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“If it’s trash, I’ll never trust your recommendation ever again,” Wren warned. “You northerners don’t know how to season anything.”

Natasha lifted her chin in challenge, retort forming only to be interrupted by the ring of the doorbell. She turned on her heel, marching back through the house to answer the door.

Wren sidled up next to her, hands hidden in her pockets as she looked around, uncertainty clear in the tightness in her expression.

“I feel like I shouldn’t touch anything,” Ali muttered under her breath, slinging an arm over Wren’s shoulder.

“Oh thank god,” Wren whispered. “Me too.” She leaned into Ali’s side, as though huddling for warmth. “But, when I die, bury me in this kitchen.”

Lilah bounded around the corner, balancing pizza boxes in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other.

“Ali Cat!” she greeted, sliding the boxes onto the island and trotting over to a specific drawer and pulling out a bottle opener. Her smile brightened as her gaze landed on Wren. “You must be Wren. I’m Lilah, Charlotte’s little sister.”

“That’s me,” Wren confirmed, sporting a matching grin. “You look nothing like Charlotte.”

“Half-sisters.” Lilah laughed, flipping open a box of pizza and releasing the most heavenly melty scent into the air. “I look like my dad’s side of the family. I used to hate that I looked different, but I’ve grown to like it… I think.”

“What’s Charlotte like as a sister?” Wren asked, eyes narrowing, clearly hoping for dirt as she followed Lilah’s lead and grabbing a plate.

“Oh, she’s amazing!” Lilah said, prying the cork free with a pop. A buzzing came from the back pocket of her jeans she paid no mind to as she filled her glass with a deep burgundy liquid. “She was always looking after me and teaching me how to do things. Charlotte is my most favorite person. But don’t tell Lizzie.”

“She already knows,” Natasha scoffed as she reentered the kitchen, thumbs flying over her phone screen. “Very obvious.”

Lilah narrowed her gaze. “Still, this conversation never happened.”

Natasha led them downstairs to the entertainment room in the basement. A bar lined the back wall, dark blue wainscoting elevated the space that she hardly felt like she was in a basement. They scattered across the leather sectional facing a massive TV. Idly, Ali wondered what was in Charlotte’s basement. She whipped out her phone to find out.

Charlotte Davenport

Today 6:37PM

I got a serious question for you

Oh?

What are you keeping in your basement?

Little dots appeared and wiggled across the screen as she took a bite of pizza. It was damn good.

Bodies. Kept in neat little 6x4 lots.

I knew it!

How’d you do it?

Arsenic in the elderberry wine.

Are you planning my death?

Never you, darling. ;)

“So, Ali,” Lilah began from her corner of the sectional, a wicked lilt in her voice that pulled Ali right out of her phone. “Have you and Charlotte said I love you yet?”

Her bite of pizza lodged in her throat, forcing Ali to succumb to a coughing fit.

“Not yet,” she spluttered.

“What do you mean yet? She looks at you like the sun shines out your ass,” Natasha groused, making Ali’s cheeks burn.