“You need to be dragged to an intervention,” Vick grumbled. “You’re hiding things from your best friends. That’s absolutely not okay.”
“This isn’t black and white, Vick,” I shot back.
“Nothing is more black and white than friendship. Specifically, our friendship.” The conviction in her voice made it loud enough for everyone down the damn road to hear. “You say you don’t care, and that means you very much do. So now I’m completely invested in bothering the shit out of you until I learn every detail and make sure everything works out perfectly. I think we need to call Rome.” Vick started digging in her fancy purse.
I almost snatched it and threw it across the room. “You’re so damn dramatic. I swear to God, I wish I never met you.”
“I’m dramatic and yet you’re saying you wish you never met me.” She scoffed like my words weren’t at all disrespectful. That was the thing about Vick, she would gloss over everything negative I said. I could tell her that I was bleeding out on the floor, and she’d probably look at the blood, tell me it was a pretty color that accented my face, and then navigate the situation flawlessly.
She located her phone and scrolled through her contacts. “Was Rome there the whole night with you after the incident?”
I froze at her words. They both must have got intel about my night in the alley which meant they knew more than they should. “Rome has nothing to do with this.”
“We want what’s best for you, Katie.” Brey put her hand on my arm, and when I stiffened, she slid it down to grab my hand and laid her head on my shoulder. “You’re not going to hide it all. You might not care, but I’ll care twice as much for the both of us. Vick won’t leave any stone unturned either. We want to be there for you. And Jax and Jett do too.”
“And Rome does too. Probably more than anybody,” Vick chimed in, but she’d set her phone down like she was giving me a second to digest the information.
I stared ahead, knowing I’d lost my one family member at seventeen even though I fought hard as hell the best way I knew how to keep him alive. It made me a little colder to the world, a little more hesitant to have friends, and a lot more lethal within the family I had now. I was willing to do what it took and not look back, because I didn’t have anyone that I really cared about to look back for.
Except Brey and Vick.
“You two are like little roaches that just won’t go away, you know that?” Brey accepted me in high school when no one else would accept the foster child who’d hopped around men’s beds. And Vick had attached to us in college, then stuck on like superglue. I sighed. “They’ve been my family since before you met me, Brey.”
She squeezed my hand, and I felt her head nod. “Okay? Can you explain?”
“There’s not much to explain. Dad was sick; I got in where I needed to so I could get him meds.”
“So they’re family?” she whispered as if trying to take it all in.
“As close as you and Vick.”
Vick gasped and then grabbed her phone. “Jett’s going to figure this out with us.”
I snatched it away. “Jett works closely enough with Bastian to know not to dabble in this, Vick.”
“My husband is going to dabble in whatever I want him to.” She glared at me but didn’t press the button to unlock her phone.
“Your husband and Bastian are dealing with government issues already.”
“So what he said to Jett the other day is true?” She jumped up to pace back and forth in front of us. “Some guy hit you over the head, and he’s concerned. Like how concerned? Like sleeping with you concerned? Like your boyfriend concerned? Jett said you’re moving in with him.”
I sat silently, not denying her statement at all.
“You can’t just move in with him!” Vick slammed her hand down on the counter.
“You sound like a helicopter parent right now, Vick.” I sighed and met her through-the-roof angry tone with a monotone one. “Calm down.”
“Brey!” Vick whined and motioned to the one person everyone thought could talk sense into me. Brey was the rock and only foundation I would have listened to had it been negotiable.
It wasn’t, though.
She studied me a second longer and then nodded. “She’s moving, Vick.” Then to me, “Do you need help?”
“I got it. Some of the guys will come by—”
Vick’s honey eyes bulged. “Some of the guys? Oh my God, Brey!” She stomped her foot. “How can you think this is a good idea?”
“I think you calming down would be a good idea,” I grumbled, but I had a small smile on my face that I couldn’t hide. Normally, Vick would have shoved me into any man’s home and told me to find my happily ever after. The fact that she wasn’t doing that now proved she cared enough, and a little piece of my parentless heart warmed.