first. Commit matricide, then vacation!”
Without our asking, another round of food appeared. Our server gave us a little bow. “Courtesy of Ian.”
Ari blushed. “Please send our thanks. The food is wonderful.”
The server bowed and hurried away.
I glanced over to see a dark-haired man lounging against the back bar watching us. A faint silvery glow shimmered in his eyes.
“Fae?” I asked quietly.
Ari nodded. “Unsure what kind. Handsome as sin, isn’t he?”
Evie let out a low whistle. “I’ve seen him a dozen or so times now, and I still get the flutters when our eyes meet.”
I snickered. Admittedly, he was pretty. Tall, lean, brooding, and intense, every woman in this place was having trouble keeping their eyes off him, but our mysterious bar owner seemed to only have eyes for Ari.
“Want to go talk to him?” I asked.
She snorted. “Absolutely not. The man might be fine as wine, but I have no desire to get entangled with another man.”
Evie crunched on another chip. “You just gotta find the right one.”
“Evie would know,” I said with a laugh. “She’s had some real doozies.”
We grinned at each other. Evie’s past was hard and difficult, and it took her a long time to find the humor, but she finally had. Admittedly, a lot of it wasn’t funny, but Evie knew I’d never imply certain events were. She’d happily settled down withRowan, and things in her life were calm for the first time in a long time.
Ari shook her head. “I came here for a lot of reasons. Not for that. No man will be good enough for me to trust him ever again.”
Evie’s face flashed with sympathy before mischief curved her lips into a smile. “You don’t have to date him, Ari. Just take him for a spin.”
Ari tossed a chip at her. “Absolutely not. Can we please get back to our murder discussion?”
Another round of drinks came next, and soon Evie, Ari, and I were deep in discussion on our next steps to find my mother and take her out for good.
Chapter
Fourteen
ETHAN
