by Heather Long
Yeah, I shoved that thought out of my mind and dropped into a chair with my phone and sent a message off to Kestrel.
He didn’t answer, but then he was probably at the shop. If it was loud there, he wouldn’t hear his phone. I let Rome know Freddie seemed to have turned the corner.
Rome: Good.
One word, but better than nothing. Still…
Me: How is Dove?
The response was slow coming.
Rome: Beautiful.
I chuckled. Well, she was that. Exhaustion wore at me, but I fought it off until a freshly showered and wearing clean clothes Jasper returned to the room. He had pillows and a sleeping bag with him. Rather than find a room, he just set up on the hard tile floor.
We’d certainly slept on worse.
“I don’t want to start anything,” Jasper said slowly. “But you need to know something.”
I waited.
“I’m not letting her go.” He glanced at me, and I raised my brows. “To you. To Doc. To anyone. I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want her.”
“And if she doesn’t want you?” I kept the challenge out of my voice because now wasn’t the time.
“She does,” he said slowly, but in a tone that held a hell of a lot more confidence in himself than I had. “I kissed her. She kissed me back.”
Fuck.
“You’re my brother…” he began, but I shook my head.
“I’m not backing off,” I informed him. “You aren’t the only one who cares and has cared for a long time.” She was in my blood and already embedded deeper in my skin than any ink I used. “If I were a wagering man, I’d say Doc isn’t going to retreat either.”
Because in all the years since he came back and Raptor got sent up, Doc hadn’t once challenged Jasper the way he had today.
“If we’re calling dibs on Boo-Boo,” Freddie mumbled in a raw voice, “count me in.”
It wasn’t a joke and it shouldn’t be funny, but I wasn’t the only one who looked at Freddie with real relief, and Jasper actually laughed.
“It’s about time you woke your ass up,” Jasper said, and Freddie groaned.
“I’m a burrito, Hawk. I’m going to lay like broccoli. My head is splitting.”
“Yeah,” Jasper answered him. “Go back to sleep. We’ll be here when you wake up.”
A yawn stretched his jaw, and then Freddie made a face. “I smell like ass.”
“Yes,” I told him. “You do.”
Jasper snorted. “He’s smelled worse.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “But we all smelled like a dumpster then.”
“It wasn’t a dumpster,” Freddie groaned.
“No, it was a compost heap,” Jasper teased, and something in me relaxed a fraction. Being on the edge constantly had begun to take its toll on Jasper, and it had been a long time since this guy had come out to play. “You wanted to help out at the community garden ’cause you figured we’d score food.”
“Yeah,” Freddie said, his eyes half closed but his grin widening. “It worked.”
“And you smelled like shit,” I pointed out. Literal shit. They were using compost and manure, and we had to shovel it.
Worst. Job. Ever.
Freddie groaned as he laughed. “But I keep thinking about those tomatoes. So juicy…”
Yeah. The food had been good, even if it had made him sick because we gorged on too much of it.
His laughter faded away, and his breathing evened. But he really had turned the corner, and when I glanced over, Jasper had his chin tucked into his chest and his arms folded while he stretched his legs out. The light snores punctuated Freddie’s deeper breaths.
Rubbing the back of my neck, I stretched out in the chair to wait for Doc. The sooner we got Freddie better, the sooner I got to see Dove again. On my phone, I opened up the web page that led to her videos. I’d watched all her dances and silk performances a hundred times.
Still, I watched them again, and I searched for…something. Something to tell me what secrets she still housed. Secrets that once we exposed, we could deal with and keep her safe.
Because no matter what anyone said, I would make sure she was all right first and foremost.
Even if it meant letting her go.
Chapter 9
Emersyn
It was the second morning in a row that Kestrel took me with him to the auto body shop where he worked. I almost hated to admit how excited I was to roll over when he knocked on the door to my room.
“Breakfast downstairs in fifteen, Sparrow. We can grab some fancy coffee for you on the way to the shop.”
