Vicious Rebel (82 Street Vandals)

by Heather Long

  They always looked past me. I didn’t care. I wouldn’t smile for them. I didn’t laugh. I didn’t want to talk to them. I talked to Liam.

  That was enough.

  But my teddy was inside the bag, and I didn’t want to lose it. Everything I owned was in my bag, including two coloring books and some broken crayons. Liam stuffed my clothes into his to make room.

  Where he went, I went. So, what did it matter?

  “Boys,” the woman said with another snap of her fingers as she climbed the porch. She was already knocking on the door, or she would have seen Liam stick his middle finger and his tongue out at her.

  “I hate that bitch,” Liam muttered, and I elbowed him. I agreed, but if he said it too loud, she’d go after his ears again.

  He shoulder checked me back and then flashed me a smile. I wanted to smile for him. I really did. But it was hard. Never seemed to bother Liam much though. The door to the house was open, and another lady stood there, her flushed face and harried expression giving way to a real smile.

  “Well, I expected you an hour ago,” she scolded. At Liam’s snicker, I glanced up. The new lady glared at the woman with disapproval. “These boys look half starved…and twins. Goodness. You look exactly alike.”

  “This is—”

  But the lady stopped the woman before she could finish her statement or the snap of her fingers. “No, no. I read their profiles. Let me guess.” She studied us. The wisps of her hair pulling free from the bun made a kind of crinkly reddish-brown halo around her face. The light shining in the window behind her added to the effect.

  It was kind of cool.

  “You’re Liam,” she said after a beat, nodding to my brother, and then she focused her gaze on me as she lowered herself to a crouch. Liam had already begun to drift in front of me. I didn’t like the attention. “And you’re Rome.”

  “He is,” Liam volunteered for me. “And we’re both starving.”

  “I knew it.” She sounded downright cheerful about that. “Well come on in, both of you. I saved you both bacon and there’s pancakes. I’ll have to reheat them real quick.”

  All at once, my stomach growled as Liam darted forward. He had a hand on my arm, holding onto me long enough to make sure I followed him inside before he let me go.

  The women talked behind us, but Liam cut right across the cluttered room that had toys everywhere. The television was on, blaring away, and a baby stood at the edge of a pen staring at the cartoons with a bottle in his mouth. He barely noticed us.

  It was so much louder in here. Brighter too.

  Shouts beyond the window climbed in volume as a backdoor slammed open and three boys rolled in, yelling and wrestling with each other.

  They stopped dead when they saw Liam and me. I hugged my backpack tighter, and Liam cut off their view of me.

  “Boys,” the nice lady from the door called as the door clicked closed. “Our new arrivals are here. Do not start anything.”

  “We won’t,” the first boy said, his dark eyes intense. “Just came to get a drink.”

  “Well outside, I’ll bring juice out in a minute. Let’s let Liam and Rome settle in before they deal with you scamps.”

  All three boys laughed at the description and let her hustle them outside. Liam looked over his shoulder at me, and I gave a little shrug.

  That went way better than I’d thought. Then she was calling us to the table. We had to wash our hands in the kitchen, and Liam held my backpack while I did mine. Then we had piles of food in front of us, and I had no idea what to eat first.

  The baby in the living room let out a laugh, and I looked over in time to see the toddler climb right out of the pen. The woman laughed as she scooped the baby up.

  Weird.

  “I like her,” I told Liam in a little voice. He snorted and stuffed another piece of bacon in his mouth, but he didn’t disagree with me.

  Chapter 13

  Jasper

  “So I’m all clear, Doc?” Freddie asked for the fifteenth time in the last twenty minutes. Despite the fact he was clean and hadn’t had a drop of alcohol or a touch of drugs in almost a week, the jitters weren’t something he could hide. I leaned against the wall behind the clinic and just took a long drag on the cigarette.

  Vaughn rolled his eyes, then his neck. The fucker had been in a sour mood for the last two days, but he’d stuck around, even when the last place he’d wanted to be was here. The fact Kellan kept us updated on Emersyn helped.

  She’s fine.

