Chapter 8 #2
“Fine, we can clean it up,” she says, sounding like the words physically pain her to say. “But I want them here right after. We don’t have time to waste right now.”
Now that I know she won’t make a run for it, I take a step back, raising my hands in surrender.
“Whatever you say, boss,” I tell her with a wink as I make my way to the linen closet behind the door to grab the first-aid kit. I don’t miss the way she rolls her eyes again as I turn my back to her.
Every bathroom and a few other major rooms, like the kitchen and the surveillance room, all have their own kits. With the work we do, we never really know what’s going to happen, and it’s always better to be prepared. This is a great example of that.
I sort through the kit on the counter next to her as she watches me. I’m not sure what kind of medical treatment she’s used to, but based on the way her eyes follow my movement, I assume it wasn’t much.
“This might sting a bit,” I warn her before I press a cloth full of saline solution to the wound to clean it.
She hardly even winces, which I’m hoping is a sign that it’s not very deep and not just her being tough as nails.
After I wipe it down again with antiseptic wipes, pat it dry, and apply antiseptic ointment, I cover it with gauze to keep it clean.
Neither of us says a word as I work, and while it’s not an uncomfortable silence, my brain is currently going a million miles a second, trying to put any of the few pieces that I have together. However, one question keeps nagging me, no matter what I do to avoid it.
“Why did you call me?”
The words slip out before I can think better of them, and I almost groan aloud in frustration.
“Who else was I going to call?” she asks with a chuckle, like I asked a stupid question. We both know better.
“Literally anyone else. You could have called so many people instead of me, but you didn’t, and you never do anything without a reason.
So why me?” I ask again as I finish dressing her wound.
I take the smallest of steps back, just enough for her to turn her head and look at me, and when our eyes meet, her mask is gone.
She’s quiet for so long that I don’t think she’s going to answer as we stare at each other, neither of us willing to back down.
“I knew you’d find me,” she admits with a shrug. Then she swings her leg from around me and hops off the counter, heading back into her destroyed room.
Her answer is simple enough, and given my skills, it’s easy enough to believe, but something about it bugs me all the same, and I quickly follow her out.
“I didn’t, though.”
She pauses at my words, and for a moment, I wish I could take them back.
In what world is it a good idea to remind your boss you failed?
Fantastic idea, idiot. Yes, let’s point out your inability to be a ruthless gang leader.
Clearly, my lack of sleep is affecting my two remaining brain cells more than I thought.
Shaking her head, she turns to look back at me. The light from the bathroom floods into her room, keeping her from falling back into the shadows despite the darkness.
“No, you didn’t.”
Her words hit my already bruised ego like a punch to the gut. But what can I say? It’s the truth. I just admitted it. That doesn’t make the urge to argue with her any less, though, as she walks back to me with a wicked gleam in her eyes.
“But you would have,” she says, and it’s not a question. There’s no hesitation in her words, as if she’s telling me something she knows to be one hundred percent fact.
“What?”
The question tumbles from my mouth as I try to understand what the hell she means. How could she think I would have found her when I’ve done nothing but try since she disappeared and gotten nowhere?
A smile splits her face as she looks up at me. Jade stops before me once again, and I have to look down to continue to hold her gaze.
“Tell me, Spencer, if I had stayed with Randall, would you have been able to trace the call and find us?”
“Of course,” I scoff at the question. Had she been with Randall, we would have had her back in no time. Tracking phones is child’s play in the bigger picture of what I do for Vengeance on a damn near daily basis.
She nods as if that’s the answer she expected, which only confuses me further. I have to physically bite my tongue to stop myself from snapping at her about how that’s not the same thing, because that’s not what happened.
“And what have you been up to while I was gone?” she asks, pressing up on the balls of her feet like she can’t wait to hear my reply.
The smile on her face lets me know she probably already has a pretty good idea of the answer, but I still feel ashamed to say it.
I’ve always been good with computers and technology in general.
Until Jade went missing, there wasn’t anything I hadn’t been able to find since starting with Vengeance.
“Looking for you,” I say, my voice coming out weak, lower than I intended, like somehow saying the words aloud makes them worse.
