“I had to warn you, Raney. We both did. All this is too coincidental, don’t you think?” Hayes says back, his words gentle but still insistent.
“My security is non-negotiable, Hayes, is that an issue?”
“Not at all. That’s good. It’s not you, well, it’s but… I promise I’ll explain everything. In the car.”
“Okay.” I agree. “I need to finish cleaning up my room though.” The nest will be a dead giveaway of my designation.
And then it’s like all systems go. But raids are almost a daily part of life here at the Fallen compound and increasingly with Koz. I’ve got nothing on me per se that’s incriminating, although I’m not going to give them the chance to snoop either. Running through the house grabbing anything that I’ve bought that looks remotely omega-ish, Rhodes follows behind me and does a sweep in case I missed anything. Standing in the garage, I wait for him to triple check the car is clean before I go to hop in. He takes Koz’s broken laptop from my hand and hides it in the compartment under the seat.
“Raney, I’ll take my truck. You guys follow me, but if you get a tail, lose them and meet me at the east gate. It’s easy to find. Hayes, you come with me.” Puck rushes over and gives me a quick hug and kiss, but Hayes hasn’t moved an inch, and it’s pretty clear he wants to get in with me.
I give him the low-down. “Rhodes is armed. He doesn’t shoot to injure; his instructions are to kill. If you can live with that, you can climb in.”
And yeah, things are different between Hayes and me, compared to how I am with Puck. I’ve got no issue with it and neither should he.
He doesn’t, but Puck still makes a point of looking him up and down, not friendly like either.
“Don’t say it, Puck. As if I would do anything to hurt her,” Hayes says quietly, almost acceptingly of Puck’s show of dominance.
A terse nod and Puck’s flying out the door while we’re climbing in the car. The garage door opens, Frank moves to the driver’s side, Andrea the passenger, while Rhodes sits on the bench seat to look out the back window, opposite Hayes and me.
It’s quiet, everyone on alert as we fly out of the compound. Around us all my uncles are stashing gear, planting other stuff for the police to find; it’s a complicated game we play.
Once we hit a mile and a half from the Fallen compound, Rhodes flicks over the radio to the police scanner. I raise the privacy screen and then swing around to look at Hayes.
He’s chewing his lip.
“Surely working at Deluge, you’ve been raided?”
“Yeah. I mean, it goes with the territory. Like what happened with you, they try to catch our customers unaware.”
“Okay, so tell me what you need to tell me,” I say.
He recoils slightly, and it’s a good reminder to take a chill pill.
I poke him with my finger before grabbing his hand. “Sorry, me being a wench is a standard after my heat.”
“I’m not myself either.” He lifts my hand up, his eyes locked on mine as he brings it to his mouth. “I know we said only heat, but…”
“We didn’t say much.” I wink at him and instead of kissing my hand, he swoops in to steal one off my lips.
“I like giving Talon a kiss every morning. So, good morning, Raney,” he says softly, before he moves back to where he was, giving me the time to absorb his words and his kiss.
We did absolutely everything imaginable to each other during my cycle, but his timid kiss makes me blush like a schoolgirl with her first crush. Which incidentally was Hayes.
“You look so good, Raney. I’m stoked you’re happy. It’s good to see,” he says before he gets quieter. “I needed to see you were doing okay.”
I roll my eyes at him being a sweetheart. He’s so different than the others. He’s got a peaceful, chill vibe going on that suits him.
“When did this happen?” I point to his nose ring.
“First day of working with Niche. Can we not do the small talk?” he asks.
And we don’t have to do the small stuff, but at the same time, I want to know all the little details I missed out on.
“Sure. So, you and Talon, huh?”
“Yeah.” He smiles, and the happiness flows off him.