  Sleeping.

  Busy.

  The responses had grown shorter, terser, and far less illuminating until he’d just stopped answering altogether. When I’d asked Doc to message him, Kestrel hadn’t even answered his question. Clearly, he knew where we were, and the asshole kept sending me to voicemail.

  I scratched at my beard as Freddie paced around in another circle. I wasn’t the only one watching him. Doc had only removed his IVs an hour earlier, and he’d finally kept down solid food without puking up his guts. All good signs, but he needed to stay clean, and every damn time he fell off the wagon, it seemed to get a little harder.

  Fuck my life.

  We’d figure it out.

  As much as I felt like hell, Doc and Vaughn both looked it. None of us had really slept for longer than a couple of hours here or there. Freddie groaned and turned to face Doc.

  “C’mon, Doc, cut me loose. I need to find some pussy and some food and some company that isn’t your three ugly mugs and maybe not in that order. In fact, I could find food with the prettiest pussy I’ve seen, and that would be a hell of a lot better than this.”

  I lowered my hand from where I’d been pinching the bridge of my nose in time to catch Vaughn smacking Freddie right upside the head.

  “Holy fuck, ow, man,” Freddie grumbled, then shot us a sheepish grin. “I’m just playing. You know I’ll treat Boo-Boo right.”

  “Freddie, I love you like a brother, but I will break both of your kneecaps and make sure you have to have your jaw wired shut if you don’t dial down the discussion about her perfect pussy.” While I hadn’t stared at it like some kind of creeper, I had no doubt about its beauty. Not when she was so fucking perfect.

  Hot.

  Tempestuous.

  Wild like a controlled fire.

  “Someone’s got blue balls,” Freddie said without an ounce of remorse. “You should be more laid back like our buddy Vaughn here. I know he got some pussy recently. It always gives him that kind of growl to his glow.”

  “He needs rehab,” Doc cut in before either Vaughn or I could respond. “Serious rehab this time, Freddie. You can’t keep doing this crap to you or to anyone else.”

  “Look, Doc, I know I slipped…”

  “Save it,” Doc said with a wave of his hand. “You’re good at telling everyone sorry, and I think you even mean it. But you have a problem and you have the tools to at least even out your life. This time, you came out of it with a concussion and some cracked ribs. You’re lucky they didn’t amputate a body part, considering Jasper’s recent actions.”

  I scoffed, but Doc wasn’t wrong. The sun had come out earlier in the day, but it had vanished behind another wall of clouds. Winter in the Harbor meant stormy skies and cold wind and oftentimes more rain than any of us ever needed. “Is he good to go or not, Doc? I’ll keep someone on him for the next few days.”

  While I didn’t want to agree with him, Doc wasn’t wrong—Freddie needed handling. We’d taken all the time at the clinic we could, but I couldn’t run the Vandals from here, and so far, Kestrel hadn’t brought Emersyn around.

  Then again, she didn’t need to deal with Freddie high or detoxing, no matter how kind she’d been to him that first night. The compassion and kindness she’d shown him were rare in our world. A flash of the haughtiness in her eyes from the first night we’d met flashed through my mind.

  It would be easy to dismiss her as a stuck-up princess, but she was nothing like that at all. Fuck, I’d mi
ssed her the last few days. Having her so close at the clubhouse all the while keeping my distance had been a kind of hellish salvation. She was there. Safe. No one could touch her there.

  The bruises on her body healed. The shadows beneath her eyes faded. The hollowness of her body filled in. What seemed at times the near translucence of her grew more solid and stable. The steady burn of her resentment had also eased.

  Killing Eric had helped.

  Giving her the studio helped more.

  The taste of her lingered on my lips, even as I took a last drag on the cigarette. Even the long days and nights since hadn’t chased that memory away. First, I’d had to deal with the 19 Diamonds, then Freddie’s disappearance, and finally, his detox.

  All I wanted to do was go back to that fucking kiss and pin her back to that wall where we could take our time. I wanted to find all the different ways she liked being kissed, and I wanted to feel the drag of her fingers against my skin.

