Chapter 26
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SIX
Ghost
He cracked me open faster than an overfull pinata at a kid’s birthday party.
Everything just spilled right out. Shit I didn’t even know was there.
Just call me the emotional exorcist.
Except my demons were not excised. I lived with those permanently, but Rett knew about them now.
And apparently, he was okay with living with them too.
I shouldn’t allow it. But I was going to.
He was my ultimate weakness. My beautiful stain. And I would use every bit of the monster inside me to protect him.
“I need your phone,” he announced as if he didn’t even realize he was in the room with someone other men had nightmares about. I watched his ass bounce beneath the hoodie—knowing full well it was bare—with a pair of socks I didn’t even know I owned pulled up to his knees.
It was adorable to the max, and it made me want to pin him down and have my way with him all over again.
“Where do you think you’re going?” I called, following him out of the bathroom.
He was already gone from the bedroom, and I doubled my pace to keep up. Look at me, running after him like a woman in some dramatic airport scene.
I should be embarrassed.
I wasn’t.
My dignity was fighting for its life, but I continued to trail that cute ass like it mattered more. Because it did. Obviously.
You walked into this life for Kieran. I’m walking into it for you.
Somebody better put that on my gravestone ‘cause I damn near swooned to death.
“Hiro,” he called, and my heart skipped like I was a schoolgirl jumping rope at recess. I fucking love it when he says my name.
“What?” I hollered, stepping into the large, open main room.
“Oh, never mind,” he said, waving my cell phone around like a freeloading goblin. “I found it.”
“Sure, help yourself,” I quipped. “Feel free to rearrange the furniture while you’re at it.”
Pulling the phone to his side, he turned, long, thin legs sticking out from the hem of my worn old hoodie, the red stripes on the tall socks drawing my attention to his bare thighs.
“I can’t use your phone?”
The tone of his voice had my eyes snapping to his face, which was doe-eyed and hurt.
Fuck my life.
“I wanted to tell Haz I’m here with you. I don’t want him to worry,” he said, setting my phone on the dining room table I hadn’t even used once. “Do you have a landline? I can use that.”
“Sorry, I left my landline in 1997.”
“Oh,” he said, disappointed.
Made me feel kinda bad, even if landlines only belonged in hostage negotiators’ offices.
Sighing, I grabbed my phone off the table and held it out. “Here, take it. Keep it until I can get you one of your own.”
His lips parted in surprise. “You can’t get me a phone.”
“Just for saying that, I’m going to get you two.”
He gasped. “You can’t!”
I’d get him a smart watch to go with it. Make sure it had a tracker in it. I had to keep tabs on this little Pip.
“Cell phones are too expensive. And you have to pay for them more than once.”
“Is that why you don’t have one?”
He nodded emphatically. “I thought about getting one of the ones like Haz has… well, until Kieran said he’d get him one with the internet.” He rambled on. “But you have to pay for them as you go too. Seems like a scam to have to keep paying for something you already bought.”
Well, wasn’t this just amusing as all get out? I needed snacks for this show.
I kinda wanted to pick him up and carry him into the kitchen with me, but that would be weird, wouldn’t it?
I picked him up and started for the kitchen. He must not have thought it was weird because his legs locked around my waist.
“You aren’t paying for the phone again, just the plan that makes it work,” I explained.
“It’s just like having a TV and then paying for cable. And all those apps. The people who call me complain about that all the time. Saying how much money it costs because everything is on a different platform.”
I sat him on the white marble island. “Who’s calling you?”
“I work at the cable company. I’m a customer service rep,” he said like I should know.
I told him to quit that job.
“You’re getting a phone,” I said, reaching into a cabinet to grab some chips, rip open the bag, and shove some in my mouth. “Don’t worry about paying for it.”
“But I—”
“If you think I’m gonna let you walk around without any way for me to call you or for you to call me when you need something, then maybe I should reintroduce myself.”
“So I can call Haz?” he asked.
“I don’t know why you need to talk to him when I’m right here, but sure.” He patted my arms—which was charming AF—and I lifted him down so he could retrieve my phone from the dining table.
I followed, of course. When he turned, I shoved a chip in front of his face. “Chip?”
His lips parted, and I pushed it into his mouth.
“I’ll call Kieran,” he said, crunching away. “I’m not sure if Haz has his new phone yet.”
I ate some more chips, just noticing they were salt and vinegar.
“Oh, this is Rett,” he said a moment later, eyes sliding to me. “Hiro said I could use his phone to call Haz, but I wasn’t sure if his phone was working or what his number was, so—” His voice cut off as Kieran bellowed for Haz.
“His grandmomma didn’t teach him no manners,” I muttered.
