Savage Vandal (82 Street Vandals #1) - Heather Long Page 0,47

Maybe it made me a monster.

I’d been raised by them after all.

Jasper stared at me, surprise flickering across his face for the first time since I met him, and he dug his cigarettes out of a pocket and lit one up, even as Kestrel flipped a button on the wall that started an extractor.

Then it was my turn to be surprised as he held the cigarette out to me. I had to leave the beer on the table to take it, and for a second, my fingers trembled as they brushed his as I took it. The first drag, like that first full beer, also helped settle me some.

Moving back to his chair, Jasper sat, lit another cigarette and then leaned back as he stared at me. A groan from behind Kestrel pulled Jasper’s attention, but I didn’t look, instead I just sucked on the cigarette and tried not to look at the blood on my arm. The cramps from my twisting and tortured uterus were a lot harder to ignore.

The beer settled my nerves but not that.

Dressed in gray sweatpants and nothing else, Rome walked into the kitchen yawning and scowling.

“Sleeping beauty didn’t even notice she’d left her room, and he hadn’t locked the door,” Vaughn explained, and I swore he shot me a near apologetic look when he mentioned locking the door.

Rome shrugged, his whole back a ripple of golden muscle. The long lines of the tattoo decorating his spine pulled my attention before he slanted a look at me and grunted. He went to the fridge for a beer, and Jasper scowled. I twisted a little as the light of the fridge hit Rome on the chest.

The flock of birds tattoo was missing. Not just…

“Where the hell is Rome?” Jasper demanded. “Why did he leave you watching her?”

The man who was not Rome smirked as he pulled out a beer. “You’re welcome that I came over to do a favor. I didn’t have to show up you know.”

Jasper’s expression had turned thunderous, and Kestrel let out an aggrieved sigh. “Where is he, Liam?”

“I didn’t ask,” Liam said as he grinned at me. Though it was more a grimace with a lot of teeth showing. “You don’t look so fragile and scared to me.”

Maybe it made me a cliché, but I just blew smoke at him and the guy with Rome’s face laughed. Twins. Identical. But they had different tattoos. There were also a few scars along Liam’s abdomen and on his back. Rolling his head from side to side, he cracked the vertebrae and took a long slug of beer before he said, “I don’t know where he had to go. Just said he had something he was working on. Man, you know how he gets when he has a project. He said the squirrel didn’t do much and I just needed to be on hand until you got back. I was fucking tired, so I slept.”

As much as I tried not to look at him, it was hard to miss the bruises on his knuckles as he closed in on the table. Kestrel was right behind me. He’d shifted his weight, and the heat from him seemed to press against my neck. The only other place I could look was cracked linoleum, otherwise I was staring at Jasper, Vaughn, or Liam.

The room seemed to shrink with all of them in it.

Jasper snubbed his cigarette out, then nudged the ashtray toward me.

“Vaughn…”

“No,” the colorfully painted man with all his tattoos and thick brawn said with a shake of his head. “I am not going to look for him. If Liam doesn’t know where he is, I’m not wasting hours hunting all over town. I have appointments booked all afternoon. I’m eating, then I’m out of here.”

“Don’t look at me,” Kestrel said. “I’ve got Sparrow duty.”

“Sparrow?” Liam snorted. “She’s not a sparrow.” He studied me. “You’re quiet, but you’re tough. Or you wouldn’t be sitting there bleeding without an ounce of complaint.”

I frowned at him as Jasper jerked to his feet. “What the fuck do you mean she’s bleeding?”

Kestrel yanked my chair around, and Vaughn shoved Liam to the side. Why the hell had he told them that?

“I’m fine,” I snapped when Kestrel put his hand on my leg. Sure enough. I’d bled through the tissue and it was soaking my leg. Shit.

“You’re bleeding, that’s not fine.” Jasper glared at me. “Why didn’t you say something?”

“Because I don’t generally discuss my period with others much less my kidnappers.