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“Okay,” she offers weakly. “But I need to get in touch with Olive, let her know I’m okay. And my aunt. And then we can…we can figure this all out.”

“You know where my bed is, I want you to go back to sleep.” My finger swipes across the bump on her forehead. “Kale can get in touch with Olive for you, she and Bran were together.”

“I’m not leaving her here alone with the two of you.” Kale counters, squeezing Cinnamon tighter to him.

But the second she puts her hand on his arm, he releases her.

Good, better her doing it than me ripping it off.

“You can stay here.” I tell him. “You have my promise to not kill you.”

“Can Beanie too? She’s the cutest.” Cinnamon asks with wide eyes.

“Yes.” Anything for you. “Now go to bed. And change your clothes those smell. There’s some on the bed for you.”

She brings the shirt up, inhaling deeply. “I don’t think they do.”

“They do.” I lie tugging her away from Kale and direct her to my bedroom. “Change.”

Only once she is inside my bedroom with the door shut do I turn back to the other two men.

A plan forms in my mind, on how to keep Cinnamon happy.

Safe.

In my life.

Even if it means dealing with two assholes.

58

Everybody Wants a Bite

Reuben

Amarching band stomps its way through my gut.

I feel like a moron. A monster.

Now that all the puzzle pieces are in place, I can see a picture I never knew to look for. I can understand my idiocy. My hand in forcing Cinnamon to kill people when that wasn’t what she did at all.

She’s a cook for fuck’s sake.

She was there the night my wife died.

She’s been in the catastrophe that is my horrible luck her entire life.

“How old was Cinnamon when you met her?” I narrow my eyes. “When she was brought there by her mother?”

“She was seven.” Orzo leans against the bar. “I didn’t find her again until recently.”

She said she was twenty-three, I just thought—hoped I misheard her.

She’s so young.

“She’s the daughter who went missing.” The picture is crystal clear, but it’s made of glass.

“She is. And I still don’t know exactly what happened to her. Where she ended up. Who her mother, Honey, was. She was there to score drugs, but it wasn’t like Herb to deal directly with anyone outside the family.”