Page 76 of Thorns of Deceit

Reina’s delicate brow scrunched with the same worry I felt.

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “She’s been avoiding me.”

“Have you asked her?” Isla wondered. She’d flown in for Reina’s upcoming engagement party, so she’d been pretty much out of the loop.

Reina nodded. “She just brushes me off.”

I reached across the table and squeezed her hand gently. “She’ll tell you when she’s ready. I just want to make sure she’s okay.”

“Maybe an Italian mobster can kidnap her and give her mind-blowing orgasms too?” Isla joked, attempting to lighten the mood.

I rolled my eyes. “Honestly, I think these criminals should be a bit more inventive.”

“So darn picky,” Isla grumbled. “You don’t know what you’re missing.”

“Athena’s birthday is coming up,” I declared, switching topics. It was better than admitting I knew exactly what I was missing. “We should do something crazy.”

Reina looked up from her drink and muttered sarcastically, “As opposed to us not being crazy?”

“Oh my gosh, maybe we can throw a disco party for her?” Isla exclaimed, her eyes glittering with hope. “Rhinestones, disco lights, and a cake in the shape of a huge alien dick!”

“What is it with you and alien dicks lately?” I grumbled, shaking my head.

“Yeah,” Reina agreed. “You’ve been kind of fixated on them.”

Isla shrugged. “Well, whenyouladies get fucked by an enormous dick, let’s see if you can forget it. I swear to God that Italian daddy’s dick was out of this world. My vibrator no longer satisfies my urges.”

I groaned.

“God, Isla… please, spare us. We really don’t need details.”

That set off a round of laughter, loud enough to receive filthy looks from the table next to us.

Reina propped her elbows on the table, leaning in and tilting her head pensively. “Maybe that can be our theme. Smut and alien romance.”

I clapped my hands enthusiastically. “How about we go to a bookstore and stock it with her books? The one around the corner from our apartment.”

Isla winced. “That one rejected her books, remember?”

I smiled and made a clicking sound with my tongue. “But if we go in after hours, they wouldn’t be able to object.”

Smart friends would have rejected that idea flat out, but I had good friends instead.

“Well,” Isla said, knocking back the rest of her margarita. “Looks like we’re breaking into a bookstore.”

For the next thirty minutes, we ate greasy fries and downed watered-down drinks while devising a plan and shelf space for Athena’s books. It would probably get us arrested, but at least we’d be together.

We were just wrapping it all up, drunk on our plans and tequila, when the check landed at our table. I snatched it up without thinking.

“My treat,” I said before anyone could argue.

Two pairs of eyes locked on me with simultaneous suspicion and indignation.

“That’s not how we operate,” Reina said.

“It’s a special occasion. I sold two pieces earlier this week,” I said, shrugging even though my stomach did a little backflip every time I said that out loud. The money I’d withdrawn from Aiden’s account the day of the explosion and the emergency stash my mom had in the P.O. box had helped to kickstart my disappearance and a new life, but eventually I got a job at an art gallery while attending university.

It was a stroke of luck that the gallery owner had seen my work and was eager to display it in his gallery under the pseudonymCuishle.