Twenty-Six
Ransom
It was after two in the morning. What the fuck was she still doing at that damn club, and why hadn’t she responded to my last text? It had been over five hours. I glared down at the phone in my hand, watching the tracker I had on her like I could actually see her rather than just her location.
My fingers hovered over the keypad as I waged an internal battle over whether to text her again.
She’d know that I knew she was still out.
I never texted this late. But, dammit, she’d told me she was heading out, then nothing.
It was my job to be worried. We were friends.
Friends worried about each other’s safety.
Tossing my phone down, I scowled at it as if it had caused this. I should be asleep. Not stalking Noa like some jealous fucking psycho.
“What are you doing?” Bane’s voice sounded like he’d just woken up.
I turned to look at him standing in the doorway with Hawkins in his arms, looking much more awake than his father.
“Can’t sleep,” I replied, not asking what he was doing.
Hawks had been waking up at night lately and not wanting to go back to sleep.
“Since when?” he asked, stepping down into the room.
Not something I’d talked about with him or even Than. No one knew I’d been struggling since I’d taken Noa to the airport. But, damn, every fucking day, I fought the need to get on a plane just to go see her.
I shrugged.
He rubbed his face with his free hand and yawned, then sat down on the end of the sofa and let Hawkins down to run over to his corner of toys.
“That’s bullshit,” he finally said. “Something is up with you. You’ve been in a foul mood for weeks.
Now you’re up, scowling down at your phone like it wronged you. ”
“I’ve not been in a foul mood,” I shot back, annoyed that I hadn’t been hiding it as well as I thought I had.
“Yeah, you have. Even Halo mentioned it. She asked if it was because of the chick you had stay the night when we were in Kentucky. Since we got back, you’ve been different. Angry. Moody.”
“Okay, I get it. Am I not allowed to be moody?” I asked defensively.
He didn’t say anything, but his eyes narrowed.
I looked over at Hawkins as he threw one of his balls across the room, then pointed at it. “Wook, Daddy! Wook! I frow it!”
“I see that, little man,” he replied.
Hawks ran over to pick it up and do it again.
“It is her.” There was amusement in his tone. “You’re jacked up over a woman.”
“No, I’m not. She’s my friend. And … and she’s out late in Boston. I’m concerned.”
“If she’s texting you, then she’s fine,” he said, as if that should ease my mind.
“She’s not texting me,” I bit out.
“Then she may be asleep.”
“She’s not.”
I could feel his gaze locked on me, but I didn’t look at him.
“How do you know she’s not in bed?”
I wasn’t telling him. This wasn’t his business.
A deep chuckle just pissed me off more.
“You have a tracker on her. I can’t wait to fucking tell Oz this.”
The sound of my teeth grinding in my ears was loud enough that I was sure he heard it too.
“Ah, damn, Ransom. How does it feel to be … what was it you called us … oh, right—psychopaths?”
“It’s not the same thing,” I snapped at him. “Oz was stalking Winslet. Do I look like I’m stalking anyone?”
His eyes dropped to my phone, then back to me. “She know you can track her phone?”
I could track a lot more than her phone, but I didn’t say it. His figuring this out was bad enough.
“It’s for her safety. She lives alone in New York City.”
He smirked. “You say that as if she’s living in Brooklyn or some shit. She’s in Manhattan.”
“I don’t recall asking for your opinion,” I told him.
He shrugged. “Maybe not, but if she’s keeping you up at night, yet you’re in some denial bullshit, then I’m a good one to ask. I’ve been there, done that.”
“And now you’re married with a kid. Not what I’m after.”
He smiled as he leaned forward and held his arms out. “Come on, buddy. Let’s go snuggle up in bed with Mommy.”
Hawks dropped his toy at the mention of his mother, and his eyes lit up. He ran to Bane and jumped into his arms. Bane stood up with him and then looked down at me.
