Redeemed: Bad Blooded Rebel Series #4 (2 page)

I
shook hands and bumped fists with everyone before we all took our seats and
placed our orders. “This is a cute place, Ev,” Sadie said to Everleigh. “How
did you find it?”

Everleigh
smiled at Sadie and said, “Ryder did, actually. We’ve been going to the gun
range every day this past week and we happened to spot it when we were walking
down the street one day. You know Mexican food is his favorite so we stopped in
and we’ve been back every day since then.”

“Well,
these chips and this salsa are fucking to
die
for,” she said, picking up
a chip and scooping a big amount of salsa onto it before shoving it into her
mouth. I had to laugh at her. Sadie Cavanaugh looked like a little punk rock
princess with her long light blonde hair that had pieces of hot pink and purple
all through it…it reminded me of when Everleigh used to do that to her hair.
She still had the same piece of red in her dark hair that she had when I came
to Muncie a little over a month ago, but it was faded out into a dull red color.
I made a mental note to take her to a salon for a day of pampering so she could
get her hair done and have someone wait on her for a change.

Everleigh
grinned at Sadie as she took a long drink of Jude’s beer and belched loudly.
Beau shoved her playfully and said, “Jesus, Sadie, where did I go wrong with
you? You’re disgusting sometimes, kid.”

“Fuck
off, bro,” she said, sticking her tongue out at him.

Jude
put his arm around her neck and pulled her in to his arm and rubbed her head
with his hand. “Hey, leave her alone. She’s going to make some lucky bastard
happy one day, trust me. There is nothing sexier in the world than a woman that
can drink and burp like a man.”

Sadie
giggled and I thought I saw her cheeks turn slightly pink. “See? Thank you
Jude,” she said, moving out of his grip. “Oh yeah, and if you mess with my hair
again, friend or not I’ll fucking cut you.”

Everyone
laughed at her and Jude held up his hands in surrender. “Whatever you say,
brat,” he said and she winked at him.

Our
food came to the table a short time later and we all dug in. The food was
amazing and I was going to miss this place when we had to leave New York. I
pulled Everleigh closer to me and kissed her cheek as she took a bite of her
enchilada. “Love you, gorgeous.”

She
let out a little sexy sigh and said, “I love you too, rock star.” Clearing her
throat, she tapped her beer bottle with her fork. “Hey, everyone, can I have
your attention for a minute?”

Everyone
turned to her and smiled, waiting for her to speak. “Of course, sweetheart,”
Beau said. His eyes flicked to Danni for a brief moment before he looked back
at Everleigh.

She
stood up and placed her arm on my shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “I asked Ryder
to call you all here today for two reasons. The first one was that I wanted to
spend an afternoon out of the penthouse or the studio with my family. I love
you all and given everything that’s going on right now I am happy that you are
all here,” she said, emotion clearly in her voice.

Jessie
raised her beer to her and said, “We love you too, Ev.”

Everleigh
winked at her and continued, “The second reason I wanted you all here was to
apologize to you.”

Jude
took a swig of his beer and said, “Why do you need to apologize, sis?”

“Let’s
be honest. I have been either a raging bitch or an emotional wreck this past
week since Trish’s death. I’ve had trouble sleeping, I’ve been crabby and a
brat over having to carry a gun, and just plain tense over the fact that Scott
is still out there. Every one of you has been patient with me and let me rant
and rave and cry and I just wanted to let you all know that I appreciate it
more than I can say.”

Kris
cleared his throat and said, “Everleigh, Trish was like the mother you never
had, we all know this. It wouldn’t be normal for you to act any other way. I
think I can speak for all of us when I say that we love you and we have your
back no matter what. If that fucker wants to get at you he will have a wall of
pissed off rockers and three scrappy bad ass girls to get through first. I
wouldn’t want to be the dumb fuck that tries to cross Sadie’s path.”

