“Delaney didn’t find you,” I said, watching from my place upon the kitchen counter as Angelica stiffened. “You found him.”

The words were spoken like a statement, but there was a clear question in my eyes. Angelica peeked at me meekly, looking through the hair that’d once again been straightened to fall to her chin. I knew she understood what I was asking, but she pretended as if she didn’t, turning back to the dishes in front of her and forcing a shaky smile.

“Are you hungry?” she asked. “We haven’t had dessert in a while. I can make you cookies—“

“Are you in love with Delaney?”

Angelica shut her eyes, gently reaching out to turn the faucet off. 

“What is making you think such things?”

“Are you, Dove?”

I brandished the pet name like a weapon and, judging by Angelica’s flinch, she surely felt the sting. It was a fitting nickname for the girl, but I couldn’t help the way it bought my blood up to a simmer. I couldn’t forget where the nickname had come from.

“Lamb…” Her words trailed, her fingers tightening from where they were clutching the edge of the counter. She had yet to open her eyes. “No, I’m not in love with Delaney.”

“But you were.”

“…I don’t know if that was love.”

Angelica finally turned to face me, moving so she was standing between my thighs, hesitantly placing her hands where my hips met my waist. She didn’t look me directly in the eyes, but she looked somewhere close. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to close my legs around her or shove her away. Truly, experiencing her touch was like reaching blindly for a rose, unsure if your skin will meet wicked, prickling thorns or innocent, delicate petals. 

“Please don’t be upset with me,” Angelica pleaded, voice still so faint. Scared, even, and where I once might have enjoyed the sense of power that fear would have given me, now it just felt gross. “I didn’t know any better. I didn’t know who he was or what he would be.”

“You lost a baby,” I said. I paused, let the words linger in the air as I reached out to place a hand on Angelica’s shoulder only to let the appendage drop back to my side a second later. I swallowed, lowering my voice. “Was it his?”

Angelica ducked her head and, when she spoke, her voice was a tremor of a sound. “I’m… not certain.”

“Did you enjoy sleeping with Delaney at first?”

“Lamb, please. Why are you asking these things?”

“I just want to know who you truly are.”

“I’m exactly who you think I am.”

“You have no idea what I think of you.”

“I trust you,” Angelica begged me to understand. “I trust you so please…”

I stared at her for a long time, taking in the distress scattered across her face, the slight quivering of those beautiful, brown eyes, and decided it didn’t matter. Caring the grudges of the past never did anything for anyone, just a weight to bear with every already leaden step through life. Inhaling deeply, my arms were wrapped around Angelica’s shoulders before the movement of my arms could even catch up with the signals of my brain. I pulled her close, leaning my cheek against her throat.

“You smell good,” I whispered. 

Angelica fidgeted some at the wisps of breath caressing her neck, but she didn’t dare pull away. She smiled a little but there were tears in the beds of her eyes. 

Angelica hugged me back even tighter.

“I’m going to kill Delaney, Angelica.”

The words were a promise as well as an invitation for Angelica to take part in.

“I know, Lamb.”

“Will it hurt you?”

“Would you want that?” Angelica pulled back some to stare me in the eyes, still so close that I could feel the warmth of her breath against my lips. “To hurt me, I mean?”

“No.” 

It came out somewhat strained, my heart beating against the cage of my chest like a trapped bird, frantic and wild.

“Okay.” Angelica smiled wider. “I’m glad.” 

“Will you help?”

The answer didn’t really matter to me. I’d be satisfied either way as long as Delaney’s death was the result, but I needed to know what she’d say. How much she cared about me and how much she cared about Delaney. I needed to know where the boundaries of our alliance were drawn, exactly where her loyalties lay. 

Angelica curled a hand around my head to cradle my hair, burying her fingers into the mound of strands and leaning her forehead on my shoulder.

“Of course,” she said. 

“Always?”

“Always.”