to do with yet. I was clumsy, angering my parents and anyone around me. When I knocked over that beer bottle, I had turned to apologize immediately.
The member had slapped me across the head.
Laughed. They’d all laughed—my parents too. It was meant to be a roughly affectionate gesture. I’m only messing around with you, kid. Don’t take it so personally.
It had hurt. A lot.
My parents had said nothing.
I knew where I could get money for Lucky Dog—grudges didn’t last in the Devils because it was better to have someone in your debt than not at all. The prodigal son could have returned. The MC could have saved our asses ten times over by now with money that was stolen.
And the price of that ask for help would have been higher than I was willing to pay.
I rode down Ocean Drive, slowing as the ocean arced to my left, expensive shops to my right. The sidewalks were filled with pink and purple umbrellas. Latin music was everywhere. A line of palm trees led me right to where we’d captured the stray—Penelope—that Luna and I had both been feeding. I wanted to make sure she didn’t have puppies, that we hadn’t accidentally left them behind.
And maybe… I’d wanted to bump into Luna.
Not for any reason. Although Jem had casually mentioned that Luna was giving a press conference this morning outside of her offices, which were right next to where we found Penelope on the beach. And we needed to check for puppies. It had made sense to me at the time.
But I also couldn’t shake Luna from my brain. It was the way she’d looked after Penelope had eaten from her hand. It was an expression of pure joy.
A throng of people stood outside of Wild Heart’s headquarters—an industrial building painted white with Wild Heart spray-painted on the side in magenta. Camera crews, news vans, reporters, tourists… Luna had more celebrity than I’d realized. And behind them, with signs, were protesters. She’d mentioned them yesterday and I thought she was exaggerating. They were grouped together, holding signs that said Animal Killer.
I narrowed my eyes at them. I saw Luna, walking out with confidence and a piece of paper in her hand. She waved to the cameras, looked at the protesters, and shined that mega-watt smile across the beach.
It hit me square in the chest.
I parked my bike, walked toward the audience. I was a head taller than everyone there—so when Luna looked out she caught my eye. I was torn between embarrassment and interest—didn’t want it to seem like I was stalking the rainbow billionaire.
But she waved at me. And against my better judgment… I waved back.
A protester started to make his way past me. I crossed my arms, stared him down.
He fled the other way.
Luna stepped in front of the microphone. Her hair swayed in the breeze and she wore a long pink dress, yellow earrings.
“Thank you, everyone, for coming today,” she started. Her voice was steady. “My name is Luna da Rosa and I am the CEO and founder of Wild Heart. I would like to formally apologize for the role that I played in our relationship with the company Ferris Mark. We now know that they lied to us, as well as other companies, and that they engaged in full-scale animal cruelty as they tested on animals. Wild Heart was founded on the promise that we would always be cruelty-free and eco-friendly. A promise that has made us stand out from our competitors in an industry where beauty standards hold more power than animal rights or human rights; where humane working conditions are valued less than cheap lip gloss. When I founded Wild Heart, it was with an ambition to change those standards, to raise the bar. To do better.”
Luna paused, looked at her notes. “We broke that promise. I broke that promise when I broke my own procedures and fast-tracked our contract with Ferris Mark. If I’d had us perform our due diligence, I think it’s unlikely we would be in this situation right now.”
A smattering of chants from the protesters and the flash of cameras couldn’t drown out the strength in Luna’s voice. It made me feel even shittier for implying yesterday that she wasn’t a hard worker—because what she was doing up there was something I would never, ever be able to do. Yet there she stood, clear and honest.
Bella stood nearby, arms crossed in front. A row of security guards and a handful of police