  Dragging my mind back to the present with a vicious grip, I glared at Freddie. I didn’t need to be sporting a semi of any kind around any of these assholes. “We’ll talk about rehab,” I said, breaking through Freddie’s tirade before he could get wound up.

  He shot me a wounded look as he raked a hand through his hair and shoved the locks away from his face. He could use a damn haircut while he was at it, but one battle a time.

  Pinning Freddie in place, I raised my eyebrows. “We will talk about rehab. There are places we can send you.” Before he could object, I continued, “I get it. The last thing you want to do is be sent away. Not particularly a fan of the idea, but this shit has to stop, Freddie. There’s only so many holes we can drag you out of. This time…this time cut it awfully close. If they hadn’t been so intent on making you suffer, they could have slit your throat before we even knew you were gone.”

  The rebellion in Freddie’s expression fled. The words gutted him. Or maybe it was my tone. At the moment, I didn’t care what worked, only that it worked.

  “And you can’t be with Emersyn like this.”

  It was a last-minute call, but it hit him like a slap in the face.

  “She deserves better,” I reminded him. “You can fight this. We’ll have your back. But you gotta do the work, man.”

  “Jasper’s right,” Vaughn offered up, and Freddie twisted to look at him and then Doc.

  “Don’t look at me,” Doc told him. “I’m on Jasper’s side in this. Little Bit doesn’t need to hurt because you want to drown your pain.”

  Well, I wouldn’t have put it like that.

  “She cares about you, Freddie, hell if I know why, but she does. And seeing you like you were that night hurt her.”

  I frowned. She’d been taking care of him, rubbing his back and soothing him. What the fuck had I missed?

  More to the point, what had Doc seen?

  “I’ll do better,” Freddie said slowly. “Just…don’t kick me out. You guys are my family. I don’t have anything outside of you guys. I don’t…I don’t want to go away.” He swallowed hard and grimaced as he tried to take a deep breath. Cracked ribs were a bitch, and he’d be hurting for a while. “If I do the work, maybe I can do one of those outpatient places?”

  The last thing I wanted to do was cut him off. We never left family behind. “Maybe,” was all I said though. “And we have to see the work, Freddie. We can’t be watching you twenty-four-seven.”

  “I can hang out with Boo-Boo when you guys are…”

  “No,” Vaughn said before I could. “You’re not putting this on her. She already felt bad that you fucking disappeared when you were supposed to be looking after her.”

  Shoulders hunching, Freddie sighed. “I fucked up.”

  “Yeah,” I told him. “You did. Worse, you fucked our trust. You’re not out, Freddie, but you’re not all the way in anymore, either.”

  His eyes rounded, and even Vaughn looked startled.

  “Get your shit and let’s get out of here. We’ve taken up enough of Doc’s space and his time.”

  “C’mon,” Vaughn said, clasping a hand on Freddie’s shoulder and guiding him back inside all the while shooting me a side eye. Yeah yeah, I got it. We didn’t abandon anyone, and what I’d just said probably sounded an awful lot like I was considering it.

  I wasn’t.

  I’d no sooner leave Freddie behind than I’d willingly cut off my own hand. But maybe it was time Freddie knew that even my patience had limits.

  “I’ll come by daily,” Doc offered. “Do piss tests for a while. That will encourage him to stay clean.”

  “And if you get to see Emersyn, all the better, right?” I should have just kept my mouth shut, but Doc’s interest in her was just…

  “Exactly,” Doc said with an easy smile. “Get used to it, Jasper. I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Fuck you, Doc.”

  “You’re not my type, and you should have told me who she was when you brought her here in the first place.”

  “You didn’t need to know.” I dropped the last bit of the cigarette and crushed it with my boot before glaring at him. “You’re not one of us. You made that clear. Remember?”

  “This is not a Vandals thing.”

  “The hell it isn’t,” I countered. “You tell yourself whatever stories you want, but you enlisted, you went away. You went to school. Made yourself a whole other life. Then you come back here to grace us with your presence after a near decade long absence?”

  Uh-huh. He could fuck right off.

