Chapter eight
Finley
“Here, I made you some fresh squeezed orange juice.” Flame set down a glass in front of me. I tried not to cringe at the time that kept passing by, Banshee was going to lose his shit when he woke up and I was gone.
I took the orange juice, schooling my face at the sour taste. I needed to get this over with soon so I could get back to the compound. My eye twitched from the taste, making Flame laugh.
“I miss you, Fin. Why don’t you move back in with me? I’m sorry, I said you couldn’t come back. I was mad, but I promise I won’t say a thing if you just move back in.”
I was shaking my head as he spoke. “I’m not going to move in with you. I love him, and I’m happy at the Reaper’s Rebels’ compound. I promise you’ll love him too if you just give him a chance.”
“You’re fucking stupid if you think you love him. You read those dumbass books and it has your head all messed up.”
“Stop it, Flame. I love you, and I need you to understand that I do love Banshee. It has nothing to do with the books I read. I’m smarter than Mom, and it pisses me off that you can’t see that.” I stood up and wobbled. I must have been more tired than I thought I was. As soon as I got back to the compound and calmed Banshee down I was taking a long ass nap.
“Hey, are you okay?” Flame’s face was right in front of mine as he helped me sit down.
I blinked several times, but couldn’t get his face in focus.
What the fuck was going on with me?
“I think I’m going to pass out.” My words slurred as I continued to blink. I felt like there were weights on my body and I couldn’t shrug them off.
“Why don’t you go lie down in your old bed. I shouldn’t have made you get up so early. You never liked mornings.”
My head swam as he lifted me up, carrying me to my old bedroom. I wanted to tell him to call Banshee, but my tongue felt too big for my mouth. My whole body felt off, and it kept getting worse the longer it went on. Flame’s words also didn’t make sense. He was the one that never liked mornings, not me, for me mornings weren’t my favorite, but I’d never hated them.
The urge to argue with Flame was there, but I couldn’t get my head to cooperate. I wanted to ask him what he was talking about, but I couldn’t say a word. I just wanted Banshee. I didn’t want to be in my old bedroom. I wanted to be in bed with Banshee. When he pulled the blanket over me it reminded me of when I was a kid and he’d tuck me in when our mom was off somewhere instead of being our parent. I smiled, but my cheek burned from the bruise, and it took too much energy to make my mouth move.
“Get some rest, Fin. I’ll take care of this.” Flame petted my head before shutting the door. My mouth still refused to work. A weird metallic snick sounded far away, but I was too tired to worry about it.
Banshee’s face was the last thing I thought about before I fell asleep. He was not going to be happy about me taking a nap here, but he loved me, he’d forgive me. I just needed to get back to him. After my nap, I’d get back to him.
Yelling outside brought me back from the deep sleep I was in. I was in the exact spot Flame put me in, which was weird. I was normally a wild sleeper. The yelling continued and I needed to find out what was happening. I needed to get back to Banshee.
My brain was fuzzy, and it felt like someone stuffed invisible cotton in my mouth.
I moved to get up and almost passed out from the altitude change, from lying to sitting. The groan that filtered around the invisible cotton made me sound like a dying koala.
The yelling got even louder, and I forced my foggy brain to pay attention to what they were saying. I recognized one of the voices as Flame’s, but I couldn’t figure out who the others were.
“Flame, you’re going to end up like Raymond. We allowed you to take over as president because you promised you wouldn’t make stupid decisions. This is a stupid decision,” the voice said. They sounded as if they stopped right outside my door.
“She’s my little sister. I have to take care of her. She’s one of the Outsiders, and I take care of all the members.”
“I’ve heard of the Reaper’s Rebels and how they treat the women they feel are their soul mates. I guarantee Banshee is treating her fine. You’re getting us into a war we cannot win. Hell, a fucking war we don’t even want to be a part of. We should be searching for the people who killed Clink, not fucking hiding your sister away from the man who probably loves her and is going to go berserk when he realizes she’s here.”
“She has a huge bruise on her cheek,” Flame yelled.
“What the fuck, are you serious?”
The metallic snick sounded again and my fuzzy brain kept identifying it as a lock. But that was ridiculous, why would my brother install a lock on the outside of my door?
Flame’s blurry face and his second in command, Stank loomed over me.
“Did he hit her?” Stank asked, as he studied my face.
I shook my head causing the room to spin. My tongue wouldn’t move to tell Stank, and Flame that Banshee would never lift his hand to me. He would rather saw his hand off than touch me with it in anger.
