Page 81 of Succumbed

Chapter 24

Lex

I’m fucked.

I knew a girl’s night when I was in a funk would be a terrible idea. The moment I open my door, Ruby’s eyes narrow and she hums a determined little noise I’ve come to dread. It means she’ll stop at nothing to unearth exactly what’s bothering me so she can try to eradicate it. Or, in this case, him. Too bad murder is a felony.

“Not tonight, Roo, please,” I mutter, sweeping a hand out to usher her down the hall. “Cass is in the kitchen.”

Ruby keeps her eyes on me as she pads by, as though she can glare the truth out of me. When she doesn’t succeed by the time she passes, she calls down the hall.

“Status report!”

“Shit’s fucked!” Cass hollers back.

With a knowing look over her shoulder, Ruby sighs. Groaning, I rub a hand over my forehead and trudge after her. I’m not ready for her particular brand of disarming insightfulness. I definitely should’ve canceled girls’ night.

“I can hear you thinking about throwing us out.” Ruby narrows her eyes as I step into the kitchen. I moved so slowly in her wake that she’s already sitting next to Cass at the island, wine glass in hand. “It’s not happening.”

“She’s knows it’s not.” Cass grins over her glass, her eyes flashing in amusement. “She also knows we wouldn’t have believed any of her usual excuses, so canceling would’ve been futile.”

“You both suck,” I huff, snatching my half-full glass off the counter.

“Trouble in man-sandwich paradise?” Cass coos.

There are no secrets between us. I trust both of them implicitly, even if Cass makes a living by telling other people’s stories. I know she’ll never tell mine without permission.

“Which one of them is it?” Ruby presses.

“Can we talk about literally anything else, ladies?” I take a sip, watching them watch me. “Please?”

Cass leans toward Ruby. “Is she begging right now?”

Ruby’s lips twitch in response to her stage whisper. “Not yet.”

“Well, this is fun.” Turning, I walk away. If I’m going to endure their shenanigans, I’m getting comfortable. “Bring the wine,” I toss over my shoulder.

They mutter to each other as I curl up in the corner of my giant sectional. It’s the one piece of furniture in the room I didn’t let the decorators pick for me. The soft cushions swallow me as I snag a soft throw from the basket by the arm, tucking it around myself. The lights in Jax’s pool house are on, including the twinkle lights he strung up on the porch. He worried they’d bother me, but I find the warm reminder of his presence comforting.

“Cass is ordering Thai.”

Ruby sets two bottles of wine on the coffee table as she enters the room, then flops into the big armchair near me. Her sharp gaze never leaves my face.

“Lovely.”

“Which one of them fucked up?” Cass asks, walking up with her phone in one hand and wine in the other. She doesn’t glance up as she swings up and perches on the opposite arm of the couch, her toes digging into the cushion.

“What makes you think someone fucked up?”

Cass snorts, tapping away on what I assume is a food delivery app. I can feel Ruby’s eye roll, but I don’t glance over to see it happen.

“We know you,” Ruby answers. “You’re a reasonable human, and, while you get restless sometimes, you’re annoyingly constant.”

That gets my attention. “Annoyingly?”

“Yep.” Cass pops the ‘p’ as she taps her screen with her thumb, then chucks her phone down on the couch and looks up. “People aren’t constant, Lexi.”

“Oh god, not you, too,” I groan, leaning my head back. “That fucking nickname.”

---