Deadly Christmas

by Lily Harper Hart

“Shut up,” Grady and James said in unison, shooting him twin looks of disapproval.

  “It’s special tape,” Ally said, giggling as Sophie came over to take a look, too. “It’s going to hurt like hell when I have to take it off, but I think it’s worth it. I look like a princess in this dress.”

  Ally’s self-esteem was always on display.

  “You do look like a princess, angel,” Jake agreed, slipping his arm around her waist. “Unfortunately, I have a feeling I’m going to have to beat off a hundred would-be princes thanks to that dress.”

  “I only want you to be my prince,” Ally cooed.

  “Is there a private room around here?” Jake asked, glancing around.

  “Don’t be gross,” James ordered, tugging Mandy back toward him. “That’s still my sister.”

  “Dude, you were threatening to take Mandy into the bathroom and skip the party when you came in,” Grady pointed out.

  “How long were you eavesdropping?”

  Grady shrugged. “Let’s get this over with,” he said. “I say we put exactly one hour in and then make excuses that we just have to get home to check on Emma. If she’s going to use that pregnancy as an excuse to get out of this, surely we can use checking up on her as an excuse to save ourselves.”

  “I’m with you there,” James said, glancing into the busy ballroom. “Okay, here’s what’s going to happen: We’re going to go in, find Art and that viper wife of his, have ten minutes of conversation, have something to eat, push the hens around the dance floor for exactly one song, and then get out of here.”

  “You’re such a romantic,” Mandy deadpanned.

  “I’m going to romance your ass off when we get home,” James countered. “I want out of this suit. I want you naked in the hot tub. This was not something I wanted to do.”

  “So, you’re saying you’re happier with chicken wings, Jaws, and me than a fancy party?” Mandy pressed.

  “That’s my perfect evening,” James said, rubbing his nose against Mandy’s cheek. “Now, come on. Everyone socialize like you’re happy to be here and then we’ll fake a text to get out of here. In fact, Grady, you need to text Finn and tell him to text my phone with a fake emergency in exactly one hour.”

  “Got it.”

  “Here we go,” James said, smiling at the girl behind the coat check counter and handing the jackets he was carrying over. “Mingle and then let’s get out of here. Don’t lose one another.”

  “You’re so bossy,” Ally grumbled.

  “Shut up, princess.”

  “I’M SO glad you came,” Art enthused, beaming as James led his cadre of cohorts to the center of the room where Art and Ava were holding court. “Wait … aren’t you missing a brother?”

  “Finn sends his apologies,” James said. “His fiancée is pregnant and she got … violently ill when they were trying to leave. He really didn’t have a choice in the matter.”

  Mandy and Ally exchanged amused looks.

  “In fact, he’s taking her to urgent care and if she’s legitimately sick we’re going to have to go and help him deal with it,” James continued.

  “That’s awful,” Art said. “I hope it’s not too serious.”

  “Me, too.”

  “Okay, well, introduce me,” Art said, clapping his hands. “I’m assuming the blonde is your wife. She’s just as lovely as you made her out to be.”

  Mandy forced a smile for Art’s benefit. “Thank you. It’s nice to meet you.”

  “Your husband talked about you nonstop while he was out with us,” Art said, his eyes twinkling. “One would almost think he was paid to do it he mentioned you so often.”

  “Well … I guess I’ll put a little extra in his paycheck this week,” Mandy quipped.

  James could tell she was uncomfortable so he placed his hand at the small of her back to bolster her. “She lives up to the hype.”

  “I’m sure,” Ava said, moving to her husband’s side and looking over the small group with what could only be described as disdain. “You must be magic in the sack to catch him.”

  Mandy tilted her head to the side, unsure she heard the woman’s words correctly. “I’m sorry?”

  “Ignore my wife,” Art interjected, chuckling nervously. “She often feels the need to compare herself to others. There’s no need to do that, dear. You’re my favorite woman in the world.”

  “Why would I compare myself to her?”

  James sensed the conversation slipping away from him. “Thank you for inviting us,” he said. “I think we’re going to get something to eat, though.”

