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1
EVE
“Pretty sure I’m going to burst into Hell-spawned flame if I step one toe over that threshold, Eve.” Augie stared at the quaint whitewashed church with the same sort of expression he had when it was his week to clean the bathrooms at the club. He crossed his arms over his broad chest, nose wrinkled as if the entire thing was offensive to his morals. If he’d had any.
Lyric stopped beside him, her long red hair flowing down her back in waves, and squinted past the crowds milling around us on the church lawn. “As much as I hate to agree with Augie about anything, I’m with him this time. What the hell?”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t be dramatic.” Though dramatic was both Augie’s and Lyric’s middle name. Which was exactly why I hadn’t told either of them where the press conference was taking place. Neither would have come. I actually hadn’t told any of my crew where we were going. I’d just said I needed help with something, and the four of them had piled into my car willingly.
But now, even Phoenix’s usually quiet demeanor felt more like he was waiting for an explanation, and Fawn who was usually all sunshine and rainbows, nibbled on a fingernail nervously.
I grabbed her hand, pulling Fawn’s fingers away from her mouth. “Hey. You’re not going to spontaneously combust because we’re at a church.”
“I know that.” But she didn’t look entirely convinced.
“You worried about being struck down by some almighty being, too?” I asked Phoenix.
His gaze raked over the milling crowd, who all edged around us as though we were a pond of alligators, ready to launch out of the water, snap our jaws around their ankles, and drag them down into the murky depths of our lair. One older lady, in her Sunday best, gaped up at Phoenix with his tattoos, scars, and scowl. He gave her a moment. At six foot five, and a wall of pure muscle, Phoenix was used to people staring at him. But when she made no move to carry on, he leaned down and whispered, “Boo.”
The woman gasped and scuttled off deeper into the crowd, darting glances back at him as she went.
I sighed. “I can’t take you guys anywhere.”
“Not true,” Lyric piped up. “Bar? Good. Beach? Good. Church?” She stuck both thumbs up then made a show of turning them upside down. “Seriously, though, what are we doing here?” Her gaze strayed to the young priest lingering in the doorway of the church. “I mean, he’s hot for a guy dressed in a robe, but if you’re hoping to save our souls, you probably should have told us to dress down a little.”
Lyric’s tiny shorts barely covered her perfect ass, and a low-cut top showed a healthy amount of her impressive cleavage. She wasn’t wearing a bra, she had no need to, her boobs were courtesy of a great surgeon and sat high and proud without the assistance of an underwire.
“You look great,” I told her. “But that’s beside the point. We aren’t here for some god to judge your clothes. Or your sins.” If there was a God, He already knew our sins, and between the five of us, we had plenty. “And we aren’t here to check out the priest.”
“Did you see the tattoo peeking out beneath his sleeve though? I’msointrigued.”
I ignored her and passed over a creased piece of paper. “You’re here for moral support.”
Dragging her attention away from the apparently tatted up priest, she took the paper, running a long bright-pink fingernail beneath one of the corners to unfold it. She glanced over the neatly printed writing and then stared up at me with big eyes. “What the fuck?”
Heads turned around us, and Lyric glowered in their direction. “What? You never heard someone drop an F-bomb in your life? Get outta here.”
Augie snatched the paper from her hand, and Phoenix and Fawn read over his shoulders. Augie was practically vibrating with anger by the time he got to the bottom of the page. “They’re trying to shut us down?”
I took the notice back from him, tucking it inside my purse once more. “Yes.”
“Unfuckingbelieveable,” he swore, none too softly, earning him more stares. “Who does this guy think he is?”
I pointed to one of the signs hammered into the grass. Right in the center, a middle-aged man stared out with an overly enthusiastic smile that showed off almost every single one of his pearly-white teeth. Lines crinkled at the corners of blue eyes, and a crisp white shirt, navy suit jacket, and matching tie completed the look. There was no mistaking a photo like that. They were reserved solely for real estate agents and politicians.
William Reed was definitely the latter.
“Speak of the devil…” I murmured, a sleek black limousine rolling up and stopping at the curb.
“And he shall appear,” Lyric drawled.
William slid out of the fancy car, and the crowd around us cheered like he was some returning hero. They pushed forward, and the police appeared out of nowhere, calling for everyone to stay back and give them room.
William smiled widely, waving to his milling supporters, then eventually turned his attention back to the car, offering his wife a hand. She placed her fingers in his and allowed him to help her out. Two others followed, one a teenage girl and a slightly older guy.
“Who are they?”
I glanced up at Phoenix. “You mean, who is he?” His gaze was trained firmly on the mayoral candidate’s son.
