The Drift - Jenika Snow Page 0,17

when they did. But that hadn’t even crossed my mind until right now, and even then, I didn’t even bristle at the thought.

The absolute truth was I really didn’t know why I was still in this house except for that wounded man in the bedroom. He wedged himself into my heart, that organ I thought had been locked down pretty tightly so it would never get hurt. He’d done that with no effort, not even realizing or trying to.

But there is was. I was a fucking idiot.

“I’d like to have a family meal tonight,” Kimber said to Amelia, and I looked over my shoulder at the women. It was pretty damn clear they were glowing over the fact that Wilder was actually awake.

I couldn’t blame them. Everything was more upbeat in the house. I even felt a heavy weight lift off me.

I overheard them speaking softly about how it was a damn miracle he made it, heard Amelia tell Kimber it was all her doing, for saving his life. Kimber shook her head and in a serious tone said, “That was all Wilder and whoever was looking down on him.”

I focused back out the window and blocked them out. The very thought of leaving Wilder had my chest feeling funny. An outsider looking in would say there was something wrong with me, having the opportunity to leave yet here I still was. I could take Amelia and Kimber if they tried to stop me. I was probably faster than the guys if I tried to outrun them. But I didn’t want to go. I wanted to see Wilder again, talk to him, sing to him. I wanted to have him tell me all the things he’d never told anyone before.

I closed my eyes and exhaled. Five days I’d been here. That’s how long he’d been out.

I don’t know how long I stood there starring out the window, but the scents of dinner being made finally waft to me, and I faced the women. They already set the table, and I felt like I should have offered to help. How fucked up was that? Being held here against my will yet feeling bad I didn’t help cook my captors’ dinner?

That just annoyed me.

“Zoey?” Kimber prompted, and I glanced at her. She gave me a small smile. “Could you get the glasses? It’s in the cabinet over there.” She pointed to which one she was talking about.

For a second, I just stood there. She wanted me to help... to be part of whatever it was they considered themselves. A family? A group? Just a houseful of thieves? I didn’t know really anything about Amelia and Kimber aside from Kimber was a nurse and with Cullen, and Amelia used to work at a jewelry store—a store the Preacher brothers robbed, and subsequently, Dom had taken Amelia, because he was just so obsessed with her. It all seemed so incredibly strange, stranger than fiction, if I were being honest.

But I was proof it was real, and I was stuck right in the middle of it now.

I found myself walking toward them, almost as if I were on autopilot, and went to the cabinet. At first, I only got out four glasses, not including myself or Wilder for obvious reasons, but then Amelia asked me to get two more for us, as Wilder was going to attempt to join tonight against Kimber’s medical advice, and they wanted me there.

Well. Okay then.

For the next several minutes, I finished helping them set the table, then stood back, feeling extremely out of place, not just because this wasn’t something I normally did—the whole family thing—but because of what family I was currently involved with.

I heard the bedroom door open, and I held my breath as I stared down the hallway, knowing the guys were most likely helping Wilder out. He was the only reason I was still here, because come hell or high water, I would’ve tried to escape already otherwise.

I saw Dom come out of the hallway first, his eyes trained right on Amelia. Then Cullen was next, and once again, he focused on Kimber. The one thing I noticed about these men without fault was that there wasn’t anything more important to them than their women, aside from each other. Family was clearly very important to them.

And then I held my breath as I finally saw Wilder and Frankie. Frankie was close to Wilder, and when he reached out, Wilder shook his head to silently tell