Chapter Seven #2
“Carrie, darling!” Rossy yelled from the back of the store as more customers came in, the wind howling outside.
The cold front was moving faster than I expected.
My mind drifted back to my car and how long it took to warm up every morning before class.
This meant I would have to start getting up earlier.
“What is it?” she asked as Rossy appeared on my left.
His tweed coat was gone, leaving him in just a hunter green button-up and brown vest. His sleeves were also rolled up to his elbows, and there was a small navy ink stain on his pants.
His hair was disheveled, as if he’d been running his hand through it, and there were bags underneath his eyes.
I folded my arms over my chest and scolded, “Did you pull an all-nighter again, boss man?”
He glanced at me and pursed his lips as he pondered for a moment. Then he lied. “No, I did not.”
“You’re full of shit,” I accused as two customers approached the counter.
Rossy looked to the ceiling. “God, help me,” he muttered, his accent thick with impatience. “Must you cuss all the time, Margo?”
I ignored him and took their orders. As I banged around the espresso machine, my coworkers disappeared, leaving me alone with Jake as the customers browsed the new release section by the window. Just as I poured the frothed milk into the second mug, Jake’s voice filled my ears.
“So how are you doing?”
My eyes flicked over to him, my stomach dropping. His laptop was closed, his notebook on top, pen in the coil, and he was leaning back in the stool, studying me.
Shit.
Shit.
Damn.
Fuck.
“Uh. Good?” I answered, clearing my throat at the end.
Fuck. Did he know about Hayes and me? Did that stupid hot ex-pilot blab?
I finished the drink, grabbed the other, and carried them to the pickup space. “Honey latte for Gabe and pumpkin spice for Jessica,” I called.
The couple turned around and smiled. The woman got there first. “Can we drink these anywhere?” she asked.
Tourists.
I nodded. “Yup, and if you could, please bring your mugs to the bin over there,” I said, pointing to the shelf on the other side of Jake, who was still looking at me.
Gabe muttered a “thank you” and grabbed his drink, moving away. Ashley didn’t. Instead, she leaned over the counter and whispered, “No offense, but the way your boyfriend is looking at you is the hottest thing I’ve ever seen.”
I stiffened, an earth-shattering chill sliding down my spine. I blinked, and all I saw was Hayes’ eyes, green and fierce, consuming me. Shaking my head, I huffed out a fake laugh. “No, no. He’s not my boyfriend. He’s just an intense man who doesn’t know how to mind his business.”
My tongue shot to the roof of my mouth, not letting me say anything else.
The woman gave a smile, and just as she was about to say something that would have the guilt manifesting inside me eating me alive, her partner called for her. He poked his head out of the murder mystery section. “Isn’t this the book you’ve been looking for?”
“Oh yeah,” she breathed, grabbing her coffee and leaving me in my misery.
I stared at her back until she turned down the aisle. Then I faced Jake. “You need another before you go?” I asked, pointing to his cup.
He shook his head. “No, I’m good.”
“Great.”
I made myself busy, unloading and reloading the dishwasher, as the sound of soft rock filled the bookstore. This meant that Rossy was now working somewhere in the store and not in his office. He was the only one of us who turned on music during the day.
“Margo.”
“What’s up?” I asked, my voice light as I faced Jake again.
He ticked his head to the side, his lips tipping up. “You okay?”
“That’s the third time you’ve asked me that since you waltzed in here,” I told him, my voice no longer light. “What’s the deal?”
Then he gave it to me straight, no bullshit, which was something I admired about Grayson’s men. They were real. “Dominic asked me to come check on you today.”
I jerked back. What? “Excuse me?”
He leaned his forearms against the edge of the counter. “He mentioned you were a little…distraught at the party.”
My mouth opened before I could stop it, my question coming out harsh, laced with disbelief. “Why in the fuck would Dominic give a shit about me?”
The tech genius didn’t like that. Not one bit. His brown eyes flashed, his face hardening. “Why wouldn’t he? Why wouldn’t any of us?”
“I don’t—”
“You mean something to Carrie. She means a whole lot to Grayson, and she is basically family to us—which makes you, Sarah, and the Brit our family,” he explained, jerking his thumb over his shoulder.
I pressed my lips together, but he wasn’t done.
“Dominic has a gift, and while sometimes that gift annoys the hell out of me and the team, he’s never wrong. He said you weren’t okay and asked if I could stop by and check in on you because Hayes is out of town.”
I refrained from mentioning Hayes’ goodbye, declaration, and forehead kiss, all of which had kept me up all night long. “Yeah, I saw him leave,” I lied.
