by A. J. Downey
“What do you mean when you say he’s got all of ‘em doing it?” I asked.
Sage rolled his eyes, “He’s like the star quarterback or something. Mr. Popular all the way, he’s got like the entire school making fun of her and doing things to her. It’s stupid.”
I considered him, trying to judge if he was being melodramatic or what, but after searching his oh-so-serious face, I decided even if he was exaggerating it wasn’t by much.
“Why you narcing on your sister?” I asked him finally, and he jerked his head back.
“I’m not. I thought you wanted to know what was up, so you could do something about it.”
I shook my head, “I’m gonna do something about it regardless, but don’t you think if she’d wanted me to know what’s up, she would have told me?”
Sage huffed out a really big sigh, “My sister thinks she’s gotta do all of everything all of the time. She’s turned into a real control freak. She can’t though, can she?”
“Can’t what?”
“Do all of the things all of the time, I mean, no one can do it all alone, can they?”
I shook my head, “I used to think that, but then I met your sister. She does a pretty good job of it, don’t you think?”
“If she does such a good job of it why’s she crying all the time?” he asked.
I shrugged, he had me there, of course, there was also… “Girls are like that,” I said wisely, “They get overwhelmed and sh-stuff, and they melt down and cry it out and before you know it they’re back at it again, stronger and harder than before. Girls are kind of amazing that way. Dudes give up, girls just have a cry and go at whatever’s in front of them again and again and again until they beat it. I ain’t seen nothing like it anywhere else.”
Sage gave me a look like he wasn’t impressed, “Are you saying girls are better than boys?” he asked.
“No, I’m saying girls are different than boys on how they handle things, but the way your sister deals with shi-stuff, yeah, I think she’s better than most guys I know at handling things.”
“Yeah, she kind of is,” Sage agreed, “I’ll totally deny it if you tell her I told you so, though.”
“My lips are sealed, man.”
“You know you’re not so bad,” he said and I laughed.
“You’re not so bad yourself, you just got a lot going on like your sister.”
“Not as much. I’m more of a pain in her –” I gave him a look and he gave me one right back, “ass than I should be.”
“You got an outlaw’s spirit, kid. I can respect that.”
He frowned, “Thanks, I think.”
“You’re welcome,” I said to assure him I’d meant it as a compliment.
“What are we watching first?” he asked.
“Your choice.”
“Batman.”
“Ahh, a DC kind of kid?”
“Not really, Batman is really the only one worth anything out of all of them. Marvel just does comics better.”
“Finally, some common ground,” I muttered and pulled the CD holder out of my coat sleeve. I had it loaded with dvds and Blu-Rays of every superhero movie I could scrounge when this thing had been set up. I’d borrowed heavily out of the club’s library and left post-it notes in every one of the cases on the shelves stating who had the disc if anyone came looking for it.
“We going early 90’s Batman movies first or getting right to the good stuff and the Christopher Nolan directed stuff?”
“Dark Knight all the way,” Sage said.
“My man!”
We were almost all of the way through the third film when Maren came in the front door. Sage and I were chillin’ on the couch in the midst of the wreckage of our popcorn fight and when Maren saw it, she wilted a little more around the edges which looked frayed as it was. I pushed myself to my feet and pulled her over murmuring, “Don’t worry about the mess, I’ll clean it up.”
I pulled her down onto the center cushion and against me, and before five minutes had elapsed on screen, she was breathing deeply and evenly against me; fast asleep.
“Told you,” Sage said simply and I nodded. I think it was a mark of how worried he was about his sister that he was behaving so well for her lately. I was pretty sure, that when Maren was feeling stronger and the outside threat was neutralized, he’d go back to being one serious pain in the ass, but I think the state she was in scared him. He wasn’t entirely alone in that regard. I made it a point, right then and there, to take care of this little problem before she had to go back to school tomorrow.
We went through the last of The Dark Knight trilogy and were into the second Iron Man movie when Maren finally stirred. She pushed off of me, and swept some of the loose tendrils of hair off her face, scrubbing it with her hands and pressing her fingertips into her eyes.
“What time is it?” she asked and Sage answered her.
“Almost time to go to bed.”
“Oh, jeez, I’m so sorry, Nox!” She bit her bottom lip and it was everything not to say fuck it and pull her mouth against mine so I could suck on it for her.
“It’s not a problem. If you’re tired, you’re tired,” I told her with a shrug. I wished I could tell her how good it’d felt to just hold her, warm and close against me, but Sage was here and we were all in this holding pattern of truce that I didn’t exactly want to ruin.
“Why don’t you guys go on and get ready for bed, while I clean up our mess down here,” I suggested. Maren nodded tiredly and Sage looked over his sister. I could tell he wanted to protest, but instead, he impressed me with a compromise.
“If you promise to come back some night this week and watch The Avengers with me, I won’t argue right now.”
Maren stilled and looked at her brother like it was an invasion of the body snatchers or some shit. “I’ll totally do it if only to spare your sister some grief,” I said. Sage held out his fist and I bumped it with my own.
“Thanks, guys. Although why do I feel like this is some axis of evil coming together and that later I’m going to regret not being more suspicious?”
