Page 110 of Vicious Sentiments

I feel so whole.

The bracelet Marney gave me glints in the sunlight as I run my hand up and down the piano. I honestly don’t know which means more to me. It’s not even about the probably very expensive bracelet, it’s about what it means.

A sister.

A family.

A confidant.

Of all the things I ever wished for—no more pain, no more suffering—I never thought I would ever get someone like Marney. I also never thought I would meet a man like Julian.

I mean, a piano? It’s not even about the piano itself, though I do cherish it, but it’s about that he cares enough about me to even think of getting me a piano.

And Cape? All the effort he’s put into helping me learn to protect myself is enough, not even considering the motorcycle. God, how amI going to learn to ride a motorcycle?

A click echoes through the house, followed by a huff.

“Jules?!” Margo’s voice finds me all the way in the living room from the back.

“Jules?!” She yells again, sounding out of breath.

In a panic, my eyes dart around the room, looking for clothes, but of course, there are none, and I grip the sheet tighter around me and stand.

Fuck. Fuck. My hair is mused and I know I smell like sex. I turned eighteen but I don’t want Margo to see me like this.

“You don’t answer your damn phone!” She rounds the corner with wild eyes, her own hair mused and sloppy with sleep.

“Oh.” She blinks at me. “Oh, thank god.” Relief flows through her face as she takes me in. “Are the boys here?” She quickly looks away and starts for the stairs, not batting an eye at my toga.

“Um…” I scurry after her, hoping to all hell that they aren’t still sprawled out in bed with their floppy privates on display. If she sees both of them in the same bed she will surely put two and two together.

“Jules!” she hollers again and pulls herself up the rail, two steps at a time.

When we make it to the top, a groggy Julian, buck naked, is coming to meet us.

“Ma? What the fuck?”

“Oh, thank god,” she pants and braces herself on her knees. “I thought something—”

“Jesus.” Cape appears behind Julian, just as naked, and I cringe. He runs a hand through his hair, and neither of them make a move to cover themselves up.

“Does she always wake you up in the morning? You still need mom to wake you up?”

Julian rolls his eyes and then takes a real look at Margo and hisbrows draw together. “What’s going on?”

She stands upright. “What’s going on is you don’t answer your phone and we’ve been hit. Denny called. The warehouse is gone. Up in smokes. Denny says the Tortellis. Did you fuck with the Tortellis?”

“What? No. Why would they—”

“Caperson?”

“No, Ma. Jesus.”

She shakes her head and snaps, “Get dressed. Five minutes.”

* * *

Julian cinches a pair of his joggers around my waist and pulls a clean white shirt over my head before dressing himself in a similar outfit. Cape pulls back on the clothes he wore last night to the club, and then they have me huffing it down the beach.

---