“No way.” Pinching the bridge of my nose, I tried to remember if he’d told me he had a gift I’d forgotten about. To my knowledge, he’d been without any specific gift. He’d simply been a dedicated kid.
“And there’s no pulse,” Angel reminded us as he rolled Roscoe to his back again.
“Fucking hell. Does anyone know if he had any family?” I finally asked.
“No clue,” Kicker said with a shrug.
“He had a younger brother,” said Chains quietly. Voodoo looked over at him.
“You saw that?” Voodoo asked Chains, who nodded.
“Thought you didn’t touch people?” Voodoo asked with a raised brow. Chains glowered back at him.
“Well, I sure as fuck didn’t mean to. I did some ink on him, he tripped getting out of the chair, and I had already taken my gloves off. It was instinct and only for a second. But I saw him with a younger kid that I just knew was his brother. Nothing else.” He dropped his gaze.
“I’ll go to my temple and see what I can find out,” Voodoo murmured, and I gave him a nod of approval.
“Chains? You want to see if there’s anything else you can get from him before it’s too late?” I asked him. By his expression, I could tell it wasn’t tops on his list of things to do.
“Fuck,” he muttered. Pushing off the doorframe, he stepped closer to the body of our prospect. After taking a deep breath that he let out on a huff, he peeled off the leather gloves he’d had on since being outside.
Stepping up next to the gurney, he gripped the railing tightly, then reached out ink-covered fingers to Roscoe’s chest. He’d barley made contact when he flew back and crashed into Phoenix and Angel. They caught him before he fell on his ass, but he quickly shrugged them off.
Chest heaving, he looked at me with wild eyes. “He’s not dead.”
Turned out Roscoe had a gift we didn’t know about.
Also, Roscoe wasn’t his real name. And the kid wasn’t a kid. Well, not by our standards. It would seem he was, uh, well, a little less than human.
“Decker, I swear to God Kelvin stabbed him in the heart,” Loralei said for at least the fifteenth time since “Roscoe” had essentially resurrected himself.
“I know, babe,” I said, then tucked her into me as we prepared to go to sleep. It had been a really long fucking day, and I just wanted to crash.
“I still can’t believe it.”
“Believe it,” I said as my eyes got heavier. I was dozing off when she quickly rolled over to face me.
“Decker!”
I was suddenly wide awake and looking around for whatever threat she’d seen. We’d decided to sleep at my house for the night since her piece of shit ex was out of the picture. She had me worried I’d been presumptuous.
“What? What’s wrong?”
“It’s after midnight!”
“Um, okay?”
“Merry Christmas!” Her smile was suddenly radiant, and I was amazed again at not only her beauty, but at how quickly she moved from one emotion to another. As my hand stroked her cheek, I gave a huff of laughter.
“Merry Christmas, babe.” I hadn’t celebrated Christmas in a long damn time. Grams was making a fancy dinner tomorrow, well, today. She’d been thrilled to learn that I’d knocked up Loralei and insisted on a big fancy meal at the clubhouse to celebrate.
“I have a question,” she said, going from jubilant to nervous.
Figuring I wasn’t going to get any sleep anytime soon, I sat up and leaned against the headboard. “Yeah?”
For a moment she chewed on her bottom lip indecisively while she traced the tattoos on my chest. Then she lifted her gaze to mine. “Is it too early to tell you I love you?”
“I—” Hell, I was stunned. Maybe because I’d never considered putting words to how she made me feel. The way she meant everything to me and I was possessive as fuck over her. The way she lit up a room with her smile. The way she made me want to grin for no damn good reason. The way she made my heart leap in my chest.