Chapter 17
The room’s quiet as Trent spills his heart out to Jade.
The second he stops talking, Jade hops off the counter and flies into his arms. Their lips meet in a rushed but gentle kiss, and for once, he doesn’t seem hesitant the way he had before.
No, Trent is in this just as deep as the rest of us now.
Which he seems more than okay with, judging by his speech.
A shrill shriek of a siren cuts through the room. I watch as Jade pulls back, her eyes flying to the clock that hangs above the fridge before she curses.
“Expecting someone, Killer?” I ask.
She doesn’t answer, but she doesn’t really need to. I know Jade well enough to see her lack of shock. No, Jade knew someone was coming, even before they breached the security.
Rick stands watching us, waiting to see how we want to proceed.
I nod to the living room, and he heads out with a word to disarm it.
The others remain where they are for the most part.
Spencer and Zander both creep closer to Jade.
I expect it from Zander, especially after how poorly he’s been doing in her absence, but this new behavior from Spencer is going to take some getting used to.
“I’d hoped we could get through more before they got here, but things got a little off track,” Jade says with a sigh, shaking her head.
“Who?” Jake asks, speaking for the first time.
He’s still sitting on the stool he started on, but he hasn’t taken his eyes off Jade since she walked in the door.
He seems to be under the impression that he’s not as transparent with his feelings for her.
Too bad the only one he has a chance of fooling is her.
The rest of us know the effect she has on those around her firsthand, but that’s up to them to figure out.
It took me years before I told her how I felt, so I don’t really have a leg to stand on as far as pushing them together.
No, I’ll leave that to Zander. He seems to enjoy that.
A knock sounds at the front door, and Jade darts away to answer it without so much as a glance back at us.
She’s independent to a fault, and I know she can handle herself, but damn if I don’t want to chase after her.
Her disappearance is still too fresh. All I want to do is wrap her up in my arms and keep her close, but that’s not who Jade is.
She’s strong and doesn’t need my protection. Just my love is enough for her.
I hear the door latch closed, followed by multiple sets of footsteps as they head toward the kitchen. She said “they” but didn’t specify who or how many, probably intentionally.
“Welcome to the party,” she says with a chuckle, opening her arms wide to show off everyone as we stand around the kitchen waiting. My gaze falls on the two people who come in behind her.
Leo steps into the kitchen first. His eyes dart around the room before he returns his gaze to Jade. Something’s different about him, but I don’t have time to figure out what it is before the second person walks in, and my jaw almost hits the ground.
“Dom.”
His head snaps up to look at me before glaring at Jade. She shrugs and averts her eyes quickly before he looks back at me. His face is full of panic as I walk toward him, clapping him on the back.
“Shit, man, where the hell have you been? I thought you were gone for,” I only half-joke, looking him over for injuries and coming up empty.
Dom stands in front of me, still as a statue, eyes downcast at his shoes before his eyes dart to Jade again.
I’m missing something.
I’ve known both of them for a long time, and something about the way they're acting isn’t sitting right with me.
Everyone’s quiet, and I get the feeling I’m not the only one noticing his odd behavior.
Jade seems to avoid my gaze completely, while Dom is downright rooted to the floor.
If I didn’t know better, I’d say he’s afraid.
“You didn’t tell him?” Dom finally snaps, turning to glare at Jade.
I’ve never heard him talk to anyone like that, and it instantly puts me on edge. If Jade cares, she doesn’t show it. Instead, she snorts a laugh, waving him off as she walks across the kitchen toward us.
“I meant to, but other things got in the way,” she tells him with a sneer. “But I'm sure you know all about that, don’t you?”
What the fuck is going on right now?
Dom huffs, taking a step toward her, and while she doesn’t cower, the tension in the room rises. None of us so much as move, but we’re ready. Dom only takes two steps before he stops, his eyes darting around the room as he seems to think better of it.
“Jade.”
“Dom,” she mocks, cocking her head to the side with a smile that’s all sass. I watch them as they have a silent stare-down. Neither of them says a word, but it feels like they're communicating all the same.
“What the fuck is going on?” Spencer snaps, breaking through the silence.
“Dom here is going to tell you what he’s been up to in his absence,” Jade says, still holding his gaze. Dom’s already tense frame tenses further, and I know whatever he has to share isn’t good.
What does she know that we don’t? What could be so bad to have him this on edge? Dom and I have done a lot of fucked-up shit in our lives. Most of it we’ve done together, especially over the last ten or so years with Vengeance, but I’ve never seen him like this.
Jade’s gaze is cold and sharp as she stares him down as if daring him to speak.
“For fuck’s sake!”
Leo takes a few steps across the room until he’s standing at Dom’s back, clapping him on his shoulder. It seems friendly enough, but I see Dom wince, and I know even before he opens his mouth that I’m not going to like what he has to say.
“I’ll tell them,” Leo says, looking around the room, a smile that borders on unsettling twisting his lips.
Something’s definitely different about him.
He doesn’t seem so gentle and innocent as he did before.
Something in his eyes is darker, harder.
It’s almost the exact look Zander and Jade get when they’re too close to the edge.
Leo’s never really been on my radar before.
He was just someone Jade made friends with, like Hazel, but now I wonder if I'd missed the obvious signs.
“We might have been spending a bit of time with your woman lately,” Leo says, barking a laugh.
His words mean nothing to me, though. With a quick glance around the room, I find confusion on most of the others’ faces, along with some jealousy.
Whatever he’d hoped to convey with that seems to have missed its mark.
Dom turns, shoving Leo hard, but even as he stumbles away, his smile doesn’t slip.
I don’t like this.
“Don’t fucking say it like that, asshole!” Dom shouts at him, but Leo only shrugs, as if he couldn’t care less about what Dom says.
“We took her,” Dom mumbles, rubbing his hand down his face with a sigh. “We shot Randall, took Charlotte, and used her to lure Jade out. Then we drugged both of them and took off.” His words come out so fast that it takes my brain a second to put them together into a cohesive sentence.
Dom looks up, his eyes landing on mine once again, and he winces, either from his admission or because he knows what's coming.
But he doesn’t know what's coming, not even close.
He betrayed us, betrayed me, and put Jade in danger.
The one thing that means more to me than even my own life, and he took her knowing that.
My vision turns red, and I lunge.