“Will someone please just tell me what the hell you think you’ve found?”
Finley looks down at the desk before looking back up at me and the pain in his eyes breaks me. I almost don’t want to know. The words nearly fall out of my mouth, but I shove the weaker parts of me down and stay strong, even when I don’t want to.
“I found out the name of the person who booked the team with Dranas. V, I…”
He trails off, looking at Lincoln, like he doesn’t want to have to tell me. So I drag my gaze to Lincoln, who looks like he wants to tell me about as much as he’d like to cut off his right hand. But he nods at Finn and turns to me anyway. “The name of the person who booked the team was James Smith.”
* * *
“How many more stores do you want to hit?” I groan as Indi drags me into another boutique. We’ve been shopping for an hour and I’m dragging already. Today’s Professional Development Day means we have a free Friday, which gave us chance to shop for the stupid Knight ball Finley dropped on me late last night.
He’s still looking into the Dranas thing, because I flat out refuse to believe Smithy had anything to do with it. I don’t care if the money trail magically lines up, that shit can be faked. Also, who would be stupid enough to book something like that in their own name.
And I don’t care that Lincoln said it would be genius to do exactly that, because no one would believe it.
It’s so stupid. I can barely focus on a fun day with Indi because I’m tripping over everything else going on.
“Earth to V,” Indi says, shaking me to get my attention.
“Sorry, I spaced.”
“Oh, I noticed. You okay?”
I shake my head. “Not really. There’s too much going on. It’s hard to work out which way is up sometimes. I can’t help but wonder what it would be like to be a normal seventeen-year-old. Just focused on boys and college and thinking that was literally the end of the world.”
She frowns at me, tugging me deeper into the store, away from the ears of the three girls behind the counter. “Do you want me to come tonight?”
“I love you, but fuck no. I don’t want you in their crosshairs. Plus there is no way Ryker is going to not kill me if I lead you into that viper’s nest.”
She snorts. “That’s true, but he also doesn’t rule my life. If you want me there, I’m so there.”
I chew the inside of my cheek. It would be awesome to have her with me, she’d be the perfect wing woman, but I also never want her in danger ever again because of me.
“Thank you. Let me talk to Lincoln and Finley, make sure there’s no reason to not bring you—anything that could get you killed. But let’s get you a dress just in case.”
“Hell fucking yes. Let’s do this!”
I drop a message in the group chat, asking the question, then put my phone away to continue with our penis-free day.
We spend the next hour trying on dozens of dresses, having a full-on 90’s Clueless fashion show between us in the changing rooms, snapping way more selfies than any person needs, but it’s so much fun that I forget about the chaos of my life for a blip of time and actually enjoy myself.
“Did you decide on a dress?” Indi asks as she comes out of the changing room, redressed with a dress back over her arm.
“Yeah, I like the sapphire one.”
“Ooh! I love that. And it’ll look amazing next to my red one.” She winks. “I’m going to get Gracie to do my hair tomorrow, I’m thinking new extensions, all black, crazy long and curled. It’ll look amazing with this dress.”
“You always look amazing. Do you think Gracie can squeeze me in too?”
“I have zero doubt that she can.” She grins at me as we head to the counter. “Do we need shoes?”
“Of course we need shoes.” I grin at her. It’s fun being able to treat her. I feel like we haven’t done enough of this lately and it fucking sucks. I’m hoping this impending doom of a meeting with the Knights will straighten shit out so I can at least start to plan my life out again. I’m past thinking I can just escape it. I know too much to be stupid enough to think that.
But rather than drown under the wave, I’m going to follow the current and try to push back to the surface.
That has to be the better idea, right?
Indi grabs a pair of kitten heels, which I add to the counter, deciding on wearing a pair I already have because my Choos are comfy as fuck. I check out our stuff and we make our way back to the car. My phone buzzes in my pocket and I see Sir Grumpalot’s name on the screen.