Page 66 of Bolo's Curveball
“I mean with a real woman, not your hand. Maybe you need to get yourself an old lady.” The appalled look on his face made me laugh out loud. The sound rumbled through the empty warehouse.
“Don’t fuckingsayshit like that,” he muttered. “Bad enough that you’d put that shit on me, but imagine the poor woman.”
I nodded in agreement. “Good point. We’d all feel terrible for whoever got stuck with your grumpy ass.”
He flipped me off, though there was no real heat behind the gesture. His eyes scanned the building one more time as we were leaving, as if he were hoping a shit stain Collective member would pop out from the shadows. He was getting antsy. It was never a good thing when that happened. Relay was going to need to let off some steam soon or all hell was going to break loose.
“It’s good to see you happy.”
I looked over at him in amusement. “Did you just say something nice to me?”
“My fucking mistake,” he said, glowering at me.
“Relay.”
He stopped, gave a heavy sigh, and looked at me over his shoulder. “No. No touchy feely bullshit.”
Shaking my head, I gave him what he wanted. Sometimes it was hard to see the brother I grew up with underneath the shell of the man he’d become. But I caught him there, just often enough to remember all the good times we had. Enough to remember what his fucking laugh sounded like. And then it was easy enough to remember why I’d fucking kill anyone who went after him. He was family. He always would be. I loved the kid he’d been. I respected the man he was. What he’d done to get to this place. Slowly, I was starting to understand this new side of him.
We made our way back to the clubhouse and I wasn’t going to lie, I was looking forward to it. Dev and I had finally settled into a routine over the last few days. She went to work—I followed her there—and I was at Ruck’s disposal for the rest of the day. He’d been using Relay and I to check out the places we hoped to find the two factions of The Collective. So far no fucking dice. Then Dev and I met back up after her work day was done and we had dinner together.
It was working well. I was doing my damndest to behave so she’d stay put with me, but fuck I wanted to sneak into herbedroom at night. Having her sleeping in my apartment was wreaking havoc on me. I caught her scent just out of the shower the other morning and had a fucking hard-on for half the day.
Unfortunately, her blood pressure hadn’t been a one off thing because she was sick. It was staying in that higher range. I was trying not to lose my shit, but I had to admit, I was worried about her. About our baby. We were so early into this I wasn’t sure what this all meant. But I wasn’t going to let her see any of that. I needed to be reassuring for her, so she didn’t worry too much. This was going to be a long nine months.
Despite Relay’s claim that I was too damn cheerful, the worry was there, seething under the surface. I just wasn’t letting anyone see it. Not yet. I hadn’t spoken to anyone about what was going on with her pregnancy yet, other than Drifter. I wanted to wait and see what the doctor said after a week of monitoring her blood pressure. After seeing the numbers, I was sure it wasn’t going to be ‘nothing’.
“See you in an hour or so,” I told Relay as we parked back on the compound.
He frowned at me. “Where are you going?”
“We’re getting back late. I haven’t checked in with Devyn yet.”
“So I get to tell Ruck that we didn’t find jack shit?”
“Exactly.” I flashed a grin his way.
“Figures. Wait.”
I paused, raising my brows at his confused expression.
“Why am I seeing you in an hour if I’m the one telling Ruck?”
“The dinner’s tonight.”
“Ah, fuck me,” he sighed. “Don’t suppose there’s any way to get out of that?” He gave me a hopeful look. “I’ve already met your girl.”
“And it’ll make her feel better to have another person there that she knows. Besides, you’re supposed to be staying here on the compound, not over at your place.”
“I am staying here,” he muttered.
“Then it shouldn’t be a problem to come down for the dinner the girls are making.”
Relay narrowed his eyes. “Rue’s helping with it?” He grimaced. “Is it going to be edible?”
“You think Camila would allow anything out of that kitchen if it wasn’t?” I asked with a laugh.
“I guess I could eat.”
