Iwas exhausted.
Sitting in uncomfortable hospital chairs and watching friends crumble wasn’t what I called a good time.
But we stayed because that’s what friends do for each other. Vincent and Levin were falling apart. So was the girl with them.
Stella.
They ignored her for the most part, which I found odd considering how inconsolable she’d been when we’d arrived. I assumed she meant something to them. I’d seen her clinging to Vincent, her arms wrapped tightly around him as they both cried. Levin had joined them, making me wonder what the hell was going on with it all. Maybe she was the girl they’d started seeing, but I highly doubted it.
I settled on her just being Bianca’s friend. A Jamie and Rosalie situation.
“I’ll take her back,” Fox said, glancing at her as she wiped her eyes again. “She has to be exhausted.”
“Thanks,” Vincent muttered, rubbing his eyes. “She’s hard to shake, though. Be careful.”
“I can handle her.” Fox stood and glanced at her again.
“Update me when you get to Rosalie,” I said. “I want updates the entire way to her. When you drop off Stella. When you get home. I want it all.”
“Of course,” Fox muttered, his eyes on Stella. He wasn’t often alone with other women these days. He said it was to be respectful to Rosalie, but I knew it was also because of his status and how shitty people could be. He didn’t want a scandal that could harm his football career.
“Be careful,” Cole said, looking to where Stella sat. “Beautiful women are a bitch, man.”
“I got it.” Fox went to Stella and spoke to her, his words soft. Whatever he said seemed to light a fire beneath her because she’d sworn earlier she wasn’t ever leaving. He escorted her out, his hand on her elbow.
I glanced to see E sitting with his eyes closed. He was just as exhausted as I was. I knew he was struggling to stay awake so he didn’t have a damn nightmare in front of anyone. I wanted him to go home but decided he’d be better here because we didn’t need him freaking out on Rosalie if he had an episode.
“Is she… yours?” I asked, looking at Levin.
He scoffed. “She wishes.”
“We used to mess around with her before B. She was fucking the lords, too,” Vincent explained. “It was never anything serious with us.”
“And now?” Cole asked.
Vincent shook his head. “No. Never since B has been with us. She’s just been helping us with Dom. He-he tried to get her to kill him. She wouldn’t do it. Shit got ugly over it.”
I winced at the information, wishing they’d have reached out to us. I wasn’t sure what we could have done to help, but I knew we’d have tried.
Cole engaged the guys in more conversation. Matteo. Dom. Plans for things. If they needed anything. I tuned them out andlooked down at my phone to see Fox checking in with the Stella delivery. I watched his dot on the tracking map and saw he was on the way home again.
I rubbed my eyes before I thumbed out a message to Anson.
Enzo: Everything good?
Anson’s reply came quickly.
Anson: Yes.
I stared at his message, knowing he was working hard to get me information on Bianca. I had a feeling something was up. I knew we’d seen the body, but it had been plaguing me since. I’d never noticed a dark streak in Bianca’s hair before, but the corpse had one. It was enough for me to question shit.
I hadn’t told Fox and Ethan the deal I’d made with Anson. Cole losing his fucking mind was enough to make me avoid it, but I knew Fox would likely accept it. E would probably follow since he tended to pick his battles. I’d not like it, but I’d accept it for a time if it came down to it. I’d work to remedy it because his joining us would cause more harm than good. Cole would never be able to accept it. Hell, I’d never accept it in the long term.
I hated that I was such a jealous, possessive prick, but it’s who I was when it came to her. The thought of her falling in love with someone else killed me inside. I didn’t want that. Ever. She was meant to be a horseman’s girl. Knowing Fox had let Anson in to watch… fuck, it tore me up.
Enzo: Any more information for me?
Anson: I’m working on it.
