Rattle His Cage: The Baxter Boys #4 (The Baxter Boys ~ Rattled)

by Charles, Jane

  I need skin to skin and pull at his shirt. I may have wanted to move slowly with this relationship, but my body has a mind of its own.

  “Hey.” Someone knocks at the door “We’re ordering pizza,” Alex calls.

  We still immediately and look at each other.

  “Shit! I forgot they were out there,” Dylan whispers.

  My face heats. “Me too.” I whisper.

  He rolls away and I sit up, straightening my clothes.

  “Be out in a sec,” Dylan calls then looks at me. “I need a minute,” he whispers.

  I do too but at least my condition isn’t as obvious as his.

  “So, how did you end up with the room with the bath? Master suite.”

  I have to laugh. “Because Mia and Alyssa were afraid they’d end up seeing your naked ass if you had to go pee.”

  He just shakes his head. “So only you’ll be seeing my naked ass.”

  “I hope so.”

  He groans and falls back on the bed. “We better not talk about being naked or I won’t be able to leave this room.”

  “Can I at least think about it?”

  He rolls over and grins at me. “Why? Does it make you moist?”

  “Ewwww.” I push him away and get off the bed. “Well, that certainly killed the mood.” I go to the door and open it, leaving him alone on the bed before going back out into the living room.

  “Where’s Dylan?” Mia asks.

  “Using the bathroom,” I lie.

  Zach snorts. “I give him about five minutes.”

  My face heats. “So, we’re getting pizza?”

  “No. We’re going to the Poison Apple for dinner and drinks,” Alex says.

  I frown at him. “Then why did you say we were getting pizza?”

  “Because, if we didn’t interrupt you, we’d all lose the bet.” He hands the phone to Alyssa. “We’re all invested now.”

  “Give it to me.” I hold out my hands.

  “No way.” Alyssa shoves the phone in her pocket. “It’s bad enough you know what Mia, Kelsey, and I picked. If you know them all, you’ll figure out how to thwart us.”

  “Will not,” I lie.

  Kelsey snorts.

  Zach’s phone dings and he grabs it, then grins. “Zoe picked her date.” He shows it to Alyssa.

  “Oh my God, everyone?”

  He grins.

  “See if I make soup for you again.”

  The smile drops. “Oh, don’t be cruel just because we’re having a little fun.”

  “It was really good soup,” Christian says. “Don’t be mean, Mary.”

  “It was soup!” Geez, you’d think these guys didn’t have an awesome cook living with them.

  “Where are we getting pizza from?” Dylan asks as he comes out of my room.

  “We’re not, loverboy. Grab your coat,” Alex stands.

  He looks at each of his friends who are studying him. “What?”

  “Nothing,” they all say.

  “I’ll tell you later,” I assure him. “And, we’ll have to plan strategically.”

  32

  The Poison Apple isn’t really busy right now and won’t be for a couple of hours, so we pull tables together so there’s plenty of room for all of us to sit together. Zoe, Kate, and Joy are already waiting for us when we get to the bar. Mary and I take a seat at the end of the table while everyone else finds a place.

  “What can I get you?” Joel asks as he comes to the table. He’s a bartender and sometimes bouncer here.

  “Menus,” Alyssa says.

  “No drinks first?” he asks.

  “Fine. I’ll get them.” She gets up from her seat and goes behind the bar. She does bartend here at least four nights a week so she knows her way around.

  Zach counts up the table. “13 glasses and 3 pitchers.”

  “Kind?” Joel asks.

  “Whatever Alyssa says.”

  With that she grabs a pitcher and starts filling it.

  “You know, you can work tonight.”

  “Can’t. I’m moving.”

  “Yeah, I can see that.” He snorts and grabs the menus from the counter. “Only the best greasy bar food in town.” Joel hands them out. “Not that I eat it.”

  I’d be surprised if he or Ian, the other bartender bouncer, even drinks. Former football players that now play rugby, soccer, and work at a gym when not in class studying sports medicine.

  “I’m starving. I don’t think I’ve eaten today.” Mary grabs a menu and starts reading it. “Now, to decide what I want. It all looks so good.”

  “Deep fried looks good?”

  “Duh! Deep fried is the best.”

  Joel starts at our end of the table to take orders as Alyssa brings the last pitcher over.

  “Cheese balls, fried pickle spears, and honey bar-b-cue wings.”

  I just blink at her. “You are going to eat all of that? Together?”

  “I’m making up for the three meals I missed.”

  “It won’t make you sick?” The idea of all that grease makes my stomach churn.

  “What do you want, Dylan?” Joel asks.

  “Irish nachos, full order.” I give Joel our menus and grab glasses for me and Mary.

  She takes a sip and leans back in her chair.

  I pull mine closer and lean in. “So, what do we have to plan strategically?”

  Her face turns red.

  “Come on, it can’t be that bad.”

  “It is now that I’ve cooled off,” she whispers in my ear.

  “I can fix that,” I whisper back. “Get our order to go and head back.”

  “No. Then they’ll know and probably won’t let us leave anyway.” She gestures to my friends around the table.

  “Why? What do they care?”

