from his person. “I’ve had a few things I needed to take care of, darlin’.”
Faye finally lets him go and plops back down in her seat. Irish sits next to her and stretches his arms above his head, showing off his biceps.
“If you’re out here, why are they still in there?” she asks, looking back toward the door.
“They’re coming,” he says, just as Sin, Arrow, Tracker, Rake, Trace, Ronan, and Vinnie walk out one by one. Rake offers me his hand, and I take it. He then calls Cara, who runs over to us, and takes her hand in his other one.
“We leave tomorrow then?” Rake asks Sin, who nods his head once, his blue eyes homing in on me.
“Rake is going away for a few days; Irish and Vinnie are going to take turns staying with you until he’s back, all right?” Sin says.
I nod.
Rake’s hand tightens on mine.
We say our ’byes, and Rake takes us home.
Rake tells me he’s moving in permanently as soon as he returns. Faye was right; he’s heading to Channon to sort shit out and will be back in three days. The lack of information annoys the hell out of me, but feeling tired after a stressful day, I fall asleep wrapped in his arms.
And even after everything, I still feel safe there.
* * *
The next day, I’m watching Rhett and Cara ride their bicycles in the front yard, and sipping on some fresh orange juice, Anna, Lana, and Vinnie next to me. The sun is shining and we all decided to enjoy it. Vinnie and Anna put some gin in their OJ, while Lana and I are going alcohol-free and silently judging them for drinking at one in the afternoon.
“Did you hear about that guy, Dom someone from school? I think he was in your grade,” Anna says casually, her eyes covered by her big black sunglasses.
“Dom who?” I ask, my eyes darting between her and the kids.
I try to keep myself calm.
She didn’t know what happened.
Only Rake did.
And Christa.
And . . . him.
Dom Rogers.
“Dom Rogers, I think,” she says, taking a sip from her straw. “I saw in the paper that he died. A car crash, I think. They mentioned he went to our high school.”
“Yeah, I remember him,” I say in an empty voice.
I’ll never forget him.
I’ll see flashes of his face for the rest of my life.
But now he was dead.
And I felt . . . not happy, not sad.
I felt . . . peaceful.
It was years ago, I know. But time doesn’t always heal wounds. Not a wound like that.
Nothing would heal it.
I look down at my hands, my clean hands, and somehow I just know that Rake’s aren’t as clean.
No, they’re bloody.
They are dripping.
They were dirty before I was reunited with him, and they’re even bloodier now. Feeling a little numb, as if I’m looking at my life from the outside in, I think over everything that’s happened.
Dom is dead. I can’t explain the liberating feeling that comes with knowing that. It might make me evil or whatever, but I don’t feel any guilt that he’s dead. I don’t feel any remorse. I feel like it’s finally over.
And now Rake’s taking care of Wade, the man who gave me Cara but tried to take her back for his own selfish reasons. A man who doesn’t give one fuck about my daughter, only what he could get out of her.
It’s twisted, I know.
But I smile.
Because Rake is my guardian angel.
Or maybe my personal grim reaper.
THIRTY-THREE
SO . . .” I say, wringing my hands. “How’s things with you, Irish?”
He flashes me a sardonic smile. “No need to make small talk, Bails. Silence is perfectly fine.”
I roll my eyes at him. “I’d hate to make the night easy on you, then.”
He laughs and changes the channel on the TV. “Things are fine. Is this your way of prying? I hear the women have been speculating about me.”
I shrug my shoulder and risk a glance at him. His dark eyes are already on me. “We thought maybe you had someone special in your . . .”
“Bed?”
“I was going to say life, but bed works,” I say in a dry tone, crossing my legs on the couch. “You’re not going to tell me anything, are you?”
“Nope.”
“Fine,” I give in, staring at the screen. “Rake hasn’t called today.”
“Probably busy,” Irish says, looking at his phone distractedly. “Sorting shit out. Possibly trying to kill Pill.”
My head snaps to him. “They want to kill Pill?”
He looks