I sit up. “What?”
Johnny finally takes the ice pack away from his swollen eye. “It’s not safe for you here. I’ll tell him I thought it was best, so we don’t fuck anymore. I don’t know. I’ll make up some excuse.”
Brawler’s hand drops to the bed, leaving a trail down my spine. “Maybe she can get her apartment back? I’d say she can live with me, but...” He shakes his head. “...my mom.”
I rub his shoulder. “I know. It’s okay.”
“She can live with me,” Oscar says, capturing my gaze. “My mom hasn’t been home in a couple of months. I haven’t heard from her. I don’t know where she is.”
“But is that really the best idea?” Magnum asks, speaking up. “She has more security here in the tower than anywhere else.”
“Right now, her biggest threat is inside these walls,” Johnny says, voice growing darker. “I’ll take Gregory’s guys over my dad any day. We’ll sneak her out of here in case anyone is watching. For all anyone else will know, she’s still here.”
No one agrees with Johnny. We sit in silence and mull it over.
“We can just try it,” Johnny says. He’s a bit forceful because he’s used to people just agreeing with him. “If it doesn’t work, we’ll figure something else out, but I don’t trust my father around her. Magnum, maybe you know some guards we can trust.” He shakes his head. “Scratch that. No one outside of us knows where she is, okay? No one.”
I frown at Johnny. I’m used to being here with him, so I don’t know how I feel about this. Plus, it’s taking me away from K. That was never the end game.
Though, even I can understand that’s probably a good thing right now.
“Now that that’s settled,” I say, knowing this will piss off more than a few people in the room. “We need to talk about how Brawler has to kick my ass in this fight.”
31
Oscar’s bike revs underneath me. I tighten my grip around his hard stomach as he pulls away from a stop sign on our way to his house. The last half of the meeting with the guys was tense. No one likes my idea about losing to Brawler, even though they eventually conceded that it was our best avenue. Even Johnny.
Yep. Even Johnny.
My hair sneaks out from under the helmet and whips around my shoulders. The city blurs by as he drives. The thrum of the bike underneath me lulls me into a sense of relaxation. He doesn’t immediately take me back to his apartment as planned. Magnum and Johnny will be pissed, but Oscar does what he wants. He drives me out of town, taking the backroads where he can open up the throttle. We fly down the pavement, nerves skittering through me at the dangerous excitement of it all. Driving like this is like the predicaments I keep finding myself in since coming to the Heights. It’s scary here. No doubt about that, but it’s also thrilling, and that’s not even counting the fact that I’ve found the guys who complement me here. A whole new round of fear and energy tingle my limbs at that thought. It’s been so long since I allowed myself to feel love and be loved. So. Damn. Long.
Oscar takes a turn a little too sharply, and even though my stomach bottoms out, I laugh. He chuckles underneath my hands, his abs tightening as he increases the speed a tad. The guy is crazy. He gave me the only helmet he had, so he isn’t even wearing one. I’m holding his ballcap in my hand because the helmet I’m wearing kept hitting his brim when we first started out. His raven hair flutters free at the sides. His tan forearms ripple with movement as he steers the motorcycle around another bend in the road.
I press my helmet against his back and watch the side of the road flip by like perfect pictures in time moving in quick succession. There’s something so peaceful about this. Almost like we’re flying. A sense of freedom wraps me up in a warm blanket.
We stay out on the roads a little longer until he eventually turns the bike back toward the Heights as the sun starts to set. By the time we head down his block, I’m shivering from the cold. He pulls up next to his door around the corner from the store and helps me off the bike. He turns the key and throws his leg over, dismounting with more grace than I’ve yet to accomplish. I help hold the bike steady as he opens the small storage area. After walking the bike in, he kicks the kickstand down before reaching back for my helmet. I undo the clip and yank it off. He gives me a smirk as I run my hands through my hair to tame it.
Once he has everything inside, he locks the garage up, takes his hat back from me, and then leads me up the narrow staircase to his upstairs apartment.
My phone vibrates in my back pocket, and I’m sure it’s a text from one of them, wondering what’s taking us so long. I pull it out and send a group message letting them know we arrived at Oscar’s apartment safely.
Oscar quickly runs through the place, picking up stray garbage as I chuckle at him. “It’s fine,” I tell him. Though, Johnny did threaten to send a housekeeper here. He must think Oscar lives in filth, which he doesn’t.
“Gotta have the best for Princess,” he mocks.
There’s one thing I love about Oscar and Brawler’s places that are missing from mine, Magnum, and Johnny’s. That lived-in feel. It’s homey. Things that have been used recently are out. A pen. A pad of paper. A book. A can opener sits on the kitchen counter. There’s never anything like that in mine or Johnny’s suite because the housekeepers come by and pick it up. Don’t get me wrong, that’s nice too, but it also makes our places a tad sterile. Almost like it’s not a home.
“I like it, Oscar. Don’t bother.”
He grunts. “Yeah. I’m sure you like it better than the tower.”
He comes back out to the main living area, and I stop him, blocking his beeline to whatever else he thinks needs to get picked up. “Don’t be silly. This place is your home, and I would like it no matter what.”
He arches a brow. “What if I lived in a cardboard box on the street?”
I narrow my gaze. “Can we both fit in the cardboard box?”
His dark eyes flare, and he nods.
“Then I would like it,” I tell him, giving him a quick kiss on the lips. “Now, can we do something normal? Like binge TV and eat candy?”
Oscar chuckles. “That’s your idea of normal?”
I shrug. “That’s what I would be doing if I was home.”
He shakes his head but leads me to the sofa anyway. He hands me the remote and tells me he’ll search the kitchen for junk food. I turn the TV on, but I watch him instead. He pulls down some Oreos from the cabinet, sitting them next to a bag of chips on the counter along with a loaf of bread.
“Can I ask you something?” I call out.
He comes out from around the kitchen. “Anything.”
“How do you make money?”
His gaze burns into me. He tosses the chips and the Oreos down on the coffee table in front of us.
“I was just curious because your mom—”
“Doesn’t work?” he supplies. “Doesn’t give me money? Doesn’t do anything?”
I bite the inside of my cheek. “Yeah. All that.”
“I get money from the Crew. I fast-tracked my way in, so I could start earning a wage. When we got back to the Heights and Mom started back into her drug nonsense, I knew things were going to go back to the way they were, only worse. I burned bridges when I left. I used to work at the grocery beneath us, but Heights people didn’t trust me like they used to. I joined the Crew for protection and for the money. I couldn’t wait to go through the regular initiation tasks like most, I needed to start making money right away, so they agreed to push me through as long as I did what they said. They pay me to watch over the high school recruits. They pay me to keep my ears to the ground. You’d be surprised what you can learn in the school. I write them weekly reports that sometimes have information they need and sometimes don’t. I also help them with various other things occasionally.”