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“Oye,”a man with messy brown hair, broad shoulders, and caramel eyes, barks. This must be Roark.“What have you all found out about Lenny?”
Sitting on the couch next to Derek, I push my hand through my blond hair, suddenly tired. Roark looks charged with emotion, and I don’t think this conversation is going to be an easy one.
“Who’s that with you, Derek?”another man asks, pulling Roark back to look over his shoulder. He has vines tattooed up his arms and when I see the flick of his tongue piercing as he licks his bottom lip, I know this is Turner.
Xav is an asshole, and his photographer angled his photos perfectly to hide the piercing.
“Guys, this is Orion. We went to school together, and he’s been helping us find Lennon. We’re working on my father’s campaign as well. Speaking of…” Derek leans forward nervously again, his fingers twisting together.
“Derek,”Roark says softly.“Whatever it is, you can tell us. It’s also not your fault. Just stop.”
Derek pulls in a huge breath as his eyes well with tears. “I couldn’t stop it,” he gasps. “I was right there in the goddamn hospital while it was happening. I’m so sorry. I couldn’t stop it,” he whispers, body trembling.
Watching him, I don’t know what to do. Comfort isn’t something I’ve ever been given… What if I do it wrong?
Swallowing hard, I lean forward, putting my hand on his knee. “Just tell us what happened. Your father and Xav are both the scum of the earth. If something was planned to happen while you were there, it would go down so you would have no idea. You’ve been so careful, Grant has no idea you care about Lennon.”
Fuck, I’ve said her name. I can’t keep calling her ‘the girl’, not out loud to people who would give her their next breath so she could have it.
Derek nods, grabbing my hand and squeezing. Roark and Turner’s eyes drop to our hands, but they look curious more than anything.
Sniffing, Derek closes his eyes for a moment. I’ve watched him pack away his emotions before, but I’m still surprised when his eyes are blank when he opens them.
“Woah,”Roark mutters.“Is that what you’re doing while you’re with your dad? Hiding away everything?”
“He can’t know about you,” Derek says simply with a shrug. “My dad can’t know I care about you, we talked about this. So I go to this cold, dark place, and hide it all away. It’s the only way I can get through this conversation too, so just let it go okay?”
Roark nods, frowning. I have a feeling going back to the real world is going to be hard for Derek.
“Derek?”Greg asks. We all jerk to look at him on the screen, having forgotten about him.“Tell us from the beginning and then I promise to get that kill order. I don’t care what it takes. We have the address, we are getting her the fuck out, okay?”
Derek nods, a rare, real smile bursting across his face and my lips part in surprise. This man is gorgeous when he smiles.
“I was going to be jealous for a second you got to see all of his smiles, until I saw your face,”Turner says with a chuckle.“Derek, are you collecting your own harem? You know we don’t care.”
Roark’s eyes flit between Derek and I before smirking.“Huh. Well damn. I can totally see it.”
“I keep telling them they should fuck and get it over with,”Greg laughs.“When—”
Derek’s eyes widen, terror flashing in his eyes. They don’t know he’s a killer. I wonder if it’ll change how they see him.
“Erm, nothing,”Greg coughs.“Okay go ahead and—”
“Are you keeping something from us, Derek?”Turner asks, brows raised.“Greg’s looking shifty and you know I’ve never liked the asshole. He’s got a shitty poker face.”
Greg groans.“Turner, come on, man. Are you never going to let it go?”
There’s definitely history there. Squeezing Derek’s knee again, I let go, and lay back against the couch. I can see all of his powerful muscles as he shifts and force my eyes back to the screen where the drama is unfolding.
“Nah. Red almost died because you couldn’t kill her ex, all because of this Xav guy. Are you going to fuck up again?”Turner growls.
Derek blows out a breath in frustration, clearly having heard this before. “I’ve killed several people while I’ve been here,” he says, dropping the bomb in a flat voice to break up the fight and bring the focus back to himself.
Greg sighs.“You didn’t have to do that,”he says and Derek shrugs.
“Back the fuck up,”Roark rumbles. I’m suddenly worried he’s going to rake Derek over for this, but I’m wrong. Really wrong.“Did you really think we would care about that? Turner beats the shit out of people for fun.”
“How many people have you killed though, Turner?” Derek asks.
