“We can’t leave you alone for two minutes,” Nix said, spitting more blood onto the tarmac. He had a small cut above his eyebrow, but it didn’t look deep. My face and abdomen felt twice the size, and Hudson’s chin was covered in blood; the crimson liquid also stained his shirt. He swung his body into the chair next to mine. Phoenix was still standing and loomed over us both.
“You good?” Nix panted to Hudson, motioning to where the blood crusted his face.
“Yeah, man. It’s not mine.”
“You look like you’ve just blown a girl whilst she’s on the rag,” Nix chuckled.
In turn, Hudson and I glanced down to where the tip of Runt’s ear lay on the tarmac. It sat there like a huge, bloodied unspoken truth.
“Is that an ear?” Nix blurted, leaning over with a screwed-up face. Hud and I exchanged a glance as our brother, who hadn’t witnessed what had happened, made a fake gagging gesture. “Gross. You bit a dude’s ear off? That’s fucking gnarly, man, even for you.”
In his defense, Hudson pointed out. “What can I say, not all heroes wear capes. And it was just the tip.”
“I stand corrected,” Phoenix sniped sarcastically. “Anyway. Who were they?” This was directed at me. “Someone else you pissed off on the field?” Phoenix asked, changing the subject as we turned away from that pink piece of cartilage.
I rubbed my head, suddenly feeling shit as I withdrew another rollie. “Fuck knows. They were going for my dominant arm, trying to get me benched from the team.”
Hudson’s eyes narrowed as I lit the smoke and handed it to him. “You made many enemies in the NFL?”
Watching him inhale and blow smoke down his nose, I replied. “Not really. Just Kyle Anderson, but he wouldn’t pay someone to do his dirty work.”
“So, who then?” Nix asked, taking a hit.
Dashing a hand down my face, I replied. “I don’t know for sure, but it must be something to do with that dickwad, Jasper. They warned me to stay away from Storm.” It must have been something to do with that dick. Maybe he wasn’t as harmless as I’d first thought.
“What?”Nix belted out, staring down at me.
Leaning my head back, I closed my eyes for a minute. I needed to gather my thoughts. My head had started swimming. That was odd, as I stopped drinking half an hour ago.
“It must be something to do with him.” As I lowered my head, Nix had a strange expression on his face. “And why are you looking at me like that?”
“Just something I heard the other night, at the house,” he exclaimed with a deep frown.
Hudson was attempting to rub the blood off his top as he said. “What did you hear?”
“Theodore and Jasper were in Dominic’s office, talking about shares and takeovers. I looked through the crack in the door, and there were some papers spread out on the desk. Things got heated, and so I held back until your name was mentioned. I then knocked once and got my ass in there. They both just looked odd.”
“In what way?”
“Guilty. I’ve never seen Theo move so fast. He swept the papers off the desk and pushed them into a manila folder. A green one.”
“That’s weird? There must have been something in there that they didn’t want you to see?”
Without answering, the big guy glanced towards the alleyway and then back at me with a puzzled look. “Did I see you kick one of them in the balls?” he scoffed, suddenly changing the discussion away from what was important.
I frowned, “Yeah, why?”
Dropping the tab end into the bucket by my feet, I scowled as Phoenix mocked me. “Bit of a girly move, wasn’t it?”
“Piss off, Nix. Now’s not the time to compare fighting strategies.” The two-hundred-and-fifty-pound ex-linebacker-come-firefighter had never taken any prisoner on the field or off it. “Go back to the beginning and tell us everything you heard at Storms.”
Phoenix then relayed to both Hudson and me what he heard, and it sounded as dodgy as fuck. Jasper and his father were up to something. I knew at that moment that I needed to speak to Mia.
It sounded like there was more to Jasper and Storm’s union than combining two successful families. And I was going to find out what that was, no matter the cost.
“Molly’s going to kill me,” Hud said, glancing down at his torn shirt. “Birthday gift,” he explained, nodding towards his top. “If my girl does murder me, I’m haunting both your sorry asses.”
“I imagine she’ll dump you when she finds out about the ear incident.”