Sage pushed to his feet and stretched, “Bro code prevents us from speaking on it, right Nox?”
“Absolutely,” I said solemnly.
“Later,” Sage called over his shoulder and went for the stairs.
“Later, little man.”
“I’m not little!” he called down and Maren sagged with relief.
“There he is,” she said quietly and I chuckled.
“He’s worried about you,” I said and she looked up at me from beneath her long, dark, lashes. Fuck that was hot.
“Oh yeah?”
“Narced you out cold, the second he opened the door.” I rolled my lips together and eyed her carefully. She suddenly looked nervous and I sighed.
“Maren, this douche is the ringleader of a bunch of kids who are hurting you. That’s not cool and I’m going to deal with it. Now, what is going on?”
She hung her head and put a stray lock of hair behind her ear and the movement was both alluring and fucking heartbreaking with the expression she had on her face. She licked her lips and shifted in her seat and sighed heavily.
“Mostly it’s just things like what you heard on the phone,” she murmured. “A loud, sudden noise followed by a threat, usually of some form of rape. It’s disturbing and disconcerting, and I’ve tried to talk to the faculty about it but they say they can’t do anything unless they see the behavior first hand which, of course, he doesn’t do it in front of them.”
“You’re afraid,” I said and there wasn’t any question about it.
“Yes,” she said, unequivocally. “I’m afraid that he’ll show up here, or that he will catch me alone somewhere at school and make good on his threats.”
“Nope, not going to happen,” I said, and pulled her tight against my chest. I tucked her head beneath my chin and wound my fingers in her silky hair, placing my lips on the top of her head. She melted into the embrace willingly and
it wasn’t but a second or two later she was crying softly into my fuckin’ Henley.
Oh, I was so talking to Duracell when I got back to the club; maybe even Reaver. Minor or not, I think it was time for this kid to get a lesson or two in fear, so he knew what it was like.
“I’ve got you, Angel. Nothin’s gonna happen to you, Baby.” I made soothing noises and held Maren close and thought just about what I was gonna do, because Fuck. This. Shit.
Chapter 14
Maren
“Did you brush your teeth?” I asked my brother and he rolled his eyes at me.
“Did you?” he demanded and I huffed a small laugh.
“On my way, now. You didn’t answer my question, though.”
“I’m not five and you’re not Dad. What, do you want me to come breathe on you?”
“No, just say ‘yes’ and I’m sorry for treating you like you’re five.” I put my hands on my chest, a most sincere gesture. “You’re right, you’re eleven and old enough that if you want to skip brushing your teeth and have your teeth rot out of your head? Well, that’s one decision you’re now forever allowed to make on your own.”
Sage made a grossed out face, “Well when you put it that way,” he said.
“Well, it’s true, just trying to keep you out of the dentist’s chair because we all know how much you love that.”
“Which is why I brushed my teeth already! God, Maren.” He got up and came to his door. “Good night!” he cried and slammed it in my face.
“God grant me the patience…” I muttered and sighed.
I turned around and went into the bathroom to brush my teeth and put my hair into a braid over my shoulder, listening to the vacuum run downstairs as Nox cleaned up his and my brother’s disaster area. Truthfully, I didn’t mind the mess. Especially when Sage seemed almost happy when I’d come home. Equally as honestly, I was grateful that Nox was cleaning it up. I just didn’t have the energy; I was so deeply mentally, and emotionally, exhausted.
I shut off the tap after spitting a final time and rinsed my brush to total silence in the house. When I stood up, I jumped and clapped my hands over my mouth to keep from screaming. Nox frowned at me from over my shoulder in the bathroom mirror.
“Jesus, Angel,” he whispered. “He’s got you jumping at everything.”
“I’m sorry,” I muttered quietly, lowering my hands from my mouth and smoothing over my nightgown. Nox raised an eyebrow, noticing it for the first time. It was black satin and ankle length, clinging to what curves I had, with lace panels just beneath my breasts, along the ribs. Not exactly something I advertise, but I liked to wear nice things to bed. I just usually had a robe on over them. My scruffy, fluffy bathrobe hung on the back of the door, just inside my reach. I tended to have water drip down my arm when I brushed and when it caught the edge of my sleeve, I hated that. It was like tiny wet kisses against my wrist from Satan with how much I detested it.
“I like this,” Nox said softly, and his eyes, for as pale as they were, went dark with a hunger that had nothing to do with food.
I swallowed hard and whispered, “Pumpkins, remember?”
“I do,” he murmured back, but that didn’t stop him from capturing my hand with his and drawing me closer. He lifted my hand to his mouth and turned it, placing his lips softly to the inside of my wrist.
“Everything is cleaned up, downstairs.”
“Thank you,” I murmured, throat tight with the urge I had to just pull myself the rest of the way into his arms and put my lips up against his. The struggle was absolutely real, and I could tell it was for both of us. What I couldn’t tell was if that made things easier or if that made things just that much harder.
“Come on, let an old man tuck you in,” he said, teasing.
“You’re not old,” I murmured and took the last step into his personal space. His hands smoothed over the satin over my hips and he closed his eyes as if committing the feeling of me beneath them to memory.
