Chapter Seven
"No." Kai states firmly. His arms crossed tightly over his wide chest. All signs of the playfulness that was there just minutes before wiped clean.
"Excuse me?" I question in a hard voice.
"You aren't going back there. She hurts you."
My blood boils. I know he means well but he doesn't understand. I have no money, no place to stay and I need to finish my education, so I at least have a small prospect of getting an ok job.
"I have to go back." I state firmly.
"Kai, calm down. Look if Sage wants . . ." Maverick starts before he's rudely cut off by Kai.
"No, do you guys not fucking get it?" He glares at them, his jaw clenched, "she hurts her. I couldn't save our mother but over my fucking dead body will Sage be harmed again."
By the end of his speech his breathing is laboured and his fists are clenched so tight that his knuckles have gone white with the pressure of it.
The anger bleeds out of me. It was his mother he couldn't save. Questions swarm inside my mind but I push them all away.
"I have to go back Kai." I say gently.
Kai starts to say something but Levi interrupts.
"I do not like this, not at all.” He starts.
I open my mouth to reply but Levi holds his hand up making me pause.
"But I can't force you to stay. You haven't known us for very long. However I do ask that, for our own peace of mind you let us put our numbers in your phone along with a specially developed app that means all you have to do is tap and hold one of the buttons on your password lock screen and it will immediately call one of us, the app allows you to override the lock screen.” He continues. “All we want to do is keep you safe."
I think it over. The app isn’t invasive at all and it would make me feel safer.
"Ok, I can deal with that.” I agree.
“Thank you, Darling.”
I can tell that none of them are pleased that I'm going back to that house, but they feel better now that I've agreed to the app. Even Kai's tense posture has relaxed slightly.
"Actually, I can't agree to that," I say as something occurs to me.
They all start protesting loudly and I shout over the top of them, "I don't have a phone!"
Silence falls and they look at me.
"You don't have a phone?" Hunter repeats.
I shake my head.
"No problem we keep spares that are already loaded with the app. Someone," Levi shoots a glance towards Jax, "breaks his on a daily basis."
Jax’s cheeks turn pink, "they hate me, it's a conspiracy.” He offers by way of an explanation and I giggle.
His face lights up at the sound and I look at him confused.
I think about arguing about them giving me a phone but from the looks on their faces I would lose and I did agree to their safety measure. I sigh and nod my head at Levi and he smiles his lazy, beautiful grin back at me then runs up the stairs to grab me a phone.
"Can you stay for dinner? You're late anyway." Kai asks hopefully.
He's right, I am late anyway and if I wait long enough, I might get lucky and she might have drunk herself to sleep again. Plus, I haven't had a hot meal in what feels like forever.
"Yes, I should be ok. What are we having?"
Kai grins widely at me and gently slings his arm around my shoulder. Maverick comes up on the other side and takes my hand bringing it to his lips, placing a small kiss on the back. The electric sparks buzz through me and Maverick's eye widen.
"Damn, so those are the sparks," he says to Kai who just grins and shrugs.
We follow Hunter and Jax into the kitchen.
Jax hands me a glass of water and some more painkillers, my others definitely have worn off now, so I take them gratefully.
I get an idea. They have helped me so much and are going to do more, making sure that my mother can't hurt me and that I have help if she does. I want to do something for them.
"Can I cook?" I ask, nerves fluttering through my stomach.
They all turn to me studying my features.
They must see that this means something to me because they all nod and smile.
Well Hunter smiles his teeny tiny smile that he thinks counts.
I vow to myself, then and there, that I will get Hunter to smile properly one day.
I have a feeling it will be breath-taking.
I grin at them all. I love cooking and I haven't had a chance to cook properly in so long.
"Are you sure your ribs are going to be ok with you standing up for that long?" Levi questions coming into the kitchen.
"Yes, I'll be fine, the pain meds are kicking in now and if I need to, I'll sit down or ask for help." I smile at him and he nods in response.
"Does anyone not like anything?" I question, not wanting to feed any of them something they won't like.
"We aren't fussy, Sweetheart.” Hunter shrugs.
I start to search the kitchen looking for the ingredients I need.
"Can we help, Beautiful Girl?" Kai chuckles and I blush.
