Page 7 of Homecoming

I’m not used to compliments, and I don’t handle them very well at all when I get them. I just don’t know what to do. So, I settle for awkwardly saying thank you. What else do you say? You too? That doesn’t work, and if you compliment them back, then I feel like they think you are only doing it because they complimented you, and it’s not a genuine compliment.

I tend to overthink it if I let myself, so I just stick to a simple thank you.

Fortunately, Alaric knows me very well, and he knows that compliments make me nervous and on edge, so he changes the subject instead.

Glancing at the rearview mirror at Rage he asks, “How many cars are behind us?”

“There are three between us and them,” Rage replies, “I haven’t been able to make out who is driving, or any one in the car so I can’t identify any of them, but they are definitely following us. I do not have any doubt about that.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure that is a safe thing to assume now,” Alaric replies.

“Go through these lights,” I tell Alaric.

“Got it,” he replies.

We carry on driving for a while longer once we’re through the lights. The next set is quite a drive away, which seems like a design fault to me in a city like this, but it actually works in our favor so I’m not complaining.

“These ones?” Alaric asks me.

“Yeah,” I reply.

We are about to piss off a lot of people. The light goes green, and Alaric stays where he is; he doesn’t move forward, even when people start honking angrily because he’s holding up traffic. At the very last second, he drives through the green light. It turns red just as we go through it, and the cars behind stop at the lights, not willing to risk an accident.

“The car has gotten held up,” Rage confirms with a grin as we round the corner.

“Thank fuck for that,” I reply. “That was getting tedious.”

We take the second turn and then head back out onto the main road. Hopefully, we have lost them, but we all keep an eye out in case they manage to find us again.

Chapter Five

Atlas

We are about an hour into the drive, and we haven’t seen the car again or anyone else suspiciously following us. So, we are in the clear and have successfully lost our tail. I’m glad because the next step after trying to lose them would have been to confront them, which could have stopped us from getting information from the second informant.

My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I frown, unsure who could be calling me; I don’t get many calls, especially now that I don’t speak to the guys because it’s safer for them that way. I suppose it could be one of the guys from Blackbreak telling me that someone is trying to cause shit in our absence. I hope not though because I am in absolutely no mood to deal with that shit.

“Who’s calling you?” Rage asks, sounding just as confused as I was.

“Fuck off, I have friends,” I retort, slightly offended that he sounded as incredulous as he did.

Rage chuckles, “You don’t have friends who call you apart from me. Well, you have the guys, but you put a stop to that.”

I decide to ignore that comment as I glance at the caller ID, and then I smile smugly, “It’s Jynx. I told you I had friends.”

Rage just shakes his head and laughs.

I decide to ignore him and answer the video call from Jynx, “Hey!”

“Hey, just calling to check in,” Jynx smiles happily.

Rage leans forward, and I angle the camera so we are both on the screen, “Hey, Jynx, hey guys!”

Gathered behind Jynx and trying to get on the screen so that they can see too, are Jynx’s men; by that, I mean they are all together. She loves them, and they love her. It works for them. The guys actually spoke about doing something similar with Ever when they found her and, of course, if she was interested. Honestly, I think what Jynx and her guys have is very rare, and I think the guys would get jealous of each other if they tried to do something similar with Ever. Just because I thought that didn’t mean that I wasn’t going to try and help them find her. I know how much she means to them and want to help them. I am still trying, and I have still had no luck. It’s definitely strange. I have a lot of contacts on both sides of the legality line. I have people looking for her, but I still haven’t been able to find her. It’s almost like someone is trying to hide her.

Jynx’s family is made up of Rome, Malachi, Mason, Rip, and Ace. They have and will kill for Jynx, and she has and will kill for them. They are all deadly and incredibly good at what they do. The way that they met is actually an incredibly interesting story; Jynx got a shock inheritance from a grandmother she didn’t know existed; she was just getting over being kidnapped, so she wasn’t actively working for D at the time. The conditions of the inheritance said that she had to move to a specific town and attend the school, but the grandmother had done her research on Jynx and knew her reputation when it came to schools, so she said in the letter that she had to behave. Jynx being Jynx took that as a challenge, and completely changed her personality at school, the guys thought she was innocent and tried to protect her from their deadly lifestyle, and in doing so managed to piss her off. Long story short, she let her true colors show and shocked the shit out of them. As if that wasn’t enough, they then found out that they were linked in a way that none of them could have predicted.

It was a fucking wild ride. I am still not sure that I have the whole story straight.

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