“This isn’t easy,” he said.
“No, it’s not,” I agreed, my voice strained, and his mouth was on mine. We kissed, and the fact that it was a mutually stolen one, despite our pact to remain chaste until my eighteenth birthday, made it both sweet and forbidden. My heart picked up its pace until it felt as though I’d been running, even though I stood perfectly still.
Nox pulled back first, though it was reluctantly, and stared into my eyes from inches away. I closed mine, unprepared for the sheer magnitude and intensity of that look, and he backed off a step. The air suddenly seemed breathable again, the sexual tension backing off, alleviating suddenly with the empty space between us.
“I’m sorry,” I uttered and slipped past him into the hall.
“I’m not,” he whispered. “Still have to watch myself, though.”
“You aren’t the only one.”
He slipped into my bedroom before me and pulled back the blankets on my bed for me. I went to the jewelry box that’d been gifted to me for Christmas, and opened it, I bit my lip gently and pulled out the spare house keys. I turned to Nox and held it out to him.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“Someone should have them, in case something happens… You’re the only one I trust enough to give one to. Plus, if you’re up here with me, and plan on tucking me in, you need to have the ability to lock up. Right?”
He laughed softly and plucked the keys from my fingers. I sat on the edge of the bed and he bent, lifting my feet onto it the rest of the way as if it were a long practiced motion, and perhaps it was. He pulled the blankets to my chin and kissed my forehead before going and turning out the light. I felt cherished; warm and safe for the first time all week. It surprised me when he came back over, rounding the bed and sitting on top of the covers. He laid down behind me and pulled me back against him, the thick comforter and blankets separating us.
“What are you doing?”
“Holding you until you fall asleep.”
“Oh…”
“Would you rather I not?” he asked softly, a hint of amusement in his voice.
“No… I mean yes! It’s nice, keep doing it please.”
He chuckled softly and laid a kiss behind my ear, “Sleep, Angel. There’s no bad here. Not while I’m on watch.”
I closed my eyes and it was true, there was nothing that could hurt me when Nox was around. I believed wholeheartedly that he would do anything to protect me. Both me and Sage. I melted back into his warmth and embrace and I slept; sad, that once again, he would be gone when I woke. I liked this, probably way more than I should. I mean if anyone found out, there would be no way they would believe that nothing had ever happened sexually between us. I didn’t want him to get in trouble. I didn’t want them to take my brother for poor judgment on my part, but I was simply too tired to resist the sirens call of the safety of Nox’s arms.
Chapter 15
Nox
Maren’s alarm went off, waking us both.
Shit!
Maren’s alarm went off, waking us both!
I was still on top of the covers, Maren snug beneath them and still snug in the cradle of my body, her phone screeching that it was time to wake up. She reached a hand out from beneath the quilt on her bed and pulled it off the nightstand, silencing it.
“Morning, Angel,” I murmured and she froze.
“Holy shit, you’re still here!” she whispered harshly.
“I think I fell asleep,” I muttered.
“This is not good! What about Sage?”
“Shit, uh, he up yet?” The toilet flushing across the hall said that yep, the kid was up.
I rolled off the bed, and onto the floor and stayed there, frozen to the hardwood and area rug beneath Maren’s bed.
“Morning, Sage!” she called out.
“Whatever;” was his grumpy sleepy reply. His door shut and I sat up, pushing quietly to my feet. I brushed my lips against Maren’s who was trying like hell not to laugh, and I slipped downstairs grabbing my jacke
t and cut off the hook by the front door and slipped outside. I pushed my bike down the frozen pavement for like half a block before getting on it.
My phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out to look.
Maren: OMG that was close!
Me: Sorry, Angel. Didn’t mean to fall asleep. Try 2 have a good day at school. U work tonight?
Maren: Yes, I do.
Me: Ok, B careful.
Maren: You too. Call me later?
Me: U know it.
Maren: XoXo
Me: :)
I fired up the bike which was cranky about the cold; the brisk as fuck ride better than any cup of coffee at waking my ass up. It being Monday, I had the day off. It was my Sunday, and I had some shit to do. I felt guilty as fuck that Maren was going to have to go through the wringer at least one more time, but I really needed to talk to Cell and Reaver. They were the best men for the job when it came to putting the fear of God, the devil, and anything and everything in between, into a man.
As luck would have it, Cell and Blue were throwing their shit into the back of their pickup when I pulled up into the club’s lot, I pulled up right behind their massive cage and pulled the bandana off my face, calling out: “Hey Cell! You got some time for me later tonight, brother?”
Cell raised one of his ginger eyebrows at me and said, “Yeah, man. Be back around seven; that cool?”
“Yeah, gonna try and get Reave’s help with it, too.”
“Now I really wanna know what’s up,” he said and Blue nodded deftly from across the bed of the truck, curiosity written all over his expressive face.
“See you at seven,” I said and got out of their way. I needed to get into a hot shower and phone up Reave.
***
“Okay, where’s the fuckin’ fire at?” Reaver asked dropping into a seat at my table out in the barroom. Duracell dropped into the one across from Reaver’s and I leaned forward.