Knife & Flesh (The Night Horde SoCal Book 4)

by Susan Fanetti

  At Faith’s question and gesture, Juliana looked over and saw Lucie and Faith’s son, Tucker, stretched out side by side on chaises, sunglasses on, sipping Capri Suns and talking. Like little grownups. They were almost exactly the same age, their birthdays within a week of each other. Both would be five in September, just past the cut-off for kindergarten. In about a month.

  “Lucie loves to make new friends. And Tucker’s a real sweetheart.”

  Faith smiled at her son. “He really is. He takes being helpful and kind very seriously. They look so cute together, having cocktails at poolside. Her suit is adorable. Can I ask where you got it?”

  “I made it.” She’d hated the suits she’d found in Lucie’s size at the mall: they were either far too grown-up for her little girl, too babyish, or too plain. Or they were insanely expensive. She’d modeled the one she’d made on the old 50s pinup suits, which she thought were beautiful without being too revealing: a halter top maillot with a sweetheart bodice and boy-cut legs, the fabric red with white polka dots. Lucie had wanted her hair in a puffy bun, and she looked like a tiny Lana Turner in her little white sunglasses.

  “You do great work.” Faith was appreciative without being impressed, and Juliana gave her a quick, sidelong look. Most people were impressed, as if making clothes were some kind of rare talent. But Faith was an artist—an actual, professional artist, someone with true talent and not simply a skill. Juliana took her measured approval more seriously than she did the fawning of her friends.

  “Thank you. I enjoy it.”

  Their party—Trick, Lucie, and Juliana; Faith, her husband, Demon (Faith called him Michael) and their two kids, Tucker and Lana; Connor and his fiancée, Pilar; and two unattached Horde, Sherlock and Lakota—had taken over the apartment pool. It was an August Saturday, so normally the pool would have been crowded, but they had the whole area to themselves. Juliana wasn’t sure whether it was merely a slow day or if their party was discouraging others from coming in. She suspected the latter. The men, all heavily muscled and tattooed, looked a bit scary in a group. Actually, they were scary individually. They looked downright menacing in a group—even in tropical board shorts, standing at the grill or, in Demon’s case, sitting on the steps in the shallow end, splashing with his toddler daughter.

  They weren’t menacing, though, at least not here. Juliana had met most of the men before, more or less, but hadn’t gotten to know any of them other than Trick. Now she was getting to know them, and they were good people. This was a family, and she felt comfortable with them. Not a part of them, but comfortable in their company.

  Though they were having a party together, the men and women had mostly separated. Trick stood with Lakota and Sherlock at the grill in one corner. Juliana sat with Faith at a table under an umbrella. Only Connor and Pilar, who were getting married the next week, had retained their couple-ness.

  Pilar had spent most of her time with Connor and the guys, but she’d been pleasant. Juliana knew that Pilar was friends with Kyle Moore, the firefighter she’d dated, but Pilar didn’t seem to know about that connection between them.

  Pilar had a ghost of an accent, the kind that marked her as bilingual. Hers was a little bit more noticeable than Juliana’s own, which was only present when she spoke Spanish or Spanish-origin words. She didn’t even pronounce her own name the way her parents did, not anymore. Now she pronounced its first letter with an Anglicized J sound, Joo-lee-AH-na, rather than the Spanish way her parents used, HOOL-yana.

  It drove her parents to distraction, but she’d long ago given up the pronunciation fight. In America, nobody except Spanish speakers—and not even all of them—pronounced it with the aspirated Spanish J.

  Hearing Pilar’s accent, she thought it would be nice to get to know her. She didn’t get all that many chances to chat casually in Spanish except with her parents, who were trying to keep their English fresh for Lucie, so they always had a strange bilingual exchange going. Not quite Spanglish, but something close to it.

  At first, she’d thought maybe Pilar could be her guide in this Horde world, but it looked more like it would be Faith.

  “DON’T YOU DO IT YOU ASS—AGH!”

  Juliana turned toward the sound of the shout in time to see a tidal splash in the deep end, and then Connor and Pilar breaking the surface of the water. Everybody laughed, including Juliana. Obviously, Connor had grabbed his woman and jumped in. Their horseplay continued in the pool. It looked awfully rough—and maybe even a bit too erotic, considering that there were children nearby.

  “Mami, I want to get in.” Lucie had come over, with Tucker trailing her. “I want to play, too.”

  “Me, too, Mommy,” Tucker went to Faith and took her hand.

  Juliana looked over at the pool, where Connor and Pilar splashed and wrestled. “Um…” Demon and Lana played on, unbothered by the commotion in the deep end. But Lucie was a good swimmer and liked to swim underwater. She wouldn’t stay in the shallow end.

  “They’ll be careful around the kids. Connor’s a wonderful uncle, and Pilar is nice. They’ll play with them,” Faith reassured her as she helped Tucker into his floaties. He wasn’t a strong swimmer yet, apparently. “Here, buddy. Let’s put some more goo on.” She dug into her bag and came up with a bottle of sunblock.