  “Wait. I haven’t met your sister yet,” Art chided. “I’m dying to meet the woman who tasered a man and saved my inventory.”

  James pulled Mandy to the side and made room for Ally to move forward. He wasn’t surprised to find her openly glaring in Ava’s direction. She’d obviously heard what the fake blonde said to her best friend.

  “You, my dear, are stunning,” Art said, his gaze fixated on Ally’s cleavage. He wasn’t even trying to hide his point of interest – or, er, two points of interest.

  Jake cleared his throat as he furrowed his brow. He was clearly uncomfortable with the situation, and James didn’t blame him.

  “How much did those cost?” Ava asked. “I’m surprised how nice the work is given this is Detroit, after all. Still, that’s pretty impressive.”

  Ally’s eyebrows flew up her forehead. “Excuse me?”

  “Okay,” Jake said, smoothly stepping in and grabbing Ally around the waist. “I think my angel needs something to eat.”

  “I think we all need something to eat,” Grady said, rubbing his forehead. As surreal as the situation was – and part of him wanted to be amused – he was offended on both Mandy and Ally’s behalf.

  “Wait, who are you?” Art asked, turning his attention to Sophie.

  As the foster daughter of a mobster and a reporter who put herself on the line every day, Sophie was having none of Art and Ava’s crap. “Oh, you’re not going to be interested in me,” she said. “You can’t look down my dress because I have nothing to show off and if your wife tries to insult me, I’m going to punch her and then she’s going to need even more impressive work on her nose.”

  Grady’s mouth dropped open.

  “Oh, crap,” James muttered.

  Instead of being insulted, Art barked out a delighted laugh. “You might be my favorite.”

  “We really need to get some food into our … wonderful women,” James said, firmly grabbing Mandy’s hand. “We’ll say goodbye before we go.”

  “We will not,” Mandy hissed as James dragged her away. “I’m going to yank that woman’s hair out.”

  “I’m going to make our excuses when we leave,” James replied, his tone low. “I … this night was a horrible idea. We all should have come up with excuses.”

  “Apparently I could have used my new plastic surgery as an excuse,” Ally suggested, bitterness overtaking her.

  “Angel, take it as a compliment,” Jake said, making sure to press his body to the back of Ally’s when he noticed several men by the bar checking her out. “You’re never wearing that dress in public again, by the way.”

  “You said I looked good,” Ally protested.

  “You look like every filthy dream I’ve ever had about you,” Jake shot back. “That doesn’t mean I want everyone else sharing in my dream.”

  “Does anyone else think there’s something weird about Art and Ava’s marriage?” Grady asked, pushing Sophie closer to the buffet table. “You need to pick some food to eat so your mouth is too busy to form words, sugar.”

  “Leave her alone,” Mandy snapped. “She didn’t say anything we weren’t all thinking.”

  “Yes, but she said it to our employer,” James argued.

  Mandy narrowed her eyes. “How often did that woman throw herself at you while you were out there?”

  “What?” James sputtered, his cheeks burning. “I … why would you think that?”


  “Because Art said you were constantly talking about me,” Mandy replied, her shoulders stiff. “I’m guessing you were doing that because Ava was trying to get in your pants.”

  “First off, I talk about you every chance I get.”

  Mandy crossed her arms over her chest, anger practically pouring out of her.

  “I do talk about you every chance I get,” James hissed, realizing he had no choice but to tell the truth. “I might have brought you up a hundred times a day to make sure Ava knew that I wasn’t interested. That doesn’t mean you’re not my favorite topic of conversation or that I didn’t mean every word.”

  Mandy rolled her eyes until they landed on Ally. “What do you think?”

  “I think that woman is a menace and James did the best he could,” Ally said, weariness overtaking her. “I thought it was going to be fun to dress up and go out. Now I just want to go home.”

  Jake tugged her to him, pressing her close to his chest. “We’re going home, angel.” He cast an apologetic look in James’ direction. “I’m not making her stay here – especially when I don’t want to be here either.”

