Chapter 16 Evie
The bike’s engine roared, rattling the walls and drilling straight into my skull. I rolled my shoulders, my hands curling into fists as Hero revved it again—louder this time.
My patience was already razor-thin. That text had wrecked any hope I had of a normal night, and now my ears were ringing like a goddamn siren was going off.
If he revved it one more time, I was putting a wrench through the gas tank.
Across the garage, Aiden turned away, disappearing behind the nearest bike—avoiding me.
Again.
He was still acting like it hadn’t been him at Hero’s birthday, and it was starting to make me wonder if it truly hadn’t been.
I leaned back on the chair, my mind wandering from the actual problem in front of us.
We were still waiting for everyone to get here after Aiden told them about the threatening text, but I felt a thousand miles away.
Could it really not have been him? A gross shiver ran down my spine at the thought of it being anyone else touching me.
No. It had to be him. He called me Psycho, and no one else would have done that so naturally.
I stepped back out of my office, ready to ask him directly, and nearly ran into Zack.
I didn’t hide my smile as I looked up at him. Zack was easily lovable. With wild dirty-brown hair and a lanky build, he was the lovable, quirky brother I never had.
I thought about Rook with a smile. My real brother was a little more murder and threats than smiles and hugs.
And unlike my real brother, Zack was easy to have a conversation with. He even always seemed intent on listening to what I had to say—unlike a few other people around here—but now he looked unusually pissed as he glared at Hero.
“You’re not the only one here, asshole,” Zack yelled at Hero, who had revved again. “Have a little respect for Evie—she’s working five fucking feet from you.”
Hero’s head snapped up, confusion crossing his face, making me wonder if he had forgotten anyone else was around. He had a way of zoning out, forgetting anyone else existed. The world around him would fade, and I wondered if it’s what helped his stress levels stay near zero.
If I could forget the world and the people around me for an hour here and there, I’d probably feel better, too.
Hero tilted his head, blinking like Zack had started speaking a new language. “And? This is a motorcycle shop, not a library. Hearing them rev is a hazard of the job.”
“And you don’t care that there are customers up front, or Evie here trying to concentrate?”
“No? Again, hazard of the area. It’s not like it’s someone screaming,” he said, picking up a wrench and heading to the toolbox. “That would be a problem, but I already know I’m allowed to rev bikes during the day. Screams at night.” Hero grinned, and his smartass answer only pissed Zack off more.
“You’re not the only one here, you asshole. Have a little respect for Evie.”
“But right this second, it seems I’m the only one working, so unless you want a further problem, get the hell back up front and drop it.” Hero’s tone had changed, the authoritative edge reminding Zack he wasn’t in charge.
The hierarchy here mostly depended on who had been around the longest. Rook got the entire thing going with Aiden right there with him. Then Hero and Mason tagged along. Then Kane and Zack.
Which meant he would be last on the list of people who could scold Hero.
Zack shook his head, but his hand brushed mine for a heartbeat longer than necessary as he turned. His eyes met mine, not leaving, as he moved to head back up front. “Sorry, Evie. I tried to get him to knock it off.”
Hero’s eyes narrowed, watching him walk away. “What the fuck? Are you sending Zack to yell at me? You’d have better luck telling me yourself.”
“I didn’t say anything to him. I was coming out here to throw a disco skull at your head so you would stop,” I said, truly not knowing what made Zack so pissed. It’s not like I had any reason to need him to defend me.
Hero’s eyebrows furrowed, a small smile tugging at his lips, until it vanished when Regan and Harper walked in, deep in conversation. Harper glanced at Hero as they stepped inside, her eyes narrowing when she saw him.
He glared back, his hand twitching as he sat back down on the small stool to focus on the bike.
I resisted my own eye roll knowing that I had no room to judge. I probably annoyed plenty of people with how much I fought with Aiden.
I was pretty sure Harper had ended up in a similar position as me, but for different reasons.
“Break another one?” Harper asked.
“Maybe you got too close to it. You seem to have the insane ability to damage everything around you, Jinx.”
She rolled her eyes, heading toward the couch near my office.
“Are you coming out to Syndicate with us tomorrow?” I asked, sitting across from them.
“Yeah, I’ll be there,” Harper replied, glancing once at Hero one more time before looking back to me. “Might just need to find a ride there.”
Regan knocked against her shoulder with a grin. “Mason can give you a ride.”
