Page 102 of Stay Toxic

No, he wasn’t going to tell him any more about her.

My lips twitched.

“Boss.” Alexi came into the room. “They’re gone.”

He tossed three sets of keys and left, leaving us again just as fast as he’d arrived.

Cayden was up seconds later, catching the keys that Shasha lobbed at him. “Be careful, Cayden.”

Cayden’s eyes went a little dark and scary as he said, “Oh, I will be.”

Everyone was thinking it, I just said it.

—Shasha to Dima

SHASHA

I woke up to the early morning light spilling through the closed, practically sheer curtains.

Oh, and yelling coming from below me.

I groaned and rolled over, searching for the woman that I’d spent the last two days with, only to find that half of the bed empty.

My eyes went to the clock on the wall, and I groaned.

It was well past six.

She had to leave at seven fifteen.

Getting out of bed, I grabbed the pair of gray sweats from the floor and slipped them on before heading downstairs.

I was unsurprised to find my family there.

I was also unsurprised to find Alexi and Dima arguing over what kind of coffee roast was best.

Brecken’s interruption had me smiling despite it being way too fucking early in the morning.

“I’m partial to drip coffee,” she interrupted. “I buy it from the store in those huge jugs. And if I don’t finish it before it gets cold, I just put it on ice and make it an iced coffee.”

“That’s blasphemous.” Dima gasped in horror.

“It’s not that bad,” Brecken defended.

“The coffee in those tubs is so old that it might as well be expired. Once you taste the difference, you’ll change your mind,” Dima countered.

“I do agree with that,” Alexi said.

“Ms. Sweat, can I get a ride to school with you? When Dad takes me, he makes me ride in the back seat, and it’s embarrassing,” Roslyn queried.

I nearly choked.

Alexi made her ride in the back seat because the front seat wasn’t bulletproofed as well as the back.

That was also why he made me ride in the back seat.

“Sure, but I’m leaving in fifteen minutes. I have to help with crowd control in front of the office this morning to make sure that students aren’t loitering,” Brecken said with what sounded like her mouth slightly full.

I rounded the corner to find Alexi, Daniil, Ivan, Bogdan, Artur, Roslyn, Polina, and even fucking Lev at my kitchen table.

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