Chapter Seven
Seven
Forge
Bane sat on the edge of his desk while Oz poured a drink into a glass. I closed the office door behind me and walked farther into the room to see Kash over on the sofa. The Savelle brothers were all here. Before my mother’s diagnosis, this would have made me fucking giddy.
“Halo said to tell you she will be ready in an hour,” I told Bane. “Hawks fell asleep on the ride back, and I carried him up to his bed. She’s gonna get ready while he naps.”
Bane nodded. “Thanks.”
Oz turned around to look at me, then took a drink from his glass. “Dad’s staying at the house with Mom. She’s been feeling poorly today.”
Fuck. I should have gone to see her. I would do that as soon as I was allowed to leave the house.
When Oz gave Bane a nod, he cleared his throat. “All right, I was put in contact with Coleman,” he began.
I frowned. “The attorney general?”
He nodded. “Yes. Blaise had him call me,” he replied.
“They’ve been able to keep some details out of the media.
The victims are being laid to rest in a private ceremony that will be heavily secured.
However, it isn’t safe for Elsie to be there.
They aren’t happy about the fact that Calvin brought her here, but Coleman said he told them that she was safer with us and it was one less thing they had to handle.
He did mention that they expected to have to do a complete identity change for her.
Calvin doesn’t want that, and I am sure she doesn’t either.
For now, she stays here. They are pulling back right now and starting over with their search for Telos.
I’m guessing no one wants the job after what just happened.
We will wait and see what they do before making a call on what we will do with Elsie. ”
“So, she’s just moving in?” I asked, confused as to how this was helping her. “Doesn’t she have a life to return to?”
Bane cut his eyes at me. “Her parents were murdered in their bed. In her home. No, she doesn’t have a life to get back to.”
I hadn’t thought of it that way. I guessed she wouldn’t want to live there.
“Is she in college?” Kash asked.
Bane nodded. “She was. But she can’t continue. That will make her traceable. Right now, our goal is to keep her alive. Not to make sure she gets a degree.”
“Good point,” Kash muttered, then took another drink.
“What about Blaise contacting Telos? Making a deal to let her live?” I asked.
Bane shrugged. “That’s for Blaise to decide.”
“Dad also doesn’t want this mentioned in front of Mom,” Oz stated yet again. We knew that already.
“No shit,” Kash drawled, getting Oz’s glare this time instead of me.
“Before the three of you start in on each other, let me wrap this up. Halo, Hawks, and I won’t be back until Monday.
Oz has to go to Athens to get a million dollars that is owed to us from a stockbroker with a gambling problem.
The women are all staying here, and Linc wants Kash, Forge, Gathe, and Than here with them.
My parents, Mal, Luther, and Lace are all going to the race.
Linc will probably stop by this weekend to check on things or give any updates from Blaise.
” He nodded his head to Oz. “Calvin is going to send messages through the private server, and Oz is handling that. She can’t have a phone.
If she tries to contact anyone, it could be traced, which y’all are aware of. I think that’s everything.”
“When will y’all be back from Athens?” I asked Oz, not liking that I wasn’t going to be able to go to see Mom tonight.
“Before sunrise,” he replied.
I’d go see her in the morning.
I turned to leave the room.
“Four games tonight, and two have heavy bets on them,” Oz called out.
“I’m aware,” I said without looking back at him.
“I’ll be busy. That’s all on you,” he added.
Fuck. “Fine.”
Opening the door, I left before I was given any more jobs to handle.
I didn’t mind the bookie work, but I did when I was doing it all on my own.
Normally, Oz and I split it up, especially when the NBA games were stacked.
At least it would distract me. Maybe I wouldn’t get that restless, caged feeling that made me want to scream.
I’d only taken two steps when our new houseguest walked around the corner, then froze, wide-eyed, as she stared at me.
She looked like a damn deer, ready to bolt.
Normally, the female population did not react to me that way.
But then again, lately, the only females I’d spent any time with were the kind that danced naked and I stuck bills between their legs.
“You lost?” I asked since this wasn’t the way to the bedrooms.
She opened her mouth, then closed it before nodding. If she wasn’t so damn gorgeous, she’d have looked ridiculous. But seeing as there wasn’t anything she could do to take away from her features, I had to admit that it was kind of cute.
“Where were you headed?”
She licked her lips and bit her bottom lip while her eyes darted around, as if she hoped there was someone else she could talk to before meeting my gaze again. “Uh, I was—I mean, I thought that this was the way to the kitchen.”
Easy mistake. The house had a lot of hallways and rooms.
“Nope. Follow me,” I told her.
Her expression said she would rather walk around lost for hours than go anywhere with me. Why was that? Did she act like this with all men except Calvin? Had someone hurt her in the past? Well, fuck. Now I had a shit ton of questions for her.
