Page 137 of Forged in Rain

“Your life,” I say, going rigid when she grabs my arm again. I’m two seconds away from punching her in the face.

“Rain, if you have the pictures. You will give them to me, now.”

“Or what?”

“Or I’ll fucking make sure lover boy gets what he deserves,” she snarls.

“Hands off,” Cyn barks from the door, and she drops her arm, stepping away.

“You don’t order me around,” she says coldly.

Ignoring her, Cyn pulls me into his side. “Are you okay, beauty?”

“Yeah,” I say softly, leaning into his warmth.

Pam huffs, and Cyn turns to her with an icy cold look of disdain. “Get the fuck out of here and don’t come back.”

“Your father—”

“My father is in prison for life. He can fucking rot there for all I care. And if you threaten my sister or Rain again, I will make you hurt.”

She looks between us with a weird smile before turning toward the exit, where she pauses and says, “If those pictures ever surface, I will fuck up your world.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

This is it, the denouement of this fucked-up story. My mom came out of her coma yesterday, but she’s facing some serious rehabilitation, especially with the brain damage. Her speech is slurred, and she has memory issues that the doctors report she may never recover.

Joey was devastated when she looked us over with her wide eyes and wrinkled her brow before asking who we were. But I just smiled and hugged him close because she’s alive and there’s still hope we’ll have our mother back yet.

Staring at my phone, I smile at the text exchange between Cyn and me before closing out my phone.

Forever, beauty

Forever, beast

I fucking hope it’s forever because otherwise, I’m looking at an eternity of being alone. I can’t imagine ever finding someone who makes my soul sing like Cyn does.

I haven’t spoken to McCafferty, but he insisted we meet to discuss the particulars of our agreement.

From where I’m sitting, in a fancy limousine McCafferty sent, it sounds perfectly horrible, but backstabbing and Mafia takeovers will do that, I suppose.

It’s quiet on the drive, and I’m grateful because it’s all I can do to sit still when I’m crawling out of my skin. Cyn is supposed to meet us there. He had an errand to run which he refused to discuss with me. Besides, both he and Jig thought it would be better suited for me to appear on Jig’s arm due to his father’s relationship with McCafferty.

Once upon a time, Jig’s dad was McCafferty’s right-hand man, but now that he’s in New York, he only flies back to represent McCafferty for major legal events.

While I love Jig, I disagreed with the decision to come on his arm. I want the world to know that Cyn is mine. All in good time, I suppose.

There’s been no word from Iris, and when I’m not having nightmares about my dad’s wide-eyed stare in the hole, her face as she walked away haunts me.

Why did she give in? Who ishe?

Although being anywhere near the piece of shit gives me hives, I’m also about to face a far greater threat. If I’m lucky, McCafferty will make John disappear, but Iris? Fuck, I don’t know.

The home we pull up to is massive, surrounded by beautiful old trees and a grand fountain in the drive. I gawk like a gauche girl all the way to the door before pausing at the entrance—it’s like a museum.

Jig grabs my arm and I suck in a breath, grateful for my friend but wishing for Cyn’s warmth. I’m about to face off with the head dick, and if he doesn’t like what I have to say, we could all die.

With those thoughts, I’m blind to the grandeur around me as we’re ushered to a sitting room complete with a roaring fire. Immediately sweat gathers under my arms. It’s too warm outside for this, but maybe McCafferty in his old age is perpetually cold.

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