Harper groaned in happiness. “Perfect. I would let that man take me for any ride he wants.”
We talked for a while, waiting as the rest of the guys showed up and Rook finally walked in. He headed right to Regan, leaning down and lifting her until he could sit back down with her on top of him.
“Can you two not be gross for like five seconds?” I asked.
Rook rolled his eyes. “Can you figure out how to not be jealous for five seconds?” he mocked.
I glanced at Aiden, already knowing the answer was no.
I couldn’t.
There would be no way for me not to be jealous that Rook and Regan could do this, and I never would.
At least not with the person I would like to be with, especially since Rook would most likely rather die than have to see me kiss Aiden.
My body flamed thinking of Aiden’s hands on me in the woods.
Mason came over and I grabbed his arm, looking for any distraction as I spun him, pushing him down as I stood until I could fall onto his lap.
I grinned as Rook rolled his eyes again. “What do I have to be jealous of?” I asked, smiling over at Mason. He smiled back, lifting his hands in the air to show he wasn’t touching me.
“Move, Mason,” Rook warned, not moving from his spot with Regan.
“Knock it off, we can sit here if we want,” I said.
An arm wrapped around my waist from the side, lifting me up and turning me until I was off Mason’s lap and standing next to Aiden.
“Or you can knock it the fuck off, Psycho. We have things to deal with and don’t have time for your games.”
I stood up straighter, not hiding my annoyance. “I believe you always have time for my games, Ace. I think you purposely carve out time in your day to play my games.”
He rolled his shoulders, obviously uncomfortable.
I didn’t want to deal with this text or this meeting.
It was too much to think about. I wanted to poke and prod at Aiden until he admitted it was him in the woods.
A chill ran down my spine, thinking about it again.
How Aiden took over, how he used all of that protective attitude to bend me to his needs.
I wanted more.
I looked up at him, but his face was stone, not even glancing my way as Rook and Hero started to talk about the text, but I still moved the slightest bit closer to him.
“Did you find who the number belongs to?” Rook asked me.
“No. It’s a burner phone, I assume. No name connected, and it looks like it’s not even set up to take calls. Pretty simple to do. I would think anyone could.”
“So that leads us nowhere,” Hero huffed.
“At the very least, it leads us to think Evie is a direct target of whatever is happening. The guy we killed here made it obvious they would go after her. Now the text. Someone is after her specifically,” Aiden said.
Hero sat back on the rolling mechanic chair, rolling his eyes. “Someone is after all of us, based on the threats, but they know going after any of the girls will rile you all up the most so it doesn’t exactly mean they are the main targets.”
“What do you mean, coming after us?” Harper asked, a small, worried edge to her tone.
“Oh, you weren’t included in the threat.” Hero’s head cocked in her direction. “And even if they did come take you, they would return you in seconds after they realize you are a curse. A jinx that no one would want.”
“Fuck you, Hero,” she snapped. I turned toward Aiden, hiding behind his arm as I suppressed a smile. In the almost eight years I had known Hero, he had never dated anyone and never wanted to—I was starting to wonder if his not-dating streak was about to be over.
“All right, enough of all that, but you’re probably right,” Rook said, adjusting Regan on his lap. “But we can’t stop anyone until we know who they are. Have you found anything on Anderson yet?”
“I found plenty on forty-five men in the Havenwood and Valeport areas with the first or last name Anderson. Which one do you want me to give you a file on exactly?” I asked, keeping a straight face.
“Smart ass,” Aiden mumbled.
Rook glanced at Aiden, then back at me. “So we have nothing.”
“Not yet,” I said, keeping my voice steady, even as the weight of their eyes settled on me.
Digging into people’s lives online was supposed to be what I brought to the group—my one area of use in a world where everyone else seemed sharper, stronger, and more equipped.
Most days I already felt like I was slowing them down.
Now, with nothing to show, it felt worse than useless.
It felt like I was a liability again, not an asset.
“But I’ll keep trying to figure out the Anderson part somehow.
There’s not much more I can do with the text. ”
The room fell into an uneasy silence. It was like a ticking clock, the seconds stretching, every delay feeling like an advantage for whoever was lurking out there.
I could see the tension rising in everyone—we weren’t ones to sit around waiting for the threats to come to our doorstep.
We liked to face them head-on, surprise them before they surprise us.