“Trust me,” Jase said before she could finish. Then he stared straight at Roman. “You really want to block my way?”
The ominous air that had taken over the room intensified. Heather pulled at his arm. “Jase,” she said, her voice low.
She was already on the short list of things his parents hated, she didn’t need whatever Jase was planning with his brother.
“Be ready to move. I’ll be right behind you.” He turned his entire focus back to Roman.
Roman made a little c’mere motion with his fingers, licked them, and crouched. Like, he actually licked his fingers.
Well, crap.
“Go.” Jase said it so low that she barely heard it. But she hurried into the hallway to the front door, tossing it open. Anna squealed. Zach let out a “whoooop.” Something shattered. Something large shattered. There was… Was that fist on flesh? It sounded like someone was taking hits. She started to turn back, this was ridiculous.
“What are they doing?” Jase’s mother hurried beside her.
Heather glanced to her and opened her mouth to tell her she had no idea, but Diana clearly got the message, what with the telltale thuds and cracks coming from the kitchen.
“Why didn’t you stop them?” Diana whisked herself in to the kitchen. More Russian cursing. She must’ve learned that from Jase’s dad.
Heather didn’t need to stick around to figure out what Jase and Roman had done. She’d take his rules of combat and evacuate as directed.
She bolted to the Ducati. She’d barely made it there when the front door opened and Jase strolled out like nothing had happened. No crashes, no thuds.
He grabbed her helmet. Tossed it to her. And dealt with his own.
And he didn’t say a word.
The light in his eyes said it all.
“Do I need to go check on your brother?” she asked.
“Nope,” he replied, clicking her chinstrap for her.
“What did you do to him?” She slid her gaze back to the house. It looked totally normal. Fine. Like nothing had happened.
“He wouldn’t let us leave.” Jase tossed his leg over the bike, kicking on the motor.
“Jase…” She crossed her arms. Maybe she should go in and check on Roman.
He turned to her. “I didn’t hurt him. I just tied him to the refrigerator.”
How on earth?
He raised his eyebrows and tilted his head to the seat behind him. “You’ll want to get on, because if we’re not out of here before Mom comes out, we’ll end up staying. I can’t tie her to the refrigerator.”
Who was this guy?
You know what? She didn’t need to know. If this was the kind of thing people in big mansions did, she’d just be glad she’d grown up in a tiny apartment. A small, totally normal apartment.
* * *
Jase was pretty surehis mother was blowing up his phone. Not that he’d check tonight; he’d turned it off before he tied Roman to the fridge. His own fucking fault for trying to block Jase and Heather in.
On a good night, his family went a little bonkers at these things, but with Roman home and Babushka off her rocker, the last thing he needed was for Heather to see just how crazy his family could be. And he could tell from the way things were going, they were just greasing the gears for the real bizarre to come out.
He pulled up behind Heather’s shop, parking his bike in the alley next to the door leading to her kitchen. He turned off the engine and helped Heather to her feet.
“Is this how dinners with your family usually go?” She pulled off her helmet.