  “They have bets on when we are going to have sex.”

  I just stare at her. “Seriously?”

  “Yep. Which is why I have the best room because you won’t do anything in your room with your sister down the hall.”

  I hadn’t really given that any thought. Nina is eighteen so sex shouldn’t be a shocking thing to her.

  I shift my glance to my friends, who are talking over each other, like they always do. I can’t believe them. “They really took bets? All of them?”

  “Yep. Alyssa has the dates stored in her phone.”

  Sometimes they are too much. “You guys suck, you know that,” I call out.

  “Only on birthdays and special occasions,” Alyssa winks.

  Boxes are everywhere and nothing is put away. All I want to do is pull the covers back over my head and sleep some more. However, hiding from it isn’t going to make it go away. I’m not Snow White and I don’t have cute birds, bunnies, and chipmunks to call on. Hell, I’m not even the princess from Enchanted with the power to call on the New York rats and pigeons to clean my place.

  With a sigh I push the blankets back and get out of bed.

  The room is closing in on me and it’s not even that small. It’s just full of stuff. Not the messy stuff like how I usually live, but stuff in boxes and I can’t remember what is in what.

  There is no way in hell I’m going to be able to deal with this without a big, really big, cup of coffee. At least I know we have cups out. I just hope I can find a coffee pot.

  I know one is in my kitchen boxes. Who knows what’s in the others. We could end up with three pots, which is fine with me. It’s the best appliance ever invented, next to the Keurig. Which, I will have one day. For now, it’s a twelve-cup pot.

  As soon as I step out of my room the aroma hits. “Nectar of the Gods.” Someone has already made coffee and it smells perfectly strong.

  “Morning sunshine,” Christian greets me.

  “Didn’t you go home?” We got back from The Poison Apple, and Mia and Christian were still talking when I went to bed. He was the only guy who walked back with us. A short, three block walk, which was really nice.

  I think everyone was waiting for Dylan to walk
me home, but we aren’t giving them anything else to talk about. He gave me a quick kiss and headed off to the subway stop with the other guys. Since Christian was walking with us, the guys weren’t really worried about us getting home safe. Besides, it’s a decent area and even if the guys hadn’t been with us, three girls were perfectly safe together.

  “I didn’t realize you spent the night.”

  He pours me a cup of coffee and hands it to me. “Stayed with Mia. Even though she hasn’t been back to her apartment to sleep there, and only to pack yesterday, it’s the first time she’s been in that bed. It put her on edge.”

  “I’m not sure I would have brought it with me.”

  “She was having second thoughts about that last night, after she finally got all of that damn makeup off her face, so I stayed and slept with her.”

  Before we left, Zach had done her makeup and was able to cover most of the bruising around her mouth and beneath her eye. Then, he artistically matched the coloring on both eyelids so that the discoloration turned into matching eye shadow. By the time we left the bar she was really dragging though since she is still dealing with bruised ribs.

  “That’s sweet.”

  “She’s family.” He shrugs. “I worry about her.”

  “I think it’s awesome how all of you guys are so close. I don’t think I’m that close to my younger brothers.”

  “How old are they?”

  “Nineteen and seventeen.”

  “Still at home?”

  “The youngest, John, is in his senior year of high school. Jimmy is at good old West Point.”

  “Family tradition?”

  “Yep!” Then it hits me. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

  Hurrying back to my room, I dig for my phone and come back to the kitchen and take a seat at the marble counter that separates the kitchen from the living area.

  “What?”

  “My stepdad is a major in the army. I wonder if he could do a search for Noah so child services doesn’t have to go through all that red tape.” I type a message to him, then set my phone aside. “I’m so stupid. It didn’t even occur to me to ask him before now.”

  My phone dings and I look down. “Will do search.” Then my phone rings. It’s the Major.

  “Hey Major.”

  “Why do you want to find this guy?”

  I bite my lip and look at Christian, before covering the phone. “He wants to know why,” I whisper.

  “Tell him. Dylan is not going to care if it finds his brother.”

  I just am really uncomfortable talking about other people, but this is important.

  “A friend of mine was separated from his brother when they became foster kids. My friend was twelve and his brother was nine. He’s just found out that his brother may be in the army and would like to connect with him.”

  “I can’t really give information about our servicemen.”

  I sigh with disappointment. I know the rules, but this is important. “He really wants to find his brother.”

  “How old is your friend?”

  It’s just like the major to want more details. “Twenty-four.”

  “The brother?”

  “Twenty-one.”

  “Why hasn’t he looked before?”

  “It’s complicated.” It’s not up to me to tell the Major everything.

  “Are you sure the brother wants to be found or be connected to his brother?”

  “I assume so. He was asking before he enlisted but the social worker said she didn’t know where my friend was.”

  “Look, I’ll try to find the soldier, but I can’t promise anything else right now, but I need a full name and date of birth before I can do anything.”

  “Date of birth and full name. Got it!”

  Christian grabs his phone and starts texting. I assume it’s to Dylan. I would have liked to keep this a secret so Dylan doesn’t get his hopes up in case it fails, but I can’t really do that when I need information.