  Lucie’s sunblock was still fresh, but Juliana turned her daughter around and unfastened the clip from her hair. “Let’s braid you up, then, if you’re getting wet.”

  Tucker and Lucie were ready for the pool at about the same time, and when they headed over, Tucker reached for Lucie’s hand. Lucie took it and pulled him close. They went to the shallow-end steps together.

  “Oh my God, that is the cutest thing,” Faith muttered. Juliana nodded; it really was.

  Demon saw them coming and stood up. He said something to Tucker, who nodded, and then Demon headed over with a dripping Lana in his arms. She fussed and wriggled, complaining, but he just kissed her head and came straight for his wife.

  “Looks like I’m It,” Faith said to Juliana.

  “Tag. I’m gonna help Tuck.”

  Faith lifted her arms to accept her daughter from her husband. “C’mere, monster. You want juice?”

  Demon gave Lana a pat on the wet bottom and went back to the pool.

  “NO. ‘PASH.” Lana’s arms flailed with energy, and Faith ducked out of their way.

  “No more splashing for now. How about a cookie?”

  Lana calmed and nodded, her big eyes wide. “Nilla.”

  “Okay. Sit in your stroller, and you can have a Nilla cookie.”

  As Faith got her daughter settled, Juliana watched the pool. Since Demon had come over and said, “Tag,” she’d felt a thickness in her throat. Faith and Demon were such a team they had a shorthand for it.

  Lucie was the most wonderful thing that had ever happened in Juliana’s life, and she and her girl had a beautiful relationship. But being a single mother was so hard. Every day, it was so hard. And she had no support system. No family, no friends with kids. Lisa loved Lucie, but more like a pet to play with than a child to care for. Juliana had no one to work out worries with, no one to take the slack when she felt tired or down or just needed a break. It was so hard.

  She had a break every other weekend now, again, she guessed, but that came with extra worry, not less. Mark felt like a time bomb in her life. And maybe in Lucie’s, too.

  As she wrangled those thoughts, Trick walked over. He was grinning, and Juliana grinned back. Trick didn’t actually smile that often—not a big, wide one like he was giving her now. “Sherlock says the grill is finally ready. That dude is fussy about his grilling, I tell you. Lakota’s going in to get the dead cow and kabobs.” Veggie kabobs seemed like paltry barbecue fare to her, but Trick was pleased with them.

  It was her apartment, just outside the pool fence, where they were staging this barbecue.

  “Okay. Everything’s on trays in the fridge, ready to go.”

  “That’s what I told him. Where�
��s the beach ball?”

  Juliana looked around, then pointed to the fence behind the chaises where the kids had been sitting. Trick leaned down to kiss her cheek and then went to fetch the ball.

  “That boy’s got it bad for you,” Faith chuckled as he walked away.

  “He’s a good man, isn’t he?”

  Faith nodded. “Yeah. I don’t know him like I know Michael or Connor, but I know him enough to say that he is a good man.” She waved her hand back and forth, encompassing the whole pool area. “All these guys are.”

  Juliana watched Trick jump into the pool with the ball. Lucie swam right over to him, and he wrapped her in his arms. Demon had Tucker, and he swept his son onto his shoulders and picked up the ball. Trick and Lucie talked for a second, and then Lucie was on his shoulders. As Juliana and Faith watched, a little game of netless pool volleyball started. And then Pilar climbed onto Connor, and they got into it, too.

  No, these men weren’t threatening. They weren’t a danger. Not to people who mattered. Not to their families.

  As Juliana realized that Trick was on her parenting team, emotion flooded her senses.

  “You okay?” Faith’s tone was light, more curious than concerned.

  “Yeah,” Juliana sniffed and turned toward her new friend. “I’m great.”

  Faith smiled as if she knew what was happening in Juliana’s head. “I grew up with men like these. For the most part, I loved it. Most of my life, I always felt safest in the clubhouse.”

  Turning back to watch her daughter laugh and play with the men of the Horde, Juliana simply nodded. Though she had a mountain of questions, she didn’t know Faith well enough to ask.

  “You should come with us tonight.”

  “I can’t. I have Lucie.”

  “Tucker and Lana are spending the night at Bart and Riley’s. I know for a certainty that Riley wouldn’t have a problem with Lucie joining the party. And it is a party. She’s got a whole thing planned.”

  Juliana knew that ‘Riley’ was Riley Chase. At the thought of Riley Chase babysitting her daughter overnight, she laughed. “Uh, no. I don’t think I could do that.”

  Faith shook her head. “She’s just Riley. It’s weird at first, I admit. But she really is just Riley. She can’t go with us, because yeah, she’s Riley Chase, and she can’t go out to bars like that without worrying about making a scene. But to us, she’s just Riley. She doesn’t bite. She’s cool.”

  Lucie didn’t get many chances to really socialize, either. She had school, where she had friends, but there weren’t opportunities in their schedule for things like play dates. She’d have no clue who Riley Chase was. But Tucker would be there, and it sounded like it would be a party. Juliana began to reconsider.

