“That it is,” she said. “I’m quite proud of us. Mostly me. But also us. How are you feeling? Still ready to break some faces?”

Nicole scoffed. “No. I’m a little less mad with each passing second.”

Once they joined the party, everyone scattered to the four corners, essentially. Ethan and Olive sat with Nicole, answering her questions about Jewel’s offer because she didn’t trust herself to talk to Jewel directly yet.

Luna had already accepted but hadn’t signed yet, thanks to Stella ripping the pen out of her hand and ordering her to let Lloyd look at the contract first. She and Alex had decided to make the rounds, introducing themselves to each staff member. Luna wanted to make sure she knew everyone’s name.

“It’s a good deal,” Nicole continued. “She’s really giving us everything. I can’t stand the sight of her right now, but I also can’t ignore how generous this is. I wish she didn’t feel like it was necessary to manipulate us all to get us here.”

“I don’t feel manipulated. We had to agree to play. We had a choice. We could’ve walked away at any time, but we didn’t and we won,” Luna, ever the optimist, said. “Didn’t you guys have fun? I did. I mean, the guns weren’t fun at all. Neither was breaking my arm. Hmm.”

“It definitely wasn’t all bad,” Nicole said, voice a bit too dreamy for the conversation. Stella followed her gaze to Francis, who had seemingly put himself in charge of keeping Harlow company.

“I object.”

“Sustained.” Nicole giggled. “Sorry.”

“Anyway. Stella,” Luna said. “We wanted to ask you something.” She looked to Nicole, who nodded.

“Luna and I have been talking. After we sign, Golden Chaos will officially be our company. We don’t have a plan or structure or anything more than vague ideas about what we’re gonna do, but we realized, again, that it’ll be our company. Meaning we can hire whoever we want.”

“It’s time for a new era of leadership on Golden Rule,” Luna said. “The Crayola Quintet.”

“And there’s just no way we could do this without our Quicksilver and our Assassin.”

“And Alex,” Luna added. “He’s going to help too. And also my sister because legally she has to sign the contract with me. It’ll be like a family business.”

Stella had to laugh, because if she didn’t, she would cry, and she never cried. She’d convinced her parents to let her come to Golden Weekend in order to be a part of the Beauregard family business, and now, she was leaving with a second one. “Well,” she said, truly happy for the first time in a very long time. “How could I possibly say no to that?”