“I don’t bite, sugar. You can relax,” I told her.
She didn’t relax, but nodded her head. At least the big doe eyes were back to being all sultry and exotic.
“So, how long have you been friends with Calvin?” I asked her as I headed in the direction of the kitchen.
“Since kindergarten,” she replied.
I stopped walking to turn around and see if she was serious. She wasn’t smiling. Her eyes went wide again.
“Seriously?” I asked, somewhat amazed.
She nodded.
I might possibly believe they had been friends as kids, but when she turned into a hot piece of ass, he would have been hitting puberty. It had to have changed. Right? I mean, I was almost positive he was straight.
“Is he gay?” I asked her just to be sure.
She frowned and shook her head.
“And you choose to claim just friends because why exactly? Is there another guy?”
For a moment, I didn’t think she was going to answer, and then she pointed at her chest. “Another guy, as in am I in a relationship?”
I nodded.
“No. Not in the last six months at least.”
“You broke up with someone?”
“Yeah. We dated for almost a year, but things …” She paused. “We just didn’t work.”
Huh. So, she had dated other guys. That wouldn’t be the case if she was fucking Calvin. I mean, she didn’t appear to be the kind that did that. But, hell, what did I know? I’d just met her.
I started walking again.
Maybe they really were just good friends. Gathe and Saylor had never fucked. Saylor was hot too. We all saw her as a sister, except Crosby. I thought it was because of how we had been raised together. But maybe not. Maybe it worked for other people.
Saylor got on my nerves most of the time, but I’d take a bullet for her.
Didn’t mean I wanted to fuck her though.
Gathe might have a point. If Calvin felt about Elsie like we did Saylor, then I got why he’d called Oz.
He’d been desperate to keep her safe. I’d been an ass about it, but it really had nothing to do with her.
Or him. It was his mom I hated. That and the cancer that was trying to take my mom.
When we reached the great room, Than was sitting on the sofa with Montana in his lap, giggling about something he was saying in her ear. No wonder Elsie had been escaping. Those two could be disgusting all over each other and unaware of anyone else in the room. Rude as fuck.
Montana noticed us first and straightened up, smiling brightly. “Hey,” she chirped out. Her cheeks were slightly flushed.
“We got rooms for that shit,” I told them, continuing to walk on by.
“Shut up,” Than growled at me.
I rolled my eyes, but no one saw me.
I didn’t mind Montana. Not as much as Gathe had.
He’d wanted to fuck her, but Than had fallen in love with her, not only taking her off the buffet table, but also ending his bachelor lifestyle.
Leaving Gathe and me, the last two of our group, single.
Locke was still single, but he was older than us.
He spent more time working than anything these days. When he did go out, he went with us.
By the time we reached the kitchen, I’d worked myself into another foul mood. I went inside and headed for the refrigerator. I’d not eaten lunch, and I was hungry. Glancing back when I opened the door, I saw Elsie standing just inside with her hands clasped in front of her.
“You wanted the kitchen? Hungry? Thirsty? Help yourself,” I told her.
She didn’t move. Was she reading me that well? I hadn’t snapped at her or anything. My mood had nothing to do with her. Just life. But then I guessed her mood probably wasn’t great either. I was losing my mom. She’d already lost hers. And her dad. Dammit. I kept forgetting that.
“Did you just want to get away from the make-out session?” I asked.
She blushed slightly. “No. I mean, they weren’t doing that when I was in there. I just … I wanted to be alone and out of the way.”
I reached into the fridge and pulled out the things I needed to make a sandwich, then put it on the bar. “They don’t live here, so technically, they’re in the way,” I told her. “But the alone thing I get. I feel that way. Most of the time.”
She tilted her head to the side slightly as she studied me. “Why do you want to be alone?” she asked almost too softly for me to hear her.
“We found out my mom had cancer back before the holidays. And … I’m not handling it well. The thought of losing her …” I stopped. I wasn’t sure how emotional this girl was, and I was talking about mothers dying.
There wasn’t sympathy in her gaze, but rather understanding.
A sorrowful reflection that turned her silver eyes darker.
As if she could feel my pain, and I guessed, in a way, she could and on a much deeper level.
I stood there, watching her. Locked in on the gunmetal shade that the silver had become.
I was expecting an I’m sorry or some bullshit like that when she opened her mouth.
“It’s okay not to be okay.” Her words weren’t a whisper this time. They were clear and, I realized … validating.
I felt guilty for being pissed she was here.
She’d just experienced a horrific trauma, yet she was standing here, giving me validation for the shit I was feeling.
Telling me it was okay. Not that she knew what I was going through.
But that my reaction to it was allowed. Something no one else had said to me.