Thornveil: [very quietly, looking away] ...and Glrrbth just wanted his beauty sleep wish.
Aelindra: [smiles]
* * *
Six Weeks to Present
Keys walked up to Thorne, who was packing up the rest of the supplies into the back of the hatchback. Master Key Security Solutions now had six armored vehicles of various styles and models, including one that was wheelchair accessible. Rose didn’t give them much of a heads up whenever she was ready to move, but she at least abided by their deal and gave Keys’ a big enough lead that he could send one of his men to her location.
In the almost six months since Keys had covered for her while her son was sick, their friendship had grown and morphed into…something. And maybe it wasn’t a traditional romance, maybe no one knew about them, and maybe they’d never said certain words, but the trust, the bond, was there. Despite the distance.
And the secrets.
Keys still didn’t know her son’s name, or how old he was. When Thorne, Goose, or Grimm went to assist her, she kept him mostly hidden. They called him OS online, because Keys learned that the “OS” in her handle was not for “operating system” as he’d assumed for nearly two years. It was for her son’s name, though Keys didn’t know if OS referred to his initials or the first two letters of his name.
Keys hated that he was sending his employees to assist her, rather than doing it himself. It was…frustrating, to say the least. But Rose wouldn’t let him come. Even with how open they were being now in their communication, Rose did not want him to be the one to escort her to her new, temporary, location.
She had every excuse in the book, blaming it on not wanting to take him away from his club and family; him needing to be there for his business; it being too suspicious that he would be randomly gone for so long, whereas his employees’ comings and goings were less conspicuous… Keys didn’t want to push her, didn’t want to make her run and cut contact completely, but he was getting damn frustrated with her insistence that they couldn’t meet in person.
But at the end of the day, Keys would take an unconventional cyber relationship with her over no relationship at all. Whatever was holding her back, whatever was keeping her from trusting him completely, wasn’t permanent. He’d break through her barriers, show her that he was worth fighting for rather than hiding from. It would just take time, and until then, he was grateful that Grimm, Thorne, and Goose were able to set eyes on her every few weeks or months. It was enough—for now.
There were days when his patience was paper thin, and when that happened, he had to remind himself that Rose had her reasons.
“Two more things,” Keys said to his man. He held up a potted cactus and box of bath bombs.
Thorne took the items, his expression apathetic at best. “Geez, thanks, boss. They’re what I’ve always wanted.”
“Smart ass,” Keys scoffed. “Rose doesn’t like flowers, says they die too easily and they’re a bit on the nose, given her name. So I thought maybe a cactus would be better. And according to the forums I’ve read, she’d have totryto kill a cactus.”
“Yes, and nothing says ‘romance’ like a phallus-shaped plant with a million prickles,” Thorne deadpanned.
Keys’ cheeks flamed. He chose to ignore that, not really wanting to get into the topic of romance with his employee. “Thebath bombs are for the kid,” he continued. “Supposedly they make the bath foam up and then there’s a toy inside.”
“Damn, I’m old. I remember when ‘a bath’ was rinsing off with the garden hose.” Turning, Thorne placed the items on the passenger seat of the hatchback. “When you gave us this assignment, you warned us not to ask questions, but there’s something that’s been bothering me that I need to get off my chest.”
Keys shifted, a little uncertain. He was tall, but Thorne was massive. All the Riley brothers were, with Thorne slightly taller than Goose and Grimm. “What’s that?”
“Rose seems like a sweet girl, and I say ‘girl’ because I’m pretty sure I’m a couple decades older than her. I don’t know much about her kid. The two of you are keeping that hush-hush, which is your right. It’s my job to escort them, and nothing more. But there’s got to be a better way to hide her than constantly moving them. Destroying her life and creating a new one every few weeks? I’m sure the two of you have worked out some pattern that makes tracing her problematic at best, but I still have to wonder about their mental state. Eventually that kid’s going to ask questions, and I don’t know what those answers are—nor do I need to know—but he will. Maybe the two of you need to work on a more permanent solution. I would think we’d be able to protect them here a hell of a lot easier than we can when they’re across the country.”
Keys tried to keep his face neutral. Unfortunately, Thorne wasn’t voicing anything that Keys hadn’t already thought about. He wanted to bring Rose to Mount Grove, wanted to create and have a life with her here. The one time he’d brought up her coming this way, she’d panicked and hadn’t talked to him for almost a full day.
She claimed she wasn’t good with emotion, which maybe was why they got along so well. There weren’t a lot of emotions portrayed in written messages, and a lot of it was interpretation. But she didn’t seem as aloof over the phone and video calls as sheclaimed to be. There was a good chance that Rose didn’t realize how expressive her face was, and it wasprocessingher emotions that was the struggle.
Either way, she wasn’t ready. She trusted Keys enough to tell him her location, but that seemed to be the extent of it. And as much as he wanted to jump in with both feet, he had to remind himself that she wasn’t ready.
So they would go at her pace.
“I appreciate the concern,” he said to Thorne. “For now, we need to keep with the current arrangement, though.”
Thorne, being the smart man that he was, didn’t ask why. He simply nodded once before walking around to the front of the cage. Keys watched him pull onto the road, and then headed across the street towards the VDMC gate. On nice days like this when it wasn’t too nippy, he tried to walk the half mile path between the clubhouse and his building’s front door. Angel would argue that it was no ten mile jog to work, but Keys pointed out it was still movement. To which she couldn’t exactly argue.
The clubhouse was quiet. Ghost and Ranger had left the afternoon before for Ranger’s mother’s house in Alabama. Becks, Ranger’s younger sister, was getting married in two days, and Ghost was attending as Ranger’s plus-one. Actually, if rumors were to be believed, he was blackmailed into attending as Ranger’s plus-one.
Since Ghost had taken over as president over a year ago, there were times—more often than not—when he struggled to delegate. Doing too much and trying to be there for every member of the club was making it so Ghost had zero downtime and was perpetually late for everything. Lucky and Ranger weren’t the only ones worried about him, but they were the only ones in the club with the power to do anything about it.
Keys really hoped Ghost got some rest. Lord knew the man needed it.
He barely made it to his room before his phone notified himof a message on the club’s group chat with the ol’ ladies and the adult club kids.
