Page 129 of Sinister Legacy
I shrug. “My fingerprints were in Keira’s bedroom.”
“That’s it?” Kara asks around a mouthful of food. The words come out muffled.
“That’s it.”
“It makes no sense,” Ava speaks up. “Of course your fingerprints are in her bedroom, you f…”
“Fuck,” Keira finishes for her when she trails off, lowering the food menu. To me, she says, “What are you having?”
I point at something random, and Keira scrunches up her nose in an entirely adorable way.
“Triple spicy burger? Really?”
“I like a challenge.” The hidden meaning behind my words is not lost on her as the tips of her ears heat.
“Bork.” Hayley pretends to puke. “That was cheesy, King.”
The waitress comes over to our table to take our orders.
Hayley’s eyes soften as soon as she’s gone again, and she says to Keira, “No news about Liam yet?”
Warm fingers slide over my thigh beneath the table and curl around my knee, tracing the skin beneath the shredded denim. “Not yet.”
“It must be so difficult for you… with all the rumors flying around.”
I narrow my eyes on Hayley, but she ignores me as she takes another long sip of her banana milkshake.
“The rumors are brutal,” Keira agrees, meeting her gaze. “But I’m used to it… I’ll never escape my surname, after all.”
“Unless you get married,” Kara jests, winking at me.
“Even if I change my surname, people will still know who my father is. It’s a legacy I can’t escape.”
Sliding my fingers beneath her hair, I gently massage her slender neck, which is slightly damp with sweat beneath the big wool collar. The waitress arrives with our food, and Keira’s hand leaves my knee. I instantly miss her heat, teasing fingers, and the slightly sharp scratch of her nails.
Madison talks to her while I take a bite of my burger. It’s fucking spicy, I’ll admit as much.
“You look like you’re struggling,” Ava says with a smirk, dipping a nacho in the red salsa.
I quickly shake my head, fighting the urge to fan my mouth. “This is nothing.”
Keira sniggers, gazing up at me with her baby-blue eyes.
We talk about everything and nothing for the next half an hour, and for a while, it almost feels normal, like our group isn’t missing three people.
“Will you be going to your stepdad’s funeral?” Hayley asks carefully.
Fucking smooth thing to ask while we’re eating.
Keira picks at her food for a long moment before lifting one shoulder and looking up at Hayley. “I doubt my mom will want me there. She threw me out.”
“Threw you out? Why?”
“Stop being nosy,” I say, stealing her milkshake and taking a sip.
Hayley snatches it back, scowling at me as she makes a show of drinking the last of it.
“It’s Kit and Jasper’s funerals soon too,” Kara says, dipping a fry in the ketchup on her plate, but she doesn’t take a bite. “I lie awake at night, thinking about them in a morgue somewhere.”
