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“I was shocked too,” her friend said as she moved down the aisle a bit. “Now I have to figure out what we should be. I feel like lady cop and criminal is a bit too cliché.”

Carrie hadn’t done a couple’s costume since junior year of high school—the last time she’d been with anyone during her birthday. For some reason, she found herself single more than she wasn’t during the fall. This year proved to be no different.

She and Kid weren’t in a relationship. At least, to her knowledge they weren’t. They hadn’t actually discussed the rules of their engagement. They’d merely been roommates until recently, but that had changed.

They’d bumped uglies consistently for the last week. The fact that she wasn’t walking around bowlegged was amazing considering how often they’d boned. Yet that didn’t make them a couple.

“I don’t like that look on your face,” Kelsey said as she approached Carrie’s side again. “You’re thinking really hard.”

Forcing a smile, Carrie waved a hand dismissively through the air. “It’s nothing.”

Frowning, Kelsey crossed her arms over chest. “You’re a terrible liar.”

True.

Carrie had to come up with something to tell her friend. She couldn’t blurt out the situation. Not yet. Besides, what she and Kid had wasn’t serious. She didn’t have to admit to anything. There was no secret. Nothing was going on that required a confession. Having something only for them was nice. The privacy gave her freedom to exist without expectations and enjoy each stolen moment with him.

“Maybe,” she began, “the reason I’m not inspired is because I don’t have any Halloween plans.”

Kelsey bit her lips together in a thin line as she nodded knowingly. She wrapped a comforting arm around Carrie’s shoulders and gave her a reassuring side hug. “So, you decided against going to the Royal Bastards’ charity thing?”

Carrie knew about it. Kelsey had invited her. Carrie had even discussed it at great length with her therapist and the support group. People had a shit ton of opinions about whether she should join them. Carrie herself wasn’t sure how she felt about attending.

“I don’t know,” she admitted.

The idea of returning to the scene of her gang rape made her skin crawl. She’d had nightmares about that place. Would it be the same?

Probably not. From what she’d heard, Kid and his brother had done extensive renovations. Kelsey had told her that Kid had painted beautiful murals on the outside, so it wouldn’t even resemble the place it had once been, but she would know it was the location where the worst night of her life had occurred. There would be no changing that.

However, had the time come to reclaim her power in this sense? She’d done it with sex, so how much harder could it be with a location?

“How was it for you?” Carrie asked.

While not the same degree, Kelsey had also been assaulted by Mike’s friends that night—which Carrie blamed herself for. If she hadn’t asked Kelsey to join her at the party, she never would’ve had to endure what she did.

Kelsey shifted her attention away from Carrie—almost like she was lost in her thoughts. “Weird,” she said in a soft voice. “Different. The building is not the same, but it kinda is. The guys have done a great job in transforming it. Today it looks nothing like what I saw when Kev brought me there after they bought it, and it’s barely the same building from before that.”

“Part of me thinks that it’d be the last hurdle, you know?” Carrie said, lifting her chin and puffing out her chest a bit. “The last fear I’d need to conquer before I’m back to myself.”

Kelsey peered at her with suspicion while Carrie continued to speak.

“If I can go there and actually have a good experience, I can do anything.” Carrie nodded more to herself than anyone else. “I’ll be officially healed.”

Kelsey rubbed Carrie’s arm before stepping back from her. “That’s a great way to look at it. Does that mean you’re considering going?”

Carrie turned her attention back to the costume wall. Naughty nurse. Sexy hippie. Sultry vampire. All costumes she’d done before. Then a blue spandex onesie with a diamond on the chest and an oval mask caught her eye. She smirked. If she could go to the Royal Bastards clubhouse, would that make her a superhero?

She picked up the packaging. “Yeah. I think I am.”

Kelsey’s eyes darted from Carrie to the costume and back to her again. “Inspired?”

“Yep.”

25

Kid

Kid’s last appointment had left the studio an hour ago. Only one artist remained in his shop working on a massive back piece, which gave him ample opportunity to catch up on all the business owner paperwork that needed attending to.