Chapter 21
Serenity
“Erm, I’m confused,” I said, zipping my waterproof jacket and scanning the shadowed street outside Hunter’s loft. A lackluster drizzle layered our clothes in watery beads as I turned to Dagger. “I thought you’d come in a police car.”
Bryce crossed his arms and eyed Dagger. “I was under that impression too.” Gerald stood behind him with an open golf umbrella, fending off the clouds’ dampening sighs.
My first instinct was to shelter shoulder to shoulder with Bryce, but I didn’t know if he wanted others to know about our shared touch immunity, for lack of a better word.
I wouldn’t even have known how to explain it if anyone asked. Was it… a kind of magic?
“There’s room for three.” Dagger nodded at his motorcycle. Matte black, it was one of those huge kinds that had a chunky, broad back tire and ample double seat. Three would have been pushing it though, even without Bryce’s condition.
Bryce shook his head and pointed a backward thumb at his limo. “I’m sure she’ll be more comfortable riding in the car with me. We’ll meet you there.”
Dagger clunked open one of the motorcycle’s side storage boxes and pulled out two helmets, slipping one on and offering the other to me. “Why don’t we let the lady decide? We’re not at Midas, and you’re not the boss here.” He gently pressed the shiny, visored helmet into my arms.
I couldn’t help but accept. I’d never ridden on a motorcycle before, and I thought maybe I should, in the name of my new “live a little” mantra. Besides, this tattooed, brash version of Hunter was hard to refuse. So was his handsome, cocky smile.
“It’s okay, Bryce.” I turned to him, wishing Dagger weren’t here and I could reach out and give him a hug.
Though, maybe limiting physical contact until we talked again was smart.
Things were complicated, and had been a little strained before I’d raced off to shower.
I’d just sat down on the couch in my robe to talk to Bryce and Hunter again when Dagger had appeared.
“I’m sure the detective will keep me safe. We’ll see you at the police station.”
Dagger waved a playful —slightly goading—goodbye to Bryce as he helped me put on the helmet. He and Bryce didn’t seem to share the hostility that he and Hunter did, but clearly there was tension.
I wasn’t going to let that keep me from enjoying this though. The inside padding of the helmet was squishy, snug and smelled fresh out the factory. I immediately pulled the visor up to let the refreshing weather film my cheeks and chase away mild feelings of claustrophobia.
Stooping, Dagger motioned to tighten my chin strap further, but I held out a palm, pushing his hand away. “Nothing too tight near my neck please. This is fine.”
His eyes narrowed, but he nodded, inviting me to sit behind him and hold on tight as Bryce’s stretch began its lazy roll down the road, picking up speed.
Once the limo had slipped out of sight around the first corner, Dagger revved the bike, releasing the exhaust’s rasping rumbles. We shot forward, only to zip around in the middle of the road and head in the opposite direction of Bryce’s car.
As the growling engine sent pleasant vibrations pulsing up my body, I wrapped my arms around Dagger’s massive torso and asked, “Aren’t we going the wrong direction?”
He shouted through the side of his mouth, the words muffled by his helmet, thundering engine, and whooshing wind, making me press closer to hear. “What’s the point in riding a Harley if you can’t take some fun detours?”
His smoky gunpowder and leather scent, the firmness of his back against my torso, the way he seemed to be taking corners and speed bumps with extra care on my account…
All of it combined with the aggressive rumble of the big bike between my legs made my toes curl in my shoes and my thighs tighten against the leather.
I bit my lower lip, pressing myself tighter against the top of Dagger’s rock-hard ass.
Damn. Turned out I had a soft spot for the bad boys, too. They just had to be the right kind of bad, with a hint of Hunter and Bryce’s sweetness.
Or maybe I didn’t know what I wanted. Overcompensating for the teenage years lost.
The thought worried me. This couldn’t be normal.
I’d gone from zero interest in males—especially paranormal men—to casually almost-dating one, and then to fantasizing about him and his best friend in the shower.
Now I felt myself adding my boyfriend’s twin to this imaginary harem.
