Maybe.
I got what he was saying, but I wasn’t okay that he was using my group to further his agenda.
“If you want to go rogue against Harper, do it on your time. Stop saying anything that connects to my crew. Got it?”
There was a little bit of light, and some of the red from the neon sign shining down on us. We could see each other clearly, and he studied me for a moment. He was measuring me.
I was done. Our family shit aside, I wasn’t going to stand anymore and let him play roulette with my crew, with Bren.
Finally, he dipped his head down. “Fine, but I did ask your girl if she’d hang out with Aspen next weekend. I don’t know where Aspen’s friends will take her, so I can’t be there to protect her.”
I stepped back. “Bren said yes?”
He nodded. “Then, that’s different. You’re giving us the choice to wade in or not. Do more of that shit and we’re good.”
“Right.”
“Right.” Another dark glare at him, but my brother was standing down, accepting what I said. And because I actually didn’t want to risk getting into a physical fight with him, I turned on my heel and went back inside.
Blaise followed a beat later.
He kept to his side. I kept to mine.
We were fine, that way.
From: Cross
To: Tazsters
Subject: Yes, payback is a bitch.
Stay tuned.
—always the best twin
BREN
Things were good, until they weren’t.
I went to work, helped in the field, but Brock also gave me a huge book. He pointed at it as he walked by. “You gotta learn all of that before you take your test.”
My test. I needed to pass a test before I was an official bounty hunter? Seems like I actually was a student.
After work a few times, I met Cross at his school’s library for a study session.
Okay, I lied. I was trying to make myself sound like a better student than I was. The study session happened one time, and never again. A college library, or a library of any sorts, was not a place I wanted to be in unless I was going in wearing a vest, my Taser gun at the ready, and a radio clipped to my shoulder. The rest of the week, I went to work.
I went on bail jumps. I helped where I could, stood back when I was told.
I came home.
I ate or met Cross and Jordan for dinner.
After that, Cross and I studied. In the bedroom. Our living room. Outside. A diner. Anywhere except at a library.
Cross liked the downtime, even though I learned that he actually didn’t need to study that much. He was ‘going through the motions.’ I asked about it, and he sighed with a shy little smile that made my knees melt.
“I like the normalcy.”
“What?”
He shifted, looking a little uncomfortable. “You know, we’re just studying. Normal. We’re not fighting or searching for a drug dealer I want to kill, or your drug dealer ex. No one’s being taken to the hospital. You know, normal. Quiet.”
“You like the quiet?”
He nodded, his eyes shifting to the floor for a beat. “Yeah. I feel settled. I’m not worried that someone I love is going to be taken away from me.”
Right.
I was rocked, rocked, but right.
That made sense.
“Okay,” I whispered. “You like the normalcy.”
Another nod from him. “I like it when you’re next to me.”
Well.
Then.
Warmth spread through me at that last statement.
My throat swelled up, but I didn’t know why, and I didn’t have the words, so I went back to studying. Normal. Quiet.
Guess I’d be studying more from now on.
And those nights when it was just Cross and me at the house, I felt the quiet. I was okay with the quiet. And knowing how Cross felt about it, I was really okay with it now. I could do that.
That was the goal until Jordan came home. Two out of the four nights, he had a girl with him.
I saw both of his guests. I didn’t know either of them.
The other two nights, Jordan had people come over. They were from a couple of his classes. One was the psych class he shared with Cross, so for those nights, the peace wasn’t so peaceful. A couple of the guys wanted to talk with Cross. A few of the girls wanted to flirt with him. He was polite to the guys, shot the girls down, and took my hand, leading me upstairs to my room those nights just to escape.
Jordan shot me an apologetic grin each time.
It was Friday now, and tonight was when the quiet stopped being quiet.
BREN
My phone was ringing, and it took a hot second for me to realize that it wasn’t the alarm.
Cross lifted his head up, looking, and he reached over me. Checking the screen, he moved back and sat up on his side of the bed. “There a reason you’re calling thirty minutes before she needs to wake up?”