  “It wasn’t like that,” Doc began, and I cut a hand through the air.

  “It was exactly like that. You know it. I know it. Raptor knows it. You tell yourself whatever story helps you sleep at night.” Then, because we had enough battles, I blew out a breath. “You want to see Emersyn, fine. You can see her as long as she wants to see you, but only at the clubhouse. You’re not taking her anywhere.”

  Not without one of us, and I had zero intention of letting him make any moves on her. Fuck, he was old enough to be her father.

  Doc just gave me a look and said nothing. He could hide so much behind those granite eyes of his and that expressionless face. The door opened, and Freddie led Vaughn out. Vaughn tossed me one of the duffels and then lifted his chin toward his car. “Am I taking Freddie?”

  “I got him.”

  “Thanks, Doc,” Freddie said, shaking Doc’s hand. “I’ll clean my act up. You’ll see.”

  “I’ll be by tomorrow,” Doc told him before he walked away.

  I waited until he had the door open to say, “Hey, Doc…”

  The other man glanced back at me, and I nodded to him.

  “Thank you. We owe you one.”

  And I paid my debts.

  “No,” Doc said. “You don’t. Friends never owe friends debts.”

  Then he disappeared inside the building, and I scowled. We were not friends. I’d pay back the damn favor. In the car, Freddie leaned back with an exhausted sigh. All his earlier energy seemed to have evaporated, and he looked pale.

  “You good?”

  “Just hungry,” Freddie admitted. “I know maybe I should stay here…”

  “But you don’t want to.” I got that.

  “No. There’s no stuff at the clubhouse. I mean, there’s weed, but…”

  Weed wasn’t the problem. “Lay off it anyway, okay?”

  “I will.”

  I blew out a breath. “How about I swing by and get us some tacos?”

  Freddie’s whole expression lit up. “Oh, man…now you’re talking my language.”

  Chuckling, I shook my head. Some things never changed. Freddie was always hungry.

  “Jas?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Thanks for coming to get me.”

  “Shut up, punk,” I murmured and then ruffled his hair. He groaned at the action, then laughed.

  It didn’t take long to buy enough tacos, burritos, and chalupas to feed a damn army, though I would have to hit the books at some poi
nt this week and check our accounts. I didn’t usually let them go this long.

  There was a lot of activity at the clubhouse. Rats were loading a truck, so we must have had a shipment come in. As I pulled in, Kestrel met us with Liam of all fucking people. What the hell was he doing here?

  Goddammit. The guy just kept showing back up.

  “Problems?” Freddie asked, and I shrugged.

  “Who the hell knows. Take the food inside and settle in.”

  Freddie hesitated, scanning the warehouse. I’d already done the same. She wasn’t out here. As soon as I was out of the car, Kestrel headed for me. Vaughn pulled in right behind me, and it looked like he’d hit a store too.

  I paused at the sight of the flowers and quirked a brow. He just met my gaze with a stare. For Emersyn.

  Goddammit, everyone wanted a piece of her.

  Sucking in a breath, I focused on Kestrel. “What’s going on?”

  “We have a problem,” he began, and that was never good. All business, Kestrel detailed what happened at the auto shop, from the attack on Emersyn to the fact he and Liam had to track down the second guy.

  That guy was currently in the fridge awaiting interrogation. The guy who went after Emersyn was dead.

  “They’re PIs, as far as I can tell,” Kestrel continued as the anger began to pound away in my blood. “Looking for her. I don’t know if it’s for her family or what, but…”

  He hesitated, and I raised my eyebrows. “Don’t get shy on me now, asshole. You took her the fuck out of here where she’s safe and exposed her. So let’s finish it. But what?”

  His jaw set and Kestrel glared at me, but the flex of his jaw said a lot more for his current mood. He was pissed, but not because I was questioning him or challenging what the hell he’d been thinking. That was definitely a conversation we were going to be having.

  “But there’s a reward that’s been placed for any and all information leading to her successful recovery, and Liam told me there’s a bounty out on her now.”

  What the fuck? I swung my head to look at him. “Since when?”