Still, the new kid watched me with so much doubt it kind of grated.
“It’s better with two. But do what you want. Ms. Joanie will make us clean up before dinner.” That seemed a fair warning. Ms. Joanie wanted clean hands and clean faces before we sat down to eat and if our clothes were dirty, well, we had to change. No dirt at the table.
She didn't make you starve though. But I'd rather do my own washing, she doused me but good with a bucket the first time I refused to wash up. It had been kind of funny, but my shoes squelched and Ms. Joanie had laughed so hard, I had to join in.
Jasper sat on the steps while I set up the race cars. The track was pretty awesome. The same cars didn't always win, but I really liked it when they did the loopty-loop. Mickey promised to take me to a real racetrack one day. Ms. Stephanie was inside for a while, I finished four races before she came down the steps. After she kissed Jasper on the head, she waved at me and I waved back.
Ms. Stephanie was weird. Even for an adult. She liked everyone. But she was awfully hard to fool and she never, ever got angry. When I asked why we couldn't just stay with her, she'd told me she would love to open her home to everyone, but she couldn't. Her place was small and Mickey took up a lot of room.
No matter how long I played with the cars, Jasper never left the steps. It kind of seemed like he wanted to come play, but he didn't know how. I had to learn, too. Maybe I could teach him.
When the school bus stopped at the end of the drive, I got up and walked over to the steps. Ivy and I had a visit to the doctors today, which was why I'd stayed home from school. Ms. Joanie had a lot of kids here, I liked most of them.
But Jasper didn't know them. They were loud and shoved at each other. They left me alone, mostly. So, I just watched them as they came in. New kids weren't unusual, so they just bypassed us and went inside.
Ms. Joanie would introduce Jasper to everyone at dinner. I caught him watching me and I grinned, but he just scowled.
Okay, being friends might take a while. But I'd get a smile out of him, even if it hurt. Okay, maybe not a smile—I'd settle for no grimace.
Yeah, No grimace.
That was doable.
Chapter 5
Rome
The rats were scarce in the warehouse. I didn't expect to find them here. Kellan had more or less dismissed them all when he pulled in with Milo and Doc. Of all the things I'd thought would happen the night before, Milo coming home hadn't even made the top five.
My only warning had been Liam's arrival. Jasper hadn't answered his phone. Not once. I'd sent a message to Starling, but she'd ignored her phone, too. Likely because she and Jasper had been in bed. Fine. But they should have checked before walking into the ambush.
His homecoming should have been an event. Not—whatever that was when he walked in the door just burning for a fight. Liam's presence had been the one thing that cooled him. Given Milo a breath. The fact he'd calmed had earned more than one suspicious glare from Kellan. Even Freddie, who tended to keep his head down when things went sideways, had been trapped.
When Vaughn descended the stairs, Milo greeted him with a hard fist and even tougher questions. He might have been in prison for three years, but he'd lost none of his edge. If anything, he'd honed it to razor sharp and far more dangerous. I wasn't even sure the Milo we'd known was still there. This—this was Raptor. Living. Breathing. Raging beneath his skin.
All night we'd waited as the hours ticked past. Liam and I played pool. Freddie channel surfed. Doc tried to talk to Milo, but he'd been laser-focused on Kellan and Vaughn. To their credit, they were holding things back. Liam and Doc only knew a part of the story and Freddie had shards of it.
The only three who really knew what happened the night they brought Emersyn back were Jasper, Kellan, and Vaughn. Doc knew about her injuries.
All of us did.
None of us discussed it.
Not even Freddie. Freddie, who couldn't keep his mouth shut to save his life.
I didn't slow until I was in my car, and I sent Kellan a straightforward message.
Me: No rats here on watch. You should get some in. Milo's too unpredictable and Jasper's not going to be thinking.
Kellan: Where are you going?
Me: I'll be back.
Kellan: Be careful.
Me: You too.
Not something we would usually have to warn each other of, but this wasn't normal circumstances. It took me no time to get out of the garage and on the way to Liam's. We'd lost a huge chunk of daylight. I was still fucking tired from not sleeping the night before. I hadn't worried about Starling being with Jasper. He'd slit his own wrists before he let anything happen to her. Even if Raptor hadn't chosen the night before to come home, I wouldn't have slept until I knew for sure she was safe. Raptor hadn't allowed any of us to warn Jasper before he walked into the clubhouse and Raptor had already been on the move. An image of Starling's fierce expression when she got between Raptor and Jasper made me smile.
Fierce.
Ferocious.
Dangerous in her own right.
I couldn't let her get hurt though. Milo would never harm his sister. This Raptor—the Raptor who had come back to us was damaged in new ways. The fractures and cracks would need time to repair. Maybe he and Jasper would beat each other bloody until they couldn't stand.
Then they could talk.
It had happened before.
Not wasting any more time, I hit the door opener and accelerated out of the warehouse. I waited only long enough for the door to clear the roof of the car. I hit the button to send it rolling back down and only lingered for it shut fully. Too many uncertainties.
I didn't like them.
Variables caused trouble. They couldn't be accounted for.
Variables like new arrivals at the group home, workers or kids. Variables like isolating one kid for abuse. We'd all seen it. Worked to avoid it. Even I'd courted my fair share of near misses.
I didn't like change.
Except...
The dark outside had deepened and the sun was a distant memory as I accelerated away from the warehouse. I had one destination in mind, and I didn't question it. Emersyn had been a change I embraced.
I wanted my Starling with us. From fixing the room between mine and Kellan's, to trying to make her comfortable and picking out the shoes she preferred—she wasn't a change. She was...
My people. She was mine. Ours, I supposed, but definitely mine.
The day had been brutal and exhausting, but I'd gone up to get some of her things and moved them out to the car in the quieter moments, when they forgot I was there. Raptor had seethed as he paced around, a thousand questions he asked and no one—not even Freddie—offered up the answers he wanted to hear.
Why tell him about the partner right now? The problem had been dealt with. The man was shark chum somewhere way offshore—or what was left of him. I hadn't paid that much attention to the details. Jasper and Kellan had kept some of the details to themselves.
If I'd known, he'd have died a lot faster.
Vaughn told me why later. The fact the man suffered was the only thing that mattered, I supposed. Still...
I flexed my hands on the steering wheel. The knuckles on my right hand were still scraped and bruised. The pain felt good as I stretched them. They should have told me sooner.