“You know we all love her,” Jessie tossed a glance at me. “I mean, some of us more than others.”
The men laughed.
“I’ll take care of Rinley,” I said, grabbing the nearest bottle of whatever and choking it down.
“No. We will take care of him!”
Oh, yay, slumber party with Wolfe. My favorite.
“He is in direct violation of club rules if he so much as smiles at another woman while Molly is with child. You should know I threatened to give her to one of you,” he said with a smile. “If he fucks this all up.”
“No.” Nathem made a face, and it was hard not to laugh.
I glanced at my phone, still nothing. This would be easier if I knew where the hell she was.
“You’d be a good father!” Wolfe teased. “And Molly is…”
“A brainless half-wit who fell for RINLEY,” he pointed out. “Rinley! And my dick is not going anywhere he’s been.”
“I guess then maybe make sure he doesn’t fuck this up.”
Molly wouldn’t be the first wife to get tossed around. My brothers were great at killing and not feeling things, but when it came to actual heartbeats, they did not know what to do. However, Wolfe was right. Out of all of us, Nathem would be the best father.
“Did you take her home?” I asked, shifting my weight onto my knees.
“No.” The tension gathering in his neck meant he was paying attention.
Good.
“She was called out on a birth,” Wolfe intervened. “We gave her some clothes, and I sent her with Nathem so she did not have to call a cab.”
I glanced at my phone, then back at him.
“As for our issue with Karsten. I want all security measures exchanged,” they groaned. “And intel starts tonight. Threx. Nathem. Blade. You’re up! Find out their reaction, who they called, and which member of Marianne’s team leaked our involvement.”
And here I thought naked night meant I would get to see my bed before dawn.
We ambled to our feet as the dark lights of the club pulsed from below. Some nights stretched on forever, and this was going to be one of them.
“Is she okay?” I asked Wolfe before I made my way to the stairs.
“We did not really have time to talk about you,” he said through a drag.
“I did not ask you if she was pissed at me. I asked if she was okay.”
I dug my fists into my pockets, where Daphne saysrage goes to die. She taught me that little trick after my temper landed me in juvie for two weeks. Apparently, ramming the Quickie Mart attendant’s head into the slushie machine for inappropriately touching my girl was not a lawful response.
And if I were being honest, I did not hate being locked up.
It came with three meals and a bed, which was a hell of a lot better than what I had at home at the time. But leaving Daphnewasn’t. The missing sounds of her breath tore through my core like a fever that I couldn’t escape. There was a curve to her body, a shape I needed to feel whole, and whenever it was gone, my humanity ceased to exist. But none of that compared to the fear that something had happened to her, or that she was starving and alone. I barely slept! I couldn’t think. The absence of her was everywhere.
When I crawled through her window, the night I got out, she was folded like a crushed piece of paper in the middle of her mattress.
“Hey,” I had said, her brown hair sweeping past her shoulders. Usually, she would rush to find me, pull me into her chest until all the air came crashing in. But this time, she lay still. Almost as if she wished I weren’t there, looking at her. I was young, but even then, the idea of a world where she shut me out made my insides burn.
“Daph.”
I crawled into the center of the bed we had slept on for most of our lives. I was pretty sure the bottom was covered in mold, and I hated the way our imprints never faded when you stood up. Everything in Seattle is wet. Your floor. Your clothes. Your goddamn marrow.