Then we sat there and ate the spaghetti and meatballs he made that were infinitely better than the ones I made and I attributed that to the fact that I loathed cooking so all that negativity seeped into my food. Repo seemed to, if not genuinely enjoy it, not mind the task. It showed in the end product. He gave me beers until I felt a shade more than tipsy then he'd taken me on the roof, starting soft and sweet and ending up fucking me just short of violent, under the black sky and bright moon.
Hell, even that very afternoon, before being sent off on some top-secret errand, he had caught me alone in the basement, coming up behind me and rubbing my shoulders while he whispered in my ear all the filthy things he had planned to do with me that next morning while I was 'working'.
I closed my eyes tight, deep-breathing through the sting in my chest at the realization that I would never get to experience those things with him, that I would never know his casual touch, or his dirty words, or his sweet ones, or see his dancing eyes or his boyish smile again.
I listened to the sounds around me for a long while: the horns on the street, the doors in the hall opening and closing, the muffled sound of a game show in the room to my left and a porn in the room to my right, the clock ticking above my own TV set, informing me it was barely nine at night. But every ounce of my tired body and achy heart told me that sometimes, all there was to do was sleep.--I woke up disoriented the next day, my heart slamming so hard in my chest that I felt it up my throat. I shot up in the unfamiliar bed in the unfamiliar room, my sleep-foggy brain taking an embarrassingly long time to remember where I was.
In Philly.
In a cheap hotel.
Because Viktor was meeting with Moose.
Moose who knew exactly where I was and the best ways to get into the compound.
Right then, I felt panic seize my system.
Moose knew the best ways to get into the compound.
I should have... warned them somehow.
There was no real good reason not to.
It didn't matter if I blew my cover; I was long gone.
If something happened to any of them, especially Repo or Duke or, hell, even Renny, I'd never forgive myself.
I took a deep, steadying breath, reminding myself they were grown men. Not only were they grown men but they were highly trained and criminals. They knew how to look out for trouble and they knew how to handle it when it popped up too. Besides, Viktor against the whole of The Henchmen MC? Yeah, the odds were definitely in their favor.
Hell, Repo could probably get a literal bullseye shot on him from a hundred yards off before he even penetrated the perimeter.
At his name, the stinging sensation shot through my chest again, sharp and shocking enough for me to raise my palm to the left side and rub across my heart.
"K would kill me himself if he saw me right now," I grumbled to myself.
Then I shot off the bed, heart slamming for a whole other reason at the thought of K and how he hadn't responded the night before.
My eyes flew to the clock on the wall and I got another wave of panic. It wasn't morning. I was expecting it was eight or nine in the morning. But it wasn't. Oh, no. All the weeks of near-sleeplessness at the compound must have finally caught up with me because I went to sleep before nine and slept clear through to one in the afternoon.
One in the afternoon.
When I was supposed to text K before noon each day.
Shit.
Shitshitshit.
I scrambled across the room to the small, seemingly mandatory mini-desk all hotel rooms possess and grabbed for the burner.
K.
I needed to get in touch with K.FifteenRepo"You guys seen Maze?" Reign asked, walking in from the kitchen.
I looked around at Duke and Renny, wondering the same thing myself. I had expected to see her when I got back, but she was nowhere around.
"Nah," Renny said, shaking his head.
"I sent her out for food hours ago," Reign said, brows drawn together.
"How many hours..." I started when Cash walked in through the front door.
"Bro, what's the Explorer doing at the train station?" he asked, moving over toward the bar to get a beer out of the fridge.
Reign froze and I felt myself doing the same. "The Explorer is at the train station?" he repeated, making Cash straighten, putting his beer down on the bar.
"So... it shouldn't be there?" he asked, sounding suddenly more serious.
"Sure as fuck shouldn't," Reign said and I was already on my way toward the door.