I’m just relieved as fuck that it isn’t actually mine.

Nah, the only girl I want to have a baby with is Bernadette. I figure she’ll have to have one for each of us, so we’ll have like, five kids. Five kids, five dads, one mom. Most of the guys on our crew don’t understand this arrangement. They’d rather they were the one with five women on the side. The thing is, when you find the right woman, you know it. And when that woman is the same person your brothers love, it all falls together.

Family.

We’re just one, big, fucked-up family.

It’s how I like it, how I always want it to be.

Brittany flips her hair at me as she saunters off, heading for the hideous custom pink BMW that daddy bought her. At the last minute, she spins around and runs back to me, throwing her arms around my neck and pressing her lips against mine.

There’s an immediate reaction in me, one of recoil and violent discomfort, but I manage to keep it together, carefully extracting her and pushing her back a step. I hate being touched without my permission. Maybe that’s why I became such a whore? Because then I could just keep giving permission, and I never had to worry that someone was taking something I didn’t want to give.

“Don’t get so excited so quick,” I push Brittany back a step and level a look on her frowning face. Shit, shit, shit. Even now, even with as much as I hate her and as much as I don’t want to be touched, I feel sorry for her. “I haven’t decided if we’re getting back together or not.” Jesus, that lie hurt my mouth on the way out.

“Because of that girl, Bernadette Blackbird,” Brittany spits, and I shrug my shoulders loosely. “Her stepdad was the GMP’s pet cop, you know that, right?” She looks up at me as I raise both brows. Fuck. Actually, I did not know that. I mean, we suspected it, but we didn’t know.

Guess we do now.

I wonder what other information Brittany Burr might be able to feed us?

“I did,” I reply carefully, sweeping some of Brittany’s hair back from her face and wishing I didn’t have to pretend like that. The only girl I want to touch is the little spitfire who’s managed to hold my attention for a decade. Blackbird. “Now, run on home and chatter to all your little friends about me. Go on, I know that’s what you do.”

Brittany smiles at me in a way that I think is supposed to be seductive. I return the look, keeping my mind focused on Bernadette so it’ll come across properly.

As soon as Brittany leaves, I dial up Bernie’s number; I’ve thought of an adjustment to our plan.

“Hey baby,” Bernie purrs, and I can just imagine her rolling her eyes at her own words. I grin in response. “Everything going okay?”

“New plan,” I say, licking my lips as I watch Brittany get into her car and pull out of the parking lot. “Tell Callum not to let her see his face, and then get some of the guys to deal with Brittany instead. If we play this right, we can convince her she’s in the hands of the GMP.”

There’s a pause as Bernie relays the information to Vic.

I know why he didn’t want to do this to begin with: Brittany needs to know she’s being punished by Havoc. The whole city needs to know that.

But he’s also not stupid enough to overlook her use as a pawn.

“Why?” Vic’s voice is dark as he takes over the phone call, and I exhale, swinging the keys to the Firebird around my finger.

“Brittany just dropped a bit of juicy intel into my lap. If we play her right, I have a feeling there’s a whole fuckload more of it. You should’ve seen the way she melted when I lied to her about the DNA results; she’s too easy to manipulate.”

I stay on the phone as I make my way over to the car, waiting as Victor contemplates what I’ve just proposed. If he agrees, he’ll text Callum, and we’ll move forward with the new plan. As of right now, Brittany should be pulling up to the stoplight at the corner of Fuller and Parrish. Cal should be rising up from the backseat like a specter, hands reaching for her neck … He’ll knock Brittany out, take over control of the vehicle, and that’s that.

“Okay,” Vic finally agrees. “But if this backfires on us, it’s your ass.” He pauses a minute for dramatic effect—typical Channing behavior—and then hands the phone back to Bernadette. As soon as I get home, I’m going to beg her to put some tall heels on for me again, so I can fuck away the nightmare of imagining what’s happening to Brittany.

I pause next to the Firebird and unlock it as Bernie’s voice pours through the line like black silk.

Even if I don’t always know who I am and what I want, I do know one thing: cars are in my fucking blood.

Cars … and Bernadette Blackbird.

Bernadette Blackbird

“Pack your shit,” Vic says as I crack my eyes open and find him sitting on the edge of the bed. Hael is still passed out naked beside me, sunlight streaming across his bare ass. Fuck, you could bounce a quarter off that. I bite my lip as I sit up with a groan, rubbing at my forehead.

“Pack for where?” I ask, and Victor gives me a tight smile.

