Page 31 of Covert Chaos

"Maybe it's time to start showing the world who you really are. Then your people will find you, and believe in you until the end of time," Hattie said.

Lucy threw up her arms. "Like us!"

Hattie nodded. "Exactly like us, Mia."

My throat tightened. These two incredible women made me feel more loved than any moment with my mom ever had. They saw me for who I was, and not only embraced it, but encouraged it with all their hearts.

"It's about damned time you stopped being boring," Beau shouted from the shore, where he was now tying up the boat. "Make your mother proud, Mia! Be a criminal and own it!"

I laughed. "I'm not going to be a criminal, but I do love the fun we have."

"Right?" Hattie grinned. "And if you have to be a wee little bit criminal in order to make the world a better place, then…" She shrugged. "You'd be very ungrateful if you didn't embrace all the gifts you have, wouldn't you, my favorite little pickpocket?"

I raised my brows. "Is that how you're positioning it? That I'm ungrateful if I don't chase down murderers?"

Hattie laughed, amusement dancing in her eyes. "Mia, you're so easy to manipulate. You can't say no to that delicious moral code of yours. Just own it."

I sighed.

Lucy grinned. "Are you officially unretired?"

Hattie snorted. "She was retired for about thirty seconds."

"Unretire," Beau shouted, as he sloshed back toward the boat. "You and that monster cat of yours are my new muses. I can't write without you!"

King Tut meowed, and then launched himself at me. I caught him and hugged him to my chest, smiling as he purred. Even my cat craved adventure. "All right," I said. "I do love you guys too much to let you handle murderers on your own. You'd both be dead or in prison within the hour."

"Yay!" Lucy clapped her hands and hugged me. "The trio of trouble is back!"

I looked at Hattie's smug grin, and I knew what she was thinking.

The trio of trouble wasn't back…because we'd never left.

I was just going to have to learn to live with that, and the truth of who I was. Graffiti and all.

Because it was worth it. For love. For laughter. And for the best friends I'd ever had.

Seventeen

We finally got our girls time on my deck around dawn, just in time for the sunrise.

We had Hattie's delicious coffee and blueberry muffins instead of margaritas, but it was still wonderful.

The three of us sat side by side with our bare feet up on my railing, watching the gorgeous orange and pink fill the sky.

Devlin, the sheriff, and the rest of the law enforcement crew had finally left, leaving us alone so we could process all that had happened.

"You think Devlin is going to arrest us?" Lucy asked. "We did drive a body around, and fail to report it."

"Nah," Hattie said. "He has enough to deal with right now. He got his people, so it's good."

"Thanks to us," Lucy said.

"Damn straight, girl," Hattie tapped her coffee mug against Lucy's. "We're such a great addition to this town."

"We are!"

Rachel. Emmeline. Bert.

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