No argument from me. I dressed warmer than I had the day before, though. I didn’t have any heavy sweatshirts of my own that weren’t half cut up for dancing. When I mentioned that, Kestrel walked into his closet and came out with a heavy black and gray pullover cable knit sweater.
He eyed me a beat, then my feet. “You have heavier shoes?”
I glanced down at the running shoes I had on over double socks. The yoga pants weren’t that warm either.
“Not really, what’s wrong with these?”
“They won’t protect your toes if something heavy falls on them. You need steel-toed boots for the shop.”
“That’s what you said yesterday, and I basically stayed in the office.” Where they made the awful coffee and it smelled like week-old gym socks. The peeling linoleum and desk that only stayed even because there was a half-torn and mutilated paperback propping up one broken foot weren’t so bad in the face of the others.
The corners of his mouth twitched. “Here.” He tugged the sweater over my head. The act was so like Vaughn, I rolled my eyes and laughed. The action pulled some tendrils from my braid, but this wasn’t a performance and I didn’t need to be perfect.
In fact, a little messy seemed to fit right in. Something Kestrel pointed out when I’d come all the way back with grease on my nose from where he’d tapped it and I hadn’t seen it until I was getting ready for bed.
The night before had also been some of the best sleep I’d had in weeks. I needed to up my workouts. I hadn’t danced the day before, but I would today. I would also work on stretching out at the shop so I could walk right into the studio when I got back.
“You didn’t want to stay in the office,” Kestrel reminded me as I tucked my arm into the sleeves and he smoothed the sweater over my hips. It dwarfed me like it was a sweater dress, and if I had the right boots, it would look pretty snazzy with the yoga pants.
Not that I was going for fashion. Kestrel hooked one of the loose tendrils around his finger, and the barest pull kept me in place as he studied me.
He was waiting for a response to his earlier comment, and I rolled my eyes. “It smells in the office.”
A soft huff of laughter teased my cheek before he pressed a kiss to it and then let me go. Surprise rippled through me, but he was already moving, and he gave my ass a playful tap. “Move it, Sparrow, we need to feed that growling stomach of yours since there’s no reason to starve yourself.”
I barely covered the thrill that went through me at the action. This Kestrel was so different from the other one. I hurried after him and tempted fate since it might piss him off. “What changed?”
“Hmm?” He slowed his longer strides until I was keeping pace with him easily. The warm scent combination of his soap and something with more leathery undertones filled my nostrils, and I took a deep breath.
“You were all cool stares and ‘grr.’” For lack of a better example, I hooked my fingers like they were claws and bared my teeth at him.
Kestrel eyed me for a beat, then deadpanned, “I was a T-Rex?”
“That’s not a T-rex,” I retorted.
“That’s definitely a T-rex,” he confirmed with a wink before leading the way down the stairs. Most so-called gentlemen would let a lady go first. But Kestrel always went ahead of me, and he always descended at my pace as though wanting to be in range. I had zero doubt that if I missed a step, he’d c
atch me.
That sent a balloon of warmth to fill me. It was ridiculous, and I should put a pin in it right now and pop it, but…
“Never mind,” I muttered, and Kestrel turned as he passed the last step and caught me with his hands on my hips and lifted me up and then down.
“Don’t be like that Sparrow, I’ll try not to growl. Besides, T-Rex can’t reach much with their hands, and I promise you, mine can reach everywhere they need.” Then he gave me a very deliberate wink as the hands in question rested on my hips for a few seconds longer than necessary. And all too soon, he let me go before he walked away and left me to stare after him.
Heat swept through me, igniting brain cells along the way. Kestrel was flirting with me.
I hadn’t imagined that.
A throat clearing behind me sent my pulse rabbiting, and I glanced back to find Rome studying me from above on the steps. Questions lingered in his eyes, and he tilted his head. With a flick of a look past me, he lifted his chin and then waited.
“We’re going to have breakfast before I go to the shop with Kestrel,” I explained. “Want to join us?”
