Vicious Rebel (82 Street Vandals #2) - Heather Long Page 0,46

on me as she lowered herself to a crouch. Liam had already begun to drift in front of me. I didn’t like the attention. “And you’re Rome.”

“He is,” Liam volunteered for me. “And we’re both starving.”

“I knew it.” She sounded downright cheerful about that. “Well come on in, both of you. I saved you both bacon and there’s pancakes. I’ll have to reheat them real quick.”

All at once, my stomach growled as Liam darted forward. He had a hand on my arm, holding onto me long enough to make sure I followed him inside before he let me go.

The women talked behind us, but Liam cut right across the cluttered room that had toys everywhere. The television was on, blaring away, and a baby stood at the edge of a pen staring at the cartoons with a bottle in his mouth. He barely noticed us.

It was so much louder in here. Brighter too.

Shouts beyond the window climbed in volume as a backdoor slammed open and three boys rolled in, yelling and wrestling with each other.

They stopped dead when they saw Liam and me. I hugged my backpack tighter, and Liam cut off their view of me.

“Boys,” the nice lady from the door called as the door clicked closed. “Our new arrivals are here. Do not start anything.”

“We won’t,” the first boy said, his dark eyes intense. “Just came to get a drink.”

“Well outside, I’ll bring juice out in a minute. Let’s let Liam and Rome settle in before they deal with you scamps.”

All three boys laughed at the description and let her hustle them outside. Liam looked over his shoulder at me, and I gave a little shrug.

That went way better than I’d thought. Then she was calling us to the table. We had to wash our hands in the kitchen, and Liam held my backpack while I did mine. Then we had piles of food in front of us, and I had no idea what to eat first.

The baby in the living room let out a laugh, and I looked over in time to see the toddler climb right out of the pen. The woman laughed as she scooped the baby up.

Weird.

“I like her,” I told Liam in a little voice. He snorted and stuffed another piece of bacon in his mouth, but he didn’t disagree with me.

Chapter 13

Jasper

“So I’m all clear, Doc?” Freddie asked for the fifteenth time in the last twenty minutes. Despite the fact he was clean and hadn’t had a drop of alcohol or a touch of drugs in almost a week, the jitters weren’t something he could hide. I leaned against the wall behind the clinic and just took a long drag on the cigarette.

Vaughn rolled his eyes, then his neck. The fucker had been in a sour mood for the last two days, but he’d stuck around, even when the last place he’d wanted to be was here. The fact Kellan kept us updated on Emersyn helped.

She’s fine.

Sleeping.

Busy.

The responses had grown shorter, terser, and far less illuminating until he’d just stopped answering altogether. When I’d asked Doc to message him, Kestrel hadn’t even answered his question. Clearly, he knew where we were, and the asshole kept sending me to voicemail.

I scratched at my beard as Freddie paced around in another circle. I wasn’t the only one watching him. Doc had only removed his IVs an hour earlier, and he’d finally kept down solid food without puking up his guts. All good signs, but he needed to stay clean, and every damn time he fell off the wagon, it seemed to get a little harder.

Fuck my life.

We’d figure it out.

As much as I felt like hell, Doc and Vaughn both looked it. None of us had really slept for longer than a couple of hours here or there. Freddie groaned and turned to face Doc.

“C’mon, Doc, cut me loose. I need to find some pussy and some food and some company that isn’t your three ugly mugs and maybe not in that order. In fact, I could find food with the prettiest pussy I’ve seen, and that would be a hell of a lot better than this.”

I lowered my hand from where I’d been pinching the bridge of my nose in time to catch Vaughn smacking Freddie right upside the head.

“Holy fuck, ow, man,” Freddie grumbled, then shot us a sheepish grin. “I’m just playing. You know I’ll treat Boo-Boo right.”

“Freddie, I love you like a brother, but I will break both of your