“I know. I got a call.”
She shifted her weight, and she gripped the edge of the washing machine so tight her knuckles turned white. She didn’t respond, and that wasn’t like her.
I wasn’t sure what to do. I didn’t want to get involved, especially when he was a cop. Not only a cop, but the Chief of Police, but I couldn’t just stand here and let him talk to her like that.
I opened my mouth to tell him to back off when his head dipped, and the tension in his body eased.
“Aderyn,” he whispered, almost as if it was painful.
Her shoulders slumped, and she stared at the floor between them.
He glanced back up at her and raised his hand as if he was going to touch her cheek, but then he curled it into a fist and abruptly dropped his arm to his side.
He scowled and pushed off the washing machine, stepping back. “I won’t always be able to smooth things over.”
Her body stiffened and her head snapped up as she glared at him. “So don’t. I never asked you to.”
He inhaled and watched her for a second. Then he snagged his sunglasses off the washing machine and put them on.
His focus shifted to me like the slow-moving gun on a tank. He nodded. “Macayla.”
He turned and walked away, pausing briefly to say a few words to Mrs. Pitt. She muttered something and reached out, tenderly patting his tatted forearm.
I walked over to Addie, who was staring at the floor but kept side-glancing over at Saint. “Are you okay?”
She nodded.
“I didn’t know what to do.”
“It’s fine. No big deal.”
But it was a big deal. I saw her white knuckles, the tension in her body, and I heard the quiver in her voice. I also witnessed that brief moment of pain and need in both of them.
The bell above the door dinged as Saint walked out. “What was that about? Is he your ex or something?”
She snorted. “No.”
“That’s good. I mean, he’s kind of an asshole.”
Her gaze shifted to me, and she blinked several times before looking away, then back again. She shrugged. “He hates when I don’t check in. He has this big brother overprotectiveness thing.”
There was nothing big brotherly about that. Okay, maybe him being overprotective, but that’s where it ended. Because that was an intense fireball of heat.
She rubbed her right wrist, then sighed and lowered her arms to her sides. “I better go before Jaeg fires me—again. I’ll call you later.”
She walked away, her steps unsteady as if her legs were shaking. She stopped at the door, placing her hand on the glass. The police SUV was still parked outside, and Saint was standing beside his open door with his forearms resting on the roof, watching her.
Addie raised her chin and pushed open the door. She walked right past him and climbed into her truck. He waited until she left before he folded his long length into his cruiser and slowly pulled out into the street.
Vic
I pulled into Mason Auto and parked beside a rusted red truck that needed a date with the wrecking yard.
I climbed out and saw Jaeg through the office window talking to a girl who was wearing a baseball cap and a yellow sundress with paddock boots. He was leaning against the front of his desk with his ankles crossed and arms at his sides as he lightly gripped the lip of the desk.
He wore that familiar lopsided smirk, the one he used to pick up chicks in high school. Few were immune to it, and that was probably why he never dated. His reasoning was, why date a girl when you could get her without taking her out?
I hadn’t dated either, but for different reasons. Most of the girls in school were scared of me anyway, and the only reason they were even in my scope was because I hung with Jaeg, North, and Saint. When word spread that we were fighting in the underground beneath the James’ stables, everyone started calling us the Underground Horsemen, and the fear of us intensified. But for some reason, the girls liked that even more.