Chapter 23 Spencer
Going up to get them probably wasn’t one of my better ideas. I could have easily texted them or had one of the others get them. It’s not like we didn’t know what they were doing up there. Not only is Jade not quiet, but after her being gone, staying away felt impossible.
Shit, I couldn’t stop myself. Even when I wanted to hate her, I couldn’t.
I can only imagine how the rest of them feel now with her back.
Despite missing her, none of them seem to have any hard feelings about our shift.
Nobody seemed upset when Jade and I got into it in the kitchen yesterday.
Confused? Absolutely, but not upset. Which only shows how much they trust her because they probably should’ve been.
It’s not like I don’t deserve it.
But no, I just had to go up and get them.
I told myself I just needed to see her happy, here, and safe.
I didn’t care about anything else as long as she was here and safe.
Her being half-naked when I walked in. Well, that was a bonus.
What threw me more than anything was finding her with both Zander and Trent.
Separately, they made sense. Zander was with her any chance he got, even before she disappeared, and I’ve seen the way Trent looks at her.
We were friends longer than we haven’t been.
He might be able to hide that shit from others, but not us.
No, it was them both there, together with her between them, that fucked me up. I hadn’t intended to stand around and watch, but I wasn’t exactly sneaking around either. I know damn well Jade heard me, but she didn’t tell me to leave, so I took that as an invitation.
Now I get to go over everything I found, all the while hard as fuck. Nothing like reporting something serious to a room full of people, with your brain constantly replaying the way your girl just got fucked by two of your oldest friends…
“Let’s go, fuckers!” Zander screams, turning to look back at Trent and me before he continues to run down the stairs.
Jade hangs off his back like a monkey, her sleep shorts showing off her legs and probably a fair bit of her ass.
Unfortunately, the shirt she stole from Zander covers any chance we had of seeing it.
He takes the stairs so fast it’s a miracle he doesn’t trip over his own feet. The second he hits the tile, he’s off like a shot into the living room. His shouts fill the house as he calls for the others, who could be anywhere. Not that it matters. Wherever they are, they’ll hear Zander.
He’ll make sure of it.
Jade’s peal of laughter is the only reason nobody is going to beat his ass for running around like a nut screaming orders at us after the shit few weeks we’ve had.
She makes all of us soft with those pretty eyes and smile.
Not to mention, she would whip our asses if we tried to stop Zan from being anything but his crazy self.
“How is she?” I ask Trent, unable to stop myself.
Jade is a master at hiding how she feels. I think she really is happy to be here with us, but I don’t think everything is okay the way she’s pretending it is. Hell, I think I’d be more concerned if she really was okay after yesterday.
“She seems alright, but she also hasn’t said shit about Dom, and I wasn’t going to bring it up before I had to,” Trent says, following me into the living room and plopping down on the couch with a sigh.
I nod, perched on the edge of the coffee table across from him.
I don’t have anything to say to that, not really.
I can’t say I blame him. If I could keep us in this bubble, I would.
Letting her be happy for as long as he can is a very Trent thing to do, but for once, I wish we didn’t have to do the hard shit.
For Jade’s sake, I almost wish we could just be normal.
No gang shit or mafia shit, I guess, is more accurate now.
Rick’s the first one to join us. The dark circles under his eyes let me know he’s been up all night as well. Judging by the scowl on his face, I’m going to say he didn’t find much of anything.
Jake comes out of the kitchen with a few coffees in to-go cups.
He’d gone to check in on the deals he’d set up for today and put some guys on the street to handle things so he could be here.
The rest of us had been delegating our tasks for the last few weeks, but Jake had kept up on his role, hoping to get information.
It hadn’t done much to get us info about Jade, but he had been the key to keeping Zander from being let loose on the streets, and that’s a big deal.
I never really cared for the asshole. He always seemed to think he was top shit, when he wasn’t even high enough on the chain to clean up our messes, but I have to admit he’s growing on me.
Jake sets down the cup carriers on the table and starts passing them out. Rick takes his without even registering him. After a few sips, he gives a nod of thanks, and I realize I might not be the only one warming to him.
Zander runs through the room with Jade laughing hysterically on his back, an annoyed-looking Kratos not far behind them.
