Page 158 of Break Out

“She is so stinking cute,” Alexandra said, holding Felicity and staring down at her.

We were sitting on my couch in the living room the morning after I’d been discharged from the hospital. Steel was in bed catching some sleep, since it had been a long night.

“Yeah. She’s stolen my heart,” I said.

“She’ll be breaking hearts, that’s for sure.” Alexandra’s gaze met mine. “You better hope she isn’t half as good as you are at keeping secrets.”

From her tone, I knew she was referring to me keeping the secret about Rafferty’s hang-around status with the Devil Lancers. She had lost her mind almost as badly as Aunt Trixie had.

Almost.

Were Alexandra and Rafferty speaking to one another now?

No.

The sheer stupidity of that killed me, but Steel pointed out it wasn’t my business.

Which also killed me.

“It wasn’t mine to tell, Lex.”

She nodded. “I get that. I do, it’s just…I guess there aren’t any sisters before misters in MC life.”

I tilted my head. “It isn’t about putting anyone above another…it’s respecting Rafferty’s right to privacy.”

“And not sharing the Devil Lancers’ business,” she muttered.

I tossed a hand out. “Or the Riot’s. If he’d been hanging around there, it wouldn’t have been my place to tell Steel – hell, I felt like I’d done a bad thing just telling him he wasn’t prospecting with any club.”

She nodded and stroked Felicity’s cheek. “Right. And he still isn’t a prospect with either club.”

I grinned. “You’d have to ask him why that is. His phone number’s still the same. You could call him.”

She shook her head. “I don’t think MC life is for me, Simone. I’m too boring for it, I guess.”

I chuckled. “You are far from boring my friend, and even if you don’t want to hear this, you’re more cut out for this life than you think.”

Her hazel eyes filled with skepticism.

I widened my eyes. “Who wanted Jordan to pay for his stunt last December? Who wanted to befriend Tennyson to get the full scoop? That’s so diabolical, it isn’t funny.”

After a moment she gave a nod. “Yeah, and that’s the kind of thing that men like Rafferty can’t handle. The idea of sitting back and keeping my mouth shut won’t fly with me. If I can help someone, I’m gonna do that… and Rafferty especially hates when I help him.”

This was news to me and it was all I could do to keep my eyes from lighting up.

“How did you help him?”

“It was stupid and it was just before graduation, but Rafferty’s reaction really let me know where he stood.”

Felicity started to fuss and I let Alexandra hand her over to me.

“The two of you are older now, Lex. You’ve both changed even if you don’t see it, and I know you’ve both matured since then.”

She shrugged. “You’re right. It doesn’t matter though, since I’ve been dating Porter for the last four months.”

That name made me cringe every time I heard it, but I managed to hide it from her while I situated Felicity to breastfeed.

Once Felicity was latched, I asked, “Is it getting serious?”