Savage Vandal (82 Street Vandals Book 1)

by Heather Long

  I moved, giving Rome more room. The guy clawing at his eyes fumbled with something in his waistband. I didn’t have anything to throw at him, so I just kicked him in the side of the head.

  Fuck, that hurt my foot, but he went down and I turned to see another flash of silver vanish as it plunged into Rome. He grunted, but he was still eerily silent as he delivered several hard punches to the man’s torso and face.

  Something wet splattered against my cheek, and I grabbed one of the chunks of cement. It cut against my palm, but the guy with the broken arm was rising on unsteady feet. I didn’t know if he had a weapon, I didn’t want to know.

  Rome had the guy he was fighting turned and his back was to me, so I swung that rock as hard as I could. There was a sickening crunch of sound as it hit, and Rome’s next blow knocked the guy right off the wall. He didn’t pause to see what happened to him, just turned and went after the last guy.

  Dropping the rock, I grabbed Rome’s backpack. It was a lot heavier than it looked, and the cans inside made the weight uneven. Rome pummeled the last guy and slammed his head against the ground until he stopped moving. But even after the guy had gone limp, Rome kept hitting him.

  “Rome,” I called to him. The setting sun had accelerated, taking what heat there had been in the chilly day. Rome glanced up at me. With half his face in shadows, the other half was a frozen mask of fury. The color of his eyes seemed to stand out in stark relief against the contrast. “We have to go.”

  “They were going to hurt you.” The deadly calm in his voice sent a shiver down my spine.

  “They were never going to hurt me,” I told him. “I knew you were there.”

  And I’d known he wouldn’t let them.

  Rome glanced down at the man whose arm he’d broken and whose face resembled so much ground meat. He wasn’t getting up anytime soon.

  If at all…

  Then there was the guy I’d hit and Rome knocked off the wall.

  “We need to go,” I said again. We needed to call the police, but they would lock Rome up. One guy against three, no one would believe it. Even if I told them…

  If I told them…

  They’d lock him up for kidnapping me.

  “We need to go,” I repeated a third time, and Rome finally stood. A part of me wondered if he wanted to make sure they were dead before we left. He glanced toward Backwards Baseball Cap. “I kicked him in the head.”

  I didn’t really know why I volunteered that information. Rome’s chest rose and fell rapidly, but he was so still otherwise. I dragged his backpack onto my shoulder and moved closer to him.

  “Are you okay?”

  He turned slightly and nodded. “Yeah. I have to call Hawk.”

  Oh.

  “We’re leaving right?”

  But he already had his phone out, and I cast a look down the dark alley to where I could see headlights passing on the street. We were mere yards from others. Anyone could walk up on us. That was how these guys had gotten there.

  I could still get away.

  Rome had his back to me, but he glanced at me more than once as if to make sure I hadn’t disappeared. “Hawk,” he said. “Trouble. I need cleanup.”

  Silence, and I swallowed as I glanced around at the still bodies. I wasn’t even sure if they were still breathing, and I didn’t want to check. My stomach clenched as I edged closer to Rome before I glanced over the edge of the broken and cracked wall. There was a figure lying at the base. Not moving.

  I swallowed.

  “Old community court, down near seventieth.”

  I glanced back at Rome, and he stared at me.

  “Yeah. I have her.”

  I swore I heard the growl, even though I wasn’t right next to him. He lowered the phone and stared at it a minute, then put it back in his pocket.

  “They’re coming.”

  “Okay.”

  He glanced at the bodies again, then moved to me abruptly and took the bag off my shoulder. A minute later, he pulled out a cloth and a bottle of water. He damped the cloth and then reached for my face. I backed up a step and teetered on the broken wall, and he tugged me back to him with a scowl.

  “You have blood on your face.”

  Oh.

  Then with extreme care, he dabbed at my cheekbone and then above my eye.

  “They didn’t touch you?”

  “Well, the one guy kind of touched my foot, but more like I touched his head with my foot.”

