Vicious Rebel (82 Street Vandals #2) - Heather Long Page 0,26
give Kellan and me time for damage control.
“You guys left a bloody mess down at the Smokestacks,” Doc said as he followed me up the stairs. The community center upstairs was a great option for local kids to come and hang out after school. A safe place out of the weather and away from the dealers.
Doc’s was a haven.
No one disturbed it. Not even us.
Especially not us.
I stripped off my shirt, ignoring the fact that Doc still followed me.
“Doc, you know better than to ask questions.” What he didn’t know, he couldn’t testify to. In the bathroom, I yanked the knob to turn on the water before I scrubbed a hand over my face. I could use a shave, but I’d save that for back at the clubhouse. “If you plan on hanging out, want to grab me some clean clothes out of our bags?”
The look he shot me was less than friendly, but I ignored it. He had a right to his opinions. He went out of his way for us a lot and took a lot of shit for it. Still, I was too fucking tired to play this game right now. The door closed behind him, and I ducked under the water.
This wouldn’t be anywhere near as pleasant as my last shower, so I made quick work of cleaning up and was already toweling off by the time Doc came back. I’d throw the clothes I’d stripped out of into the washer before I went back to kick Jasper out.
“I’m going for food,” Doc said, repeating his earlier sentiment from where he stood in the middle of the common room, staring at the posters on the wall. There were a lot of them. Movies. Musicals. Even a symphony. Two for ballets.
People would freak if they knew they all had a personal meaning to us.
“So you said,” I told him, but instead of heading back downstairs to find the washer, I waited Doc out. “But you’re still here.”
Silence greeted my statement.
A full minute passed before he finally said, “Why did you guys take Emersyn?”
Surprise snapped through me. First and foremost, we hadn’t told Doc anything about this. It wasn’t our secret to tell. Nor would we. I’d carry it to my grave.
“It doesn’t matter.” The lie flowed off my tongue easily. “Don’t ask questions, Doc. You know better.”
“I do,” he said, then cut a look at me. “What I don’t know I can’t reveal. This time, however, I helped put that girl back together and I’ve left her in your care.”
Something about the way he said that last sentence tickled the back of my mind.
“I know the hell she went through, maybe better than any of you,” Doc continued. “But she’s not one of you. So why did you take her? And how long are you planning on keeping her?”
The hell she wasn’t. The idea of letting her go flushed anger through me. I’d already told him to not ask questions, so I walked away.
I walked away before I punched him. The idea of her leaving pissed me off.
It pissed me off way more than it should.
Doc didn’t let it go though, he followed me all the way down the stairs and to the mechanical room where the washer and dryer were stacked. I threw my vomit stained clothes inside.
The weight of his stare bored into me. When I was done starting the washer, Doc blocked my exit from the room.
“You don’t want to do this, Doc,” I informed him. Personally, I liked him. He was a solid guy. But if he kept this up, I would push back.
“Answer my question,” Doc ordered. “You owe me that much. Particularly where she is concerned.”
“Why the fuck do you care so much?” Jasper demanded in a harsh tone, and Doc half twisted away from me to face the hall. Probably better than letting Jasper be at his back in this mood. “You’re a doctor. You helped us put her back together. Your interest in her ended there. So did your need to know.”
“You don’t get to decide that,” Doc stated in a colder voice than I’d ever heard out of him before. “None of you do. I grant you a lot of latitude. I do that as a favor.” Every word held an element of warning and threat. Over Doc’s shoulder, I couldn’t miss Jasper’s eyes narrowing or the way his expression turned foreboding.
“She’s not yours, Doc.” The words were like an incendiary device.