Jake nodded. “Gray got a call last night, and Hayes is the only man for the job.”
“You don’t have to fill Hayes’ spot while he’s gone, you know?
” I threw out, hating the term “Hayes’ spot.
” Mainly because of the warmth it gave me.
I hated it and I hated that I couldn’t lie to myself about why I hated it.
I hated it because, before he left, I’d wanted Hayes to have a spot in my life.
“I don’t even know why he still stops by to check on us. ”
He hadn’t since our one-night stand, and before last night, I was certain he never would have again.
Jake, clearly oblivious to what Hayes and I had, sighed.
“Mitchell is a complicated guy. He’s been through a lot, lost a lot, and sometimes, he lets that shit slip out into his day-to-day life.
Since that day he found you girls…” He trailed off, looking at me, silently checking to make sure we were on the same page.
“You can say it, you know,” I deadpanned. “It’s not like any of us wake up in the middle of the night screaming over it.” Not anymore, at least. I huffed, rolling my eyes and said the words he’d hesitated over. “The day Sarah, Carrie, and I got kidnapped and Grayson got shot.”
Though I didn’t let it show, the darkness etched within those words seeped into my soul and pierced my heart, the nightmare still fresh in my mind.
“Right,” he murmured, the light in his eyes dimming slightly. “Well, that day fucked us all up. I’d found your location and gotten in contact with Hayes, and he did everything he could to get there in time.”
A lump formed in my throat, and I shifted my weight. “He did get there in time,” I whispered.
“Did he?” he replied, his voice just as soft.
I flinched and his eyes scanned my face. “Yeah.”
I couldn’t look at him anymore. My body seemed to curl in on itself. My arms wrapped around my mid-section as I dropped my head, eyes on my Doc Martens.
“He checks in because he feels guilty, not because he thinks you or the other girls can’t handle your shit. Clearly, you three can handle your shit. We can see it.”
“Can he?” I blurted, lifting my head once more. “Can he see it?” I repeated, harsher this time.
Jake’s brow slowly furrowed. “Of course he can. We all can, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t going to check in.” He paused. “The rest of us have been so busy with the move—”
“So what? Dominic gets some weird spidey sense about me and calls in the cavalry because my usual babysitter is gone?”
“Babysitter?”
I ignored him, on a roll now. My skin felt hot and prickly, as if I was under a microscope. “I’m dealing with a lot right now, and it has nothing to do with Red Snake.”
It had everything to do with Red Snake, but he couldn’t know that. I prayed to God that he and the other bounty hunters never found out.
“We aren’t damsels in distress,” I added hotly, heart drumming in my ears now.
“Never said you were,” he replied.
“Great.”
“Okay.” He adjusted his glasses, cool and casual. “So you’re okay?”
“Just peachy,” I quipped.
“All right. That’s all I needed to hear.”
“Tell Dominic to stop analyzing everyone he comes into contact with,” I ordered as Jake stood, packing his bag.
He chuckled, unaffected by my bitchiness. “I’ll pass along the message.”
“And the next time you come in here, it better be for the coffee and not to check in on me.”
I watched, huffing and puffing as anger boiled in my gut, spreading throughout my veins, tainting me.
Deep down, I wasn’t angry at him, and if I hadn’t slept with his coworker, maybe I would’ve enjoyed how much Grayson’s men cared about us.
Because of him and Carrie, we were all close, like some weird blended family, Rossy being the weird uncle.
Jake threw his backpack over his shoulder, swiping his to-go cup off the wooden surface. He smiled at me. “Thanks for letting me hang.”
Great. Now I really felt like a bitch. Out of all the Red Snake crew, Jake was by far the sweetest. He was just a big red teddy bear at the end of that day. I lifted my chin, my arms falling to my sides. “I’m sorry.”
He smiled and shook his head. “Nothing to be sorry for.”
“Can you do me one more favor?” I asked just as he turned to leave. He paused, looking over his shoulder, waiting. “Can you tell Hayes that he doesn’t have to check in on me anymore?”
“Sure, but that might be a while.”
I stepped forward. “What do you mean?”
“The job he’s on isn’t stateside,” he answered. My stomach dropped as he delivered the rest. “He’s in Japan, underground. We probably won’t hear from him for a bit.”
“Oh,” I breathed, a million questions on the tip of my tongue.
Jake winked at me. “Mitchell is a big boy. He can handle himself.”
The image of him kicking in the shed door, covered in another man’s blood, his knuckles busted open, shot to the front of my mind, and suddenly, I was drowning in a sea of worry and regret I never expected to get lost in.