Page 88 of Scar

Silently, they entered. It was late and the family would all be asleep by now. Princess Daisy Rose Annabeth Sparkle Flowers, Lila’s ten month old Pitbull puppy, came charging at them. Her nails clicked on the linoleum floor of the kitchen. Thankfully, she didn’t bark, though she did demand lots of rubs and ear scratches for disturbing her slumber.

Scar carefully navigated the dark house. While he’d never used the pulldown ladder to access José’s attic before, he did add grease to the metal arms on occasion, just in case.

Once they were up the ladder, Scar closed the hatch.

But for a faint glow from the small round window, the room was pitch black. This did not stop Scar, and of course, it didn’t impede Tally at all. He stepped carefully, knowing which boards made sounds and which boards were silent. Tally followed his footsteps almost exactly.

José and Abby’s attic was mostly storage for various holidays. Amongst the boxes, all the way in the far back, was one neither of them had ever opened or knew existed. Inside the box was a three and a half ounce aluminum jar of propane, a water jug, a portable pot and jet burner, a variety of MREs, a single fork, and a single change of clothes.

Scar touched his fingers to Tally’s ear and then to her mouth. The clicking sound she made was very light, one that could have been mistaken for drops of water against tile. In the silence of the attic, Scar went to work making them their meal.

When the meal was ready, he sat against the wall with Tally between his legs. Since there was only one fork, they shared it, taking turns between bites. Scar marveled in how tranquil she was, acclimating to what had to be an unusual situation like sneaking into a stranger’s house and eating a prepackagedMeal, Ready Eatwas an everyday occurrence for her.

Scar felt bad that he didn’t have a pillow or a blanket to offer her. It took some pillaging through the boxes to locate a Christmas tree skirt and a stuffed Easter Bunny for her to use.

After she was settled, Scar laid down beside her. He knew he wasn’t going to be able to sleep, having slept that morning on the ride back from Washington, D.C., following his rescue, but he wanted to hold her as she did. Tally rolled, curling herself against him, chest to chest.

“If this is your bedroom,” she sleepily whispered into his ear, “I would hate to see your bathroom.”

Scar’s chest shook as he silently chuckled.

* * *

Scar waiteduntil he was sure Tally was truly asleep before he left. Fuck, he absolutely hated leaving her, but he needed to get some answers. Too much had happened in such a short amount of time and he did not like being out of the loop.

His body ached for the woman he’d left in José’s attic. In many ways, it made absolutely no sense. He was used to being alone. He’d been alone since the moment Little Tyke had leapt off of that fucking crate. But now it was like his body rebelled against the notion. He needed Tally, needed her touch like his body was starving for it. He had no idea if his attachment to her was what experts would call ‘healthy’ but fuck if he cared.

Making his way into the clubhouse, he headed down the hallway where the club members’ apartments were. Technically, he had one, but he’d never entered it. Or hehadhad one. Likely whichever one had been his was no longer since he wasn’t a member anymore.

He was going to need to address that soon. He didn’t know what his plans were. That was still a conversation he and Tally had to have. Part of it depended on the conversation he was about to have.

Entering Keys’ apartment, he found the tech wizard asleep on his twin mattress. He was wearing nothing but a pair of lounge pants with blue police boxes on them. Scar had no idea what the significance of that was and honestly didn’t care. He picked up one of Keys’ discarded shoes and tossed it onto the bed.

Keys made a swiping motion with his hand but continued sleeping.

Scar threw the other shoe. It landed on Keys’ bare belly.

Keys shot upright. “What?”

Scar turned on the bedside lamp.

Keys blinked up at him, squinting his blue-gray eyes. “Scar? What the hell, man? What time is it?” Scar tossed Keys’ glasses onto the kid’s lap. He scrambled for them, putting the dark frames on his face. “Are you kidding me? It’s like two in the morning! Why aren’t you asleep? Where’s Tally?”

Scar just stared at him. Tally was his to protect, his to guard. She was not Keys’ responsibility nor his to worry about.

Keys let out a long sigh. “Okay, fine. What is it you want from me?”

Scar pointed to the kid’s massive computer set up.

“I’m assuming you don’t want to playSolitaire?” Keys deadpanned.

Scar stared at him.

Grumbling, Keys got out of bed. “I thought not. Let me take a piss and I’ll catch you up on what I know.” He headed towards his bathroom. “By the way, you’re an asshole. I messaged you for months and you couldn’t even write back a single word to let me know you were alive.”

Scar should feel sorry for that, but he didn’t. He couldn’t. A single change in the past month of his life would not have had Tally falling asleep in his arms earlier tonight. Perhaps he truly was as selfish as José claimed, because he couldn’t regret his decisions.

It was nearing dawn by the time Keys finished going over everything that he knew about Primis and Alpha. There was a lot of good that had come from the club storming Primis Headquarters to get Scar out, but there was still a lot that was unknown or that still had yet to unfold.

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