Page 35 of Bristol

The crowd settles from their applauding and everyone mingles back into whatever they were doing before Reaper stopped the party.

I approach with Bristol by my side to congratulate Kendra.

“Congratulations, babe!” I say, pulling her into a hug.

“Thank you! I should have known he’d do something so extravagant,” she fusses, but the beaming smile on her face says she loves every minute of it.

“Let me see that thing!” Loretta says, reaching for Kendra’s hand. Bristol, Lacey, and Loretta admire the lavish black diamond on her ring finger.

“Oh my god,” Lacey gasps, lifting Kendra’s hand and turning it sideways, investigating it from every angle.

“This is the prettiest ring I’ve ever seen,” Bristol hums in approval.

Kendra soaks up the attention while Reaper and I sneak away to let the women gush over the ring and proposal.

“So, about last night…” Reaper starts.

“Yeah?”

“You hear anything else after we got done?”

“Nah, nothing yet. There were leads about Tennessee last month but that was a dead end, likely sent from Clyde to try and throw us off the trail.”

“He won’t be sending out any more information anytime soon, good or bad.”

“It’s kind of difficult to type without fingers, Reap.”

He shrugs. “Fucker had it coming. I don’t even know Bristol yet, but she could’ve been any one of our ol’ladies going through some shit like that. There’s more to this shit than just a kidnapping. This is a whole underground ring of illegal and fucked up porn trading. Who knows what else these fuckers are trading on there?”

“I don’t want to know. I’m going to get it to Slider and see what he can find out. Maybe he can get a trace on other people that have been sharing their videos and we can try and locate that sick fuck through them.”

“He’s going to fuck up, Bash. And when he does, it’s going to be too late for him. He won’t know what hit him.”

A hand claps onto Reaper’s shoulder and he quickly plasters a welcoming smile on his face before he turns around to greet them, someone from his other life I presume. The man leads with congratulations and I exit quietly from the conversation to locate an empty table on the edge of the pavilion to sit at.

Bristol is sipping on another glass of wine and I think back to the night Joey got her hammered. She was so free and happy that night. So much has happened and I hope that she remains that free and happy girl. I want to do anything I possibly can to keep her that way.

She sees me watching her and turns slightly, angling herself where I have the perfect side view of her cleavage. Brat. She’s doing what she promised.

I take a sip of the wine in my glass then set it on the table in front of me. I’m so zoned in on Bristol that I don’t notice a woman approaching until she takes a seat next to me.

“I would ask why you haven’t been texting me back, but by the way you’ve been ogling Green Dress over there, I think I’ve got my answer,” Lilah purrs, unamused. Her olive skin compliments the satin red dress she’s wearing perfectly, and her long black hair is pulled back into two braids. She’s a pretty girl, beautiful even, by society’s standards.

“I figured you’d get the hint,” I shrug, crossing my arms and leaning back into the metal chair.

“Thought you didn’t do relationships?” she asks, mimicking my stance and crossing her own arms.

“I told you from jump street that we were not ever going to be anything.”

“No, you said that you don’t do commitment and relationships,” she says, leaning her hands on the table.

I level her with a glare.

“Watch. Your. Fucking. Tone.”

She huffs and sits back into the chair.

“Whatever, Sebastian. She isn’t even anything special.” Lilah rolls her eyes exaggeratedly.

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