Chapter 14 #2
He paused, fingers trembling a bit in the crook of my elbow. “Then why does your voice sound like that?”
“Like what?”
“Pained.”
“Ah, it’s cold.” I lied.
“Sorry.” He quickly pulled it away and went back for the bandage and ointment.
The concentration on his face was so sincere, as though he took this job so seriously. Like applying a bandage was the most important thing he’d ever done.
Frankly, it unraveled me.
“This is how they did it at the clinic.” He applied some of the ointment before perfectly positioning the flesh-colored dressing.
“You do it better,” I whispered.
Our eyes met, and I got lost in a sea of gray, ready and willing to drown.
He pulled back, and oxygen was forced into my lungs. It was uncomfortable and jarring.
“There,” he said, reaching down to grab the wrapper for the wipe that had somehow ended up in my lap.
My skin erupted in a million tingles, making me feel like I was shivering when I was perfectly still. Before he could retract his hand completely, I caught his wrist.
His breath stuttered.
I felt his eyes, but I focused on his hand and pulled it up, dropping a light kiss to his knuckles. “Thanks, Pip.”
He let out a little squeak and stumbled back.
“Uhhh, how do you two know each other?” Haz’s voice cut into the tension between us.
Frankly, I’d forgotten they were even there.
“He treated me like a prostitute once and then disappeared,” Pip said casually, latching the first aid kit.
“Would you stop saying that?” I hollered.
Haz nodded empathetically. “Kieran called me a prostitute once too.”
Kieran made a rude noise. “For shit’s sake, I told you I was sorry.”
“C’mon, you can tell me about it in the kitchen.” Haz gestured. “Kieran made us French toast too.”
“He did?” Rett seemed surprised.
Not used to people doing anything for him.
Haz nodded. “I would have made it, but he seems to think I’m going to burn down the house.”
“Accurate,” I sang.
“I really should be going,” Rett said, shuffling on his feet.
Pretty sure those were my least favorite words in existence.
“Do you have to work?” Haz asked.
“Not until later.”
“Oh good, then you can stay since we didn’t get to have pizza yesterday.”
“Well, I would like to know what that was all about,” Rett hedged. “Who were those guys that came to the Neon Reef?”
“Nothing you need to be involved in,” I said, hoping he got the message loud and clear.
He glanced over his shoulder at me, but then Haz grabbed his arm. “Come on before it gets cold.”
He started away without so much as a backward glance, and I tossed the blankets back to follow. Letting him out of my sight seemed like a disastrous idea.
Kieran stepped in my path and shook his head. “We need to talk.”
“Later.” I brushed him off.
He caught my arm. “Now.”
I turned and met his stare. We were made of the same thing, he and I. So his bristly attitude and murderous inclinations did nothing to intimidate me. I just matched his energy, which left us basically at a stalemate.
Still holding my stare, Kieran called out, “Rett.”
I bristled instantly, and I swear there was a streak of glee running through his scrutinizing gaze. Oh, no, he did not.
“Yes?” Rett appeared in the doorway, wide gray eyes going right to Kieran.
“Don’t look at him,” I snapped.
Kieran’s lip twitched, and he turned completely to face Rett. “Make sure you come see me before you leave.”
A wary look crept over his features. “Why?”
“Because you’re Haz’s family, so you’re mine now too.”
Excuse me? I held up a hand. “I’m sorry, but I think my ears are malfunctioning. I could have sworn you just called him yours.”
Kieran glanced at me out of the corner of his eye.
“My guyyy,” I drawled, something hot and ugly making a mess in my stomach. “I will open a Nature Valley granola bar on your bed.”
Kieran’s eye twitched.
“You’ll be finding crumbs in your crevices for weeks.”
Kieran looked at me. I wiggled my fingers toward my nether regions and made a face.
“What the hell kind of threat is that?” he asked, looking disgusted.
I stepped closer until our feet bumped. “No threat. Just a promise to slowly dismantle your life with creative consequences until one day you catch yourself wishing I had just pulled out your veins and used them as shoelaces.”
His eyes narrowed. I smiled.
“You think I’m family?” Pip’s small voice was like a wrecking ball to the hostile vibes I was throwing down. I mean, he’d probably prevented a duel.
We turned, and something inside me splintered. The kind of hairline fracture that probably couldn’t be seen but would be felt forever. I didn’t know how I’d managed to walk away two years ago, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it again.
Mine.
Not Kieran’s.
Mine.
“Yes. So make sure you say bye before you leave,” Kieran replied.
A duel was probably imminent.
“O-okay.” Pip nodded, his eyes luminant even in the low lighting of the bedroom.
