Lift You Up (Rivers Brothers 1)

Roots.

And a foundation.

We could have that together.

It was something I had never really had, at least not since I was young myself.

I wanted them more than I could say.

And I wanted them with her.

Maybe it was new, technically, but we had known each other for a long time, we'd had endless conversations, we knew each other's quirks. Sure, there was still a lot to learn, little bits to uncover, love, or learn to tolerate. I wasn't naive enough to think everything would always be morning kisses and pancakes. There would be little frustrations. There would be big issues to discuss. There would be compromises and uncomfortable discussions.

It was all part of sharing a life with someone.

I knew that well enough, having shared so much of my life in very close proximity to four other people - fighting, compromising, debating, coming to decisions as a group.

If anything, I felt it forged stronger bonds - being able to talk shit out, or fight things out, no single person's opinion holding more weight than another.

"Thank Christ," I grumbled when Padfoot found a patch of grass behind an abandoned warehouse and finally peed. "We got our girl at home, you know," I told him, his head angling up, tipping to the side like he was listening. "And you're out here acting like you have all the time in the world," I added as he finally fell into step beside me.

Nixon would be showing up soon to take Savea over to the shop to handle the animals. The people who owned the parrot would be picking him up in a few hours too. That would be a bit of a weight off of Savvs, not feeling guilty about the animals in boarding not getting as much attention as she would normally give them. All the other animals at the store lived their lives in cages, so it didn't faze them that they continued to do so. Without a bunch of people peeking in at them, kids tapping on the glass even though the signs expressly ask the parents to keep them from doing so.

She might still stress about the store itself being closed, the loss in revenue they clearly couldn't afford, but that was Harry's problem. If and when I could find him, that is.

That slimy bastard was elusive for a common deadbeat. It wasn't like he had some ties to criminal masterminds or anything. But he had somehow managed to fall off the face of the earth since his beating. Which proved he wasn't the moron I originally took him for. But, of course, it made my job harder.

That was why Nixon was on Savea-watch again today when I wanted to be with her. I needed to get her case solved, make her problems go away. We couldn't give something a real start if we were living in this world where she was stuck, she couldn't live her own life.

It wasn't normal.

Or likely healthy.

For her, for us.

As much as I liked the idea- in a primal, selfish sort of way - of hiding out together, away from the world, with no distractions.

But we would need to learn how to coexist as the two human beings we were, with our own lives and obligations, with our own schedules and demands on our time.

That was when we would know for sure how this was going to go.

So the sooner I got to the problem with her chickenshit of a boss, the better.

I mean, I get that he got himself into some shit, but the moment he realized he was putting Savea in jeopardy with his actions, he should have manned up, dealt with it. Not skipped town and make her handle it on her own when it had nothing to do with her. When she was an innocent. A saint, really, for putting up with his crap as long as she had been doing it.

Today, I wanted to make some strides, get closer to an explanation, a trail to these guys so we could work something out, make sure they left her alone so she could get back to her life.

I heard it before I saw anything.

The beep.

Not just the steady, disconcerting, but un-alarming beep beep beep of the alarm as it waited for you to plug in the code.

No.

This was the screaming siren song of the system being breached.

My heart surged in my chest as my hand went for my pockets, wondering why I hadn't gotten a call, realizing I hadn't grabbed my cell.

I was running before I was even aware of telling my body to do so, working on pure adrenaline, moving faster than I was sure I ever had before. And I was someone who was practiced at running away from crime scenes. I knew how to move.

I was pretty sure I could win an Olympic medal, though, when the alarm was screaming in a way that said Savea was vulnerable, that someone might have exploited a careless moment, that she was paying for my stupidity.