A Cruel Arrangement (Kings of New York) by Tijan

Author:Tijan [Tijan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Montlake
Published: 2023-04-24T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

MOLLY

I got my dad’s voice mail, again. “Dad, you need to call me. I’m actually worried. For once.” I hung up before I could say anything more, like how I wanted to murder him, because if he heard that, he’d never find Kelly’s murderer.

“No luck?”

I straightened, hearing Jess come into the kitchen.

I’d left the bedroom around six because my stomach was doing its best rendition of a pterodactyl squawk, or how I was assuming they would’ve squawked. It would’ve been more like a roar.

I’d realized this was not Ashton’s house or another one of Ashton’s places when I went down the stairs and saw a picture of Trace and Jess together. The next picture over was of her mother. Her brother. There were more people, but I didn’t know them, and then I meandered into the office and was captivated for the next hour because there was an entire wall of pictures of Trace during his high school and college years. A lot of those pictures had him and Ashton, and yeah, my stomach was doing all these little flutters seeing Ashton smiling and looking young and dare I say . . . cute?! He was hot, but he was cute too.

I was looking forward to teasing him about the dichotomy.

“No, but that’s typical with Shorty Easter. He finds you, not the other way around.”

Jess motioned to the coffee machine. “Want some?”

“That’d be great.” And of course, I fought back a yawn at that moment. “This is your new place with Trace?”

She was grabbing the coffee, and a soft smile came over her face. “It’s not far from my mom’s house, so she’s close if anything happens.”

“It’s nice. It’s . . . adulting.”

Jess glanced back, a short laugh escaping her. “What?”

“It’s adulting. You and Trace. You’re doing it, despite, you know.”

Some of her smile faded. “Yeah.”

“Um. Hey.” Shit. I was an asshole friend. “I know I reached out when it first happened, but—”

“That’s not on you.”

“What?”

She finished the coffee machine and hit the switch, then turned to rest her back against the counter beside it. “That’s not on you. I know what you were going to say, but you did reach out when it happened. You were there when Trace and I were going through our thing, and you tried being there for me after Kelly’s body was found. I—I wouldn’t let anyone by me, except my mom and Trace. That was it. I kinda went insane after I found out.” Her voice shook. “I—it was my fault and—”

“Hey.” I shoved off the stool, and closed the space between us.

Everyone thought Jess was this tough parole officer, and to be honest, she was. No one wanted to mess with her, but she was—well, she wasn’t really soft inside, but what she was was an amazing friend, and she had an amazing heart. I went to her, ignoring how she started to put her arms up. I wrapped mine around her in a hug. “It wasn’t your fault. I don’t care what you’re going to say.

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