Page 53 of The Coldest: Stay Dangerous Part 2

Nan peeks into my empty cup and then gestures for it. “Rico is sending me away. I’ll see you in a couple weeks.”

I hand her the cup and nod. She washes them both out then leaves them in the sink.

“For what it’s worth, I hope I’m wrong about you, Wynter Snow. I hope you’re stronger than you act.” Her gnarled fingers tap my arm before she shuffles away.

When I turn to watch her go, my breath stalls. How long was he standing there? Did he hear our whole conversation?

He only has eyes for Nan, who ignores him completely. He watches her until I hear her room door close, then disappears down the hallway as well, slamming his own door.

Yep. Definitely heard everything.

Rico

My cousin tells me I’m very lucky. I passed my eye exam, and my cornea’s intact.

The very pink cut slices my eyebrow in two. There’s a small indent at the bottom of my eye socket, too. My other cousin told me to pick the scab and apply ointment on it so that it heals with minimal scarring, but I don’t know.

I think I look pretty bad ass. Like a real villain.

Luney as fuck.

I hook my new tongue ring in between my teeth as I place more ointment on my scar. Miele tsks as she folds her arms behind me.

“Now that you’re marked, can we get matching tattoos? You have no excuse now.”

I quit biting my tongue ring to grin at her in the mirror. “What would we get?”

“Belize. Duh. Or a palm tree for your precious Kenton.”

“Nah, Miele. That’s birch trees,” Reno chuckles. “His gang got birch trees, not palm trees.”

I turn and dap up our other cousin before Reno, Miele and I leave his office. He’s a doctor in Corozal, in addition to the hotel, but we’ve got business at the airstrip so we decided to see him there.

“I’on know about tattoos. Piercings are different, and you know I ain’t volunteer for this cut.”

“Nope, Wynter Snow got yo ass good,” Reno cackles as we climb into his SUV. “Still can’t believe she’s still breathing. Easiest fifty bucks I ever lost.”

“She’s still alive because they’re in love,” Miele swoons, making our cousin gag.

“Miele–”

“It’s true, Reno. I have a sixth sense about these things. Remember I predicted Drew and Alice getting married?”

“Because you saw them fucking by the chicken coop in broad daylight. Obviously he was gonna knock her up.”

Reno and I both laugh while Miele folds her arms and pouts as she looks out the window.

“I let Snow live because we got history, but that don’t mean I’m in love with her.”

Miele cuts her eyes at me, moving her choppy bangs out of her face. “You two wouldn’t know what love is even if it hit you in the face, or in your case, cut you with a shard of glass. I know what I see.”

“You love thinking you live in fairytales, ChiChi. This is real life.” Reno’s voice comes out softer, but for once, I don’t know who it’s for.

It’s easy to say for Miele, since he used her childhood nickname, but then again, these last few months we’ve had Snow as a guest, I’ve seen how he’s warmed up to her.

How everyone has warmed up to her.

Including Nan. Especially Mars.