hand.
"Do what?"
"Fake smiles for me."
"How can you tell it's fake?" I asked brightly, accepting his hand and winding my fingers between his as I started backing up towards the garage door.
"I can't. That's the problem. If I didn't know how you'd been last night, then I wouldn't have any idea there was anything wrong."
"Good," I replied, tugging him after me. "I spent ten years perfecting this mask, Badge. I'd be pissed if there were cracks in it."
Something shattered in Fox's gaze at my words so I booped him on the nose then turned and ran for the door. I snatched the key to his truck from the hook and sprinted down to it without bothering to switch the lights on, ducking down beside his vehicle and waiting for him to appear.
Fox flicked the lights on as he followed me, his footsteps approaching across the concrete and I crept around the truck as he rounded the hood, staying out of sight.
"Come on out, Rogue," he called and I smirked to myself as I kept going, staying low as I circled his truck.
He started heading for the back of it by the time I made it around the hood again and I leapt at him with a laugh, landing on his back and locking a hand around his throat.
"Oh shit," I gasped. "Did I just take out the great Fox Harlequin?"
He breathed a laugh as he caught my thigh, dragging me around his body and pushing me against the door of his truck the moment we were face to face.
"You always were my weak spot," he admitted, studying my face for a long moment. "Just tell me your smiles aren't always fake."
My amusement stuttered for a moment before I shook off the feeling that I was disappointing him. After all this time of searching for me, he'd just realised I wasn't who he'd been looking for anymore.
"Not all of them," I agreed softly and he nodded before dropping me to my feet and opening the door for me to get in.
I did as he wanted and he climbed in behind me, taking the key from my hand before tugging me close so that my thigh was pressed to his as he started the engine.
"Well I guess I'll just have to keep working on that until you don't have to fake them anymore at all," he said.
I didn't say anything to that, but I dropped my head on his shoulder as he pulled away, enjoying the feeling of his skin against mine and stealing a little bit of his strength while he wasn't paying attention.
We drove into the heart of the Cove. Not the flashy, prissy side of town where rich assholes liked to swan about in their luxury cars with their bleached teeth and even more bleached assholes acting like they shit hundred dollar bills for fun all the time. No, we headed into the real heart of the town. Where the streets were painted with every colour of graffiti you could imagine, alleyways made up homes for folk who were down on their luck and you could buy just about every kind of sin, if you could only figure out where to find the cash.
Fox seemed to know exactly where he was headed even though I couldn't say I'd personally ever been to this club. In fact, I was fairly sure this place hadn’t been here when I was last in town at all.
We pulled up on a side street, Fox's shiny truck looking a little out of place amongst the half rusted shit heaps that surrounded us, but I did notice a few other cars with a little bit more value to them parked here and there.
We got out and Fox slung an arm around my shoulders as we started walking towards the low thump of bass which was rattling the windows of the club up ahead.
It wasn't much to look at from the outside. Just a lone black door with a line of people leading up to it as they waited to get in.
"Chase was the one who set this place up," Fox said, grief touching his words for a moment as he guided me right past the queue of people.
The bouncer dipped his head in respect as he spotted us, stepping aside to let us head through.
"Of course this is Chase's baby," I muttered as a girl in a bikini top and booty shorts looked up from behind a desk with a wide smile, holding out a rubber