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Run From Me (Barbed Wire Hearts #2) 21. Xander 66%
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21. Xander

TWENTY-ONE

xander

I’d nearly lost her and keeping her at arm’s length hadn’t done shit to help me not care.

Fuck.

The Vipers needed to burn in hell and I was more than happy to send them all there on a burning pyre made for the entire lot of them.

I held her tighter.

“You’re mine,” I whispered again, trying to make her understand. I didn’t have any other words for how I felt. But she was mine and no one would ever touch her again.

She was safe. I was holding her. But she hadn’t been, and I hadn’t been able to stop it. I needed to find out what had happened. I had guys monitoring her place, but it only worked if she didn’t open the door. Fuck.

I ran through the conversation of the last few seconds. She thought it was me? Why did she think it was me?

I wanted to be pissed off, but the fact I was where her mind went to?

“Does it hurt?” she asked.

Her voice stopped the loop running through my mind.

“What? Does what hurt?” I asked her. My fucking ego? The damn organ in my chest?

“The bruise? I wish I had seen you fight,” she said as her fingers feathered over my ribs.

I followed her touch, and sure enough there was a large welt of purple.

“I hadn’t noticed it, not until now. Guess not?” I responded, trying not to let her touch go to my damn head or my damn cock.

This was already far too complicated. What was I going to do about it?

I needed to stop and focus. Everyone was talking, trying to make sure all the Spectors out tonight were accounted for.

“Sir, everyone’s checked in and accounted for,” said one of our guys. Cas nodded.

“Alright. Everyone can go in a little while; grab some waters from the break room. All that matters is that our family is safe and going home tonight. We have a bigger problem that will be addressed later. If you hear anything about tonight, report back to the shop. Stay away from Viper territory for now. If they step foot on anything we own? It’s their death wish.”

“Xander?”

It seemed like second nature or maybe some kind of nervous tick to make sure she was there, but I hugged her tightly and looked down into those beautiful big eyes of hers.

“Yeah, Sparky?”

I wasn’t sure how much longer I could ignore what was under the T-shirt. I thought I’d lost my ability to feel fear. Lost the ability of self-preservation. But seeing her helpless? Fuck, my chest burned, and I didn’t want to think about why.

“What is this place?”

Guys chilled around the room. A few of the female members hung around together. This was family, and for the first time, I felt content.

“The building is a recycling storage facility. One of our safe houses. It’s legit if cops find it. It also has lots of places to escape or hide.” I nodded toward a red button on a post that looked unassuming. “You ever need us? You find a safe house and hit that button, and it lights up the network. No one burns alone here.”

She wasn’t saying much.

“You okay, Calliope?”

Maybe she was a hard-ass woman when it came to dead bodies, but there was something vulnerable in her.

“What, no Sparky comment?” she asked and tried to pull away. She wasn’t getting away unless I let her though.

“Nah. Not when I just saw someone try and kill you.”

Her head jerked up and she was no longer fighting me. Her eyes clouded, and fuck. Was she going to cry?

I pulled her closer and just hugged her because I didn’t really know what else to do.

“Hey, follow me.”

She did as I asked and I pulled her into the corner.

“What are those two doing?” she asked as she watched guns being pulled apart and parts being tossed into the chemical bath.

“Getting the Masked Alchemist some more metal for his art.”

I squeezed her hand and stopped by the boys.

“Thanks for keeping her safe.”

They nodded and I nodded, and that was all that we needed to say.

“Wait, are these the two that killed some of the Vipers trying to use me for bait?” She tried to pull away from me, and I just yanked her into my body.

“Sparky, you look, but they can’t touch. Yes. These two here were on call tonight. For you.” I squeezed her tighter, wondering what might have happened had they not been there at all.

“Thank you, both. I, well, I don’t know what might have happened had the Vipers not realized they were being followed. That and, well…”

She didn’t have to say it. My boys had shot the second they had a clear opportunity. I’d get all the deets later. For now, they had extra cash to do what they wanted.

“My pleasure, Miss Calliope. You’re family if the boss says you are. Our apologies for not being there quicker.”

I could feel her every breath as her chest rose and fell under my hold.

“I… he… well, thank you,” she said, and I could hear the confusion in every word.

I nodded to them and pulled her away.

“Let’s go check in with Cas. They don’t need any more of your thanks, Sparky.”

She let me push her along as we walked back to Cas and Zeid.

“I just don’t get it,” she started.