Sadie
puckered her lips, trying to make a scary face, and raised her arms up like she
was flexing her muscles. “Damn fucking right, brother,” she said. “I’d rip his
balls off first, I don’t fucking play around.”

Everleigh
laughed at her and said, “Oh I know it, girl.” She had been worried at first
that Sadie would hate her for having to come to New York from Chicago while during
her final semester of college but she didn’t. She was incredibly pissed that
Everleigh had been going through this shit with Scott so she was more than
willing to get on a plane and come here and had loved Everleigh from first
sight. We all wanted her close to keep her safer, but Sadie wanted to get a few
swings in on him. Beau and Sadie had to watch their mother jump from man to man
after their father left when Sadie was a baby. Every loser their mother ended
up with would not only beat her up, but would often turn on Beau and Sadie as
well. Beau was able to eventually fight back and protect his sister but it was
hard when we signed our deal and had to leave Sadie behind. She had to learn
fast at fourteen years old how to defend herself against any kind of abuser and
she’d taught herself well. She might be tiny but she could hit as hard as John
could. We all loved her like the sister that none of the rest of us had and
would protect her with our lives, but she really didn’t need our muscle at all.
Sadie Cavanaugh was not a girl to fuck with by any means.

“Anyway,”
Everleigh continued, “I just wanted to say one more time that I’m sorry I’ve
been a mess and whatever happens with this whole Scott thing,” she paused, “I
just want to say that I love each and every single one of you. You are the best
friends I could have ever asked for and I will do whatever I have to do to keep
you all safe just like you’ve done for me.”

Danni
was dabbing tears from her eyes and Jessie sniffed. Everyone looked at
Everleigh with nothing but love on their faces and without speaking, we all
raised our drinks. “For you…and for Trish,” Jude said, looking up and giving a
nod.

“To
Trish,” Everleigh said, choking back tears and we all took a drink of our
beers. “Okay, enough with the heavy for a moment. We have one last seriously
important topic to discuss and we can’t continue anything until we get it
settled.”

Jude
cocked his eyebrow and said, “And what would that be, Miss Everleigh?”

She
smiled and said, “Sadie’s twenty-first birthday of course. We have to plan a
party!”

Sadie
smiled and said, “Aww, Ev, that’s really sweet, but I think given the situation
we can just do something once this all blows over. As long as I have you guys
with me that day that’s all I need.”

Danni
shook her head and said, “No way, girl. I’m with Ev here. Your twenty-first
birthday is a huge deal and I don’t want you to miss out on anything.”

Beau
said, “You girls are sweet to want to do this, but-”

“But
nothing, Beau. We all need to have some fun and if we have to call in the National
Guard to protect us while we are out then that’s what we will do. I’m not
taking no for an answer on this,” Everleigh said.

Sadie
smiled and said, “You heard the lady, big brother. Looks like we’re going out
on my birthday.”

Danni
smiled and said, “Okay, so where are we going?”

“Well,
I’ve wanted to check out Shadow since I got to the city. They always have a
kick ass band playing there and we’d get to dance our asses off,” Sadie said.

“Then
that’s where we will go. You guys coming with us?” Everleigh asked.

“Uh,
we’re not exactly going to let you all go anywhere alone right now, gorgeous,”
I said, placing my hand on the small of her back and rubbing it.

She
took her seat again and took another bite of her food, looking a little more
alive. “Good, because I think you boys need to get out too. Love you,” she
said, leaning in and kissing me.

“Love
you too, Evie,” I said, losing myself in her eyes for a moment before we
continued our lunch with the family.

Everleigh

“This
food was so good,” Sadie said, leaning back and patting her stomach and
sighing. She reached for her wallet and said, “How much did my food cost?”

I
held up my hand and said, “Don’t even think about it, girl. Lunch is on me
today.”

“What?
Um, you did see me eat, right? Between me and Jude we were probably half your
bill right there,” Sadie said, patting Jude on the arm.

