Sandalwood flooded my senses. “I do not have much spare time.”
“But you like EDM?”
“I do.”
“What else?”
“I like it to sound good.”
“You have a flashy system, don’t you?”
Chuckling, I named the one thing in my English home that I actually cared about.
Ranger groaned and covered his face with his arms, rolling onto his back as if we were in bed together, not still huddled on the cold ground. “Stop. That shit’s like porn to me.”
I took a breath—don’t. Clamped my mouth shut, glad Ranger didn’t seem the type to hang on anyone’s every word, let alone mine. Searched out Jake and found him with plenty to say.Not where you sleep, brother.
He was right and I knew it. And in any case, I had no plans to go home anytime soon, but the urge to take Ranger with me when I did was sudden and sharp, hooking into me deep enough to leave marks when the feeling faded.
This man. I did not know him.
But I wanted to.
Ranger let his arms drop and sat up. His hair fell into his face again. He shoved it back with a careless hand and rose to his feet, leaving me where I lay. “Tomorrow, yeah?”
“Tomorrow.” I mourned the loss of him as he moved away from me, heading in the direction I assumed he’d left his bike. “I will let you know when.” Because I had his number. Or at least one for a phone he carried. In our world, sometimes that was as good as it got.
Ranger was still walking.
I called his name. In Russian.
He turned, walking backwards beneath the fading light of the stars, brow cocked, and it made me wonder if it mattered what language I spoke. If he’d hear me regardless.
Don’t.
I caged a sigh. “Be careful where you sleep tonight.”
What was left of it, anyway, a point Ranger raised by tipping his gaze to the sky and back again in the time it took for a beat to pass.
Heavy.
Complex.
For reasons I did not quite understand, I felt compelled to fill the silence. “This city is not safe.”
Ranger grinned, a slow, wonderful, and terrible thing. “Worried about me?”
“No.” I finally rolled to my feet but made myself stay where I stood, maintaining the distance between us. “But I need you well rested tomorrow. I need you tofight.”
“I’m gonna fucking fight. You think I’m here for the view?”
Honestly, I did not know why he was here, save that he was the only soldier the Rebel Kings would vouch for this far north of their founding chapter. That he’d willingly answered their call to arms was an intrigue I’d yet to puzzle out. “Tomorrow, Ranger. Wait for my call.”
Ranger’s voice was as affecting over the phone as it was in person. And I knew it would be. It was my reason for calling him when a simple text message would’ve done. Why I rode into a fight to the death with a shadowed smile on my face, buoyed by the one-word grunt he’d allowed me before he’d hung up.
It was a shame my good humour could not last.
“That cunt’s got a gun.”
