Page 98 of Love Bleeds Red
“I love it,” I whisper, running my fingers through it. I feel so much lighter literally and figuratively.
“Good,” Falin says, brushing loose hair off my shoulders. “Because now you look like someone who could kick some serious ass.”
I let out a small laugh. “Don’t know about that, but I’ll pretend you’re right.”
She squeezes my shoulder. “Come on, let’s go wake everyone up. We’ve got a lot to talk about.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
LEON
Their voices reachme at the top of the stairs. Not quiet whispers, but full blown conversation. Blake’s tone of concern, Damon’s terse responses, Jasper’s frustrated comments. They’re all awake, all talking, which means Falin’s already told them everything.
Fuck me.
I pause when I get to the bottom of the stairs, taking a beat to prepare myself for the verbal ass kicking I’m about to get. They’re all gathered in the kitchen around the small table. Blake’s arms are crossed, Damon’s leaning back in his chair with a calculated look on his face, Jasper’s pacing the length of the counter with Falin in front of him trying to get him to listen to something she’s saying. And Bailey…
Holy hell.
Her hair is gone. Well, not gone. Just cut. Transformed. When did she have the time to get a haircut? She looks… incredible. The choppy layers suit her. She looks older, stronger somehow. Beautiful.
I step closer, still unable to look away from Bailey. She’s holding a croissant almost possessively, like someone will take it from her.
“—reckless doesn’t even begin to cover it,” Blake is saying as I step into the kitchen. “Do you have any idea what kind of attention this brings? What if there were cameras? Witnesses?”
All eyes turn to me, and the conversation dies. Jasper stops pacing. Damon’s chair creaks as he sits forward. Bailey’s hand tightens around her croissant, but she doesn’t look away from me this time.
“Morning,” I say, in a rougher tone than intended. “I see you’ve all caught up on current events.”
And suddenly everyone’s talking at once… everyone except Bailey, who’s still just looking at me like she doesn’t know her place in any of this.
“Bro, I know I’ve done some stupid shit but this… why didn’t you call us?” Jasper asks.
“He was in the moment. I get it,” Damon says. “But yeah, it was pretty fucking dumb, Lee. I’m surprised, actually.”
“What’s done is done,” I say. “Yes, I acted out of character. But I don’t regret doing it. I wish the whole damn place burned to the ground.”
They start talking in unison again but I swear I catch a hint of a smile on Bailey’s face.
“The question is, what should we do now?” Blake cuts through the chatter with that calm authority she gets in crisis mode. “We can’t undo the whole fire thing, so we need damage control.”
Falin opens her laptop, typing furiously. “I’ve been monitoring the news coverage and police chatter. So far it’s just being treated as a targeted attack. No mention of suspects or descriptions.”
“Yet,” Damon adds.
“Security footage? What do they have? ” I ask.
“That’s where we might have a problem,” Falin says, pulling up what looks like a map on her screen. “You disabled his system, right?”
I nod. “Of course.”
“But you didn’t think about the neighboring properties? Their cameras were running just fine.”
Fuck. Of course they were. I can’t believe I let myself get that focused on making Alfred pay that I forgot all my normal precautions.
“So we’re screwed,” Jasper says flatly.
“Not necessarily,” Falin continues. “Your plate’s a fake… That’s good. The camera footage would be grainy at best, and with your helmet and jacket...” She shrugs. “But we need to be smart about next steps.”