“Go eat before it gets cold,” Kieran instructed like he was the boss around here.
FYI: He wasn’t.
Pip’s eyes flickered to me before he turned and disappeared.
The second he was gone, I reached out and grabbed Kieran’s nipple through his shirt and twisted.
“Owww. Jesus, fuck!” he roared, slamming his arm down across mine and breaking the contact. His dark eyes were incredulous. “Did you just purple-nurple me?”
“You deserved it,” I spat and started to turn.
He caught my arm again, and I reacted instantly, bulldozing him across the floor until his back slammed into the wall. With my good forearm pressed against his throat, I forced him in place.
“If you were anyone else, you’d already be dead, and you know it,” I said quietly. “Consider this the only friendly reminder I’ll ever give. That little pipgeek out there is mine and mine alone. Do not test me.”
His eyes never left mine, and though he didn’t fight me, his face was flushed. Bet his lungs were screaming for some air.
Grunting, I pulled back, and he dragged in a ragged breath.
“I was trying to help you,” he rasped.
“By laying claim to something that ain’t yours?”
“By making sure he didn’t slip out without us knowing,” he snapped. “It’s obvious you’re whipped.”
I scoffed. “If you want to see whipped, you should look in the mirror.”
“How the hell do you think I recognized it on you?”
I drew back. “I’m not whipped.”
His eyes strayed to the bandage covering the bullet wound in my shoulder, and his eyebrow arched as if to say, You sure about that?
I turned back to the bed.
“It’s also obvious he’s spooked.” Kieran’s words followed me.
“They don’t call me ghost for nothing.”
“How do you know him?” he pressed.
I pointed to the tray on the bed. “This really for me?”
He gestured that I should go ahead.
I grabbed the coffee and took a sip, groaning as it slid down my throat. The stack of French toast was hollering my name, so I dove in with gusto, humming as I smacked my lips. “How come you never cooked for me before?”
Kieran gave me an are you stupid look, and I shoved another huge bite into my mouth. Sometimes I asked myself why I was friends with him.
Then I remembered he’d saved my life. And now we were ride or die.
“Maxfield.” Kieran dropped my last name like a bomb, and I knew shit was about to get serious. Even though I called him by his last name a lot, he never used mine. Like I said before, to everyone, I was simply Ghost.
The fork clanked against the plate when I set it down and sighed. “I met him two years ago.”
Kieran made a sound. “You’ve known him for two years?”
“We spent one night together,” I explained. Technically two, but Pip was asleep for the first night, so I didn’t bother mentioning it. “Then I left for that job in Budapest.”
Kieran’s face darkened at the mention of Budapest. What was supposed to be a simple job had turned into a clusterfuck.
“He’s the reason I almost had to fly out there to bring your body home?”
“No.” The edge in my voice was cutting. “Don’t put that shit on him.”
“If it’s the truth—”
“It’s not,” I snapped. “If my head wasn’t in the game that day, it was nobody’s fault but my own. You know that.”
Kieran stayed quiet, but the tongue running over his teeth said he wasn’t happy about it. It’s okay, though, he was used to not being happy about anything.
I laughed, but it was humorless and hollow. “What are the odds my weakness would become friends with yours?”
“Knowing Hazard, the odds were never in our favor. He attracted trouble like a raccoon to an unattended trash can.”
I started to laugh but then stopped. “You calling Pip trouble?”
“I’m saying like recognizes like.”
Well, he wasn’t wrong. They were both liabilities with a pulse.
“I walked away,” I said, staring at the food left on the tray. “I knew I wasn’t good for him, so I didn’t look back. And then he walked into the Neon Reef—”
Kieran picked up the sentence. “And you jumped in front of a bullet for him.”
What could I say? He’d made an impression. One that not even two years could dull. Hell, memories of him were what got me through some touch-and-go times.
“He slept on the floor beside the bed,” I said, heart aching at the image he’d made.
“He was worried about you.”
“Well, he can’t get away fast enough now.” Maybe I should have milked the injury. Pumped up the drama to keep him at my side a little longer.
And then what?
You can’t keep him.
“You left in the middle of the night?”
“It was almost morning.” I defended myself.
Kieran stared.
“Don’t give me that look. I told him I was leaving.”
“You didn’t say goodbye?”
Since when was he the patron saint of relationships? “I suck at goodbyes. You know that,” I muttered. “Thought the five grand would make up for it.”
A strangled sound left Kieran’s throat. “You left him five grand?”
“He was homeless.” I defended myself further. “Pulled his fevered, sick ass out of a cardboard box.” That night was still so vivid in my mind, powerful enough to overrule some of the worst moments of my life.
And oddly, it was more painful too.