Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
RORY
Icouldn't believe I’d fallen asleep on Marco’s recliner. I was also surprised that no one had shown up to arrest Tyler.
News reports showed footage of the blaze, and I’d missed calls from Caden and the guys while I’d been sleeping. I was really confused to find Tyler’s car out front when we went to leave, and Hunter shrugged.
“Faris might have used all the gas, but it’s still in one piece.
I doctored the footage to make it look like the car’s been here all morning, and it took a while, but I traced the car through the search engine and erased any footage of it from other cameras.
I also got hold of Caden to stop him blowing up your phone. ”
“Thanks, Hunt,” I said softly, eyeing Tyler as he talked a mile a minute to Marco about some game he liked as they finished what they were playing.
“You know I’ve got you.”
“This wasn’t for me though, it was for Ty.”
“He’s not that bad,” he chuckled, eyeing the guys. “I’m concerned they’ll team up and cause me problems though.”
“Tyler’s harmless.”
“Marco’s not,” he said dryly, turning to face me. “From what I’ve seen, your guy’s easily influenced.”
“You have a point,” I winced, glancing at my phone. “We should go.”
“Keep an eye on him. He’s had a lot of oxygen now, which he owes me for, by the way, but keep getting water into him. You should also drive.”
“I will, he likes me driving his car,” I grinned, a sly smirk spreading across his face.
“I don’t blame him.”
“This friendship won’t work if you keep flirting with me, you know?”
“Trust me, I don’t want to be your friend,” he answered, and I gave him a light shove.
“You’re a manwhore. Visited Lexi?”
“I have, actually. She’s living her best life in there.
She’s getting all the pussy she could ask for.
She’s got some girls in there that have her back, and she’s somehow rising to the top of the food chain.
Connections are everything in there, and being the wife of Archer Hendricks is giving her a leg up,” he said almost proudly. “My bestie is a baddie.”
“I really don’t see how you’re not interested in more with her. She sounds perfect for you.”
“Too complicated, and like I said, she’ll never let Hendricks go. They fight and make up like clockwork. Besides, she’s a bit too high maintenance for me. I’d hate to know what he pays for her hair and nails.”
I laughed, shaking my head a little. “Fine, die lonely. See if I care.”
“You won’t let me die lonely, right?” he asked with a sly smile, reaching out to flip my hair over my shoulder.
“You’ll die right now if you keep it up, Rivera,” I warned, only amusing him more.
“I won’t taunt you more on that since you tried to shoot me last time.”
“Good, you’re learning,” I scoffed, turning to look at Tyler from the door to see him still sitting on the couch. “Hey, we need to head home.”
Tyler groaned, but he put the controller down.
“Can we come back tomorrow?”
“Sorry, man. I’ve got grown-up shit to do tomorrow,” Marco deadpanned, getting to his feet. “Add me though. We can play online.”
“Jesus Christ, I’ll never get him to work now,” Hunter muttered, handing me Tyler’s keys. “I’d say to let me know when you’re home, but I’ll watch the cameras.”
“Weirdo.”
“Only for you,” he grinned, moving to the couch to grab the laptop.
After I managed to drag Tyler out of the house, we headed to the gas station to fill the tank before going home to Josie’s, finding her pacing the kitchen like a caged lion. The guys knew we were fine, but Josie hadn’t really believed it, apparently.
“Oh my God, you’re okay? The police want to talk to you, honey,” she said as she walked over and hugged him, and I didn’t miss the way she sniffed his hair. She didn’t want to believe he’d do it, but she’d dealt with his arson issues before.
She stepped back, holding his shoulders as she inspected both of our clothes. “Where were you? Be honest. Do I need to handle anything?”
“We were in Mount Mercer,” Tyler replied, earning a frown.
“Doing what?”
“Gaming.”
“With who?”
“Mom,” Caden sighed as he wandered in, sweats slung low on his hips and a light sheen of sweat coated his chest. He’d been in the gym. “They’re fine.”
“I need to fill the lawyer in,” she replied, eyeing me. “Are you going to tell me why you’re wearing someone else’s clothes?”
“It’s not a secret. We were with Marco and Hunter,” I answered with a shrug, recognition flaring in her eyes.
“Hunter Rivera? The Devil’s Armada guy? What the hell were you doing with him?”
“Gaming,” Tyler repeated, pulling his phone out. “I need to go and add Marco on my console so we can game online together.”
She gave him an impatient look but motioned for him to go, and Caden followed him briskly, most likely wanting to know what the fuck was going on.
“Why are you spending time with them? And why are you wearing their clothes?” Josie asked me quietly, and I could tell she was worried.
