Page 38 of Signed for You

“Why do you wanna stay here? I’m assuming it’s not just to get a piece of this?” He asks, his voice filled with sarcasm and laughter as he bangs his chest like an ape.

“Nothing to do with any of... that!” I laugh out, playfully jabbing his side as we walk towards his room.

“So what is it?”

“If I tell you, you have to promise not to tell anyone, especially not my dad,” I warn him quietly to be sure no one overhears.

“What is it, Charlie?” he whispers as he opens the door to his room and leads me inside.

I love Crow’s room. It’s so him. Predictable almost. Usually predictable can be bad but honestly, in all the chaos at the moment, predictability is perfect. I know I can rely on Crow, no matter what.

“Liam has been weird, it’s hard to explain,” I tell him.

“What type of weird?” His eyes darken at this as he takes a step menacingly closer, his hands wrapping around the tops of my arms.

“He's making sex jokes and looking me up and down, hinting that he wants, I don’t know, something more. I feel like I’m probably just being dramatic, but he just makes me feel so uncomfortable, I hate it but I can’t say anything to Dad. It would destroy him to know that the two people he cares about most don’t like each other, and he’s just got Liam back. I don’t want to be the reason he begrudgingly sends him away.” It feels good, better than I thought it would to let it all out.

“I knew he was fucking creepy from the minute he hugged you,” Crow grinds out, shaking his head in disgust.

“He hasn’t done anything, I just get this weird feeling, I don’t like it. So can we stay here?”

“You can stay here whenever you want, Char, you know that,” he says as he pulls me into his embrace, stroking my hair as he does. “But I do have a job tonight. A private job that I need to do. You can come if you want?” he asks with a playful smile as he pulls away from me.

“A private job? I thought you weren’t allowed to do that.”

I’m not one to be a stickler for the rules considering I break just about every rule I’m given – mostly unintentionally in a search for answers, but it’s very unlike Crow to go against anything my father has said.

“It’s about Gray. The garage that took his car from the scene of the crash gave a report to the police and your dad, but when I encouraged them to be a little more honest, they said they’d call me back. They called me earlier to let me know that the mechanic that worked on it had some extra information for me. I’m going to see him tonight,” he informs me as he begins suiting up.

I watch on in astonishment, my mind whirling with the possibility of a clue, the idea of getting one step closer to finding Gray. Crow is gearing up, filling his jacket with a pocket knife and gun, though I can’t imagine he would need that to go and see some mechanic but with the things going on lately, I don’t question it.

“When?” I ask eagerly, watching as he rummages around his room looking for things and filling up my backpack as he does.

“Now, if you’re ready.”

Crow takes my hand as I nod avidly in his direction. This could be monumental in finding out not only where Gray is but what happened to him. I’ve spent too long wondering, crying, and wishing that someone would find him and now here I am, with the predictable Crow who has done the most unpredictable thing – being the person that is bringing me closer to Gray.

As we leave the Club, everyone is too busy dancing, drinking, and cheering at God knows what to notice us, which in this instance isn’t a bad thing. The music is loud, and the way people are carrying on, they wouldn’t be aware of the Second Coming if it began right now. Perfect. We open the door on a wild burst of laughter, and as we step into the cold night air, the silence is an almost instantaneous thing. The noise from inside is muffled, and I breathe a sigh of relief that we slipped out undetected.

We clamber into Crow’s truck silently and drive away from the Club without anyone asking any questions.

“The garage is a good twenty minutes away. I wanted to talk to you about something else though now that we have the chance,” Crow tells me as he swings the wheel around, reversing out of the Club driveway.

“What is it?” I wonder, hoping he’s not preparing to tell me bad news after bringing me so much hope from the mere mention of finding out more about Gray.

“What happened with Victor?” Oh. I should have seen this coming. I knew it would come and I knew that I would have to keep being as honest as I could be with Crow, but that doesn’t change the fact that I feel full of shame for enjoying the time I spent with him.

“We went to his place and read, and I had fun,” I tell him, not sure how much to divulge; it’s not as though a huge amount more than that happened.

“How do you feel about him?” he asks, his tone clipped.

“He’s actually really nice,” I tell him honestly. “He loves to read like me so we literally just sat reading for hours. I do want to get to know him though. He does seem really sweet.”

“I’m not sure sweet is the word anyone I know would use to describe him.” Crow chuckles. “You just have a way of getting the untouchably formidable people to be soft teddy bears around you.” He laughs as he shakes his head with amusement.

“You’re not mad?” I ask timidly.

Even though I like to think I’m a relatively level headed person, I have no doubt in my mind that I would be jealous and somewhat possessive if I knew the person I was becoming closer with was getting to know someone else too.

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