22
Mercy
“Look at that,”I said, peering through the windshield of the plain Ford that Wylder had chosen for this drive.
Wylder’s gaze jerked to follow mine. “Look at what?”
“Exactly.” I motioned to the street ahead of us. “More nothing, just like we’ve seen all night. We haven’t seen any sign of the Storm’s people or the Red Shark’s guys.”
It was past eleven at night, and we hadn’t even driven past any drug dealers selling Glory. I hadn’t seen this little gang activity in the Bend in… maybe as long as I’d been old enough to notice.
“I guess we can hope that means our tactics have been working,” Wylder said with a grin. “They got tired of fending off the police as well as each other and decided to cool it for a bit.”
“Now we just have to get them to head right out of town,” I muttered.
Wylder nudged me with his elbow. “Don’t be so pessimistic. One step at a time. I, for one, would like to celebrate this victory.”
He drove back toward Paradise City until we passed into the outskirts and pulled off onto a secluded side street. Then he dug a couple of wine coolers out from under the seat. He passed one to me, popped open his, and held it out to me. Shaking my head in amusement, I clinked the bottles together. “Cheers.”
Wylder threw back a gulp of the stuff and grimaced. “Maybe I should have brought my brandy. Oh well.” He sank into his seat, stretching out his legs, and glanced over at me. “Kaige has been much chiller since you went out to collect him at Festival Beach yesterday. What exactly happened out there?”
I shrugged. “We talked.”
“Just talked?” Wylder said with an arch of his eyebrows, but I didn’t think his interest was totally casual.
I wasn’t going to feed his competitive side. “Yep. Talking helps, you know. Sometimes much more than you think.”
“Well, all that talking seems to have helped Kaige a lot.”
I rolled my eyes. “There’s no euphemism to it, Wylder.” Even if Kaige and I had gotten in some pretty spectacular not-just-talking afterward.
“Look, it doesn’t have to be a thing.” Wylder dragged in a breath and barreled onward with a rush of words I got the impression he’d rehearsed in his head. “You’re into him, and you’re into me—and Gideon and Rowan too. Well, I guess things never totally ended between you two, huh?”
Where was he going with this? I settled for answering the easiest question. “Rowan and I had a pretty complicated relationship.”
“But you’ve figured it out, at least mostly.” His fingers tightened around the neck of the bottle. “You have no idea how much I want to keep you all to myself. To know no one except me gets to touch you. The things I’ve imagined doing to you, with you…”
The vehemence in his voice sent a rush of heat through me. “Me being with the other guys doesn’t stop us from doing all kinds of things too,” I had to point out, holding myself back from squirming in my seat.
Wylder sighed. “It doesn’t. And, even though part of me wants to make you only mine—I can also see that isn’t fair to you. You’re too much woman to be constrained to just one guy. As long as you’re only with us, I can see the benefits to enjoying the extra help keeping you satisfied.” He shot me a sly grin. “In all kinds of ways.”
Okay, my panties were definitely soaked now. But I felt the need to clarify: “What exactly are you saying?”
“I’m not going to make you pick,” he said with his usual air of assurance, as if the decision was totally up to him. “In case you were still wondering about that. I figure there’s nothing wrong with you being ‘our’ woman. As long as you’re willing to put up with all of us.”
I cocked my head as if considering. “You have been a jackass for a pretty significant amount of the time I’ve known you.”
Wylder snorted. “But it’s been fun, hasn’t it? Neither of us are easy people. I like when your claws come out, Kitty Cat.” He rested his hand on my thigh and squeezed. “You spent a long time under your father’s thumb in a shitty situation. Maybe between the four of us we can make up for all the time when no one in your life valued you anywhere near enough.”
My stomach clenched, both at his words and his touch.
“That’s definitely something to think about,” I said as a strange but exhilarating emotion rose up through my chest.
Wylder glanced at me sideways with one of those cocky grins. “So, out of the four of us, who’s your favorite?”
I gave him an incredulous look. “Do you really want to know that?”
“Of course. I love hearing my name from your mouth. Especially when it’s accompanied by moans.”