Page 81 of Beautiful Sinners

“Manage what? The guys?”

As if she can’t sit still for more than a minute, she’s up again and back within seconds holding a hairbrush and elastic hair bands.

“How do you handle the arguments? Ouch!” I yelp when the brush gets caught in a nasty tangle.

“Sorry. You have a shit-ton of hair. I love the color. As for arguments, we have them all the time. No way to avoid them when you have five people who are all stubborn as hell.” She gathers my hair on top of my head and secures the ponytail with a hair band.

“What do you do when what you want conflicts with what they want?”

She does some twirly thing with my tresses and uses another band to hold them in place, then lies on her stomach and props herself up on her forearms.

“Depends on how badly I want it.”

A bit disappointed that she didn’t shower me with sage wisdom, I accordion through the pile of clothes and select the blue shirt and a pair of jeans. Andie’s clothes fit me last night, so these should as well. I take them with me inside the closet and change.

“Grab whatever shoes you want from the shoe rack.”

As soon as she offers, I spy a pair of slip-on black Skechers and slide my feet into them. Fully dressed, I come out with my dirty clothes bundled under my arm.

“I don’t like fighting with them. We lost so much time together, and I don’t want to waste what time we do have left arguing.”

Andie props her chin on her closed fist, her gaze shrewd and introspective. “If it’s important to you, then they’ll support you, regardless of whether they agree with you or not. That’s what loving someone entails.”

“What I want could be dangerous,” I tell her.

The grin that takes over her heart-shaped face is dazzling. “Strong women never back down from danger. We thrive on it. We also back each other up. You need me, I’m there.”

It hits me as she says it. The sincerity that can’t be faked. She really means it.

“I’ve been known to kick some major ass when I need to,” she adds.

I don’t doubt it. I see her darkness, probably because she doesn’t bother to hide it. Andie is just as dangerous as the men she’s married to.

“Does having my back include helping me catch a plane back to Darlington?”

There’s something I need to do without any interference from the guys. They’re going to be livid with me.

Jesus, Synthia, you really are out of your mind.

CHAPTER 28

Hendrix tries to pull me away from the door after another round of futile pounding and shouted threats.

“She’s been gone for almost two goddamn hours!”

I kick the shit out of the door because I’m pissed that she left us here, trapped like caged animals. Fucking mafia and their stupid paranoia, locked doors, and biometric security systems. If Con had the right equipment, he’d be able to bypass their system.

“She’ll be back once she calms down.”

I’m far from calm. Aoife sent my sister away without discussing it with me. We’ve been in Texas for little more than a day, for fuck’s sake. It makes no sense.

“You shouldn’t have gone off on her like that,” Con not-so-helpfully says.

He’s been going through the burner phones we were given, checking each one out, looking for tracking software or anything else that may have been installed.

“Fuck you,” I reply, even though he’s right.

I’m not proud of what I said in the heat of the moment. Aoife didn’t deserve having the reminder of what happened to her mother thrown in her face like that.

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