Page 61 of Start A War (Saint View Psychos)

She glanced around, like I might have been talking to someone else, but when there was clearly no one else around, she stepped forward into the doorway of my mother’s room. “War, right?” Her gaze fell on my mother. “Oh no. Is this your mother?”

I had to look away from the sympathy on her face in order to answer her. “Yeah.”

“She was in the car with your father when…” She bit her fat bottom lip, white teeth pressing into the juicy pink pillow.

I swallowed thickly. “When someone put a bullet in his head. She was in the passenger seat. The car went over the cliff at Saint View Point.”

Bliss covered her mouth with her hand and took another step into the room. “That’s…I don’t even know what to say. Like something out of a movie. That stuff doesn’t happen around here.”

I laughed, but there was no humor in it. “Sweetheart, that shit happens around here all the time. You just don’t hear about it on the six o’clock news, because people from Saint View ain’t all upper-class white assholes in suits and expensive cars. You sure you’re Axel’s sister?”

Pink bloomed on her cheeks. “That sounded really naïve, didn’t it? I swear, I’m not.”

I shook my head. “If that shit hasn’t touched you, then you’re lucky. ‘Cause I wouldn’t wish all of this…” I nodded toward my mom. “On anyone.”

Her blue-eyed gaze rolled over me, and damn if I didn’t like it, even though there was no heat or desire behind it. It dropped to my mother once more and then the empty seat on her side of the bed.

“You want to sit for a minute?” I asked her.

“Oh no. I should…” She paused, thinking her excuses over. “Actually, I have nowhere to be. I kinda just got fired.”

“How does someone kinda get fired?”

She slumped down in the seat opposite me, my mother in her bed between us. “Okay, fine. I actually got fired. Just now, in the hospital corridor. I’m still processing that I don’t have to go wipe snotty noses and change diapers for the rest of the day.”

I made a face. “Sounds like a shit job anyway.”

A hint of a smile pulled up the corner of her mouth. “I didn’t mind it.”

“Puts you in good stead for owning Psychos then. Plenty of piss and vomit to clean there, I’d think. Or worse, cum on the nights they have parties.”

She grimaced. “You aren’t making bar and sex club ownership sound appealing.”

I chuckled. “Good coin though?”

She nodded. “That’s what they tell me.”

“I thought about running a few of my own, once upon a time.”

She seemed interested in that. “But you didn’t?”

I shook my head. “I don’t really have the head for business. Too fucking irresponsible, as my pops would have said.” I blew out a long breath, thinking of how much I’d disappointed the old prick in my thirty years. “I’m more of a partygoer than a host.”

“Do you go to all of Psychos parties then?”

“Most. Axel knew how to put on a good time.”

Her gaze flickered over me. “So you knew my brother well then?”

I shrugged a shoulder. “We weren’t close, like him and Nash. But I knew him, yeah. Saint View ain’t that big. And if someone ain’t trying to kill or steal from you, you probably know them enough to have a beer with.”

“I see. Rebel said she saw him at one of your parties recently.”

I squinted at her. “Rebel’s got a big mouth. What happens in the club ain’t supposed to go a step out of it.”

“Oh my God. Don’t be upset with her. That’s all she told me, I swear.” She nibbled on a nail, her eyes huge and worried.

I sat back, folding my arms across my chest. “Don’t look so worried. Rebel’s a big girl, and she can handle herself.”

---