“I am not your friend,” Vali snarled at Austin, and I hopped off the counter to get between them.
“That's enough. The sheer level of testosterone in this room right now is suffocating me.” Caleb snickered a laugh, and I saw Wesley crack a grin of his own. “Vali, you want to talk? Talk. You've come here totally unannounced and clearly not on good terms with the guys, so you will have to understand that they're a bit leery of your intentions. Especially considering how we met.” I gave him a sharp look, and he met my stare unapologetically.
“You mean when I saved you from the Onyx Auction?” He arched an eyebrow over one of his bottomless gray eyes, and I mentally kicked myself again that I hadn't seen the family resemblance.
“Guys, this is fun and all,” Wesley spoke up for the first time since entering the kitchen with me, “but I get the feeling this Mexican standoff could go on for ages, and I really feel like it's time we just don't have.”
“Wes is right,” River said, his tightly folded arms across his chest the only indication of how tense he was. “Someone tried to have you blown up, then watched and took pictures while you healed both yourself and Cole from wounds that should have killed you. It's not safe for you to stay here anymore.”
“You have a point.” I nodded, and everyone gave me varying versions of their surprised faces.
“What?” I snapped, a little too aggressively. “I can be reasonable when I need to be.”
“Sure you can, princess.” Austin muttered under his breath but was standing close enough that I still heard him.
“So where do we go next?” I raised my eyebrows at River, our leader.
“We know of somewhere.” The reply came from Cole, and River gave him a barely there head nod. “But Dragomir isn't invited.”
“Well then, we have a problem because I go wherever drag? goes.” Vali folded his impressive arms across his chest. He was wearing casual clothes, jeans and a tight, wool-knit long sleeve top, and holy hot damn he made them look good.
Before another argument could start, the sound of sirens infiltrated the room and snapped us all back to the urgency of the situation at hand.
Caleb checked his watch. “Seventeen minutes for them to respond? Someone must have interfered with the emergency calls. There were too many bystanders there for someone not to have called sooner.”
“Cole, Dragomir, you can fight later. Right now we need to move before we get tied down in weeks of official investigation for that mess outside.” River's tone brokered no arguments. “Let's move out.”
Everyone jumped to follow his direction. Vali hovered near my shoulder while I led the way to our back entrance so we could avoid being spotted by the police, who were practically on top of us if the sirens were any indication.
“I wish everyone would stop calling me Dragomir,” he muttered, and I snorted a laugh.
26
Once we’d made it clear of the emergency services swarming the bomb site, I was able to relax a little. Of course Jonathan could have made the questions go away, but the fact that someone had set the whole thing up made me incredibly nervous. How would we even know if they were real policemen or not? They could be in Mr. Grey's employment or something else entirely.
We needed to get to this contact in Alaska and get more information. It was like we were fighting a war but with no idea what was at stake, which only put us at a disadvantage.
“Guys, I think we need to get a better handle on what we're up against,” I said, breaking the tense silence in the car. On leaving the townhouse, we had split up between two cars, and I had ended up in the back of River's Aston Martin. Squashed uncomfortably between the two biggest men that could have possibly fit in the cramped backseat, I was perched forward slightly to avoid being crushed to death by muscular shoulders. When we had reached the cars, I had worried I might be torn in two between Cole and Vali so had offered to sit in the middle. A suggestion I was now regretting as I shifted to get comfortable.
“I agree,” Wesley commented from his position of luxury in the passenger seat. “It might be worth heading up to that village in Alaska anyway. Maybe one of this guy's neighbors can tell us something about where he is or how to get in contact with him.”
“That's a good idea, Wes,” River agreed, tapping the steering wheel thoughtfully as he drove.
Vali snorted a chuckle, and I turned to look at him. “What?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at the small smirk on his face.
“Nothing,” he grinned, like a big old liar.
“It's clearly something,” Cole snapped from my other side, and I sighed. “Why don't you share with everyone what's so funny?”
Vali met my eyes and raised his eyebrow as if to ask if I really wanted to know, then when I just shrugged, he gave me a wink. “I was just thinking about that dream you had back at my place, drag?,” he smirked, and my eyes widened. Shit.
“You know the one,” he continued, totally ignoring my shut-the-fuck-up look. “The one about… Wes… while you were in the bathtub…”
Oh dear God, no. I felt my face flame bright red, and I carefully kept cheek turned so I didn't have to see Wesley's expression.
“Really?” River commented from the driver’s seat, and I reflexively looked up, meeting his amused gaze in the rearview mirror. “Isn't that interesting.”
Unable to help myself, my gaze darted to Wesley's in the mirror and found him staring back at me intently, his expression unreadable. To break a little tension, I cleared my throat and tried to sit back in my seat a little.
“So, um, where are we heading?” I asked in a blatant attempt to change the subject, and all four men in the car seemed to be fighting back grins at my expense.
“There's an Omega safe house not far outside the city,” River informed me, thankfully allowing my subject change. “We will head there until plans can be made to get us all up to Alaska. Wes, call the twins and let them know.”
Caleb and Austin had taken Austin's Challenger and were following behind us as River navigated his way out of the city and into the countryside.
“So how long do you intend to hang around?” Cole muttered to his brother over the top of me, and I lay a warning hand on his knee. He held Vali's gaze but picked my hand up in his own and threaded our fingers together tightly, possessively.
“As long as I damn well feel like it,” Vali replied in a tone that held no doubt he was trying to piss Cole off. Shifting his body, Vali slid an arm over my shoulders to rest on the side of my neck. He began slowly stroking his finger down my skin, and I suddenly felt like the last steak in a pack of hungry dogs.