Page 68 of Cardinal

Humming in thought, I entertained both ideas for a hot minute. I mean, stay comfortable in bed or shower with my sexy man? How much did I want to see and touch his perfect ass? Seriously, this man had an ass to die for, and I could never get enough of touching it, especially whenever he wore his sweatpants or jeans around me. Lord, give me strength to resist the booty because I definitely had none of my own to call upon.

Letting out a frustrated groan, I pulled the sheets over my head and sank down into the bed. "I'll be in in a bit," I grumbled from under the sheets.

The need for the booty won.

"You really think he's going to like it?" My nervous excitement trembled my words as I gawked at the piece of jewelry with a wide smile.

Giggling, Evie threw her arms around my shoulders and hugged me tightly with a little shake. "Girl, he is going to be over the moon. I mean, it's a serious commitment." Reaching out, she shut the black box and took it from me, shoving it into my bag so it was out of sight, out of mind.

Toning her excitement down, "Come on, let's get some lunch before we hit the lingerie and accessory stores." She suggested with a calming smile, tugging my hand toward the escalators.

A round trip around the food court later, and we finally sat down to enjoy the food we bought. "Hey, can I ask you something?" I asked tentatively after we had a few bites of our food.

Setting her drink down, she zoned all her attention on me. "Yeah, shoot." At least her friendly smile calmed my nerves a bit.

"I've been thinking about something and was wondering if you wanted to help since you have personal experience, and you can totally disagree if it seems too much for you, but I kinda want to do something about the trafficking problem here in New York." It was a farfetched idea and definitely one that was not flushed out, but I wanted to see what Evie thought before pitching it to Luciano to see if he would help me any.

Leaning forward onto the table, Evie completely engrossed herself with interest in whatever whacked-up idea I had cooking in my head. "What did you have in mind?"

"I want to bait people and shut down networks." I flat-out told her about the grand idea before going into details. "I came across a lot of nasty things when I was digging through some of the people I saw at the fight, and a lot of them are involved in trafficking networks that I can backtrace to the source. But I also want to bait people who aren't involved in the ones I have found and find new ones to track down. I know I can't find and shut all of them down and save everyone, but I want to do as much damage as I can and create a safe space for those saved so they can get back on their feet again."

The fact there were people out there who had been in my situation and Evie's without a fighting chance upset me greatly. We had been fortunate enough to be saved from it all, but it was also sheer luck. If I hadn't pushed myself to break out of the lounge that night, or if Luciano didn't have the meeting he did, then I might be on the streets or back in the hell hole, broken.

Some people are fortunate enough to have someone looking for them and making sure they didn't go unnoticed, but there were way too many who had no one out there or shitty people who put them in that situation in the first place. There were people who wanted to escape but couldn't because they had nowhere to go, so it came down to which evil was less.

"I know it is a lot and crazy, and I have no idea where I would even start. But I mean, you could easily spread awareness about whatever program I start up if I do, and you know how to talk to the predators and know how to spot one. So, I was hoping that we could put together like a fake profile for you to bait people." Okay, saying it out loud made it sound more stupid and insane.

Especially when Evie remained silent and stared at me pensively, I wanted to take it all back and pretend nothing happened. "That is a big idea, and it's definitely going to take some time to build fully, but I am totally down for helping ya." The eager grin on her face had me releasing a held breath. "We should talk to the boys about it, though. They'll definitely have more ideas on how to get things off the ground. Also, we need their wallets."

"Oh please, I can have all their banks in our names with a few keystrokes." I joked with a snicker, making Evie laugh a little.

She picked a fry up and threw it at me as her laughter died down. "I still can't believe you did that to Ares, granted the jerk deserved it." Resetting herself with a deep breath, she looked at me with serious determination. "I'll talk to Aidan about it later when things aren't so hectic with Syndicate business."

"Good idea." They probably didn't need more shoved onto their overflowing plates.

Stressing Luciano with resetting his phone settings or fucking with his car's system was harmless fun, and the stress never lingered. I mean, was it fun to have him blow off some steam by spanking me for being a little shit? Eh, debatable, but I wasn't going to complain about it. As long as I took some of the edge off him, that was all that mattered to me.

Nudging my food tray closer, Evie encouraged me with a smile. "Come on, we still have a lot of money to blow through." Said the picky, frugal gal.

We were probably the worst shoppers ever because we were picky and money-conserving. Yeah, our men could handle our shopping sprees with plenty to spare, but we also just weren't ones to buy things in excess.

Actually, I take that back. Maybe we were just bad clothes shoppers because we were more than content with the ones in our closet—we also cycle between the same outfits every week despite having enough for an outfit a day for a whole year. Evie had an obsession with purses and bags, and she would gladly swipe her cards away. For me, any piece of tech was fair game. Evie had a room—yes, a whole ass room—filled with shelves of purses, like it looked like a damn store in that room. I had an electronics room filled with game systems, TVs, and nearly a whole side dedicated to various computer systems and screens.

"So, why are we going to the lingerie store again?" I definitely didn't need any, and Evie already bought a shit ton two weeks ago.

"Because Aidan ruined a bunch." Evie deadpanned with a grumble under her breath, cussing out her man in Vietnamese.

What was supposed to be a smooth trip took a turn for the worst when we turned the corner, and the wicked witch ran into us. "I'm disappointed I wasn't invited to the wedding, dear Juliet. After all, you and Luciano wouldn't have met if it weren't for me." Carol, as I came to learn Lady Heral's legal name, cooed in a sickly sweet voice filled with venom.

Evie glared at the older hag as she pulled my arm to try and step around her. "Go away, Carol. We have no business with you."

The smart thing to do would be to leave, but I found myself digging my feet into the ground as her words took root in my weak mind. Wrenching my arm from Evie, who protested and grabbed onto me again, I ignored her while I glared at Carol. "What is your senile brain prattling on about?" It was probably nothing, and I shouldn't engage to fuel whatever vendetta she had going on.

The curve of her snakish lips turned devilish, making me regret pushing her. "Your marriage to Luciano, the wedding? Unless you two haven't had the wedding ceremony but signed papers. I mean, why else would you have taken his last name already? Although, I have to say, pretty gutsy of you to take his last name and have it announced at graduation like that." I didn't like how uppity and prying she sounded, as if she knew something I didn't and was toying around with me.

Tension filled my face as my features twisted downward with a cautious tilt of my head. I wasn't even going to linger on the fact she said something about my graduation because I was too hung up on the other parts. "I took his last name because I don't want to be tied to my family, and it has nothing to do with this marriage you are talking about. You are sounding like a crazy hag with that shit, you know that?"

Her haughty laugh made my jaw tighten up into a scowl. Then, just as her laugh started, it stopped with a feigned look of pity, "Oh, you don't know? He hasn't told you? Well, if you did, then you wouldn't be calling me the crazy one."

---