Page 62 of Bourbon & Blood

“Oh, shit,” I muttered. “I amsosorry!”

“Don’t be,” he said, waving me off, and I could tell in that moment, he was hurt.

“I am,” I swore. “I didn’t think,” I said and then Ididstart to cry. “Please don’t be mad at me,” I begged. “I don’t want to lose my only other friends.”

“Oh, baby.” Marcus pulled his chair around the kitchen table over next to mine and sat down, pulling me into a hug and reassuring me, “That would never happen.”

Dorian came around and rubbed my back. “He’s right,” Dor said. “You may have pissed me off all to hell, pulling a stunt like this, but I get it. You’d do anything to get her back. I would too. I just don’t think the Voodoo Bastards are it.”

I sniffed and said, voice warbling a bit, “What’s it say that La Croix treats me better than any man I’ve ever been with before?”

“Right now,” Dorian said. “I just worry about later.” He sighed then, and I looked up at him.

“I’m not mad, I promise,” he said. “I’m just really scared, Alina. I don’t want to lose you, too.”

I sniffed and nodded.

“You won’t,” I promised. “I mean it. He’s good to me, and I… I know it’s weird. This is all so, so, fuckingweird, but I trust him.”

“I have a show tonight,” Marcus said, changing the subject, “And while it’ll be nice to have Dorian there, you need anything, and I meananything, girl, youcall us.”

I smiled. Marcus was one of the better drag performers in New Orleans which is what he meant by saying he had a show.

Dorian looked at me and his face was crumpled into lines of worry, compassion filling his eyes as he put on a brave front and scoffed. “Even if youdon’tneed anything, I want you to check in more,” he demanded. His bravado softened and he asked, “Do you think you could be happy with this man?”

It was my turn to soften.

“I don’t know,” I said after a long silence in which I thought about it. “I don’t know him at all really. I’m hoping that with time, I couldlearnto be happy, but all of this is just sorushedand backward andweird…like some plotline to some movie or a book, not like real life.”

I sighed.

“He ever hurts you, yourun,” Marcus said, and I nodded. “You run and we will doeverythingin our power to get you away and safe.”

“I honestly… I honestly don’t think he ever will,” I said, and it was with a definite certainty I knew I shouldn’t possess this early on in the game, you know?

“I don’t know,” I went on. “I just have a gut feeling about him or I don’t think I would have ever agreed in the first place. There’s just something about him…”

“Alina, you always have this way of giving people the benefit of the doubt and of seeing the absolute best in people. If you didn’t, I don’t think you would be such close friends with Maya because,girl…” Marcus gave me a look, and I laughed a little. I understood what he meant. Maya was a tough cookie and her resting bitch face was something to behold sometimes, but the girl could bedrama,too.

“Don’t let your trusting nature get the better of you is all we’re saying,” Dorian said, and I gave him a look like he was nuts.

“Trusting?”I echoed incredulously.“Me?” The disbelief continued. “Ha!” I barked with the absurdity of it.

He gave me a look like he was unimpressed.

I sighed and told him what he wanted to hear, but I also meant it. “I won’t. I’ll be careful. I promise.”

We talked a little bit more, ironing out the ruffled feelings between us. When they left, I sagged against the inside of the front door.

At this point, I was both mentally and emotionally exhausted and with work ahead? I was likely going to be physically exhausted before the night was through. Still, at the end of it all, if all of this drama brought Maya back to us? Well, it would all be worth it, then, wouldn’t it?

I looked at her open bedroom door and sighed.

I know that La Croix and his men were certain she was dead, but I just couldn’t give up hope. Not yet.

I took myself in for a shower. I had just enough time for it and to get dressed before work.

CHAPTERTWENTY-FOUR

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