Chapter 23
Overdrive
It was almost midnight by the time Drifter and Rue came out of the room we were using as a medical area.
“He’ll be fine,” Bolo said, walking out last.
Drifter hid a grin. “He just needs to rest for a bit and heal.”
“How likely is he to stay behind so he can rest and heal?” I asked. I was talking to Bolo, but Ruck answered first.
“Zero percent fucking likely. We go into a fight, he’s coming with us,” Ruck said, crossing his arms over his chest.
“He’s limping,” Rue pointed out.
“Fucker won’t care,” Bolo said with a shrug. “If we don’t give him pain meds he’ll steal them.”
“He’ll still be worth four to six Collective guys, even though he’s injured,” Flir added.
“Four to six?” Bolo asked. “I’d think you’d have that dialed in a bit more.”
“Ah, well, my scoring metrics are based on calculations of body mass index, muscular strength, and combatives training with a multiplier appropriate for each category, however without knowing the combatives training experience of The Collective men, nor their physical fitness regimen, I’ve had to make assumptions based on the limited encounters we’ve had with Rhino and the others we’ve followed. ”
Bolo stared at him in disbelief, trying desperately to come up with a response before settling on “Shut up, nerd. What the hell is a combatives multiplier? Rhetorical question!” he shouted the last part while pointing at Flir, who was about to start up again.
Everyone was sitting out here. We’d all been waiting to see how Relay was doing. We knew he was alive because we could all hear him bitching the entire time Drifter was working on him.
“I really like your brothers,” Rue said, coming over to me and wrapping an arm around my waist.
Grinning down at her, I asked, “Yeah? You’d be the only one.”
“Fuck off,” Kilo said, “we’re great.”
“Sure,” I said with a wink aimed at Rue. “Can we fucking go to bed now?” I asked, dragging her down the hall with me.
“Sure,” she said with a yawn, “but you have to drive. I’m too tired after-” She paused as I stopped in front of a door and shoved it open.
She ducked and moved away from the hold I had on her, walking into our new apartment. Her eyes were wide as she spun around, taking everything in. “It’s…”
“You like it?” I asked after a few moments of silence. “Flir said you can decorate it anyway you want. Just let him know what you need.” The anticipation was building with every silent breath.
Why isn’t she saying anything?
“It’s so big,” she finally whispered.
“Well…yeah,” I replied. “It needs to hold us and two teenagers.” I didn’t mention the hope that maybe one day there’d be a nursery in here as well.
She looked over her shoulder at me, her eyes filled with tears. “They can stay, too?”
“Of course,” I told her. “Wherever you go, they go.” I stepped closer and pulled her into my arms. “And where you go, I go.”
She searched my eyes, as though trying to see if I was telling the truth.
It was the closest I could get to telling her I planned to keep her…
forever. If I said that right now, she’d bolt.
She’d said herself she had abandonment issues.
One wrong move and I’d inadvertently push her away. That was the last damn thing I wanted.
You’d think a woman who’d experienced too many people walking away from her would be dying for someone who would stick things out long-term. And maybe, deep down, she was, but on the surface that kind of loyalty would scare her off.
“Take a look around,” I said, turning her and nudging her forward. “You don’t have to make any decisions tonight, but if you see anything you can’t live without until the morning we can go drag Flir out of bed.”
She laughed and shook her head at me, giving me a soft look I really liked being on the receiving end of.
I followed her around as she inspected the apartment. She peeked into closets, the spare bedrooms, the guest bath, then into the room that would be ours together. She sat down on the bed, giving me a look I couldn’t quite read. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” she said.
But she looked so…lost…sitting there.
“Something’s wrong.” I sat next to her so she wouldn’t have to stare into my eyes. I was hoping that would help her admit some of her truths to me.
“There are five bedrooms.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Why are there so many?”
“Like I said,” I told her. “We’ll need the space with two teens living with us. They eat a lot, where else would we put their food?” She laughed, but wasn’t buying it.
She stared down at her hands in her lap. “You asked for it to be built this way?”
“Yeah,” I replied hesitantly. Was she somehow mad about that?
“Thank you.” She looked over at me. “I…”
I waited for her to finish. Interrupting would just ensure she clammed up. I’d learned that lesson from Relay. You had to let these closed off types come to things in their own way, in their own time.
“You did this for me.” She wasn’t asking.
“I did,” I told her. It was a risk even telling her that much. But I wasn’t going to lie to her. Her mother probably had done enough of that throughout her life.
“It’s… I love it,” she finally settled for saying.
