Vicious Rebel (82 Street Vandals #2) - Heather Long Page 0,16
here and no closer to answers than I’d been when I left. Except that it was my choice to be here now.
“I wanted to get you food, then I thought, you know, a little bit wouldn’t hurt.”
“They always say the first taste is free,” I told him, carefully wiping around his face and then looking at his hands. “Suck on the ice. That will help with the dry throat.”
He let out an indelicate belch, and thankfully, I hadn’t tried to do more than breathe through my mouth yet. “I know better,” he mumbled, and if he weren’t talking into my shoulder, I probably wouldn’t have heard it. “Hawk’s gonna kick my ass. Supposed to stay clean. Then I go wandering after pussy into 19D, know better than that, but she was at Mama’s and I figured I could get you ribs.”
The groan he let out was such a pained sound, and it jerked both Doc and Jasper’s attention toward us. Slate-gray eyes locked on mine. The last time I’d seen Jasper, he’d kissed me. My lips tingled at the memory. Then he’d snarled and stormed out.
With a sigh, I dragged my gaze away from him back toward Freddie. He really did smell like a distillery rolled around in a trash can outside a fast-food strip joint.
I could use a shower already, so I kept that complaint to myself. “It’s fine,” I told him.
“But I never got you food. I was supposed to get you food and keep you safe while they dealt with the 19Ds, and instead, I wander off and leave you alone in…” He didn’t really finish the thought as another bout of retching took him, and I angled his head over the bucket.
He wasn’t the first person’s head I had to keep up while they puked their guts out. The door slammed, the only precursor to Vaughn and Kestrel returning.
I swore my whole body shivered when I locked eyes with Vaughn. He was shirtless, which left all that gorgeous, colorful skin on display. His tattoos rippled and flexed as he moved, and it took monumental effort to push my gaze back up to his. Particularly now that I knew what those muscles felt like under my hands, my thighs, my ass…
“I hate my life,” Freddie moaned, and I rubbed his back. The last thing he needed was platitudes and laughing at him probably wasn’t fair, but he was kind of cute, even if he was a mess.
“It could be so much worse,” I promised him, and he answered with another violent hurl.
“Careful, Dove,” Vaughn cautioned me, and I tightened my thighs and tried to suppress my smile. Two words. Two words in that beautiful voice, and liquid heat pooled in my belly. Didn’t matter that Liam surveyed all of us like he was a cop in an interrogation or Rome leaned against the wall like he was the only thing keeping it up. It didn’t matter that Freddie emptied his stomach or that Jasper studied us both like he wanted to find an answer.
To be honest, the look on Jasper’s face was probably the kindest I’d seen on him around Doc since I’d arrived. As for Doc, I’d avoided his troubled eyes as much as possible. While I didn’t care if Jasper and the rest figured out I’d gotten away, I didn’t want Jasper targeting his ire at Doc.
That thought sobered my lust right up.
Still, I tried not to smile as I glanced at Kestrel. My heart fisted as he let out a breath, and just like earlier with Jasper, Kestrel trapped me in his gaze. There was so much going on behind his eyes, but I didn’t speak whatever language it was in. As hungry as I was to know more, it wasn’t a good idea.
Though to be honest, I wasn’t sure what was a good idea and what wasn’t.
Not anymore.
“I want to die,” Freddie moaned, and Doc let out an aggrieved sigh, then almost as one, he and Jasper stalked over to where I was sheltering him. The looks on their faces worried me.
“He’s coming down,” I told them. “And sobering up. It’s a miserable place to be.”
“We know, Little Bit,” Doc assured me. “Don’t worry. We’re not going to hurt him.”
“Of course we’re not going to hurt him.” Jasper snarled the words out like they were stuck between his teeth and he needed to bite them off. With a harsh exhale, he shook his head, then ran a hand over his face. “I’m tired.