Chapter 45
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
SIMONE
It was well past midnight when Elias finally called. He sounded tired, but the tension in his voice was missing. The main emotion as far as I could tell was relief and the first thing he said when I answered was, “We found her.”
Letting out a heavy sigh, I sat back on the couch.
I’d called Skylar to get more information and learned about the girl who’d been taken.
Sixteen, connected to a crew that dealt heavily in drugs and weapons.
Probably taken as revenge for something, though Skylar didn’t have the details on that.
I’d been worried about her and about Elias, and the fact that both were coming home safely felt a lot like a miracle.
“Is she okay?”
“Some bumps and bruises. She’ll be okay.
” He huffed a laugh. “She’s a little spitfire.
The resemblance between her and her brother is kind of terrifying.
She’s in the hospital getting treated, and keeps demanding we take her back so she can ‘handle’ the guys who took her herself.
It’s no wonder Battle came to us. If we didn’t get her out quickly, she was going to piss off the wrong person. ”
That sounded like teenage bravado to me, but I kept that thought to myself. “What about you?”
His little huff of laughter helped me relax even more, the fear and tension I’d felt for hours finally easing in my chest. “Yeah, I’m good.
All I did was give her a ride. Didn’t get near the place they were holding her.
” His tone changed, softened. “I made you a promise. I said I’d be safe. I don’t break my promises, gorgeous.”
A smile tugged at my lips. “How has someone not snatched you up yet? Sweet harmless bikers seem like they’d be flying off the shelves.”
His laugh was carefree in a way I’d never heard before. There was more good news he hadn’t shared yet, I could just tell. I didn’t rush him, though. I was just happy to hear his voice.
“You know, I feel like I should be insulted by the harmless thing, but I’m not. It’s the truth. My whole crew is harmless to everything but a sexy woman’s libido.”
“Oh, god, that was bad,” I snickered.
His chuckle said he wasn’t serious. He was a flirt, but not a misogynist. I didn’t have to worry about that.
“When are you coming back?”
“Not sure yet,” he admitted softly. “I think Prez is keeping us close in case there’s any fallback from the whole thing. Hopefully I won’t be out all night. Isla doesn’t believe in sleeping in and she won’t be nice enough to let me nap if I was dumb enough to stay out all night.”
“Ms. Brooks? Is that Zero?” Jasper’s worried voice spoke from the stairs. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw the worried young man staring hopefully at my phone. I held it out to him with a smile.
“He’s okay. Want to talk to him?”
He nodded rapidly, rushing down the rest of the stairs. He didn't snatch the phone, taking it politely, but his tone was brusque when he spoke to Elias. “Where are you? Do you have any idea what time it is?”
He sounded like a parent scolding an unruly child and I felt my smile widen. Those two didn’t always have it easy, but it was obvious in the way they spoke to each other that they cared. They’d made leaps and bounds since the first day. I got the feeling they’d only get closer as time went on.
After the phone call with Elias, Jasper finally felt comfortable enough to get some sleep.
I did the same, getting into Elias’s bed after stealing some clothes from his dresser.
It was lucky I had spare glasses and a contact case in my bag otherwise I would’ve been uncomfortable come morning.
I woke up when Elias slipped into bed beside me and wrapped me in his embrace.
He didn’t speak, didn't pull me out of the drowsy half sleep I’d been in, and when I woke up the next morning, he was still there.
Turning in his arms, I studied his face.
Even with the dark circles under his eyes and the pillow lines on his face, he was still handsome.
It really was a curiosity that he was still single before now.
He was handsome, had a good job, an easy smile and sex with him was amazing.
Was it really only his connection to his crew that stopped women from giving him a chance?
A fist pounded on the bedroom door, making us both jump. Elias’s grip on me tightened, squashing me against his chest protectively as he looked around in search of the threat.
“Wha–”
“Wake up!” Jasper demanded. “Isla’s hungry!”
Dropping back onto the pillow, Elias groaned. “Holy shit. I nearly came out of my own skin.”
Snickering, I snuck a kiss before attempting to get out of bed.
Elias didn’t let me go far, pulling me back for another kiss, this one longer and more passionate.
When he finally pulled back, he had a smug smirk on his face, like he was somehow less affected than I was.
When I reached down to gently squeeze his erection that was pressed against my hip, the smile fell and he groaned softly.
“That’s just mean. We can’t do shit with both kids awake.”
“I know,” I grinned. “Might want to go deal with that. I’ll get breakfast started.”
He reached for me when I slid out of bed, flopping face down with a groan when I slipped out of his grasp.
