I didn’t get any more answers. The Storm men took a quick look inside the bar, shaking their heads as they came out, and then drove off without another word.
I stayed in my crouched position for another few minutes, my heart thumping so hard I didn’t trust myself to scramble down just yet. No one else turned up. No one ventured into the street at all, the windows in the store-top apartments along the street staying dark, their curtains drawn. The dead body lay there on the sidewalk in a puddle of blood.
My stomach churned. I’d hoped that after Colt’s death, most of the violence in the Bend would peter out. It might actually have gotten worse.
The faces had changed, but the cycle remained the same. More groups fighting over the same piece of territory. Why did everyone want Paradise Bend so much?
For the same reason Ezra Noble intended to keep his hold over it, I guessed. I might not like the man, but he’d better hurry up and kick all these assholes back to wherever they’d come from. I’d cheer him on.
There was nothing I could do about the problem on my own. Finally, I peeled myself off the roof and made my way back to the apartment the guys had arranged for me, leaping between buildings and slinking through shadowed alleys.
I hadn’t wandered far. I was back at the place in under ten minutes. While I’d memorized the key code for when I needed to use the apartment door, tonight I scrambled up the back of the building with the help of a couple of ridges in the wall and a drain pipe. I’d left the bedroom window just a smidge open so I could squeeze my fingers under the pane and shove it up to slip inside.
Why get myself seen in the building’s hallways if I didn’t need to?
The apartment was plain but clean and pre-furnished, a modern two-bedroom with tiny bedrooms and an open concept living room/dining room/kitchen about the same size as just the kitchen back in the Noble mansion. I didn’t need even that much space, though. I was happy enough still having an actual bed to lay my head down on.
As I reached the bedroom doorway, my instincts prickled. I hesitated, struck by the sense that I wasn’t alone here after all. But before I could even pull out my knife or my gun, a wryly amused voice carried from the room outside.
“I should have known you’d come in through a window rather than a door.”
I rolled my eyes and stepped out to find Anthea standing by the narrow kitchen island. “And I should have known you’d just let yourself in if you came to visit.” Even if she didn’t know the code, I didn’t imagine there were many locks in the world Anthea Noble couldn’t get past.
She hadn’t bothered to turn on the lights, so I checked that the blinds were drawn and flicked the switch myself. The stark glow of the pot lights blazed off her bright red hair. She raised a mug of tea she’d made in the dark to her lips, smiling at me over it. “Sorry if I startled you.”
“I don’t think you really are sorry,” I grumbled, flopping onto the linen sofa that faced her. “What are you doing here?” My pulse hiccupped despite my casual tone. Had something happened to one of the guys?
Anthea didn’t look distressed, though. She waved her hand dismissively. “Of course I’d come to check up on a friend. Just because my brother is being even more idiotic than usual, that doesn’t mean I’ve got to follow in his footsteps.”
I couldn’t help smiling at her breezily insulting description of Ezra. There’d once been a time when Anthea had regularly insulted me. I definitely preferred being on her good side. She actually had become a pretty good friend… which wasn’t something I’d ever really had before.
A bittersweet twinge passed through my gut. Ezra wouldn’t be happy if he found out she was still friendly with me. He was doing his best to take that newfound happiness from me too.
“How are the guys doing?” I asked, with an odd surge of urgency. I wasn’t used to caring this much about any of the men in my life either.
“They’re keeping it together and mostly avoiding trouble.” Anthea studied me with those piercing eyes of hers. “How have you been getting by, Mercy?”
I shoved my uncomfortable feelings aside and shrugged. I wasn’t going to complain, not when I was benefitting from the Nobles’ hospitality even now. “I’m fine. Just been taking a look at what’s going on in the Bend, but keeping my head low.”
“Good. I definitely don’t want that Xavier menace sniffing around here.” She grimaced. “We can’t get rid of him soon enough. I don’t know why Ezra can’t see that it isn’t at all fair to blame you for the havoc some psychotic prick has decided to wreak.” She let out a huff and shook her head. “Well, I’ll keep working on him. Whatever I can do to get things sorted out so you can stand with the Nobles like you deserve, I’m on it.”
My throat constricted. I hadn’t really expected her to keep caring that much about what happened to me. “Thank you. I appreciate it a lot. But you don’t need to risk pissing off Ezra on my behalf. I really will be okay.”
“It’s not about whether you’ll make it through or not. I already know you will. Women like us always do.” She shot me another confident smile. “But you should have a life that’s more than just getting by. And I think we’ll tackle this new problem faster if we have you working alongside us. I don’t like the look of things down here.”
That comment had me immediately on the alert. “What do you mean?”
She glanced toward the window. “I know I haven’t spent a lot of time in the Bend, but there’s much less activity on the streets than I’d expect this early in the night from what I recall. I saw several of the Steel Knights marks that they put up around this neighborhood defaced—scratched up or partly sprayed over. There was a hostile vibe to it that I didn’t like.”
Trust Anthea to have already picked up on nearly as much as I had. I nodded. “I think it might have something to do with the new guys in town.”
Her eyebrows arched. “New guys?” She beckoned me over, reaching for the kettle to pour me some tea too.
“Yeah,” I said as I walked up to the island. I rested my elbows on it, thinking back over the shoot-out I’d just witnessed. “It seems like there’s a new gang in town, one I’m not at all familiar with. They broke into one of the old Steel Knights’ businesses tonight and started bashing it up. Then some guys I think are with Xavier and former men of Colt’s came by, and a fight broke out… They were talking about somebody who goes by ‘the Red Shark’ and ‘the Storm.’ I don’t know if those are their leaders or what.”
Anthea frowned, stirring a little sugar into my tea. “That doesn’t ring any bells for me yet. The last thing we need is even more troublemakers in town.” She slid the mug across the island to me. “Tell me everything you saw.”