“For the record, he’s going to be fine. Nothing some anti-inflammatories and a few days won’t fix.” Kennedy chose then to finish her exam of Nolan and patted his cheek, making him grunt. She returned to her perch beside the man with the wave shaved into his onyx hair. Sola and her buddy Aarav studied Laurel with an expression she took for resignation and maybe empathy. She figured Jordan always got his way.
“Wait. What?” Laurel looked to Jace then back to James. A house? Nolan living with them? Everyone else bunking there had multiple spouses too? It was a lot to digest. So she started with the simple facts first. “We can’t stay here. We have to go to work tomorrow. We don’t get vacation time and if we bail with no notice we’ll be fired for sure. We need our jobs.”
“Laurel-loo.” James winced. “You can’t go back. We pissed Draven off big time and we’re not going to stop with kicking this one hive. Not when we have hard evidence about what’s going on and, well, uh…” He studied his cute yellow sneakers.
“What your brother is dancing around is that we really need you to be informants if we’re going to shut this shit down for good.” Jordan spread his legs wider, as if this time he wouldn’t take no for an answer.
The gates might be open, but Laurel felt the walls closing in around her regardless. Jace must have too. He sprang to his feet and said, “No. Absolutely not.”
“Tell me again why you two were lurking in the shadows at Heels tonight?” Jordan asked with a single raised brow. Laurel knew his type—cool on the outside and fiery down deep—they were the most dangerous.
But he was making it hard to argue.
“Right. Okay. I see what you mean. I do want to help and keep anyone else from going through what we have. I’d like for this to be over. For good.” Laurel sighed. “Is this the best way?”
Jace whipped around and stared at her like he had when she’d proposed running off to Heels earlier before slicing his hands through the air. “Are you serious right now? You’d throw away our jobs, our home—shitty as it is, it’s ours—and the future we were getting so close to, for the promise of something we both know is fucking impossible? Cops haven’t ever nailed that bastard. Why would your brother’s friends be able to pull it off?”
Okay. That was legit too. “Jace is right, you know. There were plenty of times police officers and politicians laughed at the idea of getting caught, never mind stopped. The kind of money Draven has makes him exempt from the law.”
“Funny thing about that,” Nolan said. “We don’t operate within the rules either.”
Aarav nodded and spoke up for the first time. “This is exactly why we do what we do. To put things right when they’re unjust. To take back power when the balance has shifted.”
Marcus agreed. “If you work with us, we won’t stop until Draven and his organization are no longer a problem. Not only for you, but for everyone else too. It’s the only way you’ll ever really be able to stop looking over your shoulder.”
That sounded like heaven. No, like peace. And it had been a long damn time since Laurel thought that was possible to have. She looked up at Jace, her eyes wide, silently begging him to see things their way.
“What if this blows back on us? I don’t give a shit about myself, but I swear, if anything happens to you, I’m not going to stop at knocking people out.” He clenched his fists and swung around, glaring at every last person around them, James and Nolan included.
Laurel stood and approached Jace from behind. She put her arms around him, laid her palms flat on his chest and her cheek on his back. She held him until his breaths slowed and grew less ragged. She went on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear. “We’re going to be okay, Jace. This is the future we didn’t know we could have. Everything could change for us and for so many other people. It’s worth the risk.”
“How are we going to afford this place?” Jace looked over his shoulder, then back to Jordan. “We have a little bit saved up, but not much and Laurel was going to use it for college. It’s going to take a minute to get work. Are there any restaurants around? Or maybe I could gig? I play guitar and sing. I’m pretty sure I don’t totally suck.”
“It’s okay, Jace—” Laurel was about to offer up her college fund.
“Oh. That’s not an issue.” Jordan waved their concerns aside. “Being an informant pays better than most of the jobs in Middletown, the place James is proposing for you. And the house we have there is empty at the moment. The Powertools, James’s construction buddies, use it as a model for people wanting to hire them to build tiny homes, or she-sheds, or whatever.”
“Thank you, but I don’t really like the idea of being beholden to anyone else.” Laurel recoiled, but she only knocked into Nolan, who had also risen. The warm, solid mass of him didn’t make her feel any less trapped. Jace was shaking his head too.
“I can understand where you’re coming from.” Jordan paused. “As I said, you will be paid members of our team. Your insights and information are very valuable and you’ll be compensated well for sharing them. But if you like, Devra—the wife of the owner of Hot Rides, where you’ll be staying—owns a restaurant in town. She’s always looking for reliable servers, and my husband probably has use for a musician.”
Jace paused but still seemed skeptical. “Does he travel for work? I won’t leave Laurel alone at night.”
Laurel hated to admit it but the security blanket of Jace’s company was very welcome. Especially in a new place, with a man she just met in the other room, she would probably freak out if she didn’t have Jace nearby.
“Ummm, yeah, he does when he’s on tour, which he’s not right now. He was talking about getting someone to play backup guitar for his jam sessions while he’s writing new music. That could happen here or even at Hot Rides if you’re decent enough to free him up from playing while he’s coming up with new lyrics and can help him test out harmonies,” Jordan said with a somewhat dreamy smile that shattered his tough-guy demeanor.
“Jace is beyond decent. He’s incredible.” Laurel might be unsure about a lot of the stuff happening at the speed of light around them, but that wasn’t one of them. If things had been different, Jace would have been signed to a record label a long time ago, she was certain of it.
“Then I’m sure Kason will be happy to hire him. See. No problems.” Jordan spread his hands out wide in front of him.
Jace squinted at the elaborate mansion they were huddled in, then back to Jordan. “Hold on. Who exactly is your husband? Someone I would know?”
Everyone burst out laughing, but not in a malicious way. Jordan smiled kindly and nodded. “Kason Cox. The country star.”
“Oh. Holy shit.” Jace plopped down on the couch again and Laurel joined him. He looked over at her and she could see him struggling, at war within himself. This was a dream opportunity for him, everything else aside.
Laurel took his hand and said, “Let’s do it. Let’s stay.”
He bit his lower lip then looked over at Nolan. “I’m afraid this is sounding too good to be true and that it will turn out to be a giant cluster fuck, but… If you’re willing to gamble, I am too.”