Again, she nods, the smile still on her face as she circles me, and I have to work hard to let her be at my back. I might not distrust her like I once did, but old habits die hard.
“Just like the rest of the guys, right?” she asks, and while I nod again, I doubt she needs me to confirm it. “So, it was only a matter of time before you would have found something.”
Her finger trails down the length of my arm as she comes around to stand in front of me again, and goosebumps break out across my skin.
“None of us knew about our new players. Least of all, you guys. I'd suspected there was more than meets the eye, but this is much bigger than any of us were ready for. They’ve been planning and playing the long game since before Vengeance was a dream in our heads.”
She holds her hand up to stop me, and I realize the shock must be clear on my face as I swallow back the questions that want to spill out one after another.
“They’re someone we weren't ready for, but we are now; no matter how good they are, they would have slipped eventually.”
Her eyes blaze, and I can almost feel her need for revenge as if it’s my own. “When they did, you would have been there to see it because you're the best, and I knew I could count on you.”
She barks a laugh, shaking her head. “Don’t look so shocked. We don’t have to get along for me to know your skills, Spencer. Not to mention, K has been giving you guys work for years, and you’ve never failed yet.”
For the first time in a long time, I’m at a loss for words. Of all the reasons she could have called me, this wasn’t what I imagined, and I definitely wasn’t ready for her to compliment me after I’d failed to even find a trace of her.
Her chuckles turn to full-on laughter as she walks away, but something inside of me can’t let her.
My hand closes around her arm, stopping her.
I expect her to shake me off or even lay me out.
Instead, she looks over her shoulder at me with a smile that reaches all the way to her eyes, making them shine.
It’s such a simple thing, but it’s so open and honest. There's no hint of her usual mask or malice that has become her normal when she looks at me. I can’t help but smile back at her, pulling her back to me and sealing my lips over hers.
The need to taste her, feel her, has been riding me hard ever since I pulled away, and I’ll be damned if I let her walk away right now without one more taste.
She meets my lips blow for blow as her arms come up to wrap around my neck, pulling me closer.
But it’s not close enough. Reaching down, I grip her thigh, scooping her up without thought, needing to feel her in my arms. Her legs wrap around my waist, and I almost groan at the feeling of her pressed against me.
She’s so small and light, but even with one hand on her thigh and the other palming her ass, I feel her lean muscles.
She reminds me so much of the flowers Rick’s mother used to hang in her garden.
Bleeding hearts are pretty to look at, but just as deadly.
I have so much I want to say to her, but it can all wait; well, almost all of it can.
“I want the names of whoever did this to you,” I tell her, pulling back to nod toward the wound I dressed on her head.
“We don’t concern ourselves with matters of the dead.” She breathes the words, her voice deeper than usual, and it only makes me want her more.
I never wanted to want Jade, but now that I’ve had her, I see I never had a choice. She was going to own me the same way she does the rest of them. Completely, because Jade doesn’t do anything in halves, and I was only delaying the inevitable.
With her legs still wrapped around my waist, I walk us toward her bed.
More than once, my foot catches on the scraps of things I left littered around her room, and I mentally scold myself.
I’ll have to replace all of this for her, but we can worry about that later.
Right now, I need her on that damn bed before I lose my fucking mind.
I growl in frustration when my foot catches on something for the third time. Gripping her hips, I pull her from my chest and toss her a few feet to the bed. A smile splits her lips as she bounces on the soft mattress, and I stalk toward her, pulling my shirt over my head as I go.
She scrambles back with every step I take, and for a moment, I pause, thinking I’ve misread the situation. One look at her face lets me know I haven’t. Her pupils are blown so wide that I can see how big they are, even in the low light. The playful smirk on her face lets me know this is a game.
Fine by me.
“Where do you think you're going?” I ask, reaching out to grasp her ankle and drag her back to me at the side of the bed. Her legs go around my waist again before she pulls me down to her.
“Wherever the fuck I want,” she says as I brace my arms on either side of her head to stop myself from crashing down on top of her. “Lucky for you, this is exactly where I want to be,” she purrs, looking up at me, and I see the truth in her eyes.