Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 73021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
The moment of humor was gone. My eyes flickered from the glove compartment to the seat I was sitting on. That was a lot of guns. Why so many?
“You’ve gone pale, Shakespeare. I don’t plan on shooting you. They’re just for precaution,” he told me, then pulled up to an iron gate, rolled down his window, and pressed a code. When the gate began to swing open, he glanced at me again. “Welcome to my home.”
Sixteen
Ransom
I probably should have prepared them before showing up with Noa. But I had her background check on hand—I just didn’t need her to see it. I’d told her who we were. But there were things about us she never needed to know. The simple fact that I’d done a complete dive into her life and that I knew her personal shit wouldn’t make her happy.
Thankfully, Bane was out of town for a few more days. None of the others would say anything to me.
Forge’s eyes lit up at the sight of her though, and that was going to be something I had to handle immediately. Forge, Gathe, and even fucking Locke would assume that she was someone I’d brought here, willing to share. And if I couldn’t fuck her, they sure as shit weren’t getting to touch her.
Convincing them that she was just a friend would be difficult because, well, that wasn’t something I’d ever done. At least that they knew about. I was taking Noa out of the secret place she’d had in my life and making her real. The friend I’d kept just for me. Who no one else knew about.
I’d wanted to keep her there, but then I also wanted to have the ability to see her. Be around her. The more I got that chance, the less appealing just texting with her was. That had been a big part of my life. But I realized I was ready to change it. I wasn’t losing her or the conversation. I was just making it real.
At least, that was what I was telling myself when the fear that I was ruining it crept in.
“Are you sure she went to high school with us?” Forge asked, giving her an up and down with his eyes.
“Yes,” I bit out harshly enough that his gaze snapped to mine.
The confusion in his expression was expected.
Gathe walked into the great room with a sandwich in his hand and paused to look at Noa. A slow, appreciative smile spread across his face.
Not this one, fucker. Keep your pretty-boy shit to yourself.
“Gathe!” Forge called out. “Do you remember a Noa Raines? She’s a friend of Ransom’s that I didn’t know existed, but”—he glanced back at her—“I’m glad she does.”
Gathe moved closer, not taking his eyes off her. “It sounds familiar. But I was unaware Ransom had female friends.” He said the last word slowly, as if to mock it.
“We never met or spoke,” she told him, and I had the sudden urge to put my arm around her and pull her against me. “I only tutored Ransom and Than.”
Gathe’s brows lowered. “Tutored?”
She nodded. He was never going to put the girl in the library and Noa together. I sure as shit hadn’t.
“Than only had to be tutored once, and that was with the chubby girl with glasses and those lips that stuck out like a duck’s.”
Gathe’s description made me wince as my hands balled into fists. Fucking hell, leave it to him to remember who the fuck Than had been tutored by.
“The library girl,” Forge added with a nod. “Didn’t Crosby call her a—”
“Enough,” I snarled, ready to pound in both their fucking faces.
Forge’s what the hell is wrong with you look was followed by his eyes then swinging back to Noa. He was really studying her now.
“Jesus, what’s your problem?” Gathe asked before taking a bite of his sandwich and sitting down on the sofa.
“There is no way,” Forge said, shaking his head.
“Way,” Noa replied with a small smile that didn’t meet her eyes.
I shouldn’t have brought her here. I hadn’t thought about this. She’d been through enough today. She didn’t need this trip down memory lane.
“Dayum,” he muttered. “Age has been good to you.”
“Shut up,” I warned him, reaching out to take her arm and get her the fuck out of here.
“What am I missing?” Gathe asked as I began leading Noa from the room.
“It’s okay,” she said softly.
Clenching my teeth so hard that I could hear them grinding, I kept moving.
“I didn’t realize,” Forge called out.
I sped up just as Gathe asked him what the hell was wrong with me. Once we were in the hallway and headed toward the wing where Than’s old room was, along with mine, Oz’s, and Forge’s, I slowed down and released her arm.
“We might as well have gotten that out of the way,” Noa told me.