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Even I couldn’t help but chuckle at that one. No matter the scenario, Blade seemed physically incapable of being embarrassed. Most of the time, it was a curse for the rest of us, but times like this, her shameless devotion was a real blessing.

She wasn’t afraid to break the ice, no matter how hard of a rejection might follow.

My chest felt lighter seeing Tess smile. For a moment, I could feel how easy it would be to slip back into our lives together. We could leave all the pain of the past behind us. Tess could stay forever.

But as if my optimism had summoned her, Cyrus came storming out of her room like a dark cloud, sapping all the levity from the air.

The smile fell from Tess’ lips instantly, and I watched her shoulders creep back up as she folded in on herself.

“Morning,” Blade offered, holding out a forkful of eggs. “Want some breakfast?”

Cyrus didn’t dignify her with a response. Instead, she turned to the fridge and dug out a protein shake.

Blade cleared her throat, prepping another attempt. “How was your beauty rest?”

But Cyrus just grunted, slamming the fridge and stalking back to her room.

The entire exchange had only lasted seconds, but somehow, she’d shifted the entire energy of the apartment. Tess’s knuckles whitened around her fork. Blade looked up at me with a shrug. And I fought to resist the urge to follow Cyrus down the hall and give her a piece of my mind then and there.

We all knew that Cyrus was in the wrong. Cyrus knew that Cyrus was in the wrong. She needed to let the vendetta go, or she was going to drive Tess away again.

If it’s up to her, that’s exactly what she’ll do.

But she couldn’t — I wasn’t sure what it would take to fix this, but now that Tess was back within our reach, Blade and I wouldn’t let Cyrus ruin this again.

16

TESS

Fucking bitch.

Rolling my eyes, I felt my entire chest heaving with anger.

This was why I couldn’t stay here. I stabbed my fork into my food and shoveled a bite into my mouth.

Nash and Blade were good people. Even if they fucked up sometimes, they always tried to do right by everyone. They were in a shitty spot, torn between their best friend and a woman they wanted to believe.

But Cyrus clearly had no interest in being better.

She was focused on vengeance and pain over everything else. Instead of focusing on the fact that she and her two best friends had built a shockingly beautiful life together, she was stuck in the trenches of her own past.

It was embarrassing to be this grown and still so fucking childish.

I bet she didn’t even deposit the money.

She’d probably make me chase her down to get it.

Nash cleared her throat and started washing the dishes. “I think I need to add more salt next time. There’s a layer of flavor missing.”

Ignoring her, I pulled out my phone and opened my banking app. Despite Feverpoint’s crumbling facade, the service out here was shockingly fast and the wifi even better. Apparently Blade had taught herself how to run fiber optic cable through the park.

“Is salt ever really a bad call?” Blade grabbed another piece of fruit off the plate, licking the red strawberry juice off of her fingers.

But my eyes bugged out when I saw the number in my account.

The Freaks had more than held up their end of our deal.

It wasn’t just $20k. No, it was twenty thousand plus the $80k I was supposed to receive for winning.