“How do I make friends?” he asked, repeatingthe question.

“Yeah, how doyou do it?”

He looked at Harlow and took a deep breath.“You’ve got to be yourself, Squirt.”

“No one likes me.”

“I like you.”

“But you’re not at school.” She pouted.

“Then you don’t need anyone. If no one cansee how amazing you are, then they’re not worth your time.”

“Mom hates me.”

“Fuck her,” Big Dick said.

Harlow giggled and he ran a hand down hisface.

“It doesn’t matter what anyone says orthinks. Friends are made as you get older. I don’t hang with any ofthe fuckers I went to school with. They went off and did their ownshit and one day, you will as well.” He held his hands open. “Andguess what, I’ll still be your friend. You’ve always got me, Squirt.”

“Promise?”

“Promise. Nothing is ever going to stop mefrom being your friend. I’ll take care of you. Look out foryourself, but don’t stopbeing you. You wear your jeans and say the shit you want. No matterwhat, got it?”

“Got it.”

She crawled across the tree house andcurled up against his side. “Thank you.”

“Happy Birthday, Harlow.” He kissed the topof her head.

Big Dick loved his little sister. From themoment his mom gave birth, he had promised to take care ofher, and he would dothat.

Chapter One

“Ouch, motherfucker!” Harlow pulled herfinger back and immediately stuck it in her mouth. She did not enjoy the metallic taste ofher own blood. “Do you think if vampires existed, there would beone that was repulsed by the sight and taste of blood?” She turnedtoward Ava and saw her question made absolutely no sense to herfriend and boss.

“Huh?”

“Cut myself is all.” It was on a cardboardbox. She looked down at her finger to see a small cut, but theblood had stopped.

“And how do you go from cutting yourself tovampires?” Ava asked.

“Blood. You know the sustenance of ourundead best friends.”

“I wonder at times.”

Harlow laughed. Hearing Ava say stuff likethat was funny, now if it came from her mother, that would be awhole other story. Thinking about her motherwould risk putting her in a bad mood, andshe didn’t want to be upset so she quickly cut those thoughts fromher mind.

She looked over toward Ava who pressed theback of her hand against her mouth as ifshe couldn’t quite handle the potentialsickness.

“Are you still feeling queasyafter eating Abriana’s pumpkinpie?” Harlow asked. She felt herself feeling sick just at thethought. For Christmas, she’d been invited to hang out at theHell’s Bastards MC clubhouse, provided she helped Smokey set up theperfect Christmas for Ava.

Everything was going smoothly, apart fromthe wholeHunter-being-a-dick problem, but she could handle dicklessassholes, even ones that were not her six brothers. No, whatstarted to make everything fall apart was Ava being convinced sheand Smokey were having an affair. Ew, gross.

She did not think of Smokey in a sexualway. She knew there were a lot of womenwho would do anything to get with Smokey. However,she knew for a fact that after Smokey’s ginormous fuck-up the firsttime around—not that she knows a lot about it—he’d never do that toAva. That guy loved her. There was no denying it.

Glancing over at her best friend, she sawAva’s eyes were closed.