  A grin split his solemn expression, and a single muddy lamp came on, casting us in this eerie glow in the darkness. The cold grew even more biting as a breeze whipped across the court. The smell of the ocean had me turning my head. Were we close to the bay? The last city we’d been in had been a city on the coast. Maybe?

  I really should have paid more attention, but I’d been so tired.

  When he finished wiping my face, he let go and then washed his knuckles carefully. I would have offered to help, but he turned away. Lights pierced the darkness below on the court, headlights, accompanied by the rumbling growl of a vehicle.

  Fear spiked through me as the headlights illuminated the body below and the unnatural angle it lay at.

  I’d seen falls before.

  The guy hadn’t been able to stop himself or catch himself. I’d hit him with that rock. Car doors slammed.

  “Let me talk,” Rome said as he pulled me back away from the edge again. The hardness of his chest framed my back, and his head bent as he spoke right against my ear. “Don’t worry about Hawk. Just let me tell them what happened.”

  I nodded because someone suddenly climbed up the wall. They were utterly backlit by the headlights, then almost as suddenly, the lights cut off.

  “Are you all right, Dove?”

  Vaughn.

  Relief sagged through me. He grasped my face in his hands and tilted my head back as he studied me. Then he turned a hard look on Rome. I tried to turn because Jasper appeared from behind him every bit the wraith Rome had been earlier. His dark eyes bored into me, but he didn’t pause as he greeted Rome with a hard fist. I flinched, but Vaughn tugged me to him.

  “Don’t look at them,” he ordered in that soothing voice. “Look at me. Are you hurt? Did they do anything?”

  “No, Rome never let them touch me.”

  There was another hard grunt behind me and the sound of flesh slamming into flesh, and I winced.

  “Good,” Vaughn said, rubbing his thumb along my jaw in a gentle motion. “We’re going back to the car now.”

  I shivered.

  “What the fuck were you thinking?” Jasper demanded.

  “I was thinking she needed a break from the asylum and some sunshine. It was a good day.”

  “A good day?”

  Vaughn tugged me up against him and wrapped arms around me. I froze, not only at the close contact, but at the sheer heat coming off of him. He wasn’t even wearing a hoodie, and his sleeveless shirt left his colorful arms on display. “Guys, settle this later. She’s freezing, and we still need to clean up.”

  “Starling’s okay, aren’t you?” Rome’s voice carried a twinge of pain in it, but try as I might, Vaughn would not let me turn around. Being pressed right up to him made me want to rub my nose against his shirt. There was something deeply clean and spicy about his nearness. Coupled with the chilly air, it erased the sour stench of the guys on the ground.

  A shudder went through me. What the hell was I doing? I might have helped kill someone.

  “We were done and heading back. They tried to surround Starling, and I took care of it.” Rome’s flat delivery pulled another frown from me. Vaughn had cupped the back of my head, and the soft stroke of his fingers against my scalp eased some of the tension.

  “I want Dove gone before the rats get here.” An inflexible steel entered his tone. My eyes drifted half shut, both from the comforting way he held me and the soft touches. Nothing got too personal, and yet it sheared away the jagged edges of nervous energy.

  “G
o,” Jasper said. “We’ll clean this up. Make sure she isn’t hurt.” Then Jasper stunned me when he put a soft hand against my back and pressed his lips to the side of my head where Vaughn’s hand didn’t cover it. “You’ll be okay.”

  It was a promise.

  “What the hell were the 19 Diamonds doing down here, and are any of them alive to answer questions?”

  I didn’t catch Rome’s response. Vaughn kept me tucked up against him as he turned, and then he picked me up and lowered me like I couldn’t do it on my own. Kestrel was waiting at the bottom, and I blinked up at his impassive face. Like Vaughn before him, he looked me over closely, then shrugged off his leather jacket and pulled it over my shoulders. It enveloped me in warmth.

  Between them, they moved me over to the idling car and around the unmoving body. When I tried to look at it, Vaughn blocked me. They tucked me into the backseat, and Vaughn slid in with me.