  “None of us are staying here,” James said. “I think we all owe Sophie an extra Christmas gift for ending this evening early.”

  “I’m going to buy her a pony,” Ally said.

  As the music changed to a slow ballad, James pulled Mandy toward the dance floor. “Come on, wife. I promised you a dance. If you stop pretending to be mad at me, I’ll stop for Lebanese food on the way home and rub you for an hour and a half when we get in the hot tub.”

  Mandy considered the offer. “Can I pull Ava’s hair on the way out?”

  “No.”

  “Fine,” Mandy grumbled, letting James pull her into his arms as they began to sway to the music.

  “You know I love you, right?” James asked, rubbing his hand across Mandy’s back.

  “Yes.”

  “Don’t ever think for a moment that I would cheat on you,” James said. “I’m not interested. You’re all I want.”

  “I’m not angry with you,” Mandy said. “I don’t like her.”

  James chuckled. “No one likes here. That’s why she’s so obnoxious.”

  “Do you think she’s prettier than me? She kind of looks like a model.”

  “No one is prettier than you, baby,” James said, kissing her cheek. “You’re my perfect everything.”

  “Does that mean you’re going to tell me what my big Christmas gift is?” Mandy asked hopefully.

  “Keep dreaming, wife.”

  Fourteen

  “I’m so glad we got a chance to do this before the holidays hit,” Emma said Thursday afternoon, beaming as her gaze bounced between Sophie, Ally, and Mandy.

  The four women scheduled the lunch for as close to the holidays as they could manage, knowing they would see each other for all the festivities but wanting a chance to gossip without their significant others present.

  “It was a good idea,” Sophie agreed, glancing over the Thai menu. “It was a much better idea than last night’s party.”

  “You were smart to miss that, by the way,” Ally said, wrinkling her nose. “I’m going to start carrying a fake baby bump around so I can get out of stuff I don’t want to do.”

  “I wanted to go,” Emma protested.

  “No, you didn’t,” Mandy, Ally, and Sophie replied in unison.

  “You weren’t missing much,” Sophie said. “Trust me.”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Mandy argued. “I was a big fan of how you called the old dude on the carpet for looking down dresses and bitch-slapped his wife in the same breath for being a horrible wench.”

  Ally snickered. “Yeah, I loved how you pointed out she was going to need another bad nose job if she said one word to you.”

  “I don’t like women like that,” Sophie said.

  “Does anyone?”

  “Ava is the perfect example of why I never had female friends until … well … you guys,” Sophie said. “Mandy was the first person I met who never tried to compete with me about a man … or work … or who has the best shoes.”

  “I have the best shoes,” Ally said. “I get what you mean, though. Mandy and I were friends because we always had each other’s backs when we were younger. We never let a guy get between us.”

  “That’s because if you let a guy get between you, Ally, you would have been arrested for incest,” Sophie pointed out. “Mandy was always in love with your brother.”

  “Don’t be gross,” Ally said, wagging a finger in Sophie’s face. “Still, you have a point. I believe we were meant to be best friends.”

  “Oh, so sweet,” Mandy teased, poking Ally in the side.

  “I never had male or female friends,” Emma said. “People didn’t want to be my friend when I was young because of my dad. After that, people wanted to pretend I didn’t exist because what my dad did was so disgusting. By the time I started modeling, I realized I didn’t want to know any of those women because they were so vapid. I never had friends until you guys.”

  “Oh, you’re so sweet, too,” Mandy said, pressing her fingers into Emma’s growing belly. “Huh.” She poked Emma again, marveling at how solid the slim woman’s tummy felt. “It’s like you have a ball in there or something.”

  “Oh, well, that’s a horrible thing to say,” Ally said, curiosity getting the better of her and forcing her to touch Emma’s stomach. “You’re right, though. It’s softer than a basketball, but harder than a beach ball. It’s like a volleyball.”

  Emma screwed up her face into a frown. “I know I’m fat. You don’t have to keep pointing it out.”

  “You’re not fat,” Ally argued, moving her hand around Emma’s stomach. “You have a person in here. It’s … fascinating.

