Page 92 of Pay the Price

I could be stubborn, but I wasn’t stupid.

I looked up as the door to Chasen’s opened, then waved as Cassie started toward the back of the restaurant. Chasen’s was filling up with the summer lunch crowd, but I felt insulated from the other patrons thanks to my location at the back and the high backs of the booths.

“Hey,” Cassie said, sliding into the seat across from me.

I smiled. “Hey! It’s so weird to see you somewhere other than the coffee shop.”

I stopped in before work for coffee almost every day, which meant I saw Cassie at least two days a week, but the coffee shop was usually busy, and I was always in a hurry to get to work. It had been a while since we’d actually spent time together.

“I know.” Her copper hair shone from a fresh blowout and her makeup was on point. She looked like a different person from the girl who wore a Cassie’s Cuppa apron with no makeup and her hair in a messy bun. “It’s been forever.”

I made a face because I knew I’d been a bad friend since I’d moved in with the Beasts. It wasn’t just the fucking,which admittedly occupied way more of my mental energy than it should have. My whole life had changed, revelation after revelation hitting me like a long series of giant waves. I’d barely had time to catch my breath before the next one hit. “I know. I’m sorry. It’s been… a lot.”

The server, a silver-haired girl I recognized from high school named Brooke, came to take our order (we knew Chasen’s menu like the backs of our hands and always got our usuals even though we sometimes looked at the menu like we were actually going to get something different) and we spent the rest of the meal catching up.

Cassie told me she’d been crunching numbers to see if she could afford to hire a third person at the coffee shop, then filled me in on Sarai, who was dating a new guy — secretly, since he wasn’t Indian and her parents wouldn’t approve.

I told her about Cantwell, glossing over my problems with Gray by telling her he’d gotten handsy at a work event (why did we do that? why did we downplay it, even to friends, when guys tried to assault us?) and that I’d seen him flirting with Ruth. Then I told her about finding Ruth in bed with a Blade.

I’d been hesitant to do it — I didn’t want to violate Ruth’s privacy or set the gossip mill running — but I hadn’t told anyone, not even the Beasts, and without my mom around I really needed someone to talk to about Ruth. Plus I knew I could count on Cassie not to gossip about my little sister.

I waited until we’d both ordered after-dinner coffee (which Cassie pronounced mediocre and overpriced) to bring up my reason for asking Cassie to dinner.

“So, I have a favor to ask you.”

“Anything,” she said, taking a sip of the coffee and grimacing. “You know that.”

“It has to stay quiet. You know how Blackwell is.”

She rolled her eyes. “Trust me, I know. That hot guy from Blackwell Auto gave me a ride home when they needed to keep my car overnight and by morning everyone had us married with three kids and a mortgage.”

I laughed. “Sounds about right.”

“So? What is it? What’s going on?”

I drew in a breath. “I need you to ask Bram about something.”

She furrowed her brow. “Bram?”

I didn’t blame her for being confused. Bram was like a specter in Blackwell Falls: everyone knew he ran things but no one wanted to talk about him.

I had vague memories of him from when I was a kid hanging out at Cassie’s house (he was a lot older, but even then, he’d moved through the rooms like a shadow, barely speaking), but I’d only seen him in passing as an adult. Locals said his name the way you talked about the boogeyman: under their breath, afraid they’d conjure him out of thin air.

I nodded. “I know it’s a big ask, but he’s been around Blackwell longer than we have. Plus, he has connections everywhere, and… well, I need someone with connections.”

“You’re kind of freaking me out here,” Cassie said.

“Sorry. It’s not a big deal. It’s probably nothing. But… can you ask Bram if he knows anything about my mom hanging out with the Blades? And if he doesn’t, if he can ask around and find out?”

Cassie blinked. “Your mom and theBlades?”

“I know it sounds wild, but I was at this Fourth of July thing at the compound, and one of the guys mentioned my mom. He said she’d been around all the time before I was born, that she’d been tight with Mac.”

Cassie’s eyes widened. “With Mac?”

I was kind of relieved to know I wasn’t the only one who did the repeating-words thing when they were confused. “That’s what he said.”

“Wow…” She took a drink of her coffee. “I didnothave that on my bingo card. Now I know why you didn’t want to invite Sarai to dinner.”

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