“The snow,” he says, and then he stands up, giving Hael’s bare ass a dark look.

“Victor,” I start, pushing the blankets aside and rubbing at the soreness in my side. The stitches might be out, but I’ve still got some healing left to do. As least I’ve stopped seeing Kali’s ghost—for the time being anyway. “Why the fuck are you talking about snow?” I ask, leaning over to slap Hael on the ass. I just can’t resist an ass that fine, not even this early in the morning. He snorts at me, but he doesn’t move from his prone position in the center of the bed.

Vic leans his big body against the doorjamb, the edge of his beautifully vindictive mouth curving up in the corner. I can vaguely hear Heather, Kara, and Ashley playing outside the closed sliding glass doors. The curtains are mostly drawn but every now and again, their shadows break apart the sunlight that’s peeping in.

“We’re going on the Oak Valley skiing retreat,” Victor tells me, and I laugh. In fact, I start laughing and then I just can’t seem to stop, doubling over and groaning as the healing skin on my side pulls. Still, I laugh for so hard and so long that I’ve got tears.

“Come again?” I ask, looking up at Vic as I dab away wetness from the corners of my eyes with the edge of the sheet. “Did you just say we were going on a skiing retreat?” The words feel funny coming out of my mouth, like they’re in a foreign language or something. “With Oak Valley Preparatory Academy?” I say the whole name of the school, just so the pretentious nature of the situation isn’t lost on anyone.

“The fuck?” Hael asks, turning his head to look at me and Vic. “Are you drunk or something?”

“Trinity invited me,” Victor replies smoothly, his mouth twisting into a bemused smile. I pretend like I don’t care, curling my fingers against the mattress, scraping claws to help me fight the intense primal flicker of my baser urges. Jealousy. Vic glances at me with his obsidian eyes, looking years older than eighteen, millennia wiser. “I want to see if I can’t figure out where she and Ophelia connect, why my mother would shove that girl in my face.” His smile dips slightly as he runs a hand up and down the inked length of his arm. A lion grins back at me, its sharp-toothed maw wide as it begins to roar. “James Barrasso is going on the trip, too, by the way—despite the fact that he doesn’t attend Oak Valley either. It’s just one big web here in Springfield.” Victor rolls his eyes and then pushes up off the door, pausing to point at me and Hael with a tattooed finger. “Pack. Snow. Now. We leave in twenty minutes.”

“Twenty?!” I choke out, scrambling from the bed as Hael wraps his arm around my waist and yanks me right back. He pins my mostly naked body under his very naked one. “You heard the boss, Hael.” But my chastisement does nothing to steal the grin from his lips.

“I can be done in five,” he purrs, licking the side of my face. But then his expression turns real serious, real fast. Maybe he’s thinking about Brittany? Wouldn’t surprise me. He’s been dealing with her calls all week, her crying, frantic, terrified phone calls. She’s back at home, obviously, but all is not right in her world. Now that she thinks Hael is on her side again, he has to field those calls while a snake of envy wraps itself around my throat. “But you’re right. I need time to pack some sex toys. We can continue this later.” His honey-almond eyes sparkle as he pushes up and away from me, just in time for Aaron to move into the room, his medical boot banging against the doorjamb.

“I want to talk to you about the girls,” he says, and I nod, leaving Hael to stand in the corner, naked and contemplating the nightstand drawer full of sex paraphernalia. I leave him where he is and find my hands on the sides of my lover’s face. Aaron leans into the touch, lifting his left hand up to take mine. Of all the boys, he looks the most like a wicked angel. His wavy chestnut hair is beyond adorable, but his muscles are hard, his tattoos a vibrant journey from childhood to … whatever this is. Hell, maybe, interspersed with bouts of heaven.

“I assume we have babysitting plans already in place?” I ask, and Aaron gives me a dark look.

“Not quite,” he says, pulling my hand down from his face and weaving our tattooed fingers together. I love that he gave me my HAVOC tattoo. Whenever I look at it, no matter where I am or what I’m doing, I’ll think of Aaron. “Victor wants to take the girls to Oak River today.”

I just stare back at him without blinking for a minute.

Nobody can protect Heather better than I can. Nobody. The thought comes to me unbidden. It feels true though. Thus far, it has been true. I don’t want to be separated from my little sister. Not now, not until she’s old enough to move out and start a life of her own. That’s the whole point of this, isn’t it? For us to be together.

No, the whole point of this is to keep her safe—regardless of how it makes you feel.