eyes widened in surprise as she wrapped her arms around his neck. JJ’s hand took her hand firmly and she leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder.
A tug of jealously filled me over the fact that I couldn't be the one comforting her right now. But I had enough to focus on. I had to get us to the marina and somehow get a body onto dad's boat without being seen. It might have been late, but there was always life on these streets, no matter the time of day.
But I was the son of the most ruthless man in Sunset Cove, and though I had zero experience of dumping a body, that shit was in my genes. So I was damn well gonna figure it out.
I leaned against JJ as I was crushed on top of him in Fox's truck, the scent of blood still clinging to me even after I'd washed it all off. I felt like I was going to need to bathe in bleach to ever feel clean of it again. Or more to the point, to feel like I’d cleaned the feeling of Axel’s hands off of my flesh. Not that I'd change what I'd done for a second. I didn't care that that bastard was dead. In fact, I was glad of it. I clearly wasn't the first girl he'd done that to and Mary Beth had been running that group home for fucking years with girls walking up and down that street every damn day. I was clearly just the latest in a long line of his victims. But what he should have realised about me was that I was no victim. Life had been trying to kick me in the ass since the day I was born. My mom gave me a freaking adjective for a name and the bad shit didn't stop coming my way from there on out. And I’d long since learned how to roll with the punches.
But that was cool. Because I had my boys now. And it didn't even matter what else I had to live through in this shit hole we called home because a bond like ours was unbreakable. Un-fucking-touchable. They were the kind of friends I could call up and tell I'd killed a guy and they just showed up and helped me fix it. If you had one friend that good in life then you were damn lucky and I had four. I was the luckiest bitch I knew.
I shifted in JJ's lap and he growled something that made the hairs along the back of my neck prickle as I turned to look into his eyes. He was so freaking pretty it was untrue. His mom was from South Korea originally and she'd told him his dad was Malaysian even though he'd never been on the scene and Christ that combo had created something really damn captivating to look at. He'd been the kind of kid who should have been on diaper commercials making shit catchers look cute and now he was growing into the kind of dude who girls couldn't take their eyes off of. Me included half the time.
JJ kept running his hand in small circles on my lower back and it felt stupidly good, like he was soothing my damn soul.
"I love you boys," I said, looking between the four of them and smiling as the panic of what I'd done finally subsided just a little.
"I love you too, hummingbird," Fox said instantly, looking over at me with a grin and then shooting a scowl at J which I was pretty sure I wasn't supposed to notice.
Maverick thumped him in the shoulder. "We all love you, beautiful," he said firmly. "And I'd kill that motherfucker again if you hadn't done such an awesome job of it. In fact, that really just makes me love you more. You’re a bloodthirsty badass and it’s hot as hell."
"Shut the fuck up, Rick," Chase growled, his eyes flashing and I was guessing he didn't like the fact that I'd been exposed to violence like that.
He kept looking at my busted lip like it actually caused him pain and I reached out to take his hand to try and reassure him that I was okay. He'd seen too much fucking violence in his life for anyone and I knew this had to be rough on him. All he ever wanted was to be able to protect his mom from the violence of his