Without a care for her own safety, not that I think Kinsley will harm her, Taylor takes her hand and pulls her between me and Nero, heading for the corridor that leads to the bar. I’m not sure if Raven is there, but another friendly face might help calm Kinsley down.
“That is the woman you want to get involved with?” Nero indicates Kinsley.
“No. Don’t be ridiculous.” What is he even talking about? I’m not getting involved with Kinsley, it’s just… sex. Fuck him and his stupid questions. “I don’t want to talk about her.” My tone says that is final.
Nero looks at me like he knows I’m lying but I refuse to show him anything when it comes to Kinsley, or more than I’ve already shown tonight.
“Beast,” he says. “Call everyone in but give me and Rebel ten minutes.”
Beast nods and gives me a look that says I fucked up. He doesn’t need to tell me that. Nero heads for the stairs, and Beast gets to his feet.
“I think this is going to take more than ten minutes,” he laughs.
“Fuck you.”
“Good luck.”
“Just watch them, asshole,” I say, waving him off.
He laughs and follows Taylor and Kinsley as if he was planning to do it anyway, taking out his phone to send a group text to the council. It’s strange to see the surly asshole smiling again. I close the door when I get upstairs. Nero is standing by the window overlooking the church.
I join him and we both watch two priests shaking hands with the people praying outside.
“There could be issues with that,” Nero dips his head toward them. “Colton will not be around for a while. Whoever replaces him won’t appreciate our relationship.”
“They blame us for what happened, Atom said they’re trying to push them out of the hospital.”
“Call them off. No one is going to go after him. This is about us, we know that.”
We watch until the priests disappear inside and it’s not lost on me that the person who would normally clear this kind of thing up is the one the flowers are being left for. I didn’t know Marisol well, but she didn’t deserve to lose her life like this.
“Why don’t we talk about what the fuck that was down there?”
“She has her own way of dealing with things.”
“We all have women who speak their minds. I know that shit well enough, and Nashville has his hands full with Charley. How much does she know?”
“Kinsley is the one who told us about the Demon Sinners being in Baltimore. She saw their cuts the other night,” I tell him as I drag out a chair and sit down. “It wasn’t hard for her to connect the dots.”
“She’s got a set of balls on her.”
It’s hard to hide the smirk.
“Think you can handle that?”
“We don’t need to worry about what I can and can’t handle with her.”
“She got to you.”
“I’m not Nashville. You will not get me talking about her or what is going on between us.”
“No need to, you walking in here with her the way you did spoke loud and clear. Not to mention throwing yourself in front of her when bullets are flying.”
He is mad about that, and not because I was doing it to save an innocent woman.
“I’m touched.”
“Don’t get used to it,” he sits down in his seat and leans back. “What does she know?”
