Chapter 37 Zander
Ishowered and got ready for the day before I dared go near Rick’s room, so at least I had an excuse to be there. I avoid the floorboards that creak as I make my way down the hall and thank my lucky stars when I find his door open.
A peek around the corner shows me it was completely worth it.
Rick, Jade, and Kratos lay passed out in Rick’s bed, with one of them on each side of her.
Rick is lying on his side, his arm around Jade, with her hand resting on top of his.
While Jade’s head rests on Kratos’s chest, he's damn near sitting up with his hand tangled in her hair and his other arm behind his head, and I get the feeling he didn’t intend to fall asleep.
I’d been pretty sure they would be together when Rick finally came up here and Kratos never came back, but I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.
Sure, we’d all agreed she was free to make her own choices, and seeing her with them so far hadn’t been an issue.
Hell, I’d been genuinely happy to know that Rick had finally pulled his head out of his ass about how he feels about her.
But knowing it and seeing it are two different things.
Seeing them together doesn’t even make me slightly jealous, though. Instead, I fumble around for my phone so I can snap a picture before they wake up.
The second after I take the picture, a loud bang sounds down the hall. I quickly turn around to look, finding Spencer standing at his door. The look on his face is as if he just sucked on a lemon. Without a word, he stomps off down the hall toward the stairs and out of sight.
Now he just needs to get over his shit, and maybe we can stop all the fighting around here. But I’ll leave that to Jade. If she could get through to Rick, I bet it’s only a matter of time before she has Spencer coming around too, either literally or not, is up to her.
When I turn my attention back to Rick’s bed, I find all three of them staring at me.
Of course, that sound was enough to get them all up.
I’m actually surprised I got all this way without waking Jade.
She’s such a light sleeper usually. I can’t tell you how hard it is to slip out of bed with her in the morning.
Nine times out of ten, she usually wakes but, thankfully, she goes back to sleep easily enough.
While Rick and Kratos both glare at me with different degrees of annoyance, Jade offers me a smile that I can’t help but return. I’ll take their attitudes if I get to have her look at me like this.
Totally worth it.
“Did you get your picture?” she asks with a smirk that lets me know I’m not as sneaky as I thought I was.
“Damn. I thought you were asleep, Doll,” I tell her with a pout, looking down at my phone to see if I had, in fact, gotten a good one before Spencer ruined it.
“I was mostly, but seeing you standing there, it was pretty obvious what you were doing. You’ve been taking pictures of everything for like the last two weeks,” she says, cocking a brow at me as if daring me to deny it.
I don’t, because I have been, but the twist of her lips lets me know she’s not mad, only giving me a hard time.
“What can I say? Someone’s gotta make sure we have memories to look back on,” I tell with a shrug as I shove my phone into my pocket.
Her brows dip just the slightest bit, even though her smile doesn’t fall, and I want to kick myself.
Yeah, let's bring up memories to the girl who can’t remember how she ended up in hell, who probably only wishes she could forget most of her life.
Damn it.
Not giving myself a moment to second-guess it, I run toward the bed, flinging myself onto all of them. Careful not to crush Jade, even though I know she can handle it, I would rather accidentally punch one of the guys than her.
Oofs and humphs sound out from all three of them as I snuggle down onto Jade's soft chest, using her tits as the perfect pillow.
“See, now when we look back at the picture, we’ll remember this wonderful, loving dog pile,” I tell Jade, my words slightly muffled with my head buried in her chest.
She barks out a laugh and falls back onto the pillows, but her arms come up to hug me to her while she does. I could lie here with her like this forever.
“You mean we can look back on that picture and want to beat your ass?” Rick huffs, and when I crack an eye open to look at him, he’s staring down at me, red-faced and super pissed.
“I’m pretty sure you hit him in the nuts when you took your flying leap, Zan,” Jade explains while she continues to laugh, and suddenly her laughter makes a lot more sense.
I spring off the bed as quickly as I can, just as Rick’s hand reaches out to grab me.
He barely misses me as I climb over Kratos's lap and roll to the floor. By the time I’m at the door, he’s composed himself enough to take chase.
But I’m quick, and I know he won’t get me, at least not right now.
I also know this will not be something he just lets go of.
I’m going to have to make myself scarce for a little while until he forgets.
But seeing the smile on Jade’s face makes it all worth it.
Jade insisted on going to class even though we all would’ve rather had her stay home.
Trent cleaned and wrapped up her hands before taking her and Hazel in.
I had an all-day automotive block in a little over two hours, but I needed to swing by the garage first. Rick and Spencer had switched most of their classes to online, and seeing as they didn't have lab classes like mine, it was effortless for them.
I went to the shop, scheduled out the guys, and pulled one of my lowers to the side to see if he’s heard anything. We knew the chances of getting anything worth it were slim, but we were out of options, and it would be dumb to assume someone couldn’t slip up.
Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case so far. My guy had nothing. Trent’s overnights had gotten him nothing, and as far as Trent said, Jake had yet to hear anything useful either.
It was driving me fucking crazy, and the worst part was we couldn’t do anything about it.
This wasn’t like normal business. There wasn’t anyone to question.
I couldn’t just torture someone to make them talk.
It wasn’t something Spencer could hack his way into, or something we could buy information on.
We hadn’t been this well and truly helpless with something in a long time, and it was slowly driving us all crazy.
I push my bike to its limit as I drive to class, but I can’t make myself slow down. I’d outrun my demons long ago, or so I thought. Now they were right back on my ass, and the threat of losing Jade wasn’t something I knew how to handle.
But I’d be damned if I couldn’t find a way to keep her safe.
No matter the cost.