  33

  My phone dings and I read the message.

  Christian: What’s Noah’s full name and date of birth?

  Me: Why

  Christian: Just tell me

  Me: Noah James White 3/3/95

  Me: Why?

  Christian: Ask Mary

  I text Mary but there’s no response. Then I try to call her and it goes to voicemail.

  Damn.

  I was going to work this morning. Write for a bit while the house is quiet. That’s not going to be possible now.

  Why do Mary and Christian want to know information on Noah?

  After shutting down my laptop, I shove it in my bag, grab my coat, and head out. There is no way I can just sit around waiting for her to call me back. Not about something as important as my brother.

  Christian answers the door when I get there. Apparently he didn’t go home last night. Not that I would have known. I headed up to bed, wishing I would have gone home with Mary, but not on her first night in the new apartment with nosy roommates who would report everything back to our friends.

  Mary is at the counter talking on the phone and Christian pours me a cup of coffee.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Wait until she’s done,” Christian answers.

  “Thanks Major, I’ll tell him.”

  Mary’s grins as she hangs up the phone.

  “What’s going on?” The fact that they are asking about Noah and she was just talking to her stepfather gives me hope. I try and push it down, but it’s impossible.

  “You have a letter to write.”

  I look from her to Christian, who just shrugs, and back to Mary.

  “I don’t know why I didn’t think of it earlier, and I’m sorry for that.” Then she goes on to tell me about her conversation with the Major. I have to admit that I’m really relieved that she brushed over the circumstances of the separation from my family. “He found him, but won’t tell me where he is or how to contact him though.”

  “But he knows where he is?” I ask anxiously.

  “Yes. He told me that if you write a letter to Noah, email it to the Major, he will forward it on to Noah. Then it is up to Noah to decide if he wants to contact you.”

  My heart is about to beat out of my chest. Finally I may be able to talk to my brother!

  “Well?” Christian asks.

  “Well, what?”

  “You got your laptop in that bag, dude. You hardly ever go anywhere without it. Sit your ass down and write a letter.”

  “Yeah.” This may be the most important letter of my life. “What do I say?” All of a sudden I don’t know what to do.

  “I’m sure you’ve rehearsed what you are going to say to your brother once you see him,” Christian says.

  He’s right. I have thought about the reunion. “That was before I knew how Mrs. Hood screwed us over.”

  “Then start with that, or he won’t read anything beyond.”

  Christian is right. I grab my laptop out of my bag and put it on the counter. “The Major is probably going to read this too.”

  “Yep.” Mary shrugs. “He’s protective of the soldiers, even if he’s never met them, so he’s not going to send on something that could hurt Noah in any way.”

  This letter is private and personal, but it’s my one shot. I’m not thrilled that Mary’s stepfather is going to read what I have to say, but it’s a chance I have to take, even if he discourages Mary from seeing me after this.

  “I’ll go start putting my room together while you write.” She kisses me on the cheek and gets up, refills her coffee, and heads to her room.

  I stare at a blank screen, my gut tight and heart pounding.

  Noah,

  First off, Mrs. Hood lied to you. I’ve been trying to find you since I turned eighteen and she always knew exactly where to find me. I just found out that you were told I’d disappeared. I’ve been asking her since I found out you ran away if there was any word and she told me that she hadn’t heard from you. I fin
ally saw the letters in the file. She fucked us both over. And with that, I’m typing away, telling him about my search for him, what has happened to me and what I know about Nina and Jade. All the while, Mary is in her room and Christian is quietly unboxing stuff in the kitchen. He doesn’t say anything. He knows as well as I do how much is riding on this letter.

  I just wish he had someone he could write to. Christian has nobody. At least not a blood somebody. I can’t imagine what that would be like. Not to know who your parents are. Who your siblings are. Where the hell you came from.

  After I finish, I set it aside. I don’t want to send it until I’ve given it some more thought and to make sure I didn’t forget something,or think about different wording. It needs to be perfect.

  “The girls will probably want breakfast. Do they even have food?”

  “Are you done?” Christians asks.

  “First draft.”

  “It’s not a novel,” he points out.

  “No. It’s more important than that.”

  Dylan comes into my room carrying a plate loaded with pancakes. “Breakfast!”

  “Most important meal of the day.” He hands it to me along with a fork and napkin. I settle into the middle of my bed and dig in. I’m dying to know how the letter went. “Are you done?”

  “I just want to read it one more time before sending it.”

  “Major will get it to him, and I’m sure you’ll hear from Noah really soon.” At least, I hope so. “I’m sorry I didn’t think of it before.”

  “Hey, you thought of it and that’s all that matters.” He leans over and kisses my forehead. “Thank you.”

  He sits beside me and looks around. “There’s not much of a dent in here.”

  “It’s not like I even started until this morning.” It’s going to take days if I keep stopping for coffee and food and Dylan. Not that it’s a bad thing. I don’t have any plans until I need to get to class on Tuesday except dinner with Nelson tonight, but by then I’ll probably want a break from this mess.

  “So, where do you want to start?” he gestures to the boxes in the room.

  “No clue! One box at a time, I guess.”