Caroline laughs falsely. “I never worry about you.”
“Good. I think your girls are looking for you.”
“Hmm. Will you be looking for me later?”
“Ugh.” I groan.
Vin puts his hand on my shoulder and squeezes hard. I shut my trap.
“No.” he says firmly.
The silence coming from behind me is deafening. I look to Nats but she’s carefully pretending she doesn’t hear or see any of this so I try to do the same. It’s hard though with Vin’s Kung Fu grip on my shoulder.
“Are you sure about that?”
Vin doesn’t answer.
“Interesting choice.” Caroline whispers.
I feel fingers thread through my hair, pulling it gently. Vin’s hand tightens on my shoulder. It would probably hurt if I weren’t a statue made of solid stone, frozen in place. Seconds pass and I feel it when Caroline leaves, even before Vin loosens his hold on me. I take a deep breath. Some of the tension leaves me but there’s so much, too much, and I don’t know how long it will be until I come down entirely.
“Vin.” Nats says softly.
“I know.” He puts his free hand on my other shoulder so he’s holding both of them. He rubs them gently like a massage but I don’t even think he knows he’s doing it. “I made a mistake.”
“Sleeping with Satan?” I mumble.
“For starters.” Nats answers. “You should probably take your hands off her. You’ll only make it worse.”
Vin jerks his hands off my shoulders as though I’d burned him. “You’re right. Hell. Sorry, Kitten.”
“It’s alright.” I turn around to look up at him. His face is dark, troubled. “What mistake did you make?”
“I touched you to shut you up but she took it wrong.”
“She thinks you’re the reason she won’t be seeing him tonight. You’re back on her radar.”
“Oh come on.” I moan.
“I said I was sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
“Fat lot of good that will do me when there’s a knife in my neck.”
His troubled expression shifts to angry. “If you’d kept your mouth shut it wouldn’t have happened.”
“That chick makes me ill, okay? I couldn’t keep quiet. You’re lucky I didn’t lose my dinner all over the table. And don’t blame me. If you’d keep it in your pants this wouldn’t be a problem in the first place.”
“She’s right, Vin.”
“Shut up, both of you.” he barks. “I apologized twice already, what do you want?”
“No,” I correct him. “You said you were sorry and you referenced the sorry, but you did not apologize twice. I’ll take extra groveling. Let’s have it.”
“Not gonna happen.” he says dryly, walking away. “You only get one.”
“No points!”
Chapter Fifteen
A week goes by and I have no problems with Caroline. That actually bothers me. She’s sitting back, waiting for something, but for what I’m not sure. If she’s waiting for me to drop my guard, she’s testing the wrong girl. I’ve lived the majority of my life on the outside where everyone and everything is trying to kill me all day every day. My guard doesn’t know how to drop.
Lexy starts avoiding me so I work with some of the other women in the sewing room. They’re alright, but Lexy bothers me. I guess whatever she wanted wasn’t so important or she’d be pushing the issue. I’m left feeling kind of disappointed and very annoyed. I’m locked in here now because of her and she doesn’t even want to play ball anymore.
“Joss.”
I hear my name whispered as I’m leaving the cafeteria to start my work shift. When I glance around, I find Amber in a dark doorway to the kitchen waving me to her.
“Hey, what’s up?” I say, walking over.
“Shh.” she whispers, glancing around. “Come on, hurry. Before someone sees.”
I follow obediently into the kitchen to find the whole crew there tucked in the back corner around a small table. The previous work crew is still buzzing around like their shift isn’t ending.
“Joss.” Steven beams, though I do note he does it quietly. There’s a hushed air in the kitchen that sets me on edge. Even the girl washing dishes is doing it softly.
“Hi.” I reply, my tone guarded.
“We’ve missed you in here.”
“Really?”
He smiles. “Yes, of course. And we have a surprise for you.”
I stop a few steps from them. “I don’t really do well with surprises.”
Everyone chuckles quietly.
“Understood.” Steven replies.
Amber approaches me slowly with a plate clearly presented before her. “He made a pie.”
And there it is. Pumpkin, shiny, creamy, beautiful. I almost bury my face in the plate in her hands like a rabid dog seeing its first meal in days but I’m able to hold it together. I drool a little, that’s all. That’s respectable, right?
“Seriously? A real pie?”
“With contraband sugar and everything.”
“Don’t tell anyone though.” Steven reminds me as I take the plate reverently from Amber’s outstretched hands. “It’s a forbidden pie.”
“Even better.” I dip the fork into the smooth, orange wonder and bring it slowly to my mouth. It dissolves on my tongue almost immediately and my legs go weak. “Oh God.”
“Right?” Crystal says with a smile. “You should sit down.”
I smile in return, taking an offered seat. “I think I have to. Steven, this is amazing.”
“Thank you.”
“What’s the occasion?” I ask, devouring another bite. The Colonies have never been so tempting.
Steven exchanges a look with Amber and Crystal. I instantly go back on alert. But I don’t stop eating the pie. Priorities.
“We have an important question to ask you.” he says.
I chuckle. “Everything here is so important. What’s up? What do you need from me?”
“Why won’t the hornet talk to Lexy?”
I freeze, my fork nearly in my mouth. I carefully glance around the room checking to see who is listening.
“It’s alright.” Steven says confidently. “They’re fine.”
I put my fork down. “Fine in what way exactly?”
“In the sense that you don’t have to censor yourself here.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You don’t have to play coy with us.” He pats my hand reassuringly. It makes me squirm. “We all know everything about it.”
I pull my hand away. “Then you know more than I do. What exactly are we talking about here?”
Steven looks unsure for a moment. “Lexy approached you, correct?”
“She attacked me in my sleep one night, yeah.”
“We heard about that.” Amber says. “That was a bad choice.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“But she has explained to you why she did it, yes?’ Steven presses.
I shake my head. “No. I mean, I know she wants to talk to Vin but she won’t say what it’s about. Doesn’t really make me want to take her to him, you know?”
Steven sighs as he removes his hat to rub his bald head. He mutters, “She’s excessive with the cloak and dagger routine.”
“She doesn’t know her like we do.” Crystal insists.
“Then they should have had us do this in the first place.”
“You know why they couldn’t. Why we shouldn’t be doing this now.”
“I thought everyone in here was cool.” I interrupt, getting annoyed.
“They are.” Steven replies defensively.
“Then what’s with all the vaguery.”
Amber frowns. “That’s not a word.”
“Do you understand what I mean by it?”
“Yes.”
“Then it’s a word, isn’t it? Answer the question. What do you guys want from Vin? And who am I talking about when I say ‘you guys’?”