He nodded but didn’t look at me, too busy scanning the area. There was a built-in base, kind of like a massive shed, under the water tower, which kept us from seeing straight across to the front of the building, and we walked over to it and leaned against a wall. Together we went to the side and looked around. Two men huddled against the wind near the front of the building with a perfect view of the street.
And the blast.
“That case is for a rifle,” Aspen said, nodding at what appeared to be a regular leather duffel bag, which sat near the feet of the men along a small wall that came up past waist height, probably to keep people from accidentally falling off. I wanted to ask how he knew what the damned duffel bag was for, but I also didn’t want him to treat me like an idiot. I could do some research on my own later.
“What do we do now?” I took a deep breath and it didn’t hurt, but it sucked. Fuck my life.
“We need to try to figure out who they are. They could be watching to see if they killed whoever they were after, or they could just be men who live in the building, seeing what’s going on.” He glanced at me. “This is all you.”
“Me?”
“Go be yourself. See what they’re up to.”
Squaring my shoulders, I nodded. “You could do that, you know. You’re charismatic as fuck.”
He shook his head, and I wasn’t ready for it when he pulled me in and kissed me. I sighed against the heat of his lips. This wasso good.
“You called me ‘love’ earlier,” I murmured against his mouth. “I liked that.”
He kissed me again, and I clung longer than I should’ve. Moving was especially difficult since his hand dipped down and palmed my ass, and when he stepped back I shook myself all over to wake up. He gave me a real smile as I went around the side of the shed and kicked a beer can I found there, making plenty of noise. “Hey, guys! Are the firemen still there? Can you believe this stuff?” I flashed the widest smile I had.
Both men whirled around to face me, and they were stiff, as if I’d caught them taking a shit. “Uh, yeah,” one of the men said. The words were light, almost musical, with an accent that wasn’t Irish, but other than that I hadn’t heard enough to determine what it could be.
“I wanted to get some pics. My ma heard about it, you know how they are.” I tugged my phone out of my pocket and went up to stand near them.
“Mí mamáis the same way,” the shorter of the two men said, giving me a friendly enough smile. He had a tattoo of a crown on his neck, and I filed that away to tell Aspen and Sloan, because it seemed like gang ink. I snapped a couple of photos of the explosion because I really did want to look at it all again later, when I had time to consider how lucky I was to be alive and all the rest of this shit wasn’t quite so important. Maybe I’d show Vail and let him see my black eye and get some extra cuddles. My chest went warm despite the situation, and I snapped a few more photos. Oh yeah, he would probably blow me during all his free time for a week with these pics. I touched my shiner and hoped it went full-blown black and blue. Maybe three weeks.
“So, what are you guys up to?” I glanced at the men, giving them my “bar” smile. It was the one I used any time I thought there was a chance someone would go home with me.
“Getting some air.”
“Smoking,” said the second guy, who hadn’t spoken until now. He had a wicked scar down one cheek I hadn’t noticed, and his shaggy dark hair hung in front of his eyes. He might’ve been cute if he didn’t look like he hated me.
The shorter guy with the nice smile smacked him, looking at his empty hands. The guy with the scar sighed, dragged out a cigarette, and lit up as he smiled at me.
We stood in friendly silence, and then the shorter man took his phone out and joined me in taking a few pics. Just when the air between us began to get strained, I got bored enough to take my life into my own hands. A thrill zipped through me. “You sure you weren’t up here keeping track of the damage from the bombs you set off?”
“Hijo de puta,” the friendlier man said, and he dropped his phone as he turned and took a swing at me, which had me laughing as I easily sidestepped it. He was sloppy, though he would have cleaned my clock if he’d connected, I could tell. He stumbled from his overswing, and I popped him back with a lot of power—a direct punch to his liver. It wasn’t called a shutdown shot for nothing. He went to his knees like a box of rocks, holding his side. The second man charged me, and somewhere to the side I was aware of Aspen rushing toward us, but I had to focus in front of me or I’d end up hurt. I went down and used all my weight to drive my shoulder into the bigger man’s stomach, but my ribs smashed pain through me and I groaned. The man toppled backward, and I nearly swallowed my tongue when he flipped over the top of the wall lining the roof.
“Fuck. No.” I slapped a hand to my head. “There are so many cops down there!”
Aspen and I sent wide eyes at each other as we glanced down, and then I let out a hysterical laugh. The man was on his back on a fire escape, looking dazed but obviously alive. The last thing we needed was the cops checking out this building.
“We gotta go. There’s too much heat,” Aspen said, taking the decision away from me. Getting caught was not on our list of things to do today.
The man behind me groaned, and without thinking I turned around and punched him in the face. He went down hard and stayed down.
“Good boy. Fuck, we gotta get out of here.”
I snatched the guy’s phone off the rooftop and stuffed it in my pocket, then together we moved as fast as we could off the roof, down the stairs, and back outside into the cold air that was starting to bite at my lungs. We were walking toward the red car that Mickey was driving us around in when Aspen began to chuckle and snagged my hand in his again. Him touching me like this was beginning to feel natural, and a giddy joy streaked through me.
“You did great.” He beamed at me.
“Thanks for trusting me at your back.” I smiled up at him, and he grunted.
“Other way around—I had your back, you had point. This is your specialty. People. We need a guy like you around.”
Aspen didn’t say things he didn’t mean, and something I’d never quite felt outside of winning a fight blossomed in my chest. I felt good. Useful. Happy. Like I finally had a purpose. I glanced up at him, and he leaned down to brush his lips to my cheek.
