Page 93 of Savage Grace

“Then he put his hand on my leg. He pushed it all the way up and under my skirt. He tried to touch me… other places,” I cringed at myself.

Fuck. I did not want to be talking about this to my brothers right now.

“I told him to stop and he laughed at me.”

Toni closed his eyes, but Rome looked at me with that expression of understanding.

I knew that she would get it. I knew that she would know exactly how I was feeling. But it didn’t make me feel any less silly saying it out loud.

“I know it’s nothing, but?—”

“It’s notnothing, Zarina,” Toni snapped.

“Thank you for telling us,” Rome nodded, reaching out to take my hand into hers.

“Now, I’m going to go kill him myself. Excuse me, gentlemen.” Toni sighed, pushing up from the table.

“Wait,” Ashe held up a hand. “Please, Toni. There’s more.”

Antoni frowned down at him, worry washing over his features as he shakily sat back down in the vinyl seat.

“Not with me,” I reassured him, watching him visibly relax. “But it’s the reason I wanted to talk to you in person about this.”

“Did Theo happen to tell you about my request for a meeting?” Ashe asked.

Toni shook his head and frowned. “No.”

Ashe and I shared a look.

Of course he didn’t pass the message along to Toni. Of course he wouldn’t want to risk the Redliners and The Santinos having a sit down and possibly discovering that they weren’t the ones attacking each other.

“What?”

“Zarina is the one who figured it out. I think she should be the one to explain.”

Toni’s eyes dragged back towards me, and I could see that he was nervously bouncing his knee under the table.

“Do you remember William Peck?” I asked.

He chewed on the inside of his cheek, but eventually shook his head. But Sammy, still lingering by the door, snorted a laugh.

“I remember that little fucker,” he said, drifting closer to the table. “He was in Valerie’s class. Gave her shit all the time.”

Toni pursed his lips, but nodded for me to continue.

“Well, Larissa ran into him a few weeks ago. He tried to impress her with his new ‘venture’. The East Allies.”

I pulled my phone out of my back pocket, opening it up to where I had snapped the photo of all four boys together. I slid it across the table to Toni, and Sammy leaned down to look at it too.

“Holy shit,” Sam whispered.

“Fucking Theo,” Toni groaned, running his hands down his face.

Rome leaned over to glance at the photo, scrunching her nose at the sight. “Dweebs.”

Charmer barked a laugh at her comment, and then all eyes were on him.

There was a slight prickle in the air in that beat of silence, and I knew that I wasn’t the only one who had frozen still, waiting for her reaction. But then Rome chuckled too, offering an easy smile.

---