He snorted, but it lacked any real derision. With deliberate slowness, he descended the steps until he stood next to me and I had to tilt my head up. It was the first time I’d really been alone with Rome since he took me out painting.
Since…
“Can I ask you a question?”
Eyebrows quirked, he waited.
I licked my lips. “Liam told me I got you stabbed.”
The eyebrows descended, and his eyes narrowed.
“Are you all right?”
“You didn’t get me stabbed,” he said rather than answer the question. “Liam was being a jerk. Ignore him. I do.”
“Sparrow, get that ass in here if you want to eat.” The lure of coffee scenting the air accompanied Kestrel’s call. Despite the statement about if, I rather suspected we wouldn’t leave until I’d eaten something.
He’d done the same thing the day before when lunchtime rolled around. I hadn’t been all that keen on the greasy diner we’d gone to, but I’d finally chosen something on the menu after some prodding. I made a face, and Rome curled his fingers and held out his hand.
“You can go with me,” Rome offered. “If Kestrel is bothering you.”
“Hey,” Kestrel called, and I half jumped as if I’d been caught, guilty of something. “I’m not bothering her.”
“No?” Rome asked him. “Move that ass?”
The question was almost innocent. And I said almost, because something flickered in Rome’s expression that had been present the night on the playground.
“Don’t be a jackass,” Kestrel drawled. “She has a nice ass, and I was teasing her. We’re becoming friends.”
That announcement surprised me, and I wasn’t alone. Rome took a step forward as though to put himself between me and Kestrel. I stopped him with a hand to his arm. “He wasn’t being a jackass,” I informed Kestrel. “I was asking him about something Liam said and your yelling kind of interrupted that.”
“What the hell is Liam doing talking to you?” The silky smooth question held not one whit of anger, but that made it a little more terrifying. Rome sighed.
“Liam doesn’t want her around me.”
Wait.
I twisted to face him and gripped his forearm when he didn’t pull away. “He said that?”
Rome gave a little shrug, then seemed to smile almost sheepishly. “Ignore Liam. I do.”
“Yeah,” Kestrel said. “Ignore him. Now, Sparrow, let’s eat.” He caught my free hand in his, the warmth of his fingers slotted between mine. Outside of when he’d had to help me while I recovered and the one time he tackled me in the garage on the way to the theater, Kestrel didn’t touch me.
Something electric slammed through me. Like the connection jolted from a supercharge, lighting me up from where Kestrel held my hand to where my hand rested on Rome’s forearm. Before Kestrel could take a step though, Rome twisted his arm under my grip and grasped my forearm as well.
“If she doesn’t want to go with you,” Rome stated coolly, “she doesn’t have to. You had her yesterday. Let her come play with me today.”
“We already have plans today,” Kestrel said smoothly. “Come to the shop with us. You can work on the back wall. We finally finished patching it, so it’s free for you to paint.”
Then I could have company and divide my time between the shop and the back. I glanced at Rome, mentally crossing my fingers he’d agree. I loved watching him paint. After meeting my look, Rome glanced past me to Kestrel.
“You took her yesterday.” He slid his hand down my forearm until our fingers tangled together.
“And I’m taking her today. Sparrow and I have plans. You can come or you can stay,” Kestrel told him, and I raised my eyebrows.
“What if she doesn’t want to go with you?”
“What if we don’t talk about me like I’m not here.” I squeezed their hands, both of them, and then pulled away. Only neither let me go, and I rebounded right back to where I’d been standing—firmly between them.
“It’s fine,” Kestrel soothed, but the corners of his mouth kept twitching upward. “Rome’s just fucking with us. He wants to go, but he doesn’t want to want to go, and it’s better if we make it hard for him so he has to agree. That way when Liam bitches about it, Rome can just flip him off because it’s not like he makes it easy for anyone.”
The assessment spilled out of him so easily, I had to wonder how many times he had actually said it. Or at least thought it.
Rome lifted his free hand and very slowly raised his middle finger at Kestrel.
