She reached into one of the craft crates and pulled out a bottle of marshmallow vodka and a bottle of creme de cacao. The girls all cheered. Georgia laughed and shrugged. “Hutch was busy with Sabre stuff, so I helped myself to the real alcohol. Don’t you dare tell on me. I mean, seriously. A day like today practically demands it, right?”
Winnie took the finished pitcher from Georgia and started serving. She started with Tazzy and filled her glass first. The drink looked pale pink and smelled like pure sweetness. Tazzy took a sip and let the marshmallow and chocolate flavors melt on her tongue. It went down smooth and warm.
They settled into their swinging princess thrones with their drinks. The chairs swayed gently while they chit-chatted.
Gabi took the first sip of Georgia’s concoction. “Oh my gosh, Georgia. This is delicious! It’s the perfect celebration for a protest that went really well. We had a good crowd, and the signs looked cute. Everyone seemed to have fun. Well, until the shooting started, I mean.”
Breezy nodded, but her face stayed serious. “Yeah, until the shooting. That changed everything fast.”
Lovie leaned forward in her chair. “Why did the General shoot you with a paintball? It seems so weird.”
Tazzy took another sip and closed her eyes, losing herself in the flavor for just a minute longer before having to relive everything. She looked around at her girls and decided they deserved the truth.
For the next ten minutes, she went over every detail of what hadhappened, from the first moment she felt the shots to the time she walked into Deep Dive.
All was quiet for a few moments after she’d finished.
“But why?” Lovie asked. “With his trial coming up, why not just leave you alone?”
Tazzy shook her head. “It goes back to why Jaxon went to prison eight years ago. The General set him up. Jaxon took the fall, and he lost eight years of his life for something the General did. Now the General somehow thinks that Jaxon is a threat again and wants to hurt him. He seems to think the best way to do that is to come after me. He wants to hurt me, so Jaxon suffers.”
Breezy’s face went white. She stared into her glass for a moment before she spoke. “Sadly, that’s probably all there is to it. My father likes to hurt people. He likes to watch them suffer. It doesn’t surprise me that he’s going after you, because that will hurt Jaxon more than going after him directly.”
“No offense, Breezy, but your father is a dick.” Tazzy tried to gentle her words. It wasn’t Breezy’s fault. “I don’t understand why the General is going after Jaxon at all. Hasn’t he done enough already? He’s already ruined eight years of his life. Why does he keep coming back?”
Breezy sighed, and her voice dropped softer. “I’m so sorry. The General is a narcissist and, in all likelihood, a psychopath. In his mind, nothing is ever his fault. In his eyes, he never does anything wrong. There’s always someone else to blame. It sounds like this time, he picked Jaxon as the fall guy. It was probably random. Jaxon didn’t do anything. And now that our Daddies were able to get Jaxon out of prison, in the General’s mind, that makes Jaxon a threat forever. He won’t let it go because he feels like he’s lost control of the situation. And for him, that’s intolerable. It means someone else won, and the only person allowed to win is the General.”
One of the girls whispered, “That’s crazy.”
Everyone nodded and agreed in soft murmurs. The swinging chairs moved a little faster as the tension in the room grew.
Tazzy noticed the look on Suzi’s face. Her eyes had gone sharp,like she was already writing the story in her head. Tazzy pointed at her with her Peep bunny glass. “This is strictly off the record, Suzi Daily. None of this better show up in the Daily Nugget, and I mean it.”
Suzi blinked and held up her hands. “I wasn’t planning on doing that, Tazzy. I promise.”
Tazzy narrowed her eyes. “I saw that look in your eyes.”
Suzi let out a big sigh, and her shoulders slumped. “That is because I haven’t slept more than two hours a night for the past three nights.”
Bliss tilted her head. “Why haven’t you slept? Is the paper keeping you up?”
Suzi’s voice got louder, almost frantic. “I’m living my dream with the paper. Got that? I am living my dream!” By the end, she was shouting.
Lele frowned and swung her chair closer. “Are you okay, Suzi?”
Suzi’s voice rose even more until she was standing on her feet and screaming. “Of course I am! Did you not hear me say I am living my freaking dream!”
The room went quiet. Gabi spoke gently. “Um, it doesn’t sound like you’re living your dream. It sounds like you are stressed out.”
Winnie nodded and added, “Yeah, I don’t think you are supposed to scream like that when you’re living your dream.”
“Only two hours of sleep? How do you get away with it?” Lovie asked. “No way would my Daddy let me stay up like that? What is Deke thinking?”
Georgia gave her a shrewd look. “He doesn’t know, does he?”
Suzi shook her head. “No, of course he doesn’t. Are you crazy?”
“Okay, now we all want to know how you managed that,” Lele said.