Page 31 of The Hangman's Rope

I was afraid they’d called my dad, and I couldn’t tell you the flood of relief I’d felt when it’d been my mom to arrive.

She’d shielded me from a lot of my dad’s bullshit. I loved her for that.

“Slept through my alarms,” I said with a grunt, picking up my phone to see just how bad the damage was.

“Fuck, we don’t care about that – we were worried,” Syn declared.

“How’s that?” I asked.

He had a strange look on his face and he took a deep slow breath and let it out slow.

“She’s clean,” he said. “By all accounts she’s a rich girl from Charleston. Her Daddy is some big heap construction guy and she’s a spoiled little rich girl.”

“Ah,” I nodded slowly in understanding.

“Yeah,” he said with a grunt, shoving off the couch.

I smirked, “Don’t think I can defend myself?” I asked.

“Honestly, bro – on this one, I’m not sure.” He scowled.

“Whatever you found out or read up on her, you’re not acting like she’s one of these dangerous and manipulative cunts we run into all too often in our circles,” I mused going into the kitchen to get some fucking jet fuel started.

I was going to need it, just to get through the day; especially with the spectacular start to it I was already having.

“There’s what’s on paper, then there’s what you’re handling in real life,” he said, taking off his glasses, and there it was. I felt something in my chest loosen up at the look in his eyes.

He wasn’t pissed, he was worried. Like genuinely straight up worried.

I cocked my head, “Cut the bullshit, what’s up?” I asked.

He scowled, “I know you’re out of the loop because you haven’t gotten to come sit at the table,” he said and I nodded.

“I’m not one hundred on you bringing my girl and her bestie in on this one,” he said raising the length of rope and shaking it at me with a pointed finger.

“All I asked was how to take proper measurements, they already knew what was up,” I said with an unimpressed look. Synister looked down at the floor and heaved a sigh.

“Mads has the nickname Mini-Syn for a reason, brother. She’s turned into the female version of you when it comes to this club. She’d die before she turned on you or any of us.”

“I know,” he snapped.

“So, what’s got you so fuckin’ irritated?”

“We haven’t made fuck all progress on figuring out who tried to dump her on us to take care of, and I don’t know how much I trust her to not spill about all this.”

“You could just ask me.” Her voice was soft and timid from the mouth of the hallway and I straightened up, my eyesimmediately going to Syn to see his reaction being that she was tucked behind the wall and I couldn’t see her.

He turned his head and looked at her, his gaze bouncing up and down as he looked her over, settling on her face. A frown settled on his, but it was his thinking frown. The guy had the biggest case of whatever the fuck the male equivalent of resting bitch face, was. He wasn’t as much of an asshole as people tended to think, that was just his face, and his voice. He generally was just thinking really fucking hard at all times, using that big brain of his to get ahead or to keep us all out of trouble.

“You’re okay, come on out here, Sweetpea,” I told her and Syn’s expression morphed into something different as he dragged his gaze from Lorelai back to me.

His eyebrow went up and I gave a barely imperceptible shake of my head at him.

“What about it?” he asked Lorelai as she came to slip up onto one of the stools across the kitchen island from me.

She sniffed, and looked from me to Syn, slowly, her own wheels turning in her head, but I just hadn’t known her long enough to know what she could possibly be thinking…

“I don’t know what all of you guys do, nor do Iwantto know,” she said haltingly. “What Idoknow, is that you all could have done any number of things to me by now, to make me,” she cleared her throat, “not your problem anymore… but you haven’t. Which means something. I don’t know what, but I’m grateful, in a sense, I guess. Stressed, and still scared, sure… but I’m still alive, and I want to stay that way, so I’ll do whatever you ask or whatever you say to stay that way.”

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