Page 12 of Chill

“Yeah.” Kieran chuckles and gets to his feet, turning off the last light shining in the RV. He shucks off his shirt as I watch, then his jeans, before getting on the bed and stretching out alongside me, one of his legs thrown over mine and Val’s.

“And those complaints can wait until morning, feral darling. You’re tired, and so are we, so why don’t you be a good cockwarmer for Val and go to sleep, okay?” There’s sweetness in his filthy words, and I can’t help burying my face in his chest as he tucks my hair behind my ear.

“For now,” I finally promise, taking a breath against his chest and letting out. “But just while it’s dark, and I’m tired.”

6

Thunder rumblingoutside the RV is what wakes me up, but it’s only the first thing I notice and certainly the least important.

A hand is still curled on my thigh, fingers stroking along my skin sweetly and almost possessively. Finally, I realize Val and Kieran are talking, but I don’t move. I don’t open my eyes, wanting to listen to their conversation for as long as possible. Or at least until I can decide if it’s relevant to me or not.

“She’s not going to like that.” Val chuckled, soft amusement and tiredness in his voice. Outside I hear another roll of thunder, and at any other time I’d be sitting up with my nose pressed to the glass to watch the impending storm. But this is more important. “So I won’t help you. If you want her to go home, you can tell her.”

I can’t help it. I tense, and Val’s fingers stop moving on my hip just as he lets out a soft chuckle. “And look who’s awake. Just in time, aren’t you, princess? However…” His fingers splay over my hip and he leans close to nuzzle my shoulder. “We have got to work on your eavesdropping skills. This is the second time in a row you’re not as sneaky as you thought.”

My eyes open and I look up, finding Kieran still in front of me, though he’s sitting up and leaning back against the window.He’s also wearing pants, which is a real disappointment, and gazing down at me with his typical shrewd gaze.

“I’m not going home,” I tell him flatly, not responding to Val except to shiver under his light touch as it resumes. “I drove nine fucking hours to come and air out my complaints?—”

“Which you did, for the most part,” he replies, cutting me off smoothly. “We get it. We shouldn’t have left for so long, and I admit things got a little…difficult. Sometimes Nero asks us to do stupid shit, and we do. Sometimes, we’re stuck cleaning up other people’s messes, because we know how to make it go away.” He reaches out to stroke his fingers through my hair affectionately, eyes dropping to his phone.

“But you’re going home, Noa. And we’ll come find you once we’re?—”

“I swear on my favoritehanukiah,that’s all cats holding up the candles, I will glue myself to Val if you tell me to go home one more fucking time.” My words are sharper than I intend, but I mean them.

Both men are silent, with Kieran side-eyeing me while Val processes my words with his hand going still on my thigh. “What uh, what exactly is a hanukiah?” he asks at last. “You know, so I can properly grasp the gravity of the situation at hand?”

“You know. The thing everyone calls amenorah.Candle holder with nine candles? Miracle of oil lasting eight days?” I wave my hand dismissively in the air. “It’s basically a family heirloom, and I light it every year for Hanukkah. My grandma got it for my mom, who gave it to me when I moved out.”

“Importance on a scale of one to ten?” he asks hopefully, prompting me to roll my eyes up at Kieran.

“Eight point five. Final answer.”

“Understood.” He rests his chin on my arm and looks up at Kieran, batting his eyes. “She makes a pretty convincing argument.”

“Only because you don’t want to end up glued to her and we both know it’s a serious threat,” the sterner man replies with a sigh. But he looks at me, giving methe glareof almost disdain and definite disapproval. “You don’t even know what we’re doing.”

“Murder?” I assume automatically.

Val’s the one to reply, and he groans before burying his face against my shoulder. “Why do you always go right to murder, Noa?” he complains. “We aren’t that simple.”

“You’re right. What was I thinking? I mean, last night, that clearly wasn’t murder.” My words are as dry as the Sahara as I turn to look at him as much as I can, my face expressionless and incredibly unimpressed. “It was dancing, right?”

“Okay, all right. Don’t be a bitch, princess.” He nips my shoulder blade, pulling a yelp from me that’s more from surprise than pain. “Yeah, that was murder. But today…” he trails off, looking up at Kieran for help.

But he only sighs and shakes his head. “No, she’s right.Youare that simple. And yes, what we’re doing does involve more murder. Eventually. Probably.” Then he shrugs his shoulders, as if the possibility of it doesn’t really matter that much to him.

Maybe it doesn’t.

“I’m not going home.” I try to put conviction in the words as I sit up, shaking off Val, who groans in disgust and flops back down on the bed. He’s still just as naked as he was last night, and he’s the only one, since I somehow retained custody of my t-shirt. Not that I mind, since it’s one I’ve slept in multiple times, anyway.

Getting to my feet, I move to the main living space of the RV, peeking out the window to look at the wooded campground outside. There’s absolutely no one around to see me pants-less, so I take my time going through my backpack to find thecomfiest pair of sweatpants that I own and luckily washed before I left to come here.

Sliding them on provides me with comfort and warmth, and makes me feel better about going back to have the argument I put off by coming out to get dressed. I even find my shoes, though instead of putting them on, I carefully set them next to the two pairs of boots by the RV door.

They look so…normal compared to Ravage’s combat boots that look a lot like the ones he’d made me kiss. Even Val’s black boots, though less intimidating, look so strange against my sad, muddy sneakers, which have seen better days and are hanging on by a whisper of a prayer.

You can do this, I remind myself as I stare at my transparent reflection in one of the large windows.

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