Still chuckling to myself, I left him in the room and stopped in the bathroom long enough to brush my teeth with a spare toothbrush that had been left on the counter, still in its wrapping.
I smiled when I realized it must have been Jasper who left it out, considering Elias had been too exhausted to do much more than climb into bed the night prior.
The standoffish boy who glared at the world was more thoughtful than he liked to let on.
Jasper was sitting at the table, spoon feeding Isla some applesauce he must’ve found in the pantry. He barely glanced at me, used to my presence in his home by now.
“So what do I call you?” he asked out of the blue while I was pulling out the items necessary to make omelettes for everyone.
Frowning, I looked over my shoulder. “What?”
He looked uncomfortable, refusing to meet my eye, one slim shoulder shrugging awkwardly. “You’re dating my cousin. But you’re also a teacher. What do I call you?”
The question caught me off guard. I’d never had to consider that before. “Well, in school, you’ll call me Ms. Brooks.”
He nodded, like he expected that.
“As for here… you can call me whatever you want, I suppose. Simone is fine.”
The way he wrinkled his nose made me think he wouldn’t be comfortable with that. I almost laughed, holding myself back since I didn't want him to think his question was silly. The nuances of dating a student’s guardian were new to me too, even if he wasn’t a student of mine anymore.
“Or you can stick with Ms. Brooks if you want. Whatever makes you comfortable.”
The question, while innocent in nature, reflected something more important than just how to address me.
Jasper was starting to see my place here as more permanent.
The realization made me smile and it didn’t fade all morning.
Elias came down to join us after a while, helping me make breakfast, and his mood was upbeat and jovial as he took over feeding Isla and playing with her while Jasper and I ate.
Even Jasper noticed the change in his mood, his eyes narrowed as he studied his cousin.
“What happened last night? You look happy.”
Elias hummed a happy sound, leaning back to avoid Isla’s messy attempts to grab him with sticky fingers. “I am happy. That crew that’s been causing trouble won’t be a problem anymore.”
Sitting up straighter, Jasper demanded, “How do you know?”
“Because we did the crew’s president a favor in exchange for him leaving and taking his people with him. He might be a criminal, but one percenters have their own honor code. He swore a vow, and he won’t break it. Not after what we did for him.”
Jasper looked unconvinced, his face clouded. “You didn’t do anything illegal, did you?”
Snorting, Elias turned enough to raise an eyebrow at him. “Do you really think I’d do something like that?”
It took only a second before Jasper acquiesced and shook his head. “No, I guess not. What’d you do then?”
Elias didn’t get into the gritty details, which I was proud of him for, but he was honest and open with Jasper, explaining, “The club president’s sister had gone missing. A few of the guys on my crew are good at finding people. We helped find her. In exchange, he agreed to leave town.”
Jasper went quiet for a moment, and I could see him thinking it all through. After last night, he was still struggling with the threats and his fear for his sister. It would take a few days before he fully accepted that she was safe.
Elias must have been thinking the same thing because he offered, “The club is actually planning to go out to do some clean up today. Put to rights some of the stuff damaged by Battle’s crew. Want to join? Pretty sure all the club kids are going to help out.”
Jasper’s brows furrowed. “Why are you cleaning up their mess for them?”
Elias shrugged. “Because this is our town. Our community. It’s our job to take care of it. We might not have caused the damage, but leaving those affected by it to struggle on their own isn’t right. If we can help, we will.”
Huffing out a laugh, I took a sip of my coffee. “I wish that mindset would be brought to the school. Half our classes are being held together by tape and glue at this point.”
Pursing his lips, Elias considered me thoughtfully. “You know, I noticed a few things when I was there. Do you know if there’s some kind of procedure for volunteering our time? I know of at least a few of the guys who could help. If there’s any electrical issues, I can look into it myself.”
While the offer was kind, I didn’t know the first thing about the bureaucracy of the upper management.
Reagan had made noise about me becoming vice principal, even unofficially because the students respected me, but I’d always turned her down.
I wanted to help kids, not play nice with the school board.
“You’d have to speak with the principals of each school. I doubt Reagan would say no to a little free help, we’re looking at losing the art department soon if we don’t find some room in the budget to spare it. If you want to save us maintenance costs, it’d go a long way.”
“Let me talk to my crew. Pretty sure they’d all be down to help. Maybe Prez can call the principals, get some kind of program together or something.”
He said it like it was nothing, like he wasn’t offering to take a huge weight off our budget and our minds by getting people to help the schools function.
I studied him, bewildered. How had this man who was good down to his core manage to stay single all these years?
And how was I going to stop myself from falling head over heels for him if he kept doing things like this? I didn’t think I had it in me.