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7

STAR

With the walls of Lily’s house practically vibrating thanks to the multiple stereos all streaming the same song—one of noxxious ’ godawful tracks—I headed into the kitchen where Rachel was sitting with Giulia and Tiff.

Rachel and I weren’t exactly friendly, but we weren’t going to bite each other’s faces off either.

To be fair, that was how I liked to keep my friends—on the verge of murderous.

Plus, Rachel wasn’t like Alessa, who looked at me as if I were a disappointment.

Rachel looked at me with a warning in her eye.

Smart woman.

As I plunked myself at the kitchen table, I snagged a bottle of white wine from the grouping of alcoholic beverages at its center and shouted, “Cruz’s getting shit-faced and Indy’s trying to prop him up.”

Giulia snorted. “He’s losing his mind.”

“Why?”

“Indy’s pregnant,” Tiffany called out, a sly grin creasing her lips as she continued, “With twins. Girls.”

Whistling under my breath, I muttered, “Dude’s gonna lose his shit.”

“Think he’d have liked a single girl,” Giulia mused. “But two? At once? And he’s gonna have to protect them from the likes of the Sinners?”

I whistled again.

Cruz was so fucked because say what you wanted about the Sinners, they were hot.

“He should be grateful Samael’ll be their cousin,” I remarked, making Giulia snort into her drink.

“Apparently, they were using a gazillion different types of birth control too,” Tiff threw in.

“Hence the alcohol,” I said with a nod. “Cruz will make a great girl dad, though. Can you imagine him when it’s time for human biology? Can point out all the bones in the skeleton on his chest.”

Rachel’s lips twitched. “I’m sure that’s why he got that ink in the first place.”

“Nyx, if you kill them, I won’t let Rachel defend you in court!”

Rex’s pronouncement from the other side of the kitchen had Rachel rolling her eyes.

“What the hell did Quin and Hawk do?”

At my demand, Giulia hid a smile. “You don’t want to know.”

I was starting to want to know.

“It involves Quin, a tattoo gun, Nyx’s back, and Hawk’s name,” Parker chirped a tad drunkenly.

My brows lifted. “You managed to get out of Rachel’s house?”

“And it only took three Valium,” she declared proudly.

Ah, Valium. Not booze.

She needed to get a guy who’d develop a process like Conor had.

“Been a long time since you’ve hung out with us,” Giulia rumbled, eyes narrowed. “You dropped us for those fancy city folks?”

“You could come and visit me too, Giulia, but I didn’t know you cared.” I blew a kiss at her then laughed when she shuddered in revulsion. “I’ve just been busy.”

“Seen your kind of busy,” Tiff concurred. “You’re making waves.” She leaned over the table with her beer bottle and held it out for me to tap with my glass. “I do appreciate a tsunami of bullshit.”

“When you’re not the one wading through it, you can,” I countered, but I took a deep sip of wine as I thought about that tsunami and how much there was still left to uncover.

Before I could get depressed, Rachel asked, “Rex said Conor was trying to convince him to buy a new type of security system?”

I waved a hand. “He recently sold the rights to some new tech to a company. Rex should take him up on the offer. He’ll get it cheaper, and it’s the best around.”

“I don’t know how that man of yours has the time,” Rachel muttered.

“He doesn’t sleep much. Neither of us do. We take turns.”

“What do you mean you take turns to sleep?” Tiff queried, her brow furrowed in confusion.

I shrugged. “He sleeps and knows that I’m watching over our world, and I sleep knowing that he’s keeping everything safe for me.”

“When do you fuck?”

I grinned at Giulia. “I get plenty, don’t you worry.”

Her nose crinkled.

“I guess it’s sweet,” Tiff reasoned.

“In a fucked-up way.”

“A happily ever after doesn’t keep the demons at bay, Giulia. If anyone knows that, it’s you.”

She grimaced. “Nyx is better.”

“Aside from trying to kill his brother and brother-in-law…” I hummed when her grimace turned into a snicker. “Still, glad to hear it. You should warn him to stay away from Manhattan, by the way.”

“Why?” she queried before popping a couple peanuts into her mouth.

“Brennan, Conor’s older brother, has a grudge against him.”

“My man can take any fucking mobster he chooses,” she bristled.

“Wait. Isn’t Brennan married to Cammie?” Rachel inquired, sipping her drink while keeping a weather eye on Parker, who’d clambered onto the kitchen counter to dance.

Immediately, Giulia deflated. “Oh.”

I shot her a knowing look. “ Oh . And she’s pregnant so extra vulnerable right now. I think Brennan would enjoy getting some vengeance for her.”

She winced. “He’d probably deserve to get the shit kicked out of him if Brennan comes across him.”

“Exactly,” I drawled. “I’m giving the warning, that’s all. I shouldn’t be doing that, but you fuckers have my loyalty as much as they do.” I stared at the glass in my hand. “And trust me, it’s a weird ass place to be—stuck in the middle with you assholes on one side and those feckers on the other.”

“Sounds like a pretty sexy place to me,” Link jeered, making me jolt in surprise.

I glared at him. “Since when did you start moving so quietly?”

His arms flared wide as he took a bow. “It’s a gift.”

“Some gift,” I grumbled.

“Who’s beating Nyx up?” Link asked, kicking his feet up on the table beside me.

“No one is,” Giulia groused, dousing him in a handful of peanuts. “He just can’t ever go to Manhattan.”

“He works in Manhattan all the time.”

“Then tell him to avoid Brennan O’Donnelly,” I countered.

“He tends to liaise with Declan.”

“Well, Declan isn’t Brennan, is he? So he’s fine.”

“What’d Nyx do to Brennan anyway?”

“Treated his wife like shit.”

Link frowned. “Nyx treated a lot of women like shit in his time. To be honest, he probably deserves to get his ass handed to him.”

“Hey!” Giulia defended though she’d admitted as much not five minutes earlier. “That’s my man you’re talking about.”

“And you know as well as I do how much of an asshole he used to be,” Link reasoned, snagging a beer from the table and popping the cap on the side. After he took a deep sip, he turned to me. “Brennan, you say?”

“Link!” Giulia snarled.

“What?” was his angelic retort. “I’m just asking. Gotta keep in the loop. Watch my bro’s back.”

My lips curved. “I can only give the intel. What you choose to do with it is down to you.”

Holding out his bottle, Link winked at me again. “I always knew I liked you, Star.”

With a laugh, I tapped my glass to his bottle. “Same goes… Matthew.”

His nose crinkled. “Why you gotta do me dirty like that?”

It was my turn to wink at him. “Just keeping you honest.”