He narrowly avoids slamming into Rick, who shoots him a murderous glare, but it only lasts a moment when his eyes land on Jade’s smiling face.
Without hesitation, he reaches out, wrapping his arm around Jade before pulling her right off Zander’s back.
Rick sets her in front of him, his arm still wrapped around her waist, while Zander glares daggers at him.
“Good morning, Firefly,” he says, pressing a kiss to the crown of her head that makes her smile impossibly wider.
“Hey, no fair! You can’t just steal her like that!” Zander shouts, crossing his arms and pouting like a child.
“Well, considering I just did. I’m going to say that I, in fact, can,” Rick challenges him while Jade turns into his chest, wrapping her arms around him.
“Morning, Ricky,” she says, and even with her face buried in his chest, I hear her chuckle.
Zander’s eyes light up at the nickname, and he barks a laugh that any madman would be envious of.
“Don’t start with me,” Rick growls at her with no real heat, and while he looks annoyed, I can see the smile he’s fighting.
She pushes up onto her tiptoes to give Rick what I assume was supposed to be a quick kiss, but neither seems able to settle for just a peck. It’s not overly sexual. Most movies have more action, even with a PG-13 rating. Yet, somehow I’m back to being hard as fuck just like that.
I’ll just have to come to grips with the fact that I’m damned to be hard for the rest of my life when she’s around, especially with them.
When they finally pull themselves apart, she skips to the table, looking at the coffee cups. Jake plucks a cup from the carrier and hands it to her without a word. And if I'm not mistaken, his cheeks seem a little pink.
Without a word, she pushes up on her toes again, but this isn’t the same as with Rick. Jake clearly wasn’t expecting her to kiss him. The second her lips press against his, his eyes go wide, and oh yeah, he’s definitely red as hell now.
Kratos sits on the couch without a word, watching everyone, but the second he’s settled, it’s as if Jade can sense it.
“Thank you,” she says, walking over to Kratos and falling back into his huge lap. His arms wrap around her, and she lets out a happy little sigh at her first sip of coffee.
And just like that, we're all here again. It doesn’t feel like that long ago that we all gathered together, much the same way, to learn that Jade was our infamous boss. The boogeyman we’d all feared for years.
But somehow, everything’s changed since then.
Looking around, I find all eyes on me.
Oh, right, I called them all here to go over what I found.
“Right, ugh.”
Shit, I hate to be the one to bring yesterday up, but I really don’t have a lot of choices here. She needs to know.
“It’s fine, Spencer, you can talk about it. I’m fine,” Jade says, somehow reading me like an open book. While she doesn’t sound fine exactly, she also isn’t freaking out yet, so I guess that’s progress.
“Okay, well, we talked to Elio for a bit last night, and he gave us some info on Dom and Leo.”
Kratos grunts in annoyance at the mention of Dom, but Jade leans back into him, and he stops. It seems to be enough to keep him quiet, for now. I know eventually that’s going to come to a head, and honestly, I’m not sure how it can go other than bad.
“Alright, so Dom and Leo are cousins, both by blood and marriage. Leo and Dom’s mothers were sisters, and they married into the Bratva.
Dom’s mother already had him prior to marriage, so he doesn’t have any blood ties to the family, but Leo does.
Dom’s mother married Mikhail, and they had a little girl who went missing when she was around seven.
” I pause for a second and turn to Jade to see if she’s still following and how she’s handling it.
Her face is carefully blank, not a trace of emotion in sight.
I’m not sure if that’s better or worse, honestly.
“They looked everywhere. Did everything they could, but even the full power of the Bratva wasn’t enough to bring her back.
After that, Mikhail wasn’t seen often. His younger brother, Ivan, took on much of the family's face work. Mikhail never actually stepped down, though. Still hasn’t, from what I’ve found. Ivan is Leo’s father.”
Reaching for my laptop, I pull up the only picture I could find of Dom and his sister. It was taken not long before she disappeared, and while they’re young, I can’t deny the likeness between them is almost uncanny.
“This is a picture of Danslav and Svetlana about a month before she disappeared,” I tell them, casting the picture on the TV and watching as everyone turns their attention to the screen.