Eighteen
Ransom
With a cigarette between my lips, I stood outside on the back patio, staring out over the night sky, wondering what the fuck I was doing.
It was almost two in the morning, but sleep hadn’t come for me after an hour of staring at the ceiling, thinking about Noa in the room across the hall, so here I was.
Not trusting myself to go back inside. As much as I had enjoyed sitting beside her while she ate dinner tonight, making her smile even though it was clear she didn’t want to, I’d been fucking relieved when she wanted to go back to the room and to bed.
The more I was around her, the worse whatever this was in my head got. I’d fought against the temptation to go watch her sleep. There was a comfortable chair in the corner of the room she was in. I could soak in the sight of her all night.
Yeah, I needed some fucking counseling.
The sound of the door opening behind me caused me to jerk my head around to see who was interrupting my attempt at solace. Forge walked out in nothing but a pair of athletic shorts and a beer in his hand. He looked at the cigarette in my mouth and took a drink from his bottle.
“I thought you went to bed,” he drawled.
Taking a deep pull and letting it out, I stared back at the night. “I did.”
He didn’t say anything more as he made his way over to the sofa and sank down onto it, then propped up his feet on the coffee table in front of him. I hoped he didn’t plan on staying out here. My plan had been to smoke the entire pack I had in my pocket alone.
“I don’t think it’s as bad as you think,” he said after a few more moments.
I cut my eyes to him. “What?” I asked.
I was used to this. He always started conversations as if you were in on whatever he was thinking. Like you could read his damn mind. I rarely knew what the hell he was talking about when he tossed out random shit like that.
“A relationship. Oz sure is fucking happy. And look at Bane. Now Than. They sure don’t seem upset about being locked down to one cunt.”
Oh, no. We weren’t going there. He was reading this all wrong.
“That’s not what this is.”
He smirked at me. “Really? Because you sat your ass in the kitchen with her for over an hour while the game was on. And you’ve never brought a female home and kept her here. It’s fucking something.”
I took the cigarette out of my mouth before my teeth snapped off the end. “She’s my friend.” Yeah, I knew it sounded fucking ludicrous, but I had said it anyway.
A deep chuckle came from Forge. “All right, you keep telling yourself that. It’ll be fun to watch this play out.”
“Oz isn’t here,” I reminded him as my hand fisted tightly at my side.
“I don’t need my brother to save me from you. I’m not a kid anymore, old man.”
Fuck, would he just go inside and leave me alone?
When I didn’t respond, the silence returned, and I could almost forget he was out here.
I should go back inside. Get some sleep.
Or attempt to. Noa had more shit to handle tomorrow, and although she had told me she didn’t need help, I wasn’t letting her go face her mother’s trailer by herself.
Besides, it was in a bad fucking part of town.
Like hell was she going there without me.
“Kash wants to come home,” Forge said, turning my attention back to him.
Kash was the youngest Savelle brother. He’d been in Alabama for four years now.
The branch of the family there had taken him in when he had to leave Madison due to his obsession with a female, and his fucking temper had left her stepbrother dead and the blood on his hands.
No one knew that but a few people inside the family.
I took one last pull from the cigarette, then went to put the butt in the black stone smoker pole that stood to the left of the patio sofa. “What did Linc say about it?” I asked.
I’d almost thought that Kash would be allowed back after Crosby was killed, but he hadn’t returned. No one had even brought it up.
Forge shrugged as he rested his elbows on his knees with his bottle dangling between his legs from one hand.
“Don’t know. Not sure Dad told him.” He blew out a breath.
“Mom is pushing hard for it. But I don’t think Dad trusts that he’s moved past whatever the fuck had him so wrapped up about that girl. ”
There was only one year between Forge and Kash.
They’d been thick as thieves, growing up.
Kash being sent to Alabama wasn’t easy on Forge.
But there was no other choice. Kash had been twenty-one, and if the truth had come out about his actions, it would have taken Blaise Hughes stepping in to keep him out of prison.
Even then, he could have still been sentenced. It wasn’t like it had been an accident.
“She’s back in town. Linc will do his research and see she’s here, and he won’t allow it.” Forge’s tone was heavy.
She was the female who had jacked Kash up.
Cressida Beck. When she had been four years old, Delphi and Hash Beck had fostered and then adopted her. Two years later, they fostered Pirate, her brother who was two years older. Due to his mental state from an abusive home life, they waited over three years before officially adopting him.
When Cressida was a sophomore and Pirate was a senior—after being held back—they moved here. It was Kash’s senior year of high school.
Kash and Cressida had been toxic.
It was at midnight in the Beck home when Kash went to see Cressida because she hadn’t been answering her phone, and he found Pirate in her bed. They’d been asleep, but the sight had been enough to trigger his crazy.
“Reckon that’s for the best,” I finally said.
Forge nodded his head, but the look on his face said he wished it were different.
“She lied for him,” I reminded Forge. “Her lie is what saved his ass. Him seeing her again could be bad.”
Forge sighed and leaned back on the sofa.
“I know,” he replied, then took a long drink.
“But her lie will never be enough for him. She might not have been the one he killed, but she has been dead to him since he walked into her room that night and found them. I just wish he could get a chance to come home. It’s not right, him not being here with us. ”
I couldn’t argue with that. Kash was a Savelle. He belonged here. But that was a gamble I doubted the family would take.
“He’s grown up. He isn’t that kid anymore,” Forge continued. “If they’d just give him a chance to prove that.”
I nodded, knowing as much as he did that the family wasn’t known for giving chances.
“What’s Oz saying about it?”
Forge shook his head. “Dad hasn’t told him. You know Oz. He thinks Kash is happy in Bama. He’ll haul his ass down there and try to handle it if he knows. Best he doesn’t.”
That was a fucking shit show waiting to happen. We all needed to be ready for the explosion that could potentially blow up in our faces if Kash Savelle ever did move back to Madison.