“Yeah, I am, and I’ve never been this fucking happy in my life. They own me. They’re the reason I wake up in the morning, and the thought of a life without them”—he shook his head—“seems dark and empty.”
I watched as he walked back toward the door he’d entered from, and Hawks looked over his shoulder and waved his little hand. I held up mine and waved back before they disappeared around the corner.
Dark and empty. Wasn’t that why I needed to keep Noa in my life? She kept the dark and emptiness back. She made me smile.
I reached for my phone and picked it up.
Me: Checking to make sure you made it back safely.
I hit Send and waited.
Time seemed to move at a snail’s pace, and the three minutes it took for dots to appear, showing that she was responding, felt like an eternity.
I sat up straight and held the phone a little too tightly while I waited for whatever it was she was typing.
Shakespeare: I’m good. Still out. Wishing I were in bed, sleeping.
I was wishing she were too. But not in fucking Boston. Here. In my room. No, not in my room. But here. In the guest bedroom. Where I knew she was safe.
Me: Can you tell her you want to go back? She’s with other people too, right? You could get an Uber and head back to her place.
I hit Send, hoping she’d do that and maybe I could get some sleep.
Shakespeare: That would be possible if she hadn’t set me up tonight.
I frowned. Set her up? What did that mean?
Me: What did she set up?
Was she the sober friend who was supposed to be getting everyone home safely?
Shakespeare: A date. Her boyfriend’s best friend. Lucky me.
I read that three times while the thoughts in my head grew more violent with each second. She was on a date. At a fucking club at two in the morning. Did she like him? Was she going to see him again? Had he kissed her?
I realized my phone was trembling in my hands, and I stood up, suddenly feeling restless. I wanted to demand answers to my questions, but I wasn’t sure I was ready for them.
What if she did like him?
What if she fucked him tonight?
Rage erupted in my chest, and I let out an angry snarl. No. Noa wouldn’t fuck some guy she’d just met. She wasn’t like that.
Shakespeare: Why are you awake?
I let out a sadistic-sounding laugh.
Me: Couldn’t sleep.
I punched the phone so damn hard that I was surprised it hadn’t cracked the screen.
Dots appeared, and then they stopped. I stared at the screen, waiting, and nothing. What was she doing? Was he talking to her? Touching her? Smelling her?
My phone was airborne before I knew it, and I was taking hard, fast breaths as I stared at it, lying on the floor across the room, where I’d thrown it.
I wanted to do more than throw my phone.
I wanted to put furniture through the wall.
Roar with all the shit welling inside me.
Find some relief from whatever monster had woken up and taken over my body.
“Uh, dude, you good?”
I swung my glare over to Forge, who had come in the room with his eyes squinting against the light, wearing nothing but boxer briefs.
“Yes!” I snarled.
“Yeah, okay … well, could you be good a little quieter?”
The text sound went off on my phone, and I all but fucking ran over to snatch it up.
Shakespeare: We are leaving. Jellie wants greasy pizza, so we are heading to some all-night place she loves. I hope you get some sleep. Good night.
They were going to get pizza. The image of some unknown man touching her back, leading her out of the club like she was his, only added to the beast that I realized was jealousy.
I’d never felt it before. Not over a female.
And it had never felt like this. But right now, I’d kill the son of a bitch with my bare hands.
“Should I get Bane up? Are we about to go on an outing?”
I continued to glare down at my phone and shook my head.
“No. Just me.”
“We don’t go kill alone,” he said, then yawned. “And the way you look right now, some fucker is about to die.”
“No. At least not tonight,” I replied.
“If that’s so, where the fuck are you going?” he called out just before I left the room, headed for the garage where my truck was parked.
“Boston.”
“Boston?” he asked, as if he’d never heard of it before. “What the fuck is in Boston?”
“Not your business. Go back to bed,” I snapped.
I was going to have to answer to Linc for this. I’d send him a text when I got to the airstrip. He’d just have to get the fuck over it.