Page 21 of Sapphire

“No? Well, you just remember everything we’ve been through. What we had to do alone.” Okay, that may not be fair, but I’m pissed.

Pissed that our mom showed up out of the blue, and now Mika will get her hopes up. My hopes have been dashed far too many times for anything to be believable anymore. Mika is still young, and while she’s had her world ripped right out, she hasn’t carried the torture of worrying about how to make things right when you don’t know what the fuck you’re doing.

“I’m so sorry,” Mom says, and now I feel like an asshole. “I wasn’t a good mom. Heck, I didn’t deserve to have kids, but to get another chance, even a small one, you don’t know what that would mean for me.”

She looks pained, and it tugs at my heartstrings. Despite what people may think, I do have a heart buried deep inside.

I swallow hard. “I’m out,” I reply, tossing my napkin in the middle of the table. “I can’t do this.”

Mika’s eyes go wide and glassy, like she might cry. If she wants to be sucked in by this woman again, I can’t exactly stop her.

“Alexander!” Mom and Mika call at the same time, but I can’t.

I won’t put myself through this again.

Not for anything.

CHAPTER 9

SAPPHIRE

“Sweet Mother of All Things Holy,” Ruby says as I grab the surveyor by the scruff of the neck and yank him backward.

He’s a puny little man, a pen pusher, but regardless, I’ll fuck him over.

“What the fuck are you doing on our land?” I demand as he squirms like a fish caught on a hook.

He waves his arms frantically. “I, I…”

I shake him again. “Spit it out, we haven’t got all day.”

“There’s been a m-misunderstanding,” he stammers. “I must’ve crossed the boundary without realizing it.”

“The hell you did,” Jade puts in. “There’s a fence right here. You just trespassed by accident?”

“You’re working for Lanzetti, aren’t you?” I fire at him, already knowing the answer.

Diamond has suspected spying for the last few weeks after the enclosure was cut on the east point of the property. The horses were spooked. Then our clubhouse gate was vandalized.

We know they’re trying to psych us out, but it isn’t going to work.

He gulps, clearly not expecting a bunch of chicks to make him shit his pants. I guess it sucks to be him.

His face reddens, and he begins to sweat. The badge on his jacket reveals his name is Greg.

“Now, don’t give yourself a heart attack,” Ruby says. “You’d best be outta here before things get ugly.”

“What? You think we should just let him go?” I challenge. It’s all for show, to scare him. Ruby is as old school as I am. “Some of the wells run deep around here, Greg. It’s not like you’d be missed.”

“I-I have a family,” he bleats. “It was a mistake, p-please.”

I tug him harder. “Just tell us if Lanzetti sent you. That’s all we want to know.”

“That is, unless you want to be shipped off to the Gulf of Mexico?” Jade taunts. “It can be arranged, us Stilettos are resourceful when we need to be.”

No truer words have been spoken.

“Girls?” Dustin says, sidling up on his horse, Mustang. “What’s going on?”