Chapter 18 #2
Their bickering continues as I finish my plate, the familiar rhythm of people who’ve worked together long enough to know where the lines are drawn. It reminds me of Caleb and Damien, of meals at the Rockford table before everything fell apart.
But the thought doesn’t sting as much as it should. Maybe because these people don’t want anything from me. Don’t need me to heal or change or be better. They have no expectations of who I should be, no memories of who I was, and the relief of that is humbling.
Jace refills my plate without asking.
I grab my soda and try to mimic what I’d seen earlier, attempting to pop the cap using the counter edge. The bottle slips and almost shatters.
Rico chuckles, takes it from my hand, and with a casual flick of his wrist, the cap pings across the room. He hands it back, and when the first sip of cold, fizzy sweetness hits my tongue, it tastes better than anything I’ve had in ages.
“You play?” Rico asks, jerking his chin toward the table in the corner where a deck of cards sits waiting.
“Sometimes,” I say casually while excitement zings through me.
We haven’t had a poker night at the manor since everyone else got mated up.
Jace turns off the stove and wipes his hands on a towel tucked into his waistband. “That means yes.”
“I should clean up…” I protest.
Rico gives me a once-over. “Why? You get sloppy?”
I bristle at the mere suggestion. “Not a single drop got on me.”
“Then save it for later.” He raps his knuckles on the island. “Now that you’ve decided to come out of your room, we’re not letting you go back until we fleece you.”
“Oh, yeah?” I pop up an eyebrow and look pointedly at the gun in a holster beneath his arm. “Put your money where your mouth is.”
He runs a finger along his Glock. “You’re after my baby?”
I lift a shoulder. “I had to leave all mine behind. Might as well start rebuilding now.”
He throws his head back with a laugh. “Oh, it’s on.”
I wolf down my second helping as plates are cleared, and the game is set up. Chips appear from a drawer, distributed in even piles. I place my empty plate in the sink to wash later and grab my soda.
I drop into an empty chair and grab the deck before anyone else can claim it.
“Careful,” Rico laughs, settling across from me. “We’re not here to make you rich now that you walked away from the Rockford billions.”
My lips twitch. “How else am I supposed to support my weapons habit?”
Real laughter follows, Rico’s deep rumble and Lena’s surprised snort. A tightness eases in my chest as I shuffle, the cards moving through my fingers in patterns I’ve practiced since I was twelve.
“Five-card draw,” I announce. “Deuces wild.”
Hours blur together as we play hand after hand. Lena wins more often than not, her stone face giving nothing away. Rico bets big and loses bigger. Jace tries to count cards and fails.
I take pots at a steady pace, my stack of chips growing. The rhythm of the game soothes me as my thoughts narrow to probabilities and tells, to the feel of cards between my fingers and the clink of chips.
When I finally push back from the table, my pockets are heavier with cash, and Rico’s Glock rests in my hand.
“Are you going to give me a chance to win back my baby tomorrow?” Rico asks as he stacks the remaining chips.
“Maybe.” I stand, stretching muscles stiff from sitting too long. “Depends on what else you have to contribute to my new stash.”
Good-natured laughter follows me as I head up to my private bathroom.
There, I set my burner phone on the bathroom counter. Avery insists I carry it as part of his standard protocol for everyone who works with him. The crew checks in after jobs to confirm completion and reports complications.
Next to it goes my new gun and the knife I used earlier, well within reach from the shower. Then I strip my clothes before stuffing them into a garbage bag to be burned.
The shower runs hot enough to scald. I stand under the spray until my skin turns pink, scrubbing away any trace of tonight’s work. My hand drifts to my flat stomach, fingers splaying across the taut skin.
One week is too soon to tell if Aaiden’s seed took root. I press harder, as if I could detect any change, then drop my hand away. No point dwelling on maybes. I have decisions to make regardless, and I won’t let uncertainty cloud my judgment.
As I step out of the shower, towel around my waist, the phone vibrates. The screen lights up with an unknown number, but I know who it is.
My stomach tightens as I pick up the phone, water droplets sliding down my chest. I stare at the screen.
One ring.
Two.
Three.
On the fourth, I answer. “What do you want?”
“Jade.” His voice slides through the connection, hooking into my gut and destroying all my attempts to exorcise him from my system.
My free hand grips the counter. “How did you get this number?”
“You answered,” he says, ignoring my question.
“I’m hanging up.”
“Wait.” A subtle, unmistakable urgency fills the word. “Just wait.”
My finger hovers over the end call button, but I can’t bring myself to do it.
“Come home.” The words aren’t a command. They’re softer than that, almost a request.
“That’s not my home anymore.”
“That’s not true. This is where your family is,” Aaiden says. “Your mother asks about you every day.”
A cheap shot, using my mother. I clench my jaw. “She knows how to reach me.”
“And me?” He pauses, the silence heavy with everything unsaid. “Can I reach you, Jade?”
“You found this number fast enough.” I turn from the mirror, unable to look at my reflection as we speak. “What do you want, Aaiden?”
His exhale comes through the line. “You. Back in my arms.”
The words spear through defenses I thought were solid.
“The bed is too big without you,” he murmurs, intimate in a way that sends heat curling through my stomach. “I don’t want to sleep alone anymore.”
My free hand flattens over my abdomen as the memory of his bed rises, his body on top of mine, the weight and heat of him during those three days when my body opened to his.
“Stop.” The word comes out huskier than intended.
“Do you remember how you felt beneath me, Jade?” The question slides through the connection, warm as honey. “How you clung to me? The feel of my cock slipping between your fingers to fill your sweet body?”
I pace the small bathroom, bare feet leaving damp footprints behind. “Stop.”
“I remember every sound you made.” He continues as if I hadn’t spoken. “Every place you liked to be touched.”
I clench my fist, the bite of my nails into my palm providing clarity. “You didn’t want me enough to Mark me. That’s what matters.”
“I left so many other marks on your body. I couldn’t stop myself from sinking my teeth into you.” He drops to the deep register that vibrates straight through me. “Have they all faded? The scratches you left on my back healed.”
Water drips from my hair down my spine, and I shiver, but not from the cold.
“I wake up reaching for you,” he murmurs. “Still smell you on the sheets.”
“Bullshit.” I shove my fist over my treacherous dick as it tries to stiffen. “The staff changes them daily.”
“I won’t let them wash away your scent.” His breathing deepens. “Come home, Jade. Let me show you how much I want you.”
“I’m not letting you bed me again until you explain yourself, Aaiden Rockford.”
“Then come home to me,” he says, softer this time. “I need to see you face-to-face for this conversation.”
“Why, so your men can grab me?” I snap. “How did you envision this conversation going after you had me snatched off the street?”
“How else am I supposed to talk to you when you’re hiding from me?”
“You’re not. That was the whole point when I left.”
My heart pounds as I end the call, then pull the battery out and add the device to my burn bag. But cutting off communication doesn’t stop the way my body thrums with awareness, unchanged despite a week of distance.
The hunger that was sated from dinner has twisted into something else entirely, a need that has nothing to do with food and everything to do with the Alpha whose voice alone sets me on fire.
I dig my palms into my eye sockets, willing away the heat in my body that always spikes whenever I think of Aaiden.
Raphael’s words from my first morning here echo in my head. My brother is in love with you.
It doesn’t matter. The way we were wasn’t working. And as Avery said, sometimes love isn’t enough.
Aaiden’s had years to decide how our lives could work together, but until I decide what I want from my life, I won’t let my Alpha seduce me back to his side.