“I needed to see Hunter about something, and the guys hit it off after Marco doused us with the garden hose like an asshole and spent the day gaming together once we’d put dry clothes on.
The cops will see we were there when they go through any local footage.
Ty’s car was at Marco’s all day,” I replied, heading to the fridge to grab some water.
“Tell the lawyer to get them to look. We weren’t even in Ashburn when the fire happened. ”
She relaxed at that, nodding. “Good. I’ll make some calls. Hopefully, they’ll come here to take his statement and be gone just as fast. Maybe check in with Luke, he’s a little down since that article went up about him and Jensen.”
“I will,” I smiled as I headed upstairs, finding Lukas and Jensen gaming in Lukas’ room.
“Is he okay?” Jensen asked as I crawled onto the bed, happily moving to sit between Lukas’ legs as he lifted his arms for me to duck under the controller.
I pressed my back to his front, getting comfortable as they kept playing.
“Yeah. He had smoke inhalation but he’s been on oxygen and had lots of water to flush out the toxins.”
“Hunter had cameras in the house?”
“Yeah. I hate to say it, but Ty would be dead if he hadn’t triggered a camera alert. He was blacking out when I found him. Are you two okay? I saw the articles about you guys this morning.”
“I turned my phone off. Pretty sure Mom’s been trying to call me off random numbers,” Lukas sighed, resting his chin on top of my head.
“Anyone else giving you shit?”
“No. A lot seem fine with it, surprisingly,” he mumbled.
“As they should be.”
He handed me the controller to play a little, Jensen kicking my ass like I knew he would, but Jensen also didn’t have Lukas kissing his neck as a distraction.
The rest of the afternoon passed without a problem. We gamed, Tyler and Caden joined us eventually to play too, and the cops didn’t stay for long, seeming happy since it showed we’d been in Mount Mercer at the time of the fire.
It was almost eight when the bedroom door swung open and Skeeter walked in, a dark cloud around him as he glared at me.
“What the fuck are you playing at?” he bit out, closing the door behind him to probably avoid Josie hearing him and coming to investigate. “You were at Marco’s house?”
“If you sit down, I’ll tell you about the problem we had today,” I said dryly, and he waved his hand towards Tyler with a sneer.
“I already know the pyro burned his house down. What I don’t understand is why you guys spent the day at Marco's house. What possible reason would you have to go there?”
“Keep your voice down. As far as anyone else is concerned, we were in Mount Mercer when that happened.”
“I know. I saw the fucking report.”
“You saw a police report?”
“Yes. My guy on the inside gave me a heads-up that my girl spent the day at my enemies house,” he hissed, and Tyler scowled.
“Hunter fucking saved me. We had to stay away to avoid getting found out.”
“None of you tried to call me. I checked with Diesel, and you didn’t call him either. You called Hunter first?” he growled back, and I knew the truth would start a new argument, but I wasn’t going to lie.
“Hunter had cameras in Ty’s house,” I began, Skeeter’s fists clenching by his sides. “He saw what was going down and called me. We went straight there to get Ty. He had smoke inhalation, so we had him hooked up on oxygen all day and flushed his system with water.”
“Let me get this straight. The Devils were spying on you, you got in Hunter’s fucking car alone, you went into a burning building to pull this idiot out, and then you spent the afternoon at Marco’s house instead of coming to me?” he demanded, and Tyler rolled his eyes.
“It wasn’t a car, it was a van. We would have left sooner, but Rory fell asleep and we didn’t want to wake her, so we kept gaming.”
“You gamed with fucking Marco? While Rory slept and made herself vulnerable in his home?”
“Yeah. I added him on Xbox too,” Tyler shrugged, and I swore Skeeter was going to burst a blood vessel.
“Why. Didn’t. You. Call. Me?” he said, each word like a whip.
“You. Never. Answer,” I said back in a mocking tone. “Besides, it was smart to go somewhere they wouldn’t look until we got the smoke smell off us.”
“You showered and slept with them around. Do you know how vulnerable that makes you? You trust them too much, Aurora. Do you know how bad that looks? Every time I defend you to my guys, you go and do something that makes you look bad. The cops didn’t quietly tell me about today, they said it in front of everyone. ”
“Maybe if your guys weren’t so clingy with you, they could let you go long enough to help me with shit. Hunter wouldn’t be around then,” I grumbled, narrowing my eyes as he grabbed my wrist and tugged me to my feet, our noses almost touching as he glared at me.
“I’m fucking trying. We’ve talked about this, the crew comes first.”