I was hoping she’d open up more, but it was clear that was all I was going to get tonight. And that was fine. She’d get there. And once she did, I could tell her that I’d fallen for her so hard I was a complete goner.
Having an old lady had never been something I really thought about.
So I was sort of stumbling around in the dark here.
But she was the light I was following. And I knew that once we made it out of the shadows we’d land exactly where we needed to be.
I wasn’t usually an optimistic bastard, but I was pretty even keeled most of the time.
I was also pretty sure hanging out with Mercy so much had rubbed off on me. She was absolutely the type who was all about rainbows and butterflies. “Good. You ready for bed?”
“I need to shower first,” she said with a grimace. She flipped her arm and I saw a smear of blood on her elbow. “Fluids tend to get everywhere when you’re working on patients.”
“We may need to get you a rabies shot.”
She gave me a startled look. “What are you talking about?”
“No one knows what Relay gets up to,” I told her with no expression on my face. “No telling what sort of shit he may have picked up.”
When she just blinked at me, I cracked a grin. “Let’s get you that shower so we can sleep.”
I stood and held out my hand. She stared at it for a second too long before she took it. We went into the bathroom and I started the shower while she stripped out of her dirty clothes. I’d already showered when we got back, but she’d insisted on helping Drifter treat Relay.
“Can I talk to you about something?” she asked, as she stepped into the shower and pulled the curtain closed.
“Sure,” I said, crossing my arms and leaning back against the vanity. There was no telling what she wanted to talk about. It could be anything from Ryan, to Relay, to what happened tonight, or any topic in between.
“I wanted to apologize.”
Okay. That wasn’t what I’d been expecting.
“For what exactly?”
“You were right.”
I grinned. “Could you repeat that?”
She ripped back the curtain and scowled at me. But my eyes were drawn to where water was tracking down her over her tits. “I’m not going to say it at all if you keep that up.”
I forced myself to look her in the eyes. Really it was no hardship. She had a beautiful set of eyes. And an equally gorgeous set of-
“Are you paying attention?”
“You’re naked in the shower,” I pointed out. “You’re lucky I’m hearing anything at all right now.”
She sighed and closed the curtain. Unfortunately, that worked. I could hear her again. “You were right.” It almost sounded like she’d gritted that out between clenched teeth. “I shouldn’t have gone with you guys today.”
My brows shot up. I’d never dated a woman who’d apologized, let alone admitted when she’d been wrong. I wasn’t sure exactly how to react here. “Uh…”
“I won’t go again.”
“You were helpful,” I told her.
“Sure, but Drifter had that under control. And worst case, Relay could’ve handled it himself.”
I didn’t say anything because she was right.
“You had to leave Merc behind to watch over me and that put you a man down when you were facing unknown numbers. Relay might not have been shot at all…”
Again I kept my lips sealed. She was on a roll and honestly, I would just say the wrong thing and piss her off. I really didn’t want to do that. But she seemed to be done. “You don’t know that. Besides, we really didn’t mind having you with us,” I told her.
“And I appreciate that. But I’ll find another way to help you guys.
Or wait until Ryan and Teddy are home and help them then.
For now, it would be best if I stayed here, where you already have people designated to watch over us.
I don’t want to deplete your numbers and get you guys into any sort of trouble. ”
Well, shit. “Thanks,” I told her. “I’m sure that wasn’t easy to admit.”
“No, it wasn’t,” she said with a sigh. “But it’s the truth. And I couldn’t live with myself if I was the cause of one of you being hurt.” She paused, then spoke again. “Relay-”
“That wasn’t on you,” I told her again. “Didn’t matter if Merc had been there or not, he probably would’ve still ended up shot. Couple of the bastards snuck up behind us while we were clearing out a dark corner. One more man wouldn’t have mattered.”
“Well, that makes me feel a bit better,” she admitted. “But I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
I jerked as the curtain whipped back again and this time a wet Rue was plastered to the front of me as she wrapped her arms around me. “Now you know how I felt when I told you that.”
“I do,” she said into my neck.
“Great. Shower’s done,” I told her, banding an arm around her so she couldn’t escape. Reaching out I turned off the water.
“I wasn’t done.”
“You are now.” Bending my knees, I leaned down and then tossed her naked over my shoulder. I smacked her ass as she squirmed. “You had your chance. Now it’s my turn.”
“Your turn for what? OD!”
“You’ll find out,” I told her, stalking back into the bedroom. I knew before her admission that I wanted to keep her. But after all that? No way was I letting this woman slip away from me.
And one thing I’d learned over the years, if you kept a woman’s knees weak with multiple orgasms they had trouble running anywhere.