Page 9 of Reckless Vengeance

“So how did you end up with Hunter?” Jensen asked carefully.

“The fucker knows all my hiding spots. He always finds me,” she muttered, resting her elbows on the table. “I must have still been in shock or something. I didn’t realize how cold I was until he forced me to get on his bike and took me home. He found me at midnight.”

“He took you home? To his house?” Tyler bit out, not surprising me with his anger. He’d barely slept, the grief eating him alive, and I knew he was needing some kind of high but he didn’t have any drugs on him.

“I don’t really remember much. I was still covered in blood so he put me in the shower and sent me to bed.”

“Skeet’s going to flip the fuck out,” I warned, her eyes narrowing on me.

“Skeet doesn’t need to fucking know.”

“He does and you know it. We don’t keep secrets, Aurora. We promised.”

Guilt filled her eyes before she glanced away from me, her voice soft.

“I have to tell you guys something.” She swallowed, her shoulders tense. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, we planned on doing it yesterday, but⁠—”

“We?” I echoed, confusion hitting me as I glanced around the guys. Lukas and Jensen seemed to be paying attention, but Tyler was staring at the table.

Whatever it was, he knew.

Had they done something? Burned down more houses? I was with him all night last night, so I knew he hadn’t snuck out of the house to meet up with her.

Rory blew out a breath, her eyes lifting to mine with determination.

“I was sleeping with Slash.”

Tyler cringed slightly, telling me I was correct. That fucker knew.

“Since when?” I demanded.

“Around my birthday. It wasn't planned, it just happened. Then feelings got involved and it felt messy. We decided to tell everyone after midterms,” she answered.

“That’s why he took a bullet for you? You guys were together?” Jensen asked, but he didn’t seem surprised.

I wanted to yell at her, to tell her how much it hurt to know she’d been keeping that from us, but I couldn’t make myself do it when tears filled her eyes.

“We were doing what we’re all doing. Just rolling with it. I couldn’t save him. I tried, but⁠—”

I stood and moved around the table to her, the tension leaving me as I lifted her and took her seat so I could hold her on my lap. It was obvious what they had wasn’t a fling, and I felt stupid for not seeing it.

Tyler couldn’t look me in the eye, knowing I was going to corner him later to demand more answers, but it could wait.

Rory hugged me tightly, and I pressed a kiss to the side of her head.

“We’ll talk more about it later, baby. I’m glad you’re safe.”

We were all quiet as we sat there, and I was grateful to be able to hold her. I could have lost her yesterday, and as sad as I was that Slash was gone, I was also thankful that it was him and not my girl.

That probably made me a bad person, but I couldn’t help it.

The front door opened and Mom’s heels clicked quickly through the house until she found us, her eyes taking us all in.

“You’re all okay? The chief said there was a shooting at the Psychos’ hangout yesterday. I saw the news this morning, your friend died?”

“We’re fine. We weren’t there,” Rory said quickly, remembering what Diesel had told her to say. “I showed up afterwards though and tried to help save him.”

“You’re all forbidden to go near that place again. Do you understand?” Mom asked calmly, and I felt Rory’s entire body tense as she lifted her head from my shoulder to look at her.