Page 33 of Hard Luck (Blackstone House)

Firstly, all politicians were assholes. Secondly, my mom got sick. And thirdly, the Porsche showed up on my doorstep. After I buried my mother, I decided to go find my dad.

Which was how I’d ended up in northern Virginia.

That was where my parents had met, a bonding experience over a stray pit bull and a traffic accident. The car that hit the dog drove off, my mom dragged it out of the road and tried to flag down help, and my dad drove them both to the veterinarian. After that, he started coming into the diner where she worked. His tips got bigger and bigger until eventually, he asked her whether she’d like to have dinner somewhere she didn’t have to serve it.

In the end, three-legged Ogie had stayed with us longer than Dad did. I’d sobbed into the mutt’s fur as the veterinarian helped him to slip away two days after my eighth birthday, and that was the last time I’d cried in front of anyone. Sometimes, I wondered if there was something wrong with me. My mom was such a warm-hearted person, but most people described me as cold, short for “cold-hearted bitch.”

More than once, I’d wondered whether I took after my dad.

I thought it was quite possible, given what I’d learned over the past decade.

My own investigations in Virginia had yielded little, and it didn’t help that my mom’s memories weren’t always accurate. Even after Dad disappeared, she’d never stopped loving him, not completely. For the most part, she’d been sad rather than bitter.

And she’d also been confused.

Jeremy Pope was gone, but the money kept coming. Two thousand bucks every month, plus an extra thousand on my birthday. And as I got older, I didn’t understand it either. If Dad cared enough to pay child support, why didn’t he come to visit? Although my parents’ relationship had been short lived, it was built on a foundation of love, at least from my mom’s point of view.

It was only after I met Echo that I began to get answers.

Someanswers.

I still had a hundred questions.

Tulsa rolled her eyes. “Sure, we’ll just find Jimmy. It would help if we had a surname. Do we have any of those chocolate cookies left?”

“Storm ate the last cookie for breakfast, and I’ve hired someone to assist on the ground.”

“Who?”

“Arizona Danner.”

“Hot surfer dude’s girlfriend?”

“The heat level is debatable, but yes.”

“Are you blind?”

“Two years of living with Zach Torres made me immune to his looks.”

He left random socks everywhere, drooled on the couch in his sleep, and nearly always forgot to replace the toilet roll. Good hair wasn’t so attractive when it was blocking the drain.

Tulsa snorted. “You’re telling me you never got tempted?”

“Not even once.”

Seven men and three women had shared Blackstone House. Levi used to hook up with Ruby—so had Dawson a time or two—and nobody touched Echo, which left me with five possibilities for no-strings sex. Brax was the best of them, or at least, he had been until he met his dragon of an ex-wife. Justin was too nice, Gray was a control freak, and Nolan was out of bounds because Echo had a crush on him, even if she’d never admit it. And yes, the crush was still there, lurking in the background. She kept tabs on the rest of our former housemates, and by “kept tabs,” I mean she e-stalked them using methods that varied in legality, but she studiously avoided checking on Nolan.

Sin looked as if she didn’t entirely believe me about Zach, but we had a rule. The members of the Choir could lie freely to everyone else, but we never lied to each other.

“So, when are you planning to install the eyes and ears?” she asked.

“Tomorrow morning.”

Cole worked during the day, so I’d have easy access. But that still left tonight. If Cole was the target, would the mysterious Jimmy have gotten another team together by now? Presumably after the last one disappeared, he’d want to go for more competent muscle this time, and mercenaries didn’t grow on trees, not in Las Vegas anyway. Hell, even trees barely grew in Las Vegas. I figured the chances of another attack tonight were slim, but slim wasn’t zero.

“So you’re gonna leave Cole uncovered tonight?” Tulsa asked.

“No.”

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