“Rett!” Haz yelled into the line, and Rett smiled.
I don’t know why he needed to smile like that. Kinda made me jealous.
“You’re chewing so loud,” Rett scolded and walked a few feet from my “loud chewing.”
Next thing he was going to say was that he wanted my side of the bed.
I’d probably give it to him.
I shoved three more chips in and tried to chew more quietly. It made them taste bad, so I went back to chomping. I liked to aerate my food. Gave it a little something extra.
“I was wondering if you have a set of headphones I could borrow. I need them for work later. Mine got ruined.” He went silent a moment, then made a sound. “Oh, it was Tommy. He broke into my house and put them in the sink.”
Haz exclaimed something, and I moved closer. “Put that on speaker. I can’t hear.”
Pip didn’t listen.
I was buying him some hearing aids. Strapping them on while he was sleeping.
“He tried. But Ghost showed up and tried to kill him.”
“So casual about death,” I remarked, still eating. “Kinda scary.”
Haz hollered once again. Kieran’s eye was probably twitching.
“I’ll definitely tell you all the gossip, but right now, I really need to find some headphones.”
Groaning, I went into the living room to reach into the cabinet under the TV and pull out a headset I used for gaming.
It was good for the reflexes.
“Will these work?”
Rett spun in my direction, eyes going wide. “Yes!” he said, rushing across the room to grab them. “Oh, these are so nice. Nicer than the ones I had.”
So he could hear. Brat.
“Good news, Haz. Hiro let me borrow his.”
Haz said something else I couldn’t hear. I was about to put the phone on speaker myself.
“Oh.” Pip’s eyes strayed in my direction. His cheeks pinkened. “That’s his name. It’s what I call him.”
“Ghost has a real name?” Haz yelled so loud I heard it clearly this time.
“Did he think Ghost was written on my birth certificate?” I wondered.
Rett looked guilty and lowered the phone. “Was I not supposed to tell him? It’s hard to remember to call you different things around different people.”
Slipping my arm around his waist, I pulled him in. “You call me whatever you want, Pip. I’ll always answer.”
He pushed up onto his tiptoes, lips reaching for mine. I lowered my head—
“Are you still there?” Haz hollered. “Kieran! I think your phone is broken!”
“You’re probably using it wrong,” he yelled back.
Giggling, Rett pulled the phone back to his ear but laid his other ear against my chest.
Now this is more like it.
“I’m here,” he said. “Yeah, I’m at Hiro’s. I’m staying with him for a while.”
I snatched the phone right out of his grip. “He lives here now. Permanently.”
“I knew you’d decide he was important enough to stay,” Haz replied.
“What?” I asked.
“That’s what he told me. You left because he wasn’t important enough to stay.”
I made a rough sound, and Rett tilted his head up to look at me. I pushed it back into my chest and held him there. “That’s not true.”
“I know,” Haz said. “Anyway, I’m glad you figured it out. I worry about him. Did you know he was homeless?”
“Yeah,” I said, clutching him even tighter.
“Of course you did. You’re the reason he isn’t now.”
“What?”
Whatever Pip heard in my voice had him trying to pull back again. Growling, I dropped my chin. “Stop squirming around and stay where I put you.”
“But I can’t hear.”
“How’s that taste of your own medicine?” I quipped.
“You know,” Haz said, drawing me back, “you left him all that money. It’s the reason he was able to get that apartment.”
It both pained and elated me to hear those words. Elated because I was thankful I helped him in some way. Pained because that hellhole he called home just wasn’t good enough, and I should have been there.
He needs a doctor.
“I gotta go call the doctor,” I said into the phone.
“But aren’t you coming over to see him?”
I paused. “What?”
“Doc is going to be here anytime now. He’s supposed to be removing the IV you already ripped out and checking your condition.”
“I’m fine,” I replied.
“Then why do you need to call him?”
Pip snatched the phone from my hand. “Haz, it’s me. Sorry about that. I’ll make sure Hiro comes over to see the doctor. I had to recover his stitches, but I probably did a bad job.”
“You did not,” I argued.
“Okay. Yeah,” he said into the line, acting like I didn’t even speak. “Maybe you can come over for lunch—No! I can come to the Neon Reef and help clean up the shop so you can get it back open.”
“You aren’t cleaning,” I barked. Like hell I’d let him clean up a murder scene.
Rett giggled into the speaker. “I know.”
I squinted.
“Okay, see you later.” He began to lower the phone, but Haz called out again. “Yeah?” he asked after he pressed it back to his ear.
As he listened, his lips curled in and his cheeks turned pink.
Up to no good. That’s what that look was about. “What’s he saying?”
“Nothing!” he said quickly. Too quickly.