  A minute later, Kestrel was behind the wheel and the growl of the engine vibrated through me. I glanced forward as he turned on the lights and stared at the body lying there. The scarlet of blood on his slack face was unmistakable.

  As were the open eyes.

  Oh fuck.

  I had killed him.

  Or helped.

  “Look at me,” Vaughn said as he cupped my face, and I turned to stare up at him as Kestrel backed up with his arm braced on the passenger seat. I could almost feel them both studying me in the dark. Then the car spun and we were leaving the court, Rome’s painting on the crumbling wall, and the bodies behind. “There she is. How you doing, Dove? Hungry?”

  I swallowed and shook my head. Whatever appetite I’d had earlier fled.

  “Damn, I was going to offer to get us some pizza with the mushrooms and olives that you like so much.”

  I grimaced. “I can’t stand olives.”

  “That’s right,” he said with a chuckle, stroking my cheek. He kept touching me, and I kept leaning into the contact. Without meaning, I turned my face into his palm. The scent of coconut oil and soap filled my nostrils. “Dove, they didn’t touch you right? That’s what Rome said.”

  “They didn’t.”

  “Good,” Kestrel snapped from the front. “What the hell were you doing out there anyway?”

  “Ignore the grump.” Vaughn chuckled. “He’s just pissy ’cause he didn’t get to spend the day with you.”

  “Fuck off.” There was such a disgruntled snarl in his voice that I almost laughed.

  “He had work, and so did you. Rome took me for a walk and got me coffee. It was wonderful.”

  It had been.

  “Yeah?” Vaughn’s smile shone at me as the streetlights rolled past, making the shadows jump. “Did he paint for you?”

  “He did.” The image of the beach. “It’s amazing. He did the painting in my room, didn’t he?”

  “Yeah,” Kestrel said with a sigh. “He did.”

  “I love it.”

  “Good.” Vaughn ran his nose along my hairline, and an entirely different shudder went through me. “Still cold, Dove? Turn up the heat, Kestrel.”

  Then he tugged me over into his lap, and of all the places I could have been, this was not where I imagined. The warmth of him seeped into my bones. I wasn’t remotely chilled. In fact, I was cooking, and worse, my nipples tightened at his nearness. When he ran his nose along my throat, I let out a sigh and turned.

  This close, his eyes were just darkness and stars and his breath was a whisper against my lips. He smelled like peppermint. Had he come straight from showering and cleaning up after work? I flicked my tongue out to wet my lips and Vaughn gave the slightest pull, but just as my lips brushed his, Kestrel slammed on the brakes and we jolted.

  “We’re here,” he growled over his shoulder, and I pulled back.

  Belatedly, I realized we were back in the warehouse as Kestrel slammed out of the car and then yanked open the backdoor. He didn’t wait for Vaughn to move before he hauled me out and against him.

  “Walk it off,” he snapped to the other man and then all but marched me past the others and to the door.

  My last sight of Vaughn was him glaring after us.

  Holy shit, I’d almost kissed Vaughn. Wanted to kiss him, and my core clenched so tight, I ached for the feel of him against me.

  What the hell was I doing?

  Chapter 16

  Kellan

  I got Emersyn up to her room with one hand firmly against her lower back. “Are you still not hungry?”

  She’d been shocky at the playground. It would have been hard to miss the enormous size of her pupils or how they swallowed the sweet brown of her eyes, even if I hadn’t been looking for it. We’d been looking for her for hours. Fucking Rome hadn’t answered his phone.

  It had taken Jasper an hour to call me in. Vaughn left work early to help us search. Freddie and some of the others were still out. I’d have to call them back. Liam had been conspicuous in ignoring his phone too.

  The twins were gonna tap dance on Jasper’s last nerve, and considering how hard Jasper just punched Rome, that was going to get dangerous.

  “No,” she said, her soft voice had gained in strength, and she frowned when she realized we were at the door to my room. I opened it to let her in and then walked her to her door. “I mean, I suppose I should be. We were out there all day, but I’m just not. I…”

  She glanced at her hands as she stood in the center of the bedroom.

