Ignite (Unbreakable Bonds 7)

Bellies full, they wandered out of the restaurant and toward Noah’s Jeep. Rowe looked over to see JB sigh as he stretched his arms over his head. The man had listened with rapt attention as Rowe and Noah had told one insane story after another about either their unique family or strange things that happened at Ward Security. Rowe had to admit that whether he was talking about his brothers or his Ward Security family, he was always surrounded by crazy people looking to do crazy things. And he felt so damn lucky to have them.

“What do we do now? It’s only”—JB paused and lowered his arm to glance at his watch—“eight o’clock. Still early.”

“Go back to the motel and sleep,” Noah grumbled. “Some of us spent the bulk of the day driving, while others slept.”

“Hey, I didn’t sleep that much. I would have slept more if Rowe hadn’t snored so loud,” JB said.

Rowe turned and took a playful swipe at JB, but the younger man jumped away, laughing. Even Noah chuckled at their antics.

“Besides, you guys just want to head back to the room for noisy sex. You’ve gotta take it easy on us single guys,” JB continued. “We’re sharing a freaking wall.”

“Are we shredding your fragile innocence, kid?” Rowe teased.

“Nah, just give a guy some warning. I can take a cab, grab a drink out somewhere.”

“No,” Noah said sharply. “We don’t know who knows we’re in town. We’re sticking together until we get to the bottom of what happened to Chris and Paul.”

JB leaned against the rear passenger door and crossed one ankle over the other. “Come on. Just an hour out. Grab a beer. Something. I’ve spent way too much time in motels and cars recently. I don’t want to waste another hour starting at the damn TV.”

Rowe rested his hands on his hips as he stood opposite JB, gazing around the parking lot for some idea to spark. He didn’t mind going back to the motel and stretching out in bed with Noah. Even if they didn’t have sex, he enjoyed just lounging in bed watching some mindless TV for an hour or two. But JB had lost two people important to him already. He didn’t want to be alone, and he could do with some kind of entertainment. Noah would probably also like to spend a little time with JB. Something they could all do would mean Rowe could keep his jealousy and insecurity under control.

“How about that?” Rowe said, pointing at a big flashing neon sign across the street. It looked like a retro arcade, offering pinball machines and video games straight out of the eighties.

“That looks cool,” Noah said. “I haven’t played pinball in years.”

Loading up in the Jeep, they drove the short distance over. They were pleasantly surprised to find that the place catered as much to adults as to kids, with a fully stocked bar and a nice offering of food. Rather than coins and tokens, they received wristbands indicating how many hours they paid for. All the games were already open, ready for an endless stream of players.

The two-story building was a cacophony of flashing lights, buzzers, ringing bells, and computerized beeps from all the games. There was a medium-sized crowd for a Tuesday night, leaving most of the games free. At Noah’s nudging, JB and Rowe each grabbed a beer, while Noah grabbed an iced tea before they wandered around the place.

For the next two hours, they worked their way through old-fashioned pinball machines, some of them more than fifty years old. They played their favorite arcade video games from their childhoods. They cheered each other on and talked epic amounts of trash, which was ridiculous because not one of them was good enough to make a single leaderboard. It didn’t matter. They were laughing. Rowe could forget for a time that JB and Noah had a past. And it looked like both Noah and JB managed to forget about the grim reason they were in town in the first place.

They finished the night with a Skee-Ball tournament. JB won the first game, Rowe won the second, and Noah won the third. Of course, they had to play a fourth game to break the three-way tie. When Noah threw his last ball, inching just ten points ahead of Rowe, JB shouted and hugged his old friend in celebration. The moment JB caught sight of Rowe, he flushed and took a step back, but Rowe gave him a reassuring little nod. He knew the guy hadn’t meant anything by the hug.

Walking to the car, they were all still buzzing on two hours of laughter and gaming adrenaline. Rowe noticed that JB and Noah seemed to be talking more easily now, as if they’d found an old familiarity they hadn’t enjoyed in so many years. A niggling worry nagged at the back of Rowe’s brain. It wasn’t jealousy, really. Or even that old insecurity. This was the Noah Rowe was accustomed to seeing when he was talking to Jude and Andrei at the last dinner they had over at the penthouse. All easy grins and big laughs.