Chapter Four #5
"Everyone's birth months in backward order," Kingston barked at her, impatient, a sound I wasn't sure I had ever heard from him.
His body turned, coming back into the room, eyes roving over me, trying to bore in.
Why, I wasn't sure. Because I didn't think I had ever felt more raw and open in my life.
His body prowled closer as the beeping finally let up, leaving my ears throbbing as we could hear Scotti greeting the dogs, apologizing for not bringing her dog over to play with them, promising she would remember to do it next time.
He leaned down, nestling the gun back in the drawer he had left open, sliding it closed, eyes never leaving me.
"Savea..." he started, voice low, soft again, a sound I never wanted to get used to hearing. At least not when it said my name.
"So what is this I hear about Savea being in troub...
oh, well, there she is," she declared as she stood in the doorway, her lips curved up, seemingly completely unaware of the charged air in the room.
"I hear you got yourself into some trouble.
And, for the life of me, I can't figure out why I am just hearing about this now," she added a bit pointedly as Kingston was finally forced to turn from me, face his little sister.
There was no denying the family resemblance. The Rivers genes were nothing if not strong. The same dark hair, dark eyes, great cheekbones, amazing lashes. Scotti—like her brothers—was somewhat tall and lean, though undeniably softer in the right places.
For some reason I—who was not used to tense situations—was the first to recover.
"Well, I can't be blamed. My cell was lost in the commotion that night. I know about four numbers by heart," I added, shaking my head at my inability even to remember a single one of the Mallicks' numbers.
"You're excused then. How about you?" she asked, turning her focus onto her brother. "What's your excuse?"
"Client privacy? Not wanting to have every member of the Mallicks at my door demanding to be in on every single little step of the process."
"Okay, they would totally do that," Scotti conceded. "But still. You're family. She's family. And they are family too. So they have a right to know when something this big is going on."
"Who told you anyway?" Kingston demanded.
"Well, our idiot brothers were getting out of a car in the lot while I was closing up the shop for the night.
And they were arguing gibberish about spiders and romance novels.
And Savea. And since Savea doesn't read romance novels and hates spiders and was supposed to be at work and neither of them has a pet, let's just say my curiosity got piqued.
And you know that neither of them stands a chance against me when I start grilling them.
It all tumbled out. Except the spider thing. "
"Rush chased me around the store this morning with a tarantula," I informed her, still a little bitter about it, clearly.
"He did what?" Kingston asked, head whipping back, eyes narrowed.
And, somehow, I knew that Rush was going to be getting a big-brother-little-brother talking to in his near future.
Not that it would do him any good. If a man his age didn't know not to chase people with an eight-legged incarnation of Lucifer, well, then he was never going to learn.
"Anyway, I waited until they ducked in to go grab coffee, and rushed on down here to demand some answers myself. Oh, speak of the devils," she said as the beep started again, but this time was hastily shut back off.
"Brought everyone coffee," Rush's voice called.
"What, did you fucking sprint here?" Nixon asked, shaking his head at his sister as he pulled a drink for her out of the cardboard carrying tray. A coffee he had gotten for her because he knew there was no way she wasn't going to charge into the office and demand explanations.
"Thank you. Now, how about you guys hang here with Savvy," she suggested, moving out of the office with King at her heel, me following slowly after, my legs feeling more weighted than usual.
Like if we left his office, everything that had happened within it was going to disappear.
"King and I will take the beasts for a nice long walk while we chat. "
"Better you than me," Nixon mumbled as he handed his brother his coffee before moving toward me, holding out mine.
"You alright?" he asked, brows drawing low. "You look flushed," he added. And, well, if Nixon was showing that kind of concern, I must have looked positively feverish.
Kingston turned back, but Scotti was already pressing a leash into his hand as she guided him toward the door with her.
"I hope you like company," Rush declared, dropping down on the sofa in the sitting area. "You're probably going to be seeing every Mallick clan member for now until this whole thing gets resolved."
I loved the Mallicks.
But somehow, the idea of more people barging in filled me with dread.
Partly because I felt I was disrupting enough lives as it was.
But also because it might mean that Kingston and I, well, we would never have the time to explore what we had just started.
My eyes landed on the door, inwardly wondering how long this walk and chat could be, if things would be weird when he came back. If he would want to talk about it. Or pretend it never happened.
Both ideas somehow managed to fill me with a bit of anxiety.
"Relax," Nixon said, drawing my attention back to him, finding him watching me with those eagle eyes of his.
"He'll be back to snatch you up in a minute.
Need some ice to sit on until then?" he asked, voice low down by my ear so that not even Rush could overhear.
I could feel my eyes widen, my cheeks heat further.
"Christ, you have the worst poker face in the world," he declared, moving away from me with a lingering chuckle at my expense.
My gaze shifted to Rush.
Who was either blithely unaware. Or simply too considerate to mention it. And, well, let's face it. My money was on the former.
My eyes went to the door again, wondering if Scotti knew, if it would be a topic of conversation at Sunday dinner.
If I could even go to Sunday dinner while I was in hiding, that is.
But if I couldn't go, then neither could one of the Rivers who would need to sit around and babysit me.
A deep sigh rushed out of me as I raised my coffee to take a sip.
My life had been so normal just a few days ago. Stressful in its own way. But painfully average.
And now everything about it was on its head. The animals weren't getting the attention they needed. My job security went from moderate to low. Oh, and, yeah, some scary guys wanted to use me to get back at my boss I had seen them beating the heck out of.
And yet...
And yet.
All I could seem to think about was when Kingston was going to come through that door again.