And me?Well, I just never could stay quiet while people were being stupid.I reached in and flipped the visor down, a set of keys falling out and striking Ingram in the back of the head.
He cursed, then sat up, rubbing the spot.“Well, fuck.”
“People are careful with keys when they’re worried about theft.In a place like this, where all the cars are owned by the Guild, expediency is more important than safety.No one wants to be searching around for whoever has the keys later.”
Ingram got up and snatched the keys from the floorboard where they’d fallen.“So you’re smarter than you look,” he said.
“That’s not a nice thing to say,” Kenyon snapped.
“You just think that because no one says it to you.”Ingram’s lips curled up on one side, the way the four interacted causing a sting in my chest.
The more I relaxed around them, the more comfortable I got, the more I recognized how close the four really were.It made me wonder what it would feel like to have that, to feel so connected to others.Even before everything had happened, back when I’d had a family, I doubted I’d ever felt like that.I’d had parents, of course, as much as I tried to forget about them.Remembering, going back to the years I’d been normal, those memories hurt.It only reminded me of everything I’d lost, so I pretended at times that it had never happened.
Staring at them, though, listening to the way they bickered with affection layered into the words, it made it more difficult to forget my life before it had all changed.
I recalled sitting down for dinner, the way the spice of the soup floated in the air, the easy, pointless conversation.I’d talk about my day—when I felt like it—and they’d smile and listen and ask questions.I remembered the comforting feeling of walking past the threshold of our apartment, the way itfeltlike home.The place had been small, decorated as cheaply as possible, but it had always been warm and welcoming.We hadn’t had much, but it had still always made me feel safe.
Until it wasn’t…
The juxtaposition between the life I’d had before and the one that had come after dizzied me.It madeeverythingfeel so uncertain, unsettled, like the ground could open up and swallow me down into the depths of it.
A hand touched my arm, a similar sense of calm washing over me.I glanced to my side to find Shear there, those eerie, bright blue eyes boring into my own.Strange that his powers, which normally I hated, managed to soothe me so well here.It gave me that same feeling I’d forced myself to forget.
I even managed to sag back, my knees weakening, Shear bracing me with the hand on my arm so I didn’t end up on my ass.He didn’t bring attention to the little mishap, instead opening the back door beside us so it appeared he simply helped me into the car.
My body went along with it, not so much my brain, and before I knew it, I had Shear to one side, Carter to the other, with Ingram driving and Kenyon upfront.
Right, just stealing a car, escaping a training base full of superhumans, with a group of espers.
When had my life gotten so damn weird?
Chapter Forty
Ingram
Every last time I looked at the woman across the table from me, my brain about shorted out and fucked right off.It was like she held some weird control over me, and I didn’t even have it in me to try to fight.Fuck, I think I rather liked it.The world quieted down, that gnawing, all-consuming pain inside of me, went dormant in a way itneverdid normally.
Even the things I did to fill it, to quiet it, only hushed it for such a short time I wondered if it were useful at all.The moment it was over, the moment the tattoo gun stopped running or I pulled out of a willing body, it all started right back up, demanding more, never satiated, never enough.
Except with her.
I hadn’t even gotten my dickinto her,but my body had stayed quiet and happy all damn night.It even went back to that same place when I looked at her, like she’d tamed it into a fucking little puppy to wag its tail at her feet.Just how the fuck had she managed to do what nothing else ever had?
It was only when she narrowed her eyes like a challenge that I realized I stared at her.Then again, that sure as fuck was my preferred reaction.Ilikedthat she didn’t wilt, that she stood toe-to-toe with me even when terrified.I liked that she snapped, that despite the way she’d tremble, she didn’t back down.
And just like that, I was hard again, the memory of her scent in that room, the guiding that had happened just from being close to her.I groaned and shifted in my seat, trying to get a little more comfortable.
“Could you trynotpopping a boner in a nice restaurant like this?”Carter asked with a bright smile on.
“Like you’re any better,” I snapped back.
“Want to come check?”Carter actually batted his lashes at that, like he was flirting with me.I knew better than to trust anything that came out of the consummate liar’s mouth—and never to put anything in there, either.Anyone who would trust that man with their dick was an idiot and had far too much faith in others.
“I want table-side guac,” Kenyon said, telling me he hadn’t been paying any attention to the conversation.Not exactly a surprise—he rarely followed along with any conversation unless he found a reason to.“And a strawberry margarita.”
“What are you, a teen girl?”I asked when he suggested the dumb choice, as though I weren’t used to this nonsense from him.
Kenyon shrugged, not the least bit bothered.“What?They’re good.”