  “You?”

  Concern rippled through me as I reached over and turned on the light, then closed her bedroom door and then opened the one to her bathroom and flip on the light in there. Emersyn glanced up at me with those fathomless dark eyes, and I wanted to swear. She was so pale and there was the faintest tremble to her lip, but she kept stilling it like she could make it all go away.

  Goddammit.

  I’d watched this girl steel herself every time she’d walked into that theatre and seen the exhaustion on her as she collapsed in the car after rehearsals and shows. Always watchful. Always wary. Then that damn attack.

  God. Fucking. Dammit.

  Why the fuck had Rome taken her out there?

  “Come here, Sparrow,” I said as I crossed to where she was. I thought she’d ignore me or push me away again. I’d been a bastard to her, but I needed to keep my distance. She was already getting too comfortable here, and she shouldn’t have been here in the first place.

  Now, this happened.

  She stared at me for a long moment and then folded forward until I could wrap my arms around her. I picked her right up. She was so damn tiny. Sparrows were delicate little birds, but they were also fierce and fast. She was all of those things. And damn if she couldn’t fly.

  It took me a minute to recognize it, but she was wearing my hoodie under my jacket. I didn’t know who gave it to her, but I didn’t care. I just lifted her as I moved over to sit on the bed and then pulled her into my lap as she curled into me. My cock stirred at the first brush of her ass, but I shifted her weight and my leg.

  “You want to tell me what happened?” I’d caught some of Rome’s story, and I could probably fill in the blanks. But I needed to know what she’d seen. What had happened specifically. Then I could work on fixing it.

  “Not really,” she answered quietly. “Rome was right—they…they just showed up when we were leaving. I was showing off that I could climb the wall on my own, and then they were right there. I didn’t know who they were.” She gave a little shrug and started to sit forward, but I tightened my arms.

  “You’re good here unless you really want to get up.” We were already holding her against her will. I wouldn’t force anything else on her.

  “It’s not that…” She shot me a look and then settled back against me again. “I don’t even know what I’m doing here. Today was… I liked today, until that last part.”

  “Well, I’m glad you liked today.” I wouldn’t lie to her. I wished Rome had used his fucking brain and told someone he was taking her
out of the clubhouse instead of just disappearing with her. Jasper might kill him.

  Or at least make him wish he were dead. I hadn’t seen Jasper that close to fucking losing it in a long time. I didn’t think any of them realized just how on the edge he was. I sighed and reached up to tuck some of her hair behind her ear.

  “What happened when the guys showed up?”

  “Rome took care of it.” But there was the barest hesitation before she said that. “No, they didn’t touch me. Everyone keeps making a big deal about that.”

  “Well, yeah,” I told her bluntly. “You’re under our protection. Anyone touches you, they die.”

  Maybe I should have chosen better words, because those swollen pupils seemed to grow even larger as she stared at me. “But why?”

  “Because you’re under our protection.” Maybe she didn’t understand what that meant. But she’d been hurt on our watch. It had driven Jasper to make a reckless fucking choice, but here we were.

  Her throat convulsed as she swallowed. “I don’t get that. I don’t or I didn’t know you guys.”

  “You knew me a little.” Not even sure why that was important. Not that she hadn’t looked at me with betrayal since we got here.

  “I didn’t know you though. Who you were was a lie.”

  And with that, she wiggled to stand up, and I helped her rather than have that gorgeous ass grind against my dick. Vaughn couldn’t keep his hands off her. Jasper couldn’t stand not seeing her. Rome was hooked, or he’d never have tested Jasper’s patience. Particularly after the incident with Doc. Even fucking Freddy adored her.

  One of us needed to keep our head. She paced away.

  “Do you want me to call Doc?” I’d run interference with Jasper if Doc was who she needed. Her trust in him wasn’t lost on me. Not after finding her completely naked with him helping her bathe. The fact Jasper pulled a gun had left a bad taste in my mouth. The blow up they had in here and then later downstairs had been fucking ugly.

  He did not want Doc alone with her.