Page 40 of The Wayward Sons & The Vampires of Fortune
And me? I clung to a masked man like an idiot, damn near turning into a toddler. Hell, my niece had more poise than I did in that moment.
“Don’t lock your knees!” Cobalt shouted in my ear.
Don’t lock my knees.
That was a perfectly normal request in a situation like this. Whatever this situation was.
We vaulted over the edge of the neighboring building. The minute my feet hit solid ground, I crumbled, taking him with me. We rolled over one another with the momentum until he landed on top of me—uncomfortably on top of me. His hips braced against mine, his hands on either side of my head caging me in.
Far too uncomfortable.
And to make it worse, he didn’t get off me right away.
“You good?” That masked face cocked slightly as he considered me, but he remained where he was.
Was I okay?I was laying on a goddamn rooftop with a masked man on top of me after flying. I opened my mouth, but no words came out. I didn’t have a clue how to respond.
“Yeah,” he chuckled, “I made the same face the first time she showed me that trick, too.”
He pushed off of me, dragging me up with him by the wrist.
“You’ll get used to it,” he promised me.I didn’t want to get used to it.
“You two good?” Andrea asked. She nodded in my direction. “He good?”
“No one’s ever good the first time they fly with you,” he told her.
“Well, get good,” she snapped. “We have one more to go.”
“Another?” I replied, my voice rising an involuntary notch.
“I got you,” Cobalt assured me—I really needed to ask his goddamn name. This color coding thing was ridiculous.
“We ain’t got time for this shit,” Nash cut me off when I tried to ask. “We need to get to the next buildin’ and get inside. We got a fuckin’ timeline. Let’s stick to it.”
“I hate this,” I muttered under my breath.
But this time, I jumped. I didn’t let him drag my ass over the edge. That did nothing to quell the intense rush of fear that came with dropping several stories and over a main road to another building. I held my own and didn’t damn near scale my flying escort this time. Landing was rocky, but at least I didn’t end up with some masked man on top of me.
“Fuck!” Nash exclaimed, visibly favoring his left leg. That didn’t stop him from hurrying us toward the door. “Move, now.”
I followed because fuck if I knew what was going on anymore. The building we’d landed on was empty—not sure why, and Ididn’t have time to care either. The door was locked, but they didn’t stop them from breaking the handle off to get inside.
“There’s a duffel bag of clothes inside the stairwell,” Riley said in our ears as we hurried inside. “Cameras are on a loop, and there is no security inside the building. You have three minutes to change.”
“There’s clothes for you too,” Andrea told me.
“Why do I need clothes?” I asked.
“Because you smell,” Nash replied, tearing off his mask and dropping it on the ground.
“Here.” She grabbed a handful of clothes from the bag and tossed them at me. Jeans, a t-shirt, socks, boots, and a pair of boxer briefs. “Everything comes off. Step around the side there if you need it. Stay in fucking earshot. I didn’t do all this shit just for your half-naked ass to get kidnapped because you don’t want people to see your dick.”
Jesus fucking Christ.
“Why the fuck am I changing my clothes?” I demanded while doing exactly what she said, because why not? Why not get naked in a strange building with a bunch of strange people?
This whole situation was a mess—a volatile, stress-inducing mess that was obliterating my emotional walls little by little. I could feel my control waning, which was dangerous. I missed Gray. I craved his calm and his peace. I needed him to help put me back together.I needed him.
