Page 5 of Catch Me When I Fall

Rightfully so. These people knew nothing about me, but I knew everything about them. I made sure of that before I made my first appearance here when I was looking for Mason Langston.

“Grayson is fine, Mrs. Connors,” I said, giving her a faint smile, just to let her know she had nothing to fear from me. I had no issues with these people or this city; it was the way it made me feel that I didn’t like.

It made my fucking skin crawl.

“Grayson,” she repeated, her face splitting into a gorgeous smile.

Fucking Christ.

Jaw tight, I looked away from her quickly, not wanted to be sucked into her beauty. Dean Connors had everything I thought I wanted—a family. He had a woman who loved him and stuck by him no matter what, children who looked up to him. He would never understand how lucky he was. Neither did the Oasis leaders. They all had a woman, someone to warm their beds at night so the demons wouldn’t keep them up. Looking at Gwen, seeing her love for Dean shining brightly in her pools of ocean blue was torture for a man like me.

I would never have that because of choice I made a long time ago.

A cellphone rang, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw her pull the device out of her jeans.

“Excuse me,” she muttered and turned away from us. She walked by her husband, touching his arm as she went. When she was out of earshot, I looked to Dean to find him still staring at me, his hazel eyes assessing me.

He stood around my height, his arms folded over his chest. His signature dirty blond locks were tied in a bun on the top of his head, his beard longer than it was the last time I saw him last year. There was a scar over his left eye that started above his brow and didn’t stop until the middle of his cheek.

It reminded me of mine.

At the thought, my left temple began to tingle, phantom pain reintroducing itself for the first time in months.

Avoiding his scar, I looked back into Dean Connors’ eyes. After a few more moments of silence, he asked, “How the fuck did you manage to get a C-130 last year?”

My lips twitched. Red Snake Investigations had connections. We had people who owed us favors, powerful individuals. Last year, when Jeremy called, Oasis was wrapped up in some shit with the Bratva. He needed a plane big enough to transfer some cars to Seattle, and I showed up with a C-130, Hayes in the cockpit.

Not moving an inch, I responded, “Got some good friends.”

“I’ll fucking say,” Dean muttered just before a bang sounded behind him. We both looked to the car bays to see another brunette in coveralls, hands on her hips, looking at a part on the ground in front of her.

“You alright, Nikki?” Dean called.

Her head snapped up, and my eyes dropped to the oil smear on her cheek as she green eyes widened. The stray hairs from her messy bun fell around her face as she nodded, waving her hand in apology. “Sorry, boys. This fucking Toyota is giving me shit.”

“Wouldn’t give you fucking shit if you’d just let me look at it,” a male voice chimed in.

My eyes slid over to the last bay where Cain Donovan stood, his coveralls rolled down to his hips, leaving him in just a dirty T-shirt on top. He wiped his hands on an oil-streaked towel, shaking his head at his woman before turning and looking at me. His jaw tightened as I gave him a nod in greeting.

He didn’t like me.

I didn’t give a fuck.

“Yo, Grayson,” another familiar deep voice called from behind me.

I turned away from Cain and his woman to find Jeremy Jones walking up, his boys, Dontell and Leon, flanking him. I had been around these men before, and I knew five minutes in that they were good people. In my line of work, you didn’t really meet a lot of those. So, despite the fact that I wanted nothing more than to be done with this city, Jeremy was a good connection to have.

The last thing Red Snake needed was to burn a powerful bridge. Someday, we would need a favor from Oasis, and by doing this for Jeremy, it would be owed to me.

“Jones,” I greeted, extending my hand.

An easy, lazy grin spread across his face, his brown eyes bright as he shook my hand. “Thanks for coming,” he said, his voice sincere.

I nodded, grinding my molars for a moment as we shook hands. Once he released me, his boys stepped up.

“Good to see you again, Grayson,” Dontell said, shaking my hand next.

“Sorry it’s not for fun,” Leon added, holding his out as I let Dontell’s hand go.

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