“I’m okay.”
I laugh, watching her poke a cheeky tongue out as she spins and runs for the house.
Fuck, she should know better than to run. I will always chase her.
8
“Angel.”
The rumbled rasp of Ringo’s voice drags me out of a deep sleep with a groan, but I can’t find it in me to open my eyes.
“What?” I murmur sleepily.
“I need you to wake up, Angel.” He gives me a little shake, and I groan again, too exhausted to obey.
My body still feels relaxed after he followed me up to our room late in the evening. He used his fingers on me… down there, while sucking on my boobs, and well… drinking. I was going to stop him, but it felt so good, and it was a relief to empty them. He reminded me afterwards that I need to keep up my milk production for Bobbi, and even though it’s highly unconventional, I can’t help but wonder if the universe hasn’t been keeping me prepared for her return this whole time.
“Angel, come on. I need you to get up. We have to go.”
My eyes spring open at his words, immediately locking with his as panic rushes through me.
“What’s wrong? Are we being attacked?”
In the faint glow coming from the bathroom, I see a small smile kick up his lips.
“No, Angel. We aren’t under attack.” He reaches down, brushing some of my hair back off my face. “We’re going for a little drive.”
I frown. “A drive? Where?”
“Less talk and more getting out of bed, woman,” he chuckles quietly, standing from the bed and moving across to his closet.
I sit up, rubbing my eyes as I try to piece together why the hell he’s waking me in the dead of night to go for a drive.
Shit, what timeisit?
Reaching over to the bedside table, I snatch up my phone to see that it’s 3:18 AM.
“Why are we going for a drive at three in the morning?” I groan as Ringo comes out of the wardrobe, tossing a pair of jeans and hoodie on the bed.
“You’ll find out soon enough,” he offers vaguely, before retrieving my chucks.
I look over the clothes, slipping out of bed, even more confused.
These aren’t the type of clothes I would wear on the back of his motorcycle, which means we must be going in a car.
I want to keep pestering him to tell me where we are going, but I know him well enough to know he would have told me already if he was going to. So, I do what he asked, and get changed.
Once I’m dressed, he leads me quietly through the house, our footsteps light so we don’t wake anyone. I half expect to find JD and Jols waiting for us, but we don’t come across them at all. Instead, we slip out the back door and follow the path in silence, the dark closing around us until the shadowed silhouette of someone up ahead has me tensing.
“It’s okay, Angel. It’s just Riggs,” Ringo whispers, urging me to continue up the path with him, and for a moment, I wonder if the house is in danger. But no… he’d never leave his mum behind. Or his sisters. And I know he’d never leave Tahli behind, either.
As confused as I am, I stay quiet as we approach Riggs, who simply gives us a nod and leads us deeper into the bushland surrounding Ringo’s house.
The longer we are out here in the dark, the easier it is to see, my eyes adjusting to the moonlit night well enough that I can make out the path we are walking on.
We follow it up the large hill, onto the ridge, and my heart aches as memories take me back to when I walked this same path with my shadow tailing me while I missed Ringo desperately.
Mule. Even though we didn’t say much to each other, it was the unspoken communication that we connected with.
