Amelia’s shoulders pull back. “What story?”
“That you are not hiding. That you are here by choice. That you are with Derby by choice. That the Kings are not holding you hostage. That you have family here.”
The word family does something to Amelia’s face.
Hope and pain at the same time.
I look away because it feels private.
“We don’t know that yet,” she says.
“No,” Sophie agrees. “But we know enough to let people see you standing beside us instead of being dragged back by him.”
Amelia wraps her arms around herself. “People will talk.”
Sophie’s smile is sad. “People already are.”
That lands.
It lands with me too.
People in Hell and Paradise can spread gossip faster than fire through dry hay. By now, somebody has seen Jeremy at the gate. Somebody knows a woman and kid came in last night. Somebody heard Mike Welles’s name. Somebody has already embroidered the story with sex, blood, ghosts, and a monster sighting for seasoning.
Amelia is already a story.
She just doesn’t control which one.
“What do you want me to do?” she asks.
Sophie glances at me.
No.
I know that look.
“Sophie,” I warn.
“The Fire Pit,” she says.
I close my eyes.
Absolutely not.
Amelia frowns. “The bar?”
“It’s Kings-owned,” Sophie says. “Public enough for gossip. Controlled enough to keep you safe.”
“No,” I say.
Sophie looks at me. “You don’t get a vote.”
“It’s my fake relationship.”
Amelia lifts a brow. “Our fake relationship.”
I point at her. “Don’t team up with her. She wins too much.”
“I’m not going to a bar today,” Amelia says.