Chapter 10
Shane
“Don’t you sit there and pull this silent shit on me, Shane,” Zeppelin snapped as I shut the apartment door behind me so I had some privacy.
“What the fuck do you mean you’re only doing appointments?
And why the fuck does my security feed show you leaving with a duffel bag?
Where the fuck are you going? You better not be doing something stupid—”
“I’m not,” I said, interrupting his tirade.
It wasn’t often Zeppelin got worked up. Sure, he was an asshole, but he was an asshole with snarky comments and a shitty view of the world.
He wasn’t one to get worked up like this.
But I knew why he was. He was thinking back to when he found me damn near ready to commit suicide, to end it all because I didn’t see a reason to stay alive when I had no purpose.
He thought I was starting to no longer give a shit again, but he was so far from wrong.
In fact, I was starting to give too much of a shit.
Packing a bag and bunking with Preston and X to protect them from a shit storm they’d caused?
That wasn’t me. But after seeing Preston’s frightened expression, saw him losing his shit because he thought X was dead somewhere, saw how much X struggled to be a good person for Preston?
I couldn’t just walk away from that. Couldn’t turn my back on that. Especially not now when X’s hacker friend was unaccounted for. But if Preston had been delivered an ear… X’s little friend wasn’t coming home. And that was a warning that Preston could be next.
I could’ve understood if whoever was doing this went after X, since he’d been the one to do the digging.
But going after Preston? Something wasn’t adding up.
The government, while fucking shitholes, didn’t do sloppy.
Not on the level I worked. We were clean.
Efficient. We didn’t deliver body parts in little cardboard boxes, and we didn’t bother with warnings.
Which meant we were more than likely dealing with something or someone else.
“What the fuck is going on, Shane? You’ve been acting weird ever since that kid showed up at the shop demanding you do a free-hand tattoo on him. He fuck with you? Because if so, Logan and I can deal with him.”
Logan and Zeppelin rarely saw eye to eye. They spent every moment in each other’s presence riling each other up and damn near coming to blows sometimes. But when it came to family, the two banded together like long-lost best friends.
I sighed. “I’m fine, Zep,” I promised. “I’m not going off the rails. I’m not standing on the edge of a building. I’m not standing on a bridge.”
“Then where the fuck are you?” Zeppelin demanded. “I don’t like this, Shane. I’ve kept my distance. Let you just do you, but if you—”
“I’m with him,” I said. Silence met my ears.
I pinched the bridge of my nose. I was so tired of talking.
To everyone. This was the most talking I’d done in years, and fuck, my vocal cords were starting to hurt.
“I’m with X, the guy from the shop, and his boyfriend, Preston.
I’ll even send you an address, and you can do a fucking wellness check.
But for the love of fuck, Zeppelin, I’m okay. ”
He sighed, and when he spoke again, he sounded calmer. “You getting dick?”
My patience was wearing thin. And how he did a fucking one-eighty like this was beyond me. I had no fucking idea how Jaxon and Eros, his husbands, put up with him because Zeppelin was driving me to the brink of insanity in just one goddamn phone call.
“Not that it’s any of your fucking business, but no,” I bit out. “I’m hanging up now. I’ll text the address, but for the love of fuck, Zep, learn boundaries.”
He scoffed like the idea was ludicrous. “What the fuck are boundaries?”
Not bothering to respond since he’d just keep going, I hung up the phone, then leaned back against the wall and closed my eyes for a moment.
A headache was forming at my temples, and I knew before long, it would turn into a migraine because they always did.
I just needed food and sleep. In that order. And ASAP.
Pushing off the wall, I walked back into the apartment. My phone buzzed, and when I looked down at it, I scowled at Zeppelin’s text.
Zeppelin:
Is the address stuck in outer space?
Jesus fucking Christ, this guy.
I quickly sent off the address so he’d fuck off somewhere, then added a middle finger as a second text, and lastly, I turned off my phone so I could have some fucking peace.
I knew I’d told Zeppelin he could come do a wellness check if he wanted, but if he showed up at that door, I might punch him in his face.
Which was really out of character for me, but fuck, I was so done with the day, and my life was spinning out of fucking control.
Had been from the moment X walked into the shop and laid his eyes on me, to be honest.
“Everything okay?” Preston asked, looking up at me as I rounded the couch to sit on the other end.
And as if we were that familiar with each other, Preston stretched his legs out and put his feet on my thighs.
I grunted but ignored them otherwise, focusing on the TV screen where two guys were speaking in Thai and… goddamn, were they watching a porno?
“Oh, hope you don’t mind BL shows,” Preston said like watching two guys fuck on TV was a normal occurrence for him. “This is one of my comfort shows. It’s called Love in the Air.”
I just stayed silent. This wasn’t what I would have chosen to watch if I ever decided to sit down and watch television, but it wasn’t my house, so it wasn’t my call.
I was merely here to protect them and find out who the fuck was bothering them.
And then, I planned to take them out, shove Preston and X out of my life, and go back to my normal, basic, calm routine.
“I ordered pizza while you were on the phone,” X spoke up. “Hope that’s good.”
I nodded once. Pizza was fine. Hopefully, we’d all eat, and then, the two of them would go to bed so I could crash.
I needed rest so I could look at all this shit with fresh eyes and a clear head.
And maybe if Preston was at work and X was doing whatever the fuck it was he did, I could do some hunting without them distracting me.
Because as much as I hated to admit it… Preston and X were very big fucking distractions.