Page 37 of Belonging to Them

It’s brilliant.The O ring will be able to spin around—no name will ever be on top.A perfect representation of our relationship.

“On it,” I say, ending the call and turning to the clerk.“I’ll take this necklace.Can you engrave it by Thursday?”

“I can have it done in a couple of hours, depending on the engraving,” he says.“And as for the clasp?”

“We’ll take the locking one,” I say.“I’ll be back before you close this evening.”

The necklace will say everything we’ve been trying to tell her—but in a concrete, tangible way.

And if this message doesn’t get through to her?I don’t know what will.

TEN

Ella

I don’t want to keep things from you, so just so you know, I got another message about Tommy, I write in a text to Sebastian and Kingston.I’ve already told the police, and they’re looking into it.

I stare at my phone until it goes dark from disuse.There’s no response from either of them, and my stomach is in knots.I hope they aren’t mad at me.But I did what I’m supposed to—I told them about it.

While I frown at my phone, willing a response from one of the guys, it lights up with a text.

Natasha:I miss you, girl.Hang out?

I text her back,Are you free tonight?

Heck yeah.Just a sec—I’m calling you because I’m too lazy to text.

As soon as it rings, I answer my phone.“Hey, stranger.I miss you, too.”

“I can’t wait to see you!”Natasha says in a bubbly voice.Her happiness is infectious.“Okay, so how are you, though?You sounded kind of down just now.”

“Ugh.Don’t ask.”

“Uh…I’m asking.”

“I’m worried about my stupid brother again,” I say.“But let’s not talk about that—I want to hear about you and what you’re up to.How’s Gabe?”

“He’s good,” she says.“So, tonight.Time and place?”

We agree to meet at eight at a modestly-priced dumpling restaurant in Bellefleur.I text my guards.It’ll be Squid and Roman with me tonight.If it weren’t for them, no way would I set a foot in Bellefleur without my daddies in town.

Eight p.m.arrives before I know it, and I’m hugging Natasha in front of the restaurant while tantalizing scents from the kitchen fill my nose.

“It feels like it’s been an age,” I say.

“It hasn’t been that long,” she says, pulling back to look critically at me.“Are you really okay, though?After…everything Joel put you through?”

I nod.“Yeah.Nightmares sometimes, but the guys are almost always there.They’re both out of town now, but I’m doing okay.”

“If you want company, any time, you just call me,” she says as we step inside the restaurant.

Squid and Roman come in behind us and go over to sit at the bar.One of them faces me at all times, but by now I’ve gotten used to it—I hardly notice them anymore.Natasha and I stuff ourselves on dumplings and I get all the details of her relationship with Gabe.He sounds like a good guy, and I’m happy for her.I give her a few more details about what went down with Joel, but I don’t want to focus on that, so we talk more about Kingston and Sebastian.Natasha has all sorts of questions about how I manage to nurture relationships with them both at the same time.

“Isn’t it a lot to balance?”she asks.

I’d never thought of it as being a balancing act.“Not really,” I say.“I want to do things with both of them and make sure neither feels left out, but they’ve never acted jealous of the other.”

They play games, though, like the way one will try to fuck me in bed at night and see how long we can go without waking the other guy up.But I’m not going to tell Natasha about that.