See? Sketchy.
“You’re sure,” he whispered. Then, “Okay. I will.” I grabbed for the phone, but he was quicker. “Gotta go!” he squealed and ended the call.
“What was that?” I demanded.
“What?” he asked innocently. Even batted those lashes.
“That hushed convo you just had in front of me.”
He shrugged. “Oh, nothing.”
“That nothing had the vibes of a black market organ on Craigslist.”
His eyes rounded. “You can buy black market organs on Craigslist?”
“Mm-hmm,” I agreed. “They get delivered in an unmarked white van.”
“Isn’t that illegal?” Pip asked.
“Ask me how I know.”
“How do you know?” he whispered.
“Like hell I’d tell you that!” I announced. “I like your innocence. We’re going to keep that.”
He rolled his eyes like I was foolish. But he was the foolish one if he thought I’d tell him about the time I’d intercepted a van filled with organs that were harvested from unwilling donors in less-than-desirable conditions… He’d have nightmares for months, maybe years.
He held the phone out for me, but I shook my head. “I told you to keep it until I get you one.”
“But you have to go see Doc.”
I shook my head. “I’m fine.”
He yanked free. “You got shot. Because of me! And then you got into another fight today because of me again!”
“This was nothing.” I tried to soothe him.
He brushed me off. “Maybe to you! But to me, it was everything. You protected me, and I won’t let you get sick because of it.”
“Pip—”
His voice changed, taking on a pleading tone. “You treated me like I was important. Let me treat you like you're important too.”
Haz’s words echoed between my ears, and I sighed. “All right.” I gave in, reaching for him. “I understand. I’ll go see the doc, okay?”
He sniffled into my shirt.
Oddly, I didn’t mind being a human napkin.
“You’re coming with,” I said. I’d have Doc look at his knees and everything else while we were there.
“I have to work,” he countered.
“I’m really beginning to hate that word.”
He laughed. “I never pegged you for the type to want your wife barefoot and pregnant at home.”
My groin tightened as a fresh wave of heat rolled through me.
God, just the image of Rett walking around swollen with me while safe in my apartment made me want to open him up and sink in.
So much so that I had him spread out over the dining room table and was between his legs before I even realized I’d moved.
Pip’s eyes were playful as he reached up to brush away a lock of hair from my cheek. “Too bad I’m not a girl to fulfill your fantasy.”
“The fact that you aren’t a girl is what makes me so hot.”
“I will happily walk around this house barefoot and full of your cum,” he crooned.
“I like the tall socks.”
He smiled brilliantly. “Full of cum and wearing your socks, then.”
I lowered my lips, but he put his hand over them. “But after work.”
I groaned.
“Now that I have a headset, I can set up my laptop and manuals here.” He gestured to the table I had him pinned against. “I should probably set up. If I’m late, they’ll dock my pay.”
“What kind of place is this? A sweatshop!”
“I told you it’s a cable company.”
“I didn’t even know people had cable anymore,” I muttered, pulling back and helping him off the table.
“It’s a good thing they do because I get paid because of it.”
“How long until your shift starts?” I grumped.
He glanced at the phone. “An hour and a half.”
“I’ll make us something to eat while you set up.”
“But the doctor—”
“Will be there when I get there,” I said, no room for argument. I was making sure he was fed and set up and safe here before I left. If it weren’t for the security system, I probably wouldn’t leave at all. Well, that and the fact that the only person who knew where I lived was Kieran.
“You’re going to make me something to eat?” he asked.
“It’ll probably be burned and mushy at the same time,” I warned. He probably thought I was joking.
I wasn’t.
“I’ll eat every bite,” he vowed.
Shit, what if I gave him food poisoning?
“I’ll order in.” I decided.
“But you were going to cook for me.” He pouted.
“I need to go to the grocery store first. I don’t have much.” It was a half-truth. I did need some groceries, but I also needed to find some recipes I could manage without making him sick.
“I could cook for us.” He volunteered.
“No!” I bellowed. It was giving Kieran and kinda surprised us both.
I turned to see him grimacing with his hands folded in front of him.
“Baby,” I said, much softer this time. “C’mere.”
“I have to get my stuff,” he said, pointing to the purple backpack.
I went to him instead, cradling his face in my palms. “Let me take care of you, okay? I want to.”
The tip of his tongue darted out to wet his lips. “Okay,” he whispered.
I kissed him softly. “Good. Set up your stuff and find a place to put the kids while I feed you.”
Something passed over his face.
“What?” I asked, worried something was wrong. “Are you sick?” I asked, already reaching for the phone.
“No,” he said quickly. “It’s just… every time you talk, my stomach gets all fluttery.”
I smiled.