Page 193 of Merciless

Part of me expected Letty to try and gouge Alana’s eyes out for the shit she pulled.

But instead, they actually had a decent, honest, and what Letty probably thought was a private conversation.

In truth, the three of us sat and watched it on the sixty-inch TV in the living room that, thankfully, Reid had put back together after his little temper tantrum the other night.

Neither of us has mentioned it. What’s the point in doing so? The issue is more than obvious. He wants her and I got her first.

It must be a real shock for Reid Harris not to come first, but I refuse to feel bad for him.

Yes, there might be plenty of shit in his life, but it wasn’t so long ago that all I could see was that he had everything and I had nothing. I might have learned the truth since, but I’ll still grab onto any kind of win I can get.

“I’m not sure they’ll ever be best friends but yeah. It could have been worse,” Reid agrees as he stirs one of his signature dishes.

I swear, in another life, the man could have been a famous chef. He is that fucking good.

The rich spices of his curry fill the air and make my stomach growl.

“I don’t think either are in the market for a new BFF anyway. Letty never belonged here, and Alana… I dunno. I don’t see her as the kind of woman who has a lot of girlfriends.”

“Does she have any friends?” he asks seriously.

My lips part to respond, but I quickly find that I don’t have any answers.

“No, I didn’t think so. Her sole person in life is Mav, isn’t it?”

My heart aches for her. What was her life like before she found herself here if she only has one person in her corner?

“Yeah, I think so. Do you remember when they got married?” I ask, trying to think back.

“Not really.”

“One day she didn’t exist and the next she was his wife.”

“Yeah,” he agrees.

“But didn’t she leave to go and live with her mom and sister?”

“That was the story,” he mutters.

“The story? You mean, you don’t believe it?”

“Back then, sure. I didn’t have a reason to question it. But now? No, I don’t believe a fucking word of it.”

No. Neither do I.

My stomach growls loudly as Reid adds something else to his curry and then grabs some plates. Thankfully, he still has enough left after Letty’s butter fingers last night that left more than a few shattered plates all over the floor.

“Go and get her,” he suddenly says, shocking the shit out of me.

“W-what?” I stutter, barely able to believe what I’m hearing.

“Get her up here, get her out of her comfort zone, and let’s see what we can find out.”

“You want her to eat with us?”

“Yeah.”

I hesitate, not believing him.