Page 56 of More Tricks

“Smart call, Void,” Eagle approved. “Who wants the first watch?”

Cam raised a hand. “I didn’t let the doc give me anything too strong for the pain, and I don’t think I’ll get much sleep with the dull throb going on right now. She didn’t need to know that the tip of the blade almost came out the other side. It would have only made her feel worse.”

Having been shot and stabbed a few times in my life, I would take getting stabbed any day, but I knew exactly what he was talking about. Even though the wounds were clean cuts, the way they sliced through the muscle just made your bones hurt with every flex or movement.

I walked over to Sprocket and tapped him on the shoulder. “You want me to do that thing?” He looked up at me with pain clear in his eyes and gave a slight nod. “Sit in the chair so I can get a better angle.”

Cam and Wes watched, expressions curious. The other guys were used to this weird fix we’d found that helped lessen the pain for Sprocket. He hadn’t gotten a bad one of these in at least two years, but with everything going on, I’m not surprised one got triggered. Sprocket had a bad habit of letting things get worse, not wanting to go to the hospital or take pain meds of any kind. After what I learned about his mom, I couldn’t say I was surprised.

I felt down his neck and shoulders, feeling how tight it all was. I set my forearm on his shoulder and started to stretch out his neck muscles. He hissed at the burn I knew this caused, but I had to get him more movement to do the second half of what was needed after working both sides, getting more to give by the time I was done. Then as soon as I felt Sprocket relax into my hands, I twisted, and a loud crack filled the room.

“Ah fuck,” Sprocket muttered. “It’s one of those things that feels so much better but also hurts like a bitch when it happens.”

Shifting, I got him to relax in the other direction and felt him take a deep breath, then let it out, which was when I made my move. Another crack, and I started to work the muscle with my forearm, trying to get the muscles to move better. After the adjustment, it made a huge difference, and I could already tell the pain had lessened some. “That should do it.”

“Thanks, man. I can never trust anyone else to do it,” he admitted. “I’m always afraid they're going to break my neck or something.”

I patted his shoulder and urged him to the bed. “Get some rest. I’m gonna check Dax’s room real quick. Then I’ll take the floor.”

Sprocket didn’t argue. He knew with my back that sometimes the harder surface of the floor was better than a bed that was too soft. Being a fighter was what I loved, but the way I did it back when I was younger sure was stupid and fucked me up. I’d let them get their hits in for a while, so the fights weren’t over as fast, but that meant I took a lot more damage than I needed to.

Slipping into the other room, I spotted my little demon curled up in a ball, face hidden in Cognac’s chest, while Picasso guarded her back with his body. If I hadn’t known to look for the shock of pink hair, I wouldn’t have seen her right away with how nestled in she was. My little demon had truly gone through hell today, faced her demons, and made it out the other side. She wasn’t anywhere close to being over whatever had happened to her, but I felt like she might have acknowledged for the first time she wasn’t okay.

The door in her room was locked along with the safety latch, but when I tested the lock, it didn’t hold as snugly as I would have liked. There was too much give, so it would be easier to just bust in on us. That made up my mind. I wasn’t going to sleep in the other room, I’d sleep right here in this little hall by the bathroom. If anyone tried, I would hear it right away. There was no way they’d be getting past me. Our woman fought her battles today. It was our turn to keep her safe and protected.

I grabbed a pillow one of them had kicked off the king bed and settled in for the night. My gun was on my chest, a bullet ready to go in the chamber. One simple pull of the trigger and they’d be dead before they knew I was there. As I tried to sleep, my mind raced with all the things that could go wrong in this fight coming up, knowing that all the people who hated us were trying to get their fighters in the mix. Dax was a fucking animal when she honed in on a fight, and if I let myself get to that point, we would be perfectly matched. Thing was, if we dove that deep, would we be able to pull ourselves out of it?

When Eagle found me all those years ago, I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to come back to the surface. It’s one of the reasons I picked Void for my name. That’s all I was at that point. A void full of rage, and I allowed people to use that against me. The drinking and drugs didn’t help matters. While I could drink some these days, I couldn’t touch another drug, or I’d fall right back into the pit. Instead, I found other ways to use my skills and ground myself in healthier alternatives.

Now I had my little demon to look after, a woman who shared the same dark soul I did. If I could keep her from getting lost in the bleakness of rage, then maybe there was hope for myself as well. I could never be a good man, but thankfully, she didn’t want me to be one, happy to take me as I was—black soul and all.

“Who’s fucking idea was it to try and fit everyone in this goddamn car,” Picasso grumbled as we hit the halfway point of our drive.

We’d stopped for food since we decided to get out of Boston as quickly as we could. Dax surprised us by being up by ten, so we decided to just grab coffee and hit the road.

“You’re not the only one who doesn’t get a seat. I have to be on someone's lap for the whole four hours,” Dax snapped.

There seemed to be a miscommunication with the rental car company, and we ended up in an SUV that fit only seven people. They didn’t have anything bigger, so we decided to just roll with it instead of trying to find another company to work with.

“Don’t you even,” Eagle cut in, pointing a disapproving finger at her. “You were offered the chance to take the front seat, but you gave it to Cam, so I don’t want to hear it.”

Her silver-blue eyes flashed at the challenge. “Right, so I was just supposed to sit on his lap and squash his arm? You have to drive since you’re still not a hundred percent yet, so that leaves me.”

“Little hellcat,” Eagle growled.

Cognac cut in between them, seeing just as I did that those two would either start fighting in earnest or fuck each other in the back seat if we didn’t end this fast. “Hey, now I have an idea that will fix this whole problem.”

Both of them glared at him, waiting for his answer.

“It’s simple. I’ll just sit on Dax’s lap. See, problem solved, and everyone’s happy,” he suggested, a shit-eating grin on his face.

Dax rolled her eyes and playfully punched him in the gut as she climbed back into the car. Wes and Sprocket were already there, so my guess was she went to hang with them in the jump seat. I side-eyed Eagle grinning at my best friend. “You know she gets like this when she needs a good fucking. It’s like she doesn't know what to do with her pent-up feelings, so she picks a fight.”

“Yeah, well, I would have been more than happy to bend her over the front seat and give her what she needed, but we’re in public, and no one but us gets to see that shit,” Eagle said as he pulled the keys out of his pocket. “It’s only two more hours, then I’m sure we can deal with our woman’s issues.”

I chuckled as we walked back to the car and climbed in. Dax was in the back like I suspected. Wes was showing her what information he’d gotten back from the lawyer. For the most part, the contract was legit and the only loopholes were more to ensure neither party had control over the other’s businesses or money. She’d been sleeping in my arms when Wes first gave us the rundown. This was better, though. Those two were best friends before they ended up lovers. Even though there were eight of us involved in this relationship, we needed our one-on-one connection with her as well.

Everyone seemed to keep it together for the last leg of the trip arriving at the high-rise that Magnus had sent us to. I was interested in meeting these men. We’d spoken to them on the phone a few times, but Wes was the only one who’d actually met them in person.