“See?” Kestrel said, and I laughed. It was ridiculous and kind of adorable. And oh so human.
“Food,” I announced. “Then come with us?” I offered the invitation to Rome again. “Please?”
His eyes locked on mine, and he gave the barest of nods. “If you want. Will you dance later?”
The question surprised me, but they both started walking and pulling me along with them to the kitchen. I managed to free myself and pounced on the coffee already sitting on the table waiting for me. Kestrel diverted over to the side and started putting cream cheese on a bagel.
My stomach was quite enthusiastic about that idea. Rome gave my gurgling tummy an amused look, and I ignored him as I took a long swallow of the coffee. We’d lingered in the hallway so long, it wasn’t hot anymore, but it was still more than warm enough for me to just drink.
It wasn’t until Kestrel slid the bagel in front of me and said, “Not to push, but we’re running a little tight on time if you want your coffee.”
“We don’t have to,” I offered. “I mean, the coffee at the shop is terrible, but you have the soda machine.”
“We’ll make time,” he insisted. “Eat your bagel. Not much else in here. We need to send the rats shopping.”
There was that name again. “I don’t know that I’d trust a rat with my food.”
Rome chuckled, but he never stopped staring at me, and then it hit me—I hadn’t answered his question yet. “I was going to use the studio tonight when we got back. I didn’t have time yesterday and I was tired after all day in the shop. It’s a lot more work than I expected it to be.”
That earned Kestrel’s frown. “What is?”
“Doing nothing.” I lifted my shoulders in a half shrug before I took a bite of the still warm bagel and closed my eyes as the cream cheese half melted in my mouth. A little moan escaped me. This was way better than I’d imagined and I was starving.
They were both eyeing me as I polished off the bagel and the coffee. Rome had a bagel in front of him, and he slid it over to me.
“Aren’t you hungry?”
Kestrel was busily eating his own bagel, with peanut butter on it that actually looked interesting, but I preferred the cream cheese.
“Eat.”
“Thank you.” I grinned and didn’t waste any time devouring it.
As much as I probably shouldn’t have, I was starving. Rome shifted his weight, and I caught the smug look he sent at Kestrel. The vague movement in the corner of my eye was Kestrel flipping him off.
I had to suppress another laugh because I didn’t know where playful Kestrel had been hiding, but I hoped he never left.
Rome agreed to come with us, and we had to wait for him to go grab his gear. Kestrel walked me out to the car in the main warehouse, holding my hand again, which was only a little weird.
There were rats working out there. Some on cars, some moving boxes. I had no idea what was in the boxes. I mean, their whole place was in a warehouse. Did they steal stuff? Process it?
I mean, they could be drug dealers for all I knew. That was a humbling thought. Freddie had been stoned and drunk the other night. The hurt in his eyes had been clear for everyone to read. It made me ache to think about it.
The Vandals were a gang. It was easier to forget when it was just me and Kestrel or me and Vaughn. Honestly, with all of them, except maybe Liam and Jasper.
Liam was an enigma, and Jasper?
The fact he’d kissed me in the studio before storming out and disappearing for a few days? It seemed to be a habit these guys were forming. Kiss Doc, he disappears. Kiss Jasper, he disappears. Have sex with Vaughn, he takes off.
Okay, admittedly, we’d had really great sex and he was helping with Freddie. At least, that was what Kestrel said.
“Hey,” Kestrel murmured, pulling me back to the present, and I stared at him blankly. “JD is going to the store to shop, is there anything you need?”
The other man fixed more of a dead-eyed stare on my face. It felt kind of slimy. I folded my arms, because at least Kestrel’s oversized sweater gave me a kind of armor. It shielded me from the other man’s eyes.
“No,” I answered because it didn’t matter if I did want something. I didn’t want that man getting anything for me.
“You sure, princess? They’re buying.”
I hadn’t even seen Rome arrive, but the words had barely left JD’s mouth before Rome punched him so hard, the crack of bone echoed through the garage. All activity within the warehouse ceased.