Chapter Five #2
But this girl’s different. Theres no sign of hesitation. She just walks up the drive like she owns the bloody place.
Completely unbothered.
Which, in a place like this, makes her stand out more than anything else could.
I watch her a second longer than I probably should.
Then the words leave my mouth before my brain has the chance to stop them.
“Bloody hell… she’s fit.”
Wolfe turns his head immediately.
“Who?” he mutters, “Tourist?”
“Maybe,” I say.
But my eyes follow her anyway.
She reaches the edge of the lawn and pauses there for a moment, scanning the party like she’s looking for someone. Her gaze moves across the crowd. Across the house, and balconies, toward the bikes before landing on us.
Then, it stays there for a brief second before she turns away quickly. Like we were the two people in this party she didn’t want to notice her.
Interesting.
I tilt my head slightly and call out across the driveway.
“Oi.”
She stops, and looks over again. I lift my beer bottle in greeting.
“You lost, sweetheart?”
Wolfe exhales slowly beside me.
“Really?”
“What?”
“You’re flirting.”
“Am not,” I mutter. “She probably just needs help finding her people. It’s a party, innit? Not exactly the safest place to be wandering around on your own.”
Wolfe turns his head slowly, giving me that look like he’s already seen through the entire act.
“You absolutely are,” he says dryly. “And that might be the lamest excuse you’ve ever come up with dude.”
“Oi, shut up.”
He lets out a quiet laugh. Before I can think of something clever to say back, she starts walking toward us, and there’s something about the way she does it that shifts the air a bit. Up close she’s even prettier. Which is… bloody inconvenient.
She stops in front of us, one brow lifting slightly.
“Do I look lost?” she asks.
Her voice is smooth. Calm.
American. I grin.
“Bit, yeah,” I say easily. “Lucky for you, we’re the local welcoming committee.” I push off my bike and take a slow drink before nodding toward the house.
“So what brings you here then?” I ask casually. “You come to get a selfie with the Speed Demons like the rest of these chumps?”
Her brow lifts slightly.
“The speed who?”
Wolfe snorts beside me.
Right. Fair enough.
“Speed Demons,” I repeat, gesturing toward the bikes lined up beside us. “One of the teams new sponsors is the one hosting this whole circus.”
She glances toward the house again, then back at me.
“No,” she says calmly. “Never heard of, what was it? Speedy Demons? Sorry, I was just invited by a friend.”
I tilt my head.
“Ah. One of the rich ones then.”
“Maybe.”
Her eyes flick briefly between Wolfe and me again, studying us in that quiet observant way she’s got going on like she’s already clocked more than either of us have said out loud.
Wolfe pushes himself upright off his bike, taking a slow sip of his beer while he looks her over just enough to make it obvious he’s interested without being a prat about it.
“Either way,” he says easily, “standing in a driveway probably isn’t what your friend had in mind when they invited you.”
His eyes flick toward the house.
“We should probably get you a drink.”
I grin slightly.
“Yeah. Then we can help you track down this mysterious friend of yours.”
She considers that for a second, then shrugs like she’s decided we’re entertaining enough to follow.
“Alright.”
Inside the house the music’s louder, the air warmer, bodies packed close together across the open living room and the wide glass doors that spill out toward the deck.
People glance at us as we walk through, a few whispers, a couple phones lifting slightly.
Standard nonsense.
We barely make it ten feet before someone calls Wolfe’s name from across the room.
Reign.
He’s leaning against the kitchen counter with Lena beside him, a drink in her hand and that easy beach-girl smile she always seems to carry around.
Lena’s eyes land on the girl with us first, and then her whole face lights up.
“Gah! Oh my god—”
She crosses the room in three quick steps and pulls her into a hug like they’ve known each other for years.
“Echo!”
Echo laughs softly and hugs her back.
“Hey, Lena.”
I glance sideways at Wolfe.
He’s watching the same thing I am, brow slightly furrowed like he’s trying to figure out when exactly this became a reunion.
Yeah. Same.
“How do you two know each other then?” I ask, lifting my beer for another sip.
Lena pulls back from the hug, still smiling like this is the most normal thing in the world.
“Mutual friends,” she says easily.
Reign’s eyes narrow just slightly beside her.
Not aggressive. Just… skeptical.
Like he’s mentally running through the list of people that could possibly connect the two of them and coming up short.
I notice it, but honestly I can’t be bothered to dig into it right now.
People know people. So I just shrug, taking a slow drink from my bottle and letting it go. Still, my eyes drift back to Echo without really meaning to.
She pushes a strand of dark hair back from her face while Lena says something I don’t quite catch, smiling in that easy way that makes it painfully obvious she’s far too fit to have gone unnoticed this long.
Which raises a very important question.
Bloody hell.
Why the hell hasn’t Lena brought her around before?
Reign claps Wolfe on the shoulder.
“We’re heading out to the deck,” he says. “You guys coming?”
“In a bit,” Wolfe replies.
Reign nods and pulls Lena with him toward the sliding doors, leaving the three of us standing near the kitchen island.
Echo finally turns back to us.
For a second we just stand there, the music humming through the floorboards, people moving around us in loose waves of conversation and laughter.
And somehow the night suddenly feels a lot more interesting than it did ten minutes ago.