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“Like that’s all you have to offer?” Julianna replies with a roll of her eyes. “It’s nice to see Corey being more of herself these days. She took the loss of her brother Matthew so hard. And it still hurts to know the Angels MC was behind that. What a senseless loss of life.”
“I know, I can’t imagine how hard it must be for her,” I say, really feeling for her. I’m an only child, but I love Julianna like my sister, and I’d be devastated if anything happened to her. “River loves her so much and tries to be there for her in his own way.”
“He does,” she agrees, nodding. “Corey told me he’d always protect her and his mother. He was their hero. I think Matthew was the one who was more there for her emotionally, though.”
“Yeah, I can’t imagine River being too emotionally open,” I admit, experiencing that firsthand.
Our soufflé pancakes arrive, and they are as perfect as I imagined. I can’t help but be one of those people and take a photo of the meal before I taste it.
Julianna softly moans. “Wow, this is so good. We are coming back here. The baby approves.”
“Yes, we are,” I agree.
Sometimes a lunch date with your cousin is all the therapy you need.
Chapter Eight
River
“You bringing Bella to the party?” Corey asks. She’s sitting on the countertop in the clubhouse kitchen, eating toast and drinking coffee.
“What party?” I ask, yawning. I didn’t sleep as well last night without Bella in bed next to me, and I plan on rectifying that tonight.
“Jeremiah’s birthday.”
Ah, shit. I’d forgotten all about that. “I’ll see if she’s free,” I comment, pouring myself some coffee.
“Cool. Especially now that there’s no man hidden in the garage,” Corey says, in a chirpy tone that doesn’t match her words one bit.
My lips tighten. I guess everyone has fucking heard about that, then. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?”
“Nope, no classes today,” she replies, dusting crumbs off her fingers. “And I’m helping Julianna get everything ready for tomorrow. You guys eat a lot of food, you know that? And don’t get me started on the amount of alcohol we are going to need. Even though there have been a few parties, I still can’t get used to the Angels coming around. Will be interesting to see how that goes down.” She jumps off and lands easily on her feet, and leaves without another word.
I send Bella a text before I forget, because I would love to have her here for the party. Corey is right—without our captive here, I can now relax. It turned out that he was a hired hit man coming after Romeo. He didn’t know who put the hit out. All he knew was that it was a woman, and she was paying him fifty thousand dollars. Unfortunately, Roger is not going to get a chance to use that fifty thousand. Unless being buried in the middle of the desert counts.
As sad as it is, our first thought is that it’s our grandmother Cathy.
And ain’t that a hard pill to swallow.
Cathy was basically kicked out of the family for her betrayal and alliance with Victor, who also ended up being her grandson. She went against all of us, planning to have Victor take over the Devils and Angels, and we thought she was in our past. But now we have to wonder if she’s capable of wanting Romeo dead.
There is a small part of me that wants to believe that it’s not her at all. She’s my blood and the woman I ran to when my father was too much when I was a kid. She used to be a comfort to me and I have to think that there is still some good in her.
River: There’s a party here tomorrow night for Jeremiah’s birthday. You in?
Bella: Yes, I’d love to. I’ll pick up a gift for him.
River: It’s okay, don’t worry about it.
Bella: Can’t show up empty-handed.
She’s so fucking cute.
River: Don’t waste your money on him.
Knowing her, she’ll bring something anyway, but I don’t want her to feel like she has to. Corey is right, though, this will be the first party with our MCs united. Although we are now one MC, they’ve stuck to their clubhouse and we’ve stuck to ours—it’s what we know, and we’ve all been comfortable with that. But of course everyone has been invited tonight, and although it might be awkward, I think the more events we do like this the more comfortable everyone will get with each other. At the end of the day, we want the same thing, and we care about the same people. And that’s all it comes down to. We will all be able to thrive, financially and in power, and what more could an MC want?
We are now untouchable.