Hell, I’d even found that nerdy reporter, Sebastian, attractive until his vamp fangs had poked out.
It was as if my body had bottled up lust and now every attractive guy I met was tugging at the cork.
But that wasn’t exactly true, there’d been plenty of attractive guys at the club and Midas I hadn’t been drawn to…
Still, I had to knock it off. One guy was a distraction—one I could maybe indulge as part of my healing.
But three?? Or four?! That seemed greedy.
And it was like binding my hands and wrists.
I couldn’t get tethered here, which meant I needed to focus on my new job at Midas. That was my ticket to freedom.
I needed to stay focused.
Or maybe… I thought as a bump in the road made my stomach somersault and my arms wrap tighter around Dagger… I needed to get it out of my system.
Scolding myself for that irresponsible thought, I forced myself to sit back and realized the hazy haloes from streetlights had grown farther apart.
Besides the Harley’s front beam, the crescent moon and a carnival of stars had replaced any manmade imposters.
I tapped Dagger on the shoulder and he slowed the bike, leaning back to listen.
“Are we really going to the police station?”
“You trust me?” he asked.
“I do…” I dragged the last word into the vague shape of a question mark.
He was a police officer after all, and despite his bad boy vibes, he’d seemed serious about the whole serve and protect thing, judging by how he was handling Rico’s case.
If only he’d apply that more dutiful side to his own twin.
The bitter exchanges he and Hunter got into made me want to knock their heads together and remind them that family was never to be taken for granted, especially since they both seemed like good guys at heart.
If my short time in New Nebraska allowed, I was going to try and bring them, and Bryce, all together in an amicable way.
How to actually go about it remained to be seen.
Dagger stopped the bike, flipped the parking stand out, and helped me off. Helmet off and propped under my arm, I finger-combed my hair and took in the area.
He’d parked on a boulevard beside the moonlit Missouri river.
The sky’s drizzly clouds had melted into dry wisps and silver bounced in subtle, glinting hues across the water’s inky wave tops. Spray slapped the boulevard’s sturdy concrete sides as I drank in the robust washes of cool air coming off the river’s surface.
The water looked beautiful even in the dark, running wild and untamed, nobody dictating its flow or caging it within the state of New Nebraska. It was the freest thing I’d seen in several years, and my heart leapt up at the thought of it roaming through the surrounding states.
“This isn’t the police station.” I folded my arms, feigning annoyance to mask the intrigue and nervous excitement that were building.
Taking off his own helmet, he flashed an ornery grin and waved a hand in a broad arc. “Well, actually, this is kind of my police precinct. The streets are where I get most of my results.” He brought his full lips to within an inch of mine. “So, you could say the whole city is my office.”
I looked around at all the derelict buildings, their windows boarded up or broken, shrouded in darkness. Nobody else was around. A rusted car chassis and a mishmash of graffiti seemed to be this street’s highlights. I clutched his tree trunk bicep with both arms, leaning into him. “Are we safe?”
Dunking the helmets in the bike’s storage boxes, he laughed and laid a palm on my shoulder. Gentle as it was, I was worried it would bring back bad memories—dark rooms and cold, possessive hands holding me in place. “All over this city, I’m known. You’re safe with me.”
He didn’t seem to notice or mind when I stepped out of his touch.
Taking a foot-long, chunky flashlight from one of the boxes, he clicked its powerful beam on and shone it along the deserted boulevard.
“I actually see pretty well in the dark. But I thought you might like the light. And we might have a little detour, get to know each other. Just a short walk? You listen to the water, feel the breeze, maybe you see another side to the city… and to me?”
I appreciated his thoughtfulness and liked the sound of the second part. “If you say we’re safe, then okay. What about your motorcycle?”
“The bike’s known too. Don’t worry about it.”
He offered his arm formally, letting me initiate touch this time.
I took his arm, feeling more myself again as I began my nighttime stroll through one of New Omaha’s most run-down neighborhoods.
Protected by a jaguar.
Just not the one I thought I’d be with tonight.