Jude
nodded and said, “She’s right, sis. Think this through.”

I
shook my head and nudged Ryder’s arm. “Trust me, I’ve got this. I invited all
of you out so lunch is on me. Or Ryder, I don’t know. Depends on how you look
at it.”

He
sighed and smiled. “You are just dying to get rid of that tip I left you back
in Muncie, aren’t you?”

“Every
last penny, rock star,” I said, pulling the money out of my back pocket.
Leaving every single bit remaining of the one thousand dollar tip he left me, I
smiled and sighed from somewhere deep. “Are we all ready to go?”

Everyone
nodded and thanked me for lunch. As we all stood and got our coats on, Rico
came back into the banquet room. “You all leaving?”

I
nodded and smiled at him. I leaned in and kissed his scruffy cheek. “Thanks for
everything, Rico,” I said, and we all walked out of the restaurant. I looked
back at him one last time and smiled as he picked up the money, which was about
eight hundred dollars more than our total bill. Rico looked up at me and our
eyes met as he smiled a bright smile at me. “You’re welcome,” I mouthed to him
as we left La Cantina.

The
next four days passed in a blur. There was still no sign of Scott anywhere and
he hadn’t contacted me again since the day he sent me the picture of Trish’s
dead body to the penthouse. Ryder and the guys finished their album and we were
planning on leaving New York and going back to Muncie within the next week.
Ryder had also insisted on still taking me to the gun range every day to
practice my shooting. I know he wanted me to be able to protect myself but I
hated every part of holding that gun in my hands. If I had to end up using it
that would make me no better than Scott.

The
best part of the past few days was other than going to the gun range, I had
completely immersed myself in plans for Sadie’s birthday party. We’d planned on
going out to a nice dinner before hitting Shadow. I planned for us all to have
a great night and to dance our cares away for a few hours. I couldn’t wait to
give Sadie the gift I’d gotten for her. I bought her a sexy dress and heels to
wear out on her birthday. We’d been out shopping and she’d eyed a black sequin
dress that cut low in the back, but she didn’t get it because she was more of a
jeans and tee shirt kind of girl. I thought she’d look beautiful in it so I
found some stiletto heels that would match it and bought her the whole outfit.

It
was now Sadie’s birthday and Ryder’s gift to her was to send not just her, but
Danni, Jessie, and myself to the salon for a day of pampering. We all had
manicures, pedicures, full makeup, and our hair done whatever way we wanted. It
would have been more relaxing if we didn’t have our own protection detail
following us all day, but as long as we were safe that was all I cared about.

We
had just finished up at the salon and we were back at the penthouse, getting
dressed and admiring our new looks. Danni had added some chestnut colored
lowlights to her honey blonde hair and wore it down in soft loose curls. Jessie
just had her long layers trimmed but had the stylist give her long bangs and
just had a clear color put on her natural soft brown hair to make it shiny.
Sadie touched up her pink and purple highlights in her snowy blonde hair and
had her hair curled as well, wanting a different style for the night than her
usual straight style.

I
had kept my hair the same but had the dead ends cut off and I had the stylist
retouch my little pop of color I usually did. This time I added pink to my hair
and smiled when I saw it. The contrast of pink with my natural black hair was
so cute and I hope that Ryder loved it.

Sadie
loved her dress and she looked so sexy in her new outfit, as did Danni and
Jessie. I wanted to have fun tonight and Ryder and I hadn’t slept together
since we had our little romp in the bathroom at The Rock Steady the week
before, so I wanted to look sexy for him tonight. I wore a tight purple
sequined top, a tight black mini skirt, and I topped the look off with a pair
of thigh high leather boots. I stepped out of the bathroom to the spare room
Danni had been staying in and held my arms out. “What do you all think?”

Their
mouths dropped open and Sadie said, “I think that Ryder’s cock is going to bust
the zipper in his jeans when he sees you, girl.”