"Tell us what you need, Little Star and we will get it." Jax says.
"Ok, I need hamburger meat, tomatoes, onions, garlic and mushrooms." I carry on listing the items I'll need to make homemade spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread and a salad. I may have gone slightly over the top but who knows when I'll have this opportunity again!
I'm making the most of it!
"What are you making Darling?" Levi asks curiously, as he watches me make the dough for the pasta before placing it in the fridge to chill.
I then start to prepare the sauce before seasoning and shaping the meatballs.
"Homemade spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread and a salad." I say slightly nervously. I'm hoping I made the right choice.
Levi grins widely his eyes sparkling in happiness.
"My favourite!" He comes up next to me and kisses my forehead. The electric sparks coursing through me. He never takes his eyes off me as he says, "Ahh so those are the sparks my brothers get to enjoy."
My face flushes.
Jax comes up to my other side and plants a kiss dangerously close to my mouth and once again the sparks do their happy dance and I smile broadly.
"Holy shit!" Jax exclaims, startling a laugh out of me and the rest of the guys.
"If you aren't going to help, get out of kitchen." I say to the two gorgeous guys on either side of me. I point to where the large kitchen island splits the room, the other side of it holding a large mahogany dining table.
They both smirk before bowing grandly. Making the guys hoot with laughter.
"At your service, Lady Sage." Jax says in an awful fake British accent.
"Why thank you kind sir, if you please, could you make a salad?" Replying in kind through my giggles.
"But of course," he ambles off to make a salad and Levi brings my attention back to him.
"What about me Darling?" His husky voice is sending shivers of pleasure through me. He smirks at me as if he knows what his voice his doing.
Bastard, I grin at him.
"Can you make the garlic bread please?"
He nods and goes off to the other side of the kitchen to make it. I turn to face Hunter, Kai and Maverick. They all look at me expectantly as if waiting for me to give them orders. Definitely used to be military.
"Can you guys lay the table please?"
"Of course, Sweetheart."
"No problem Titch."
"Yeah, Beautiful Girl."
All follow my question and a huge smile overtakes my face.
I love that they have nicknames for me. I've never had one before.
Not a nice one anyway. I frown and shake my head refusing to let my thoughts wander down that dark path.
I focus back on cooking and it's not long until everything is ready.
The guys all take everything to the table and leave me with nothing to carry.
Everything smells really good even if I do say so myself. I just hope it tastes good too. It's been a while since I've cooked and I'm hoping I haven't gotten too rusty.
Everyone digs in and soon they are all complimenting the food. I'm happy they all like it and I'm glad they like my way of saying thank you. It's not until nearly the end of the meal that Hunter brings up the topic, I was hoping he had forgotten about.
"Sweetheart, how did you know the fighting style that Kai was doing?"
All of the quiet conversations that we're going on around the table suddenly come to a halt and they all start glancing between me and Hunter. I swallow hard. I don't want to share this yet.
"I will tell you one day soon. Not today though." I say firmly. I will not be sharing this part of myself today.
"But. . . " he starts respond.
Levi puts a hand on his shoulder.
"We understand Darling. You didn't ask for details about Kai. We respect that you will tell us when you're ready."
Hunters tense form relaxes at Levi's words realising he is right.
"Thank you." I say sincerely.
"You're welcome, Darling."
"I'm sorry Sage Sweetheart. I had no right to question you when we've hardly told you anything about us. Thank you for trusting us as much as you have.” Hunter tells me sincerely.
I reach across the table and grab a hold of his hand squeezing it gently and silently loving the callouses that adorn his fingers.
"What instrument do you play?" I ask absently. "Wait, you play guitar, right?" I ask smiling.
"Holy fuck how did you know that, Beautiful Girl?" Kai exclaims loudly.
I glance up slightly embarrassed.
"He has callouses on his fingers that you only get from playing a guitar or a similar instrument. I took a guess." I shrug.
"Your talents keep getting more and more intriguing Sage Darling." Levi smiles at me.
I blush a deep red at the compliment. We all finish our meal, talking about much lighter topics.
After clearing up the table, I finally turn towards the guys.
"I need to get back."
"Ok Sweetheart. I'll take you.” Hunter says.