Page 63 of Things Left Unsaid

I cough. “I mean… ha, ha, ha?”

Lily pats Link’s cheek. “To be fair, you help create the crack den vibe down here, baby.”

“Sugar tits, you wound me.” He slams a hand to his heart. “I’m a man trying to make an honest buck?—”

“Since when is anything we do honest?” Nyx rumbles.

Once upon a time, when I first met Nyx, the now-VP, and Link, the Road Captain of the Satan’s Sinners’ MC, I’d almost crapped my pants, but I’ve gotten used to how terrifying they both are.

Rachel calls it ‘immersive therapy.’

I call it ‘adapt or die.’

“Hi, Nyx!” I chirp. “Everything okay with Giulia and the baby?”

“She’s due any day and she’s making my life hell.” He scrubs a hand over his face. “And Samael thinks it’s funny to piss in the garden since this asshole—” He slaps the back of Link’s head. “—got drunk after a game and used Giulia’s rose bushes as a toilet.”

I cough. “I’m sure it’s a phase.”

He points a finger at Link. “It had better be.”

Link tries and fails to hide his grin. “What’s in Canada that you can’t get here, Suzy?”

“I hate it when you call me that. My name’s ZEE, Link. And there’s my ranch.”

“A ranch?” Link frowns. “Rachel never mentioned a ranch.”

“My family’s owned one for years.”

Lily blinks. “You’re a farmer?”

“No. I’m a rancher.” I crinkle my nose. “Not thatI’veever ranched, but I’m the daughter of one. On my mom’s side. It’s time to go home, I guess. The non-crack den awaits.”

Link snickers. “You’re lucky you’re not a guy. That’s all I’m saying.”

I wink. “I’d best go in and see Rachel. I have some stuff to finalize before I leave.”

“You’re still working for her?” Nyx questions.

“Yep. Just changing my location.”

As we make our farewells, the three of them take off out of Rachel’s front yard and cross the patch of land that leads to the Sinners’ clubhouse.

Yes, I work for Rachel Laker. But she works for an MC and a myriad other consortiums with dubious legal ties.

And no, mygrand-mèrewill never, ever,everlearn that because I already get grief about being lower on the career ladder than a murderer. If she knew I work for actual murderers then?—

“She’s here!” Parker yells from the staircase, rushing down the final steps so fast I thought she was falling, but she lands like a pro gymnast and immediately tugs me into a hug. “I expect daily messages?—”

“I’m going home, not to the other side of the world, Parker.”

“My baby’s growing up.”

“I didn’t even know you were here,” I mumble, squeezing her tightly because I thought she was still in Ohio.

From her position by a coat rack where she’s shoving her daughter into a raincoat, Rachel snorts. “Leave her alone, Parker. She has more sense than you anyway. She’ll be fine.”

Parker pouts. “And she calls herself my friend.”

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