“This is all my fault.” I said. “I overheard all of this stuff that’s happening to you because of me, and if you need me to leave, I’ll understand. I’ll go without questions. I hate that I’m the reason you’re suffering.”
Dante stared back at me and both Apollo and Asher remained quiet. It was as though I could hear them realizing that my leaving was the best option after all.
I nodded my head. “I understand. Please just give me a little time to pack up my things, and I can leave at night so no one sees me.”
“Sad–” Dante started.
“No, you can’t go!” Asher yelped and I was shocked. My throat got tight at the look of desperation on his face. “We’re the closest we’ve ever been because of you. There’s no way in hell I’m letting you go. You’re the glue holding us together. You’re not going anywhere.” After he ended his exclamation, he looked around the room as though he was looking for who actually said the words that had spewed from his lips.
He looked back at me and nodded, cementing his emotions. He pulled me into a tight hug that he ended with a kiss that he started to get lost in until he remembered where he was and who was present and released me. He looked at Dante with a nervous look on his face, but Dante just looked amused back at him and then turned his gaze to me.
“I couldn’t have said it better myself,” Dante said with a grin. “We’ll figure this out, but any option where you aren’t here isn’t an option.”
Relief galloped through me. I didn’t want to go. I was willing to, to protect them, but if they wanted me to stay, then I was more than happy to.
“What will we do though?” Apollo said.
“Yeah, how do we make something like this better?” I added.
Asher crossed his arms in contemplation. “I don’t know. The only thing that ever trumps a scandal is a bigger one.”
The words Jordan and Jada had said to me rang through my mind. “That’s it,” I said. “The only thing that ever trumps a scandal,” I repeated with a sly smile, “is a bigger one.”
Asher
Sadie was all over the news. She’d been in and out of the house with all of them at different times in the past two days, not giving a damn who saw them. Just when they expected all the media coverage to get the best of her and expecting that she was going to want to stay in the house, she said that she wanted to go all together to get lunch at the most popular lunch in the city. She wanted Dante to call and have the place shut down just for them, something he did immediately upon her asking.
“If they want news, let’s give it to them,” she said, with a look of determination on her face.
We all went out to the popular Italian restaurant in three of the fanciest cars in our fleet. We were trying to draw attention. Dante and Sadie arrived together in one, Kane and Brix in one, and Apollo and I in the last one. As we pulled up, the street was lined with paparazzi. News of the most popular restaurant in all of Chicago being shut down for the ‘Mobster Whore’ was enough to bring out everyone. We got out and Sadie immediately hooked herself to Dante, clearly promoting the romance between them. Apollo and I flanked them on either side, and Kane and Brix stood just behind us as the guards they were, staring down the reporters with thick intimidation.
A single reporter managed to get his mic through the crowd and grabbed Sadie’s attention. “Sadie, are the rumors true?”
Sadie turned, looked at him, and grinned broadly. “They are.” Cameras started to flash and more questions started to fly from the crowd. “I’m not going to apologize for loving all five of these men, so why would I hide it? To all who are judgmental, go ahead and cast the first stone. I promise you, I’m not thinking about you as much as you are me.” She gave Dante a quick kiss and then turned her attention away from the cameras.
Beneath a litany of questions and pictures, we entered the restaurant and enjoyed our lunch in solitude, with the restaurant’s bodyguards keeping everyone at bay outside. By the time we got back to Dante’s the news was already abuzz with Sadie’s shocking confession, but people weren’t nearly as negative as they had been before. When there was room to guess what we were doing, everyone could assume the worst, but with Sadie having embraced our lifestyle publicly, there was no room left for extravagant accusations. Her plan had worked.
We cracked open a bottle of wine and started to celebrate Sadie’s brilliance. The more she drank the looser she got, and she was going around kissing us each, and taking sneaky moments to feel us all up, until she finally stood in front of all of us with her cheeks a delectable red color.