“Is it?” I asked. “Because no one I work with would think that.”
He shrugged. “Okay, fine. Maybe it’s only natural for some people. But if it’d been one of my brothers? I’d be hunting him down, too, and fuck anyone who got in my way.”
He would. He was definitely the protector type. He was proving that more and more by the day. “Thanks. I guess I’m just so used to helping people…saving their lives, the idea of taking one for me is…horrible.”
“I get that. You rescue people. You should stick to that. Let me and my club take care of the rest.”
Tilting my head, I studied his handsome face. “Why?”
He frowned, dark brows pulling together. “Why what?”
“Why would you help me with this? You don’t even know me, Overdrive.”
He nodded. “True, but you helped me with Camila.”
I scoffed. “That was my job.”
He arched a brow. “So if you’d been walking by and saw her sitting there, you wouldn’t have stopped to check on her?”
“Well…of course. But only because it’s my job-”
“Bullshit.”
“What?” I asked with a small laugh.
He motioned toward me. “You’re like…this shining beacon.”
Blinking at him, I tried to figure him out. “I don’t know what that means.”
“You’re like…a light.”
My brows shot up because that was probably the sweetest thing anyone had ever said to me. “A light…”
He chuckled and shrugged. “I’m going to stop before I sound like a fucking idiot, but yeah. You’re one of those people who would wade into the middle of battle to help another person.”
I would. I had before. Well, not battle, but car accidents. I’d stopped to help a family who’d been T-boned in the middle of an intersection and nearly gotten hit by oncoming traffic for my trouble. That’d been before I’d gotten started with EMS. Thatwas part of the reason I’d decided to go that route. Watching the first responders working on the family, helping them, had made me yearn to do the same. “How do you know that?” I asked.
He shrugged again, standing up and going back to the stove. “I have good instincts, too, Little Light.”
I sat there stunned. Whether it was because he could read me so well, or by the nickname, I wasn’t sure. Most people didn’t know that my mother had named me Rue because she’d mourned the day I was born. I’d messed up her life. Or so she’d loved to tell me over and over.
Hadn’t stopped her from making that mistake again with having my brother. Not that I considered him a mistake. Even after taking care of him by myself, I only considered him a joy. I loved him so much. That was why it was killing me that he would rather stay with some predatory group than come home. Than live with me again. Mom had stuck around as long as she could, but I hadn’t been completely surprised that she’d abandoned us.
Shaking away the dark times from my past, I focused on the man who I’d only known a handful of days but had somehow managed to put a warm feeling in my chest just because he seemed to appreciate me. I needed to be careful because the way he was making me feel was dangerous. “What exactly is your plan, OD?”
He looked at me over his shoulder. “Help you find your brother. Bring him home. Stop this group from hurting other people.” He seemed to consider his response. “Take care of anyone who tries to stop me from doing that.”
I wondered if he realized that, in a way,hewas the beacon of light. He was hope for me right now. It sounded too cheesy to say out loud though, so I kept quiet. When he’d said it my insides had melted a little. Okay, completely. But I didn’t feel confident enough to repeat that back to him. Besides, something told mehe wouldn’t accept the compliment anyway. “How do we do any of that?”
He poured the eggs into the pan and turned to face me, crossing his muscular arms over his chest. I really needed him to put a shirt on. He was so distracting. I was going to make a voraciously bad decision here really soon. “We’re going to check out those names that Rhino gave us.”
“How?”
“We have a friend who can track them down. And we’re heading to Rhino’s place to look around today.”
“What can I do?”
He studied me for a long, silent moment. “You could stay out of this. If you wanted to.”