“Get what? That we’ve gotten smarter about hiding crimes over the years? Shh, don’t let anyone know we can evolve.”

At least that made her giggle as we stopped by my brothers.

“Hey, Cas, any more reports? You think our boys in blue finally mitigated the shit?”

I was certain there would be a large donation made to the local police this week, and fuck if we didn’t need to grease some wheels with the rich pricks, meaning we would need to get another art show up. I nodded to Zeid and Cas while we waited for word. We had cameras where there were none to hack and had several of the best hackers on our payroll.

I needed to get her home.

Standing here realizing what I’d just said, well the spit I tried to swallow nearly choked me.

Home. It was my home. Cas and Zeid’s home. Even Rylee’s now. And the idea of falling into my bed alone? No. The idea of falling asleep without Calliope next to me where I knew she was safe?

Shit.

I cut the engine of the borrowed bike now that we were safely at our own little compound. I’d let Cali go but only because it was to the bathroom and Rylee was with her giving me a moment to form the next plan. I had a cat to get and some Viper bodies to bury, once I killed them.

The boys I needed were headed my way.

“Thanks for the bike,” I said and handed over the keys of my borrowed ride. “Are you up for one more little adventure?” I asked them.

I looked at my guy, Tank. He was fucking huge and loyal as hell. One thing we’d figured out long ago is that you got loyalty by being loyal.

His visor was still up.

“Say the word, boss.”

His palm met mine, and I took a second to step outside my own problems. We took care of our own and that meant caring for all of our problems.

“Your mom and sister are good?”

He nodded. “Yeah. They’re settled, and my sister starts classes next week.”

“Good. Her tuition should be taken care of, but if they need anything else, let us know.”

Tank’s father had died a few years ago, and like all things, medical care was enough to sink any good, hard-working family. The fucking system was broken, and until we could take over the world and fix it, this was our little perfect world.

A little hand snaked into mine, and I hid the joy that wanted to push right through my focus and derail my next vendetta.

I nodded for Tank to follow me into the shop as I held onto Cali’s hand tighter than needed, but she wasn’t fighting me. I wasn’t fighting me. I needed to keep her safe even if I wasn’t accepting the why of it all.

We never let anyone into our living area, but the shop? Everyone was welcome.

“Let me get things settled. Rusty? You good too?”

Tank had to ride with Rusty until I could give him back the bike. Poor guy. But while I had them here, we needed to do a little cleanup. There were still too many Viper thugs sitting at my girl’s door.

“Yeah. Sure. The night’s still young. Want us to grab a few more guys? A bunch of us were headed to May’s.”

I shrugged. “We shouldn’t need more than us but go grab something to eat and meet me back here in an hour.”

We shared nods, and they were off into the night.

“What little adventure, Xander?”

I just shook my head and led her past all the metal. Past the couches and pieced together set up in the back of the shop for anyone to crash or hang. We followed Zeid as he held the door into our private garage.

“Rouge has your bike at the garage. He made sure they got any evidence out of there the second shit looked sketchy,” Zeid gestured toward the empty space.

“Yeah. Any word on who was behind this?”

Zeid’s eyes flicked from Cali to Rylee.

“Why don’t you two go get them to bed. I’ll let you know when I find anything. Right now I’m keeping tabs on the dead Vipers they’re finding. Cali, you getting called in for this shit?”

I looked down at her. I’d almost forgotten she had a job. One that I’d exploited only days ago. Fuck.

“You—”

She put her finger over my lips.

“Shh, sweetie. The adults are talking.”

I gave her a deadpan look before grabbing her wrist and dragging my tongue over her finger, sucking it in my mouth.

I could see her nipples harden through the thin shirt and the even thinner dress below.

“Jerk,” she said, before looking back at Zeid. “No. That’s not city limits. I can’t cover up those deaths. Whoever organized this shit knew what they were doing.”

Zeid ran his hands through his hair.

“Fuck, she’s right. I didn’t even think about it. It’s unincorporated. There are probably cops from two different jurisdictions showing up there, and ours aren’t the ones that would be taking the lead.”

I nodded and lifted Cali into my arms.

“Enough business. Off to bed, ladies.”

Rylee was already half asleep on Cas’s chest while my little Sparky looked like she was ready to gut me.

“I’m not tired.”

I smiled down at her as I headed for the door to our private apartments behind the highly secured door that would bring me a lot of peace tonight when I had to go handle more shit.

“You will be,” I said and smirked.

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