  “You’re six months pregnant and you’re still prettier than ninety-nine percent of the women in the world,” Ally continued, her forehead wrinkling as she concentrated. “Is that a … kick?”

  “Yeah,” Emma said, her voice soft. “It started last week.”

  “Has Finn felt this?”

  “Not yet. I want to surprise him on Christmas day.”

  “That’s a pretty big gift,” Ally said, adding her second hand to Emma’s stomach. “Oh … I want this to be me so badly one day.”

  “It will be you,” Mandy said, watching Ally hold what would eventually become her first niece or nephew. “You just need to give it time.”

  “I’m happy to give Jake time,” Ally said. “I realized you were right. I don’t want to push this. I want to enjoy every magical moment.”

  “Do you want to touch?” Emma asked Sophie.

  “I’m fine looking,” Sophie said, forcing a tight smile. In truth, she was scared to touch Emma’s stomach. The idea of something moving beneath the surface terrified her. It reminded her of the movie Alien for some reason.

  “Come on,” Mandy prodded, grabbing Sophie’s hand and forcing it to Emma’s baby bump. “It’s not going to hurt you.”

  “You have absolutely no boundaries,” Sophie muttered. “I … oh, wow. What’s that … fluttering?”

  “That’s the baby moving,” Emma said, giggling.

  “Is he kicking?”

  “No. He’s just moving. He’s active in the middle of the afternoon.”

  “Do you still think it’s a boy?” Ally asked. “I would prefer a girl. I can dress a girl up.”

  “We’re not finding out beforehand because we want to be surprised, but something inside of me tells me it’s a boy,” Emma said. “I can’t explain it.”

  “Finn is not going to let me dress up a boy so he looks like a princess.”

  Emma smiled. “We’ll take the baby on spa days and you can do whatever you want when Finn isn’t around,” she offered.

  Ally smiled. “Can I take photos and torture him with them?”

  “Sure.”

  Emma shifted her gaze to Sophie and Mandy, who were taking a more clinical approach to her stomach. To Ally,
the whole process was magical. Since Mandy and James already decided they weren’t having kids, Mandy was merely interested in the science. Sophie never talked about kids – and Emma wasn’t sure where she stood on the matter – but she had a feeling the miracle of birth was something Sophie would be okay skipping.

  “Do you want kids, Sophie?” Emma asked, taking everyone by surprise.

  Sophie jerked her eyes up. “Oh. Um … I don’t know.”

  “It’s okay if you don’t want them,” Mandy said. “I don’t want them. I get it.”

  “I’m not sure if it’s that I don’t want kids as much as I don’t want to add more kids to this world when so many others need a home,” Sophie explained. “I think it’s far more likely that Grady and I would adopt a child – and probably only one because I’m not sure I could handle more – than procreate.”

  “Is that because you spent so much time in the foster system?” Ally asked.

  Sophie nodded. “There are a lot of unwanted children out there – especially of a certain age,” she said. “Grady and I haven’t even talked about marriage, so this would be a long way off, but I would hope he’d be willing to adopt an older child.”

  “Grady has a big heart,” Ally said. “I think he’ll surprise you with how open he is to that.”

  “Really?” Sophie looked hopeful.

  “Really,” Ally said, smiling. “I think adopting an older kid would be right up Grady’s alley.”

  “Why?”

  “Because that means he’ll only have to put half the time in before he gets you all to himself again,” Ally teased.

  Sophie didn’t want to smile, but she finally gave in. “I’m glad I found you as well as your brother.”

  “Of course you are,” Ally said. “Everyone is glad when they find me.”

  “I’M STEALING your wife tomorrow,” Finn announced as he walked into James’ office, pulling up short when he saw Maverick sitting behind the desk and tapping away on the keyboard.

  “I don’t have a wife, but if I did there’s no way I would share her with a dude who looks like you,” Maverick said, showing he was in full slacker mode as he reclined in the chair. The kid wasn’t even old enough to legally imbibe alcohol, but he was a measurable genius. He was also grating. “Is the boss man’s wife the hot blonde who doesn’t wear underwear?”