Page 25 of Rise By Sin

“I found out Colt borrowed the money from an old college buddy too. It all seemed legit. He paid the whole amount back last week, so that’s not why these thugs are trying to track him down,” I explained.

“What the fuck has he gotten himself mixed up in?” Deacon questioned, and I nodded. What indeed?

“I’ll make a call to issue a subpoena for the cell records. It might be all we have to go on right now,” Mason sighed, then he left the room.

“Where is he, Jack?” I whispered as our eyes met. Tears were pushing to be let free but I blinked them back. Tears weren’t going to bring him back, or ease my terror that it was already too late and my brother was dead.

“We’ll find him,” Jack assured me, but I knew him too well to miss the worry that darted across his face before he could hide it. “Come on. Let’s make you more comfortable. Can you run down and grab some bottles of water, Deak?”

I didn’t protest when Jack lowered himself down and slid his hands under my ass and thighs. I should have, but I was exhausted and in a ton of pain. There was nothing I could do in that moment to continue the search for Colt, so I just gave in and held onto his shoulder with my good arm as he carried me over to the sofa.

“You feeling alright?” he asked with a smile as he lowered me down so I lay across the small leather sofa.

“I’ve had worse,” I shrugged as I worked hard not to breathe in how perfect his smelled so close to me.

“Just wonderin’ because you allowed me to pick you up without biting my head off,” he chuckled.

“I don’t bite you head off,” I defended myself. “I just….I got used to doing things for myself. I don’t need help.”

“Just because you don’t need it, doesn’t mean you can’t accept it when things get tough,” he told me.

“I’m tired Jack,” I sighed, brushing off his words. They sounded pretty, but there was no way I could get used to these guys make things easier. It would only mean everything was a hundred times harder when I found myself all alone again.

“Then rest, love. We’ll head to my gaff soon. Mason is staying there with us.”

“You gaff? I don’t know that one,” I said with a smile. I knew many of Jack’s British idioms, but that was a new one.

“My apartment. It’s the biggest and I have a spare room for you.”

“Why don’t we just stay at Colt’s place? It has room for all of us and then some,” I suggested, feeling much safer being with the both of them if it were more neutral territory. Jack’s place was going to be all him and I knew I’d find it hard to think straight surrounded by all of that.

“It’s not safe, and you know it. Don’t worry. My place is clean. I’m a well trained bachelor these days. I had to learn to clean up after myself,” he chuckled. “Just lay down and rest. We’ll wake you if we hear anything.”

The soft way he was watching me, the gentle hint of a smile on his face, emphasizing those perfect cheek bones and making his eyes sparkle, it was beautiful and filled me with so much longingfor what could have been once upon a time. He pushed his hand through his hair to get it out of his face and I marveled at his tattoos against his golden skin. He was beautiful and so perfect. Mason was too. They always had been and I’d been such an idiot to let them slip through my fingers when I did. I should have told them how I felt the day I realized. Maybe then everything would be different.Useless fucking wishes won’t get you anywhere now, you idiot!I reminded myself.

“I’m so sorry, Jack,” I whispered in a moment of emotion that felt so foreign to me. “For everything. I should have come to you guys back then, but I was ashamed and scared.”

“You had nothing to be ashamed about. It wasn’t your fault, Ave. None of it was your fault. It was ours. We fucked up and we need to explain that to you, but not now. Let’s just leave it all for now, okay. Just try to rest. Everything’s going to work out. You’ll see,” he soothed as he crouched down before me and ran a hand through my hair softly.

His optimism that everything would work out seemed misplaced, but I pushed that thought away and clung to his voice as I closed my eyes and gave in to the pull of exhaustion. The feel of him carding his hand through my hair as I drifted off felt like home and I never wanted it to end.

CHAPTER 8

AVA

It had been a rough night. Sleep had been hard to find without my meds, which the police had taken as evidence from the scene of stabbing, and without the aid of my alcoholic friend – vodka. I’d tossed and turned in the spare room of Jacks sizable and very modern apartment until some time in the early hours of the morning, when exhaustion had consumed me and pulled me under.

I opened my eyes and instantly groaned at tight pain that was throbbing across my lower back. I had cramp in my right leg, likely because I was laid on it and my wounded shoulder, which I also lay on, was throbbing angrily.

“Ava? You okay, baby?” I turned my head and groaned again when I found Mason sitting there on a chair he’d clearly brough in from the dining table. “Are you in pain?”

“What are you doing there?” I groaned as I took in the fact he was wearing nothing but his white undershirt and very snug, black boxer shorts. His hair was perfectly in place and he didn’t look even remotely tired, despite the fact I knew he hadn’t slept up. Neither him nor Jack had, the both of them fussing over me for hours when we first arrived there late the night before, and realized I couldn’t sleep.

“You woke up crying out in your sleep a couple of hours ago. You were trying to fight and we had to stop you from ripping your stitches. We didn’t want to leve you after that,” he explained as he leaned closer and ran his huge hand over my wild hair, pulling the wild strands from my face. I knew I should push him away but the rush of pleasure that shot through me at such a simple touch felt like an unexpected calm in the storm of pain I was lost in. “How are you feeling?”

“Fucking peachy!” I snapped as I forced myself to pull away from his touch and sit up. “How do you look like? Were you styling your fucking hair in the night?”

“You think I look good, baby girl?” he asked with wicked, but sexy as hell cocky smile. Jesus, he really was every bit as spectacular as he had been since I first met him when I was seventeen years old. His body was so built and wide, he’d always had the ability to make me feet positively petite beside him. If anything he was even bigger now, his heavily muscled shoulders stretching the fabric of the undershirt he wore. When he smiled fully you saw the perfection of his white, straight teeth, and his dark eyes seemed to sparkle with the cock sureness I knew he was filled with on the surface. Underneath though, I also knew he had a huge heart. He could be gentle and so caring. He had held me so many times after our scenes, proving aftercare as required, but he was always so gentle and concerned about me. I had known then, just as I felt now too, that there was nothing I could ask of him he wouldn’t do for me. At heart he was a good, loyal man with a heart of gold. He always had been.

---