  Plus, going to The Deck for Connor and Pilar’s pre-wedding thing sounded fun. She hadn’t been to The Deck in a while. She’d met Trick there.

  “Riley and Bart have three kids. Ian, their middle kid, is pretty close in age to Tuck and Lucie. And damn, those kids have cool toys. C’mon. Trick’ll be so happy.”

  “I’ll talk to Lucie about it. If she wants to, then yeah. If you’re sure it’ll be okay.”

  Faith pulled her phone out of her bag. “It’ll definitely be okay, but I’ll call Riley with a heads-up.”

  ~oOo~

  “I just met Riley Chase. Lucie is spending the night at Riley Chase’s house.” Juliana stopped on the sidewalk and stared up at Trick. “How is that possible? This can’t be my life. How can it be your life?”

  He smiled and kissed her. “You get used to it. She’s just Riley.”

  “That’s what Faith said, too. But it’s not true.”

  “Sure it is. We get stars at the shop all the time. I’ve built bikes for some very famous people. They’re all just people. Some of them are decent people, some of them are assholes, but they’re all just people—who play pretend for a living. They’re not saving the world. Pilar is more important than any actor. She walks into burning buildings and saves lives.”

  His point was sound, and Juliana nodded, but she still felt starstruck. “Okay…” she muttered, knowing that she didn’t sound convinced. She wasn’t convinced. Turning around, she stared up at the house—no, make that the mansion—she’d just left her daughter in.

  Riley and Bart’s kids had a market in their playroom. A market. Like a bodega. With a little row of shelves stocked with little cans and boxes, and a row of produce bins full of plastic fruits and vegetables, with little chalkboard signs, and little shopping baskets, and a checkout lane with a working cash register.

  She hoped that Lucie thought of the night as a fancy outing and not as a glimpse into a world she could have had if only she’d been born to a better mother. With that thought, Juliana sighed, her breath shaking on the exhale.

  Trick chuckled and pulled her close. “Relax, Jules. Come on. Ride with me, and we’ll pick up your car tomorrow when we come back for Lucie.”

  She looked over at her old Nissan Versa, parked in the sweeping driveway of Riley Chase’s house. It looked pathetic and out of place. “They won’t mind?”

  “Alright, that’s enough. I love Riley, but she’s not any better than you are. She just has more money. In fact, she had it kind of easy, compared to you. She was born rich, and she had a mom who knew show business, and she was working when she was a kid. I’m not saying she hasn’t known hard times, too, but she hasn’t had to work as hard as you have, and she hasn’t had to do things on her own. People have been helping her her whole life. You’ve done impressive things without help. So stop acting like you just met God.”

  There was an edge to his voice, and that surprised her. She hadn’t heard it in a while, but she knew what it meant. She met his eyes. “You’re angry.”

  “A little, yeah. I don’t like to see you minimize yourself.”

  Feeling offended, Juliana squared her shoulders—and when she did so, she realized that she had been slouching, as if, after meeting Riley, she had literally minimized herself. Aware that Trick was right, and that he had noticed her standing straighter, she only felt more offended, and she turned it on him. “Don’t be condescending. I’m not minimizing myself. I know my own accomplishments.”

  He smiled, and her sense of offense vaporized. “Good. Because you’re smart. You have a whole slew of artistic talents. You’re a wonderful mother. You’re kind. You’re resourceful. You work hard and never put yourself first. You’re pretty much perfect.”

  One thing he hadn’t mentioned was her appearance. She liked that. She definitely wanted to be desirable to Trick. But she knew she was, that he wanted her, and she enjoyed that her looks weren’t the thing he liked best about her. For Mark, her appearance, the way they’d looked together, had been important. When they were together, whenever they went out together, he’d always stopped her at the mirror by the front door and checked how they looked as a couple.

  Leaning into Trick, she said, “I’m not perfect.”

  She felt him shrug. “Maybe just perfect for me, then.”

  Oh God. Juliana hoped that Trick was right, and that Mark wasn’t a threat to her or to them any longer. Because she didn’t want to lose what was growing between them. They were falling in love. She thought she didn’t have much farther to fall. Not much farther at all.

  ~oOo~

  The Flight Deck was a huge bar housed in an old airplane hangar. Juliana, Lisa, and a few other friends had happened on it one night, when a guy Lisa had picked up at one bar suggested they move to The Deck. It wasn’t really the kind of bar you dressed up for, though that night they’d all been dressed for clubbing. Lisa had hated the place, and she would only come these days when Juliana traded her for something.

  Juliana had really liked it here from the first night. There was a wonderful karaoke setup, and she’d never done karaoke until that first night here. She’d been in choir at school and in church as a girl, and she’d always loved to sing, but she’d never considered performing in any other way. If she had
n’t been doing shots of tequila with the girls that night, after finishing off a couple of bottles of wine together at dinner, she probably would never have gotten on stage at all.