Gloria comes around the back of the car, grinning. “I’m kinda glad you talked me into this,” she says. “Sorry I was being a bitch. I just… Can’t stand that guy.”
Speaking of that guy, Colt hasn’t gotten out. I open his door. “You coming?”
“Nope,” he says, crossing his arms.
“So you’re going to sit here and let us take all the risk for you, while you’re the only one who really benefits?” Gloria asks.
“Yup.”
“Colt,” I say, putting a hand on his knee. “What’s going on? You’re really not coming?”
“Not even if you offered to sit on my face while Gloria rides my super fine dick.”
“Ugh,” Gloria bursts out. “He’s disgusting, Harper. Leave him to stew in his filth.”
“I have immunity right now,” I say quietly, holding his gaze. “It might not last forever, but right now, they won’t hurt you. Let me make up for what I did last year.”
He tilts his head, giving me a funny look. “What’d you do last year?”
“I got you almost killed.”
He scoffs at that. “You didn’t do that. I did that. I knew what could happen. You had no idea.”
We stare at each other for a long minute. “They’d threatened you,” I say. “To me. They told me if I hung out with you, they’d hurt you.”
“You think they didn’t tell me the same thing?” he asks. “Harper, I never blamed you for that. Not even for a minute. Do you really think that’s your fault?”
I shrug. “I mean… At least partly.”
“Fuck no,” he says. “I wanted to hang out with you because you were a badass new chick who didn’t know I was off limits. But I also wanted to piss off the Dolces. That was on me.”
“But… We were friends, and I still chose Royal after that.”
“Yeah, well,” he says. “That part’s fucked up. But we weren’t that good friends, were we? We’d only hung out a few times.”
“I consider you a friend,” I say. “And I need friends right now. Allies. Can you trust me just this once?”
He looks at Gloria, then back to me. “Fine,” he says. “But this time, whatever happens is on you. Consider yourself a murderer if they kill me. And out of respect for our friendship, try not to fall on any of their dicks until my body’s cold.”
“Fuck you,” I say, but I’m laughing. “I solemnly swear to avenge you if anything happens. Now come on.”
We start across the parking lot toward the Midnight Swans, walking shoulder to shoulder. They saw my car drive up, and they stand in the spotlight of their headlights, watching us approach. The only sound is our feet on the pavement and the incessant summer song of the insects punctuated by another distant, uneasy roll of thunder.
“What are you doing here?” Baron asks when we step up beside their cars. At least, I think it’s Baron. I remember his voice on the back of my neck, how I couldn’t tell it apart from Duke’s in the dark behind my blindfold. My throat tightens, but when I falter, Gloria pauses with me, keeping step like we’re in one of her dance routines and she has to stay in perfect sync with me. She has my back. Colt’s hand grips my elbow, giving it a little squeeze, reminding me that I have allies now. I’m not alone like I was that night.
That night, they destroyed me.
They did their worst.
And I survived it.
I’m still here.
Still standing.
I came back, rose like a fucking phoenix from the ashes of the decimated landscape of my soul. There’s nothing they can do to me now. I step into the spotlight with them and reach into my pocket. Holding up my hand, I let the key dangle from my finger. “I’m the key master. Why are we meeting out here in the open? Let’s go.”
The other guys shift and look at each other, murmuring in surprise.