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Best Laid Plans

Page 69

by Candice Wright

“Exactly. Besides, they don’t need to be here to hear the good news—they already know.” Conan grins as Tink and Amity stroll in,

“Conan,” Tink exclaims when she sees him, rushing over to give him a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“Hey, Conan, looking good,” Amity says with a wink.

“What, am I invisible?” Blade grumbles.

“Lord, how I wish that were true,” Amity tells him sweetly, making Lil laugh. It’s no secret that there is a bit of tension between her and him after he caused issues when she and G started dating.

“Now, now, children, play nice,” G drawls, dragging Amity into his lap.

“I can’t help it. Every time I see him, I want to stick toothpicks in his eyelids.” The whole table goes quiet at that. “That’s one of those things I should have kept to myself, huh?” she says to G.

“Maybe a little bit. You don’t want to scare off the locals now, do you?”

She makes a face that clearly says she wouldn’t mind scaring off a few, which makes even Blade chuckle.

“Alright, focus, people. Conan, you said you had good news?” Havoc prompts.

Conan’s face splits into a grin. “Just had an appointment with my oncologist. The chemo worked. I’m cancer-free.”

Everyone is quiet for a minute before the room erupts into cheers. And before we know it, an impromptu party is thrown, swelling in size as each of the brothers and old ladies returns to the clubhouse to share in the festivities.

Before long, Lil has passed out in my lap, despite the chaos around us. I smooth her hair back, making her sigh in her sleep and snuggle deeper, like a cat.

“I don’t know how she can sleep when it’s this busy.” Legs laughs from where she’s sitting beside Midas after having Hero swept away from her by Theo and Con, who claimed Star and then went upstairs to watch Disney movies.

“She feels safe,” Delphi says softly, which quiets the table. Nobody says anything to that, but it’s a sad state of fact that Delphi will likely never feel this safe in the clubhouse. Not after what happened to her.

Kruger tugs her closer and presses a kiss to her shoulder.

“Is she sleeping okay at night?” Ambros asks from beside Citi, his eyes on Lil.

“She sleeps, but she’s been having nightmares since the fire at the shelter. She says she doesn’t remember them when she wakes up, but she wakes up every day exhausted.”

“Her brain probably can’t switch off. It has too much to process and not enough hours in the day to do it,” Toot says, making us look at him.

“What? I’m smarter than I look.”

“Not sure that would be hard.” Midas grins at him, ducking when a beer coaster is launched his way.

Blade shakes his head at their antics. I lean back and watch as Conan and Probe play pool, laughing at something. It’s the first time he’s seemed like his old self since losing Capone. Speaking of which, I look around for Circus but can’t find him anywhere. I make a mental note to check in with the guy. We might not be that close, but I know what it’s like to lose a man I thought of as a brother.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you. I did some digging after you asked me about Poacher,” Blade tells Havoc.

“Poacher? The guy the other Lil hitched a ride here with?” Crane asks. I jump at the sound of his voice. I thought the fucker had fallen asleep.

“One and the same. I wanted to talk to him, see if he could give me some insight as to how things played out, but he died in a hit-and-run accident a couple of years back.”

“Shit.” Havoc reaches up to run his hand through his hair, but Tink grabs it and puts it on her boob instead, all without looking up from the book she’s reading.

“Better?” she asks.

I dip my head to hide my laugh, but the others don’t bother. When I look up, I catch Havoc’s dopey grin before he leans down and steals the book.

“Hey!”

He kisses her hard and fast, leaving her stunned, before he hands the book back.