Vicious Rebel (82 Street Vandals #2) - Heather Long Page 0,25

that we are.”

I frowned.

“But you’re here, Sparrow, and nothing is going to happen to you here.”

I licked my lips. “The threat…it’s gone, right?” Was I testing him?

Maybe.

“Your former dance partner is gone,” he admitted. “He won’t lay a finger on you again.”

“Then—” His cool eyed frown silenced my next question

“That wasn’t the only threat. Someone cut your silks the night of the performance.”

Surprise flickered through me. Oh. Shit. I’d almost forgotten that.

“And someone, it may be nothing, but someone tried to run you down in the parking lot.”

“You said it was a drunk driver.” Yes, that was an accusation.

“I didn’t want you afraid.”

The laughter escaping me might have bordered a little on the hysterical.

Okay, so it crossed the border into a lot hysterical.

“So you bring me here?”

“That was Jasper’s idea,” Kestrel admitted, drawing me right up next to him so he could tuck an arm around me. The warmth had me leaning into his side, even if I shouldn’t. “And as much as I hate to admit it, I think he was right.”

“Can I ask why?”

“You can.”

I snorted. “Will you answer me?”

“Not yet, Sparrow.” He brushed a strand of my hair back away from my face.

“Why not?”

“You still don’t trust us yet.”

I frowned.

“But you’re closer.” He turned us both toward the door to go back inside. Probably a good plan since the coffee was gone.

“How do you know?”

He kept one hand at my back as he reached for the door to open it. “You came back.”

I paused to study him, the noise inside not really registering or the fact that we had an audience now.

“And you’re still here,” he finished. “It’s as good a place to start as any.”

Chapter 8

Vaughn

“Grabbing food,” Doc said as he leaned in the door. “You two should shower and get some sleep. I think we’re past the worst.”

Jasper glanced up from where he’d set up vigil near the head of the bed. “You go.” The roughness of a three-day growth covered his cheeks, his usually neat beard having grown. “I don’t want to leave him alone.”

“He’s going to sleep,” Doc offered. “He’ll be al—”

“I said I wasn’t leaving him alone, Doc. Let it go.” The curt tone rolled right off Doc, and I pushed up from the broken chair I’d been sitting in until my ass had gone numb. I needed a shower. Hell, I needed food, a shower, and about ten hours of horizontal time asleep with my girl.

The dare in her dark eyes seemed an ever-present phantom in my mind. My own personal ghost. Not that I didn’t have many. Still, she was the best of all of them, and I’d barely gotten any time with her.

Fuck, she probably thought I’d hit it and quit it by now. She’d need an apology. And a gift.

Probably some groveling.

I had zero fucks in that department. I’d make it up to her on my knees and with my face buried in her cunt until she came so hard and so often, she blacked out.

That would be a good start.

Doc retreated into the hallway as I stepped out. The clinic had been the best location. Doc could monitor him, keep him sedated while we flushed his system, and since we didn’t really know what the hell he’d taken this time, we needed the help.

Especially when he flipped out and tried to have a seizure back at the clubhouse. I was here to spell Jasper out, even if he refused to leave the room and hadn’t slept in more than thirty-minute bursts in that chair. The clinic was closed currently, and it was nearly sundown. Doc wasn’t usually open on the weekends unless he was doing a vaccination clinic.

“You should get him to take some time for real sleep”

At Doc’s advice, I glanced over my shoulder. “Give it a rest. You know he’s not going to. Freddie falls off the wagon, and Jasper takes it as a personal failure. It’s one thing when he gets pinched by the cops and tossed in jail for a few days. This…”

I shook my head. It wasn’t just the drugs. It was the fact he had some cracked ribs and a concussion. There were signs that they’d burned his feet. None of us discussed the torture, we’d just catalogued it.

The 19Ds were going to be in a world of bloody and brutal hurt as soon as Freddie came through this. It wasn’t a matter of if, but when. At the moment, we were all better off with Jasper preoccupied with Freddie. Might