“We know you’ve never seen the inside of our rooms, but if you were to walk into any one of them, you would recognize some things. Each of us have items that gave us the strength and the hope to keep looking for you all this time. Personally, I have the stuffed koala you used to keep on your bed, and swear you didn’t still sleep with, and your kindle. I’ve read every title you had saved, and even added a few of my own,” he says, walking around the couch and planting himself in the chair beside Ry.
“Your first-place trophy from the track meet we trained together for, sits on my dresser and your various sketchbooks are on my bookshelf,” Ryder adds.
“I have the blanket we made together in the eighth grade, the cup of Mom’s we broke and tried to glue back together, thinking she wouldn’t notice,” Zane smirks, his eyes squinting at the memory. “And your gymnastics videos are all in my closet.” The second he’s done the final voice pipes up behind me.
“The first thing I did was grab both yours and your mom’s phones. Which is how we got that picture, I knew that I wanted it but I also knew that they would hold the last recording we had of your voice, of you. I also took the first edition hardcovers you collected, and this…”
Kade’s voice trails off as my gaze floats down to the little black box he’s holding in his hands. The tears I had been doing so well to hold back, explode out of me. Spilling over like a rushing river as my face goes pink and a ball catches in my throat.
I know that box, know it well and remember it vividly. Dragging my eyes off one of the most special things to me, I look back at my Gemini. A silent question shining through as he stares back with a slight upturn of his lips.
“Yeah,” he mumbles softly. “It’s really them.”
Sobs wrack my body, loud, hard, and very un-assassin like. As I take it from his outstretched hands and move to open the lid.
Just as he claimed, there sits row after row of twenty-something keychains. The very same ones that my dad had always brought back for me. The only thing that made him leaving for long periods of time a little okay.
Without even thinking, running off feral instinct, I hand the box off to Ry and leap over the back of the couch. Forcefully crashing into Kade and wrapping my arms around him tightly, crying into his chest. He catches me, as he always has, stroking my hair and pressing his lips to the top of my head. I may have swore to myself that I wouldn’t show any weakness—to them or anyone else—but him remembering this tiny detail, this special thing my father and I had. It means more to me than he will ever know. And the fact that not only did he remember that day to grab it, but has kept it with him all this time…fuck.I’m going to be sobbing for years.
It takes some time, but I finally manage to calm down again. My breathing returns to a more reasonable pace and my heart finally doesn't feel like it’s about to leap out of my chest. I press my palms into my cheeks, wiping away the lingering tears and turn towards the lot of them.
“I’m sorry,” I whimper with a hiccup and hang my head.
Feet shuffle from somewhere around me, and before I can look up to see where Zane is, he’s front of me. He hooks my chin with his finger, pulling my face up to meet his. His eyes look deeply into mine, past the surface of pain and feigned strength, to the little girl still hiding within.
“What the hell are you apologizing for, Bear?” he asks, his face scrunching slightly and eyes narrowing.
“For leaving. For putting you all through this for so long,” I say timidly, my lip quivering as I do. “For running when I saw you all again.”
Zane’s arms wrap around my shoulders as he pulls me into his chest and away from Kade. His chin takes up a natural position on the top of my head—because fuck all these guys being over a foot taller than I am—and I wrap my arms around him.
One thing I noticed since escaping Colt and the Havoc Vipers, is my newfound aversion to being touched—or even to touch others. It gives me a nasty reminder of their hands all over me against my will, and unless it’s out of a need to get railed, I generally want to run when someone gets too close. But with the guys…my guys…it feels normal. Safe even.
“Bear, you have nothing to be sorry about. You shouldn’t be apologizing for that. Ever! It wasn’t your choice and was out of your control, love. We’re just happy that you’re back with us again. Safe and in one piece,” Zane continues as he rubs small circles against my back.
After our heartfelt and intimate moment, we talked for a little while longer about random things. The conversation was light and airy after the dump of heavy we just had. At one point my stomach growled so loud the whole municipality of Miami probably heard it, reminding Max he was in charge of dinner. I laughed harder than I have in a long time during the meal and once we all pitched in to clear the table, Ryder jumped up. His face had the largest grin I’ve ever seen as he ran into the living room, coming back with cards and a poker chip case.
Now, gambling—primarily cards—isn’t something that I normally indulge in playing, and for good reason. It’s not that I’m shit at the game, quite the opposite in fact. I’mtoo good.I became so proficient that it actually got boring to play.
After being sent on mission after mission with the intent to meet up with whatever crime boss or casino owner Colt was after that week, gambling became second nature. Almost all of my time was spent inside the casinos along the Vegas strip. And well, one tends to look funny standing there, dressed to the nines, but not playing anything. At one point I even managed to get myself kicked from a couple after winning a large amount. The owners thought my ass was counting cards or psychic or something.
They all want to play, and for real money no less, so who am I to deny stripping them of unneeded funds.
Feigning innocence for the first couple of rounds, I made sure to lose and watched as they all looked upon me with arrogance and pity.Good boys.I love them, but I’m about to hand their asses back to them on a silver platter. I’m down about two hundred, and they still think they have it in the bag. Slowly I earn back little by little, while they suspect nothing. Figuring is just a lucky hand or two, until I break even and let the real me out.
Sixty minutes later, we’re calling it quits and I’ve taken them for a grand total of six hundred and fifty eight bucks. Each one of them look at me with their mouths agape and furrowed brows. Completely stunned on how the hell they went from gloating to bankruptcy.
Getting up to leave the table, I wink and blow them a kiss, smirking while I tuck my winnings into the elastic of my pants. “Thanks for the shopping money, boys,” I coo before turning and heading off to bed.
Just as I hit the stairs, they break out of the shock, and Max’s exclamation has me laughing inwardly.
“Can someone explain what the fuck just happened here?”
Chapter Twenty
Kade
Still laughing at Max’s outburst, and all of our combined confusion, we made quick work of cleaning up the game. Tails tucked between our legs, as we should have figured that she would be a badass.
