Chapter Eleven
Jinx
Pyro didn’t speak with Lana for too long, and I know this because he took off out of the compound on his bike twenty minutes later. He’s been gone all day, it’s almost midnight, and he still isn’t home. I’m worried about him for many reasons. Pyro isn’t supposed to be riding his motorcycle yet, and last time he took off in a Lana induced emotional state, he went missing for months.
Speaking of Lana, she’s had a busy day with apologizing. Some understood, and some didn’t. Akela welcomed her back for a moment before letting her anger slip through the niceties. Smokey understands her reasoning the most out of everyone; for someone who doesn’t speak a lot, it’s weird.
I don’t personally know her, I know of how she was before she faked her death; from the stories, I’ve heard.
She was kind is the most popular reference.
I can’t lie.
I’m furious on behalf of Pyro.
She fucked him over really good with her ‘disappearing act’, which is why I’m sitting in the parking lot waiting for him. I’ll give it another hour or two before I give up for the day, and then tomorrow I’ll be right back out here, waiting for him to return. It is what people do when they care about someone.
I’m not out here hoping we can salvage our friends with benefits agreement we made last night, I’m out here with genuine concern, and the rest of his family should be out here too. It’s only two prospects at the gate, and myself and Lana.
She’s sitting at a different picnic table than me, but she’s out here.
It angers me.
Now she’s concerned about him?
What about when she faked her death? Why wasn’t she concerned about him then.
I give it ten more minutes before she’s over here trying to make conversation with me.
I can’t get over the way she dismissed his love for her, as if it meant nothing to her at all. He gives his all when he cares about a person, and I’ve discovered this for myself in the past few weeks we’ve grown close. I mean something to him and he cherishes it. He adores everything and everyone he cares about, so it’s sad to see how she did him wrong in this regard.
Five.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One.
“Jinx, right?”
I pull my sweater tighter around me. “Yes.”
“I’m Lana.”
Don’t roll your eyes, Jinx, don’t roll your eyes. “So, I’ve learned.”
“Do you think he’ll come back tonight,” she asks.
I motion for her to sit down with a flick of my hand and she does. “I don’t know. You have no idea the monster you’ve unleashed where his emotions are concerned, and that’s all I’m going to give you on him.”
“Do you love him?”
My mouth drops open in shock, and then I snap it shut. “As a person, yes. I’m not in love with him.”
I do love him, but I’m not in love with him. There’s a huge difference.
“You got here in the nick of time,” I smart off. “Congratulations.”
Lana shivers from the wind, she should have put on a sweater before waiting outside in the middle of the night.
“You’re not how everyone is describing you as.”
“Polite?” I laugh. “I can’t apologize for my attitude towards you. I won’t either.”
“At least you’re honest.”
Unlike you, you wench!
“Do you know I’ve been rearranging your memorial vase for months? I don’t even know you and that hurts me, my time healing was spent arranging flowers for someone who wasn’t even dead.” I snort. “Thanks.”
“I apologize,” she whispers. “You don’t understand though.”
This time I can’t stop my eyeroll. “Please. You have no idea what I went through to be stuck here. I may not understand your complete reasoning,” I say, looking her dead on. “But, we’re not that different from one another, Lana.”
“I don’t understand,” she replies, confused.
I sigh. “Did they tell you how I came to be here at Breakneck?”
Lana shakes her head. “No one would say.”
Another snort. “I’m surprised. These people love to gossip. Almost a year ago I went into Club Sated for an interview, I got the job, and when I was leaving with Piper, I got marked by an enemy.”
“You were thrown into lockdown, weren’t you?” she sighs. “I’m sorry.”
“Yes, then Piper and I screwed up, and that screw up led to our kidnapping and rapes.”
Lana gasps, covering her mouth with one hand.
“Pop found us, and I’ve been here ever since.” I shrug. “See. Breakneck has a hold of my life too. I had a meltdown about being stuck here yesterday.”
“You’re not happy here now?”
“I was.” I give her a stern look. “You sure you want to hear why I’m not anymore?”
Lana drops her hand. “I’m sure.”
“No one approved of mine and Pyro’s friendship. You being alive makes sense as to why Winter was mistreating me yesterday.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You shouldn’t say sorry to me, you should say it to Pyro. Winter is the one who hurt me, not you.”
The roar of a bike comes down the street, and I stand up when the gate opens.
“He might be drunk,” I warn her. “If so, don’t provoke him, or you and I will have a problem.”
“You know the person he is now,” she says quietly. “I’ll take your lead.”
I highly doubt it.
I don’t get the chance to even attempt a lead because once he’s off the bike and the prospects shut the gate, he’s storming into the clubhouse with a slight limp.
I have a terrible feeling in my gut, and my fears are confirmed a minute later when he limps out of the building with an urn in his hands; Smokey following right behind.
“Crap,” I mumble under my breath. “Prepare yourself.”
“Makin’ friends, Shortcake,” he smarts off.
“Redirect your anger, sir.” I point.
For a brief moment, he fights a smile, and then his eyes flick to Lana, and it slips. “Who the fuck is in the urn, Lana?”
I pull my lips together to keep my mouth shut.
“I honestly don’t know, Stefan.”
Pyro raises his arms and smashes the urn to the ground; shattering it to pieces, the ashes scattering in the wind. “It’s Pyro,” he growls. “You’ve lost the right to call me Stefan, long ago, when you faked your death and left me here with a broken fuckin’ heart!” he roars, stepping to her.
Smokey grabs one of Pyro’s arms and jerks him back. “Calm the fuck down!”
Pyro jerks out of his hold and takes off to the garage.
“Jinx go check on him,” Smokey orders. “You’re the only one who hasn’t pissed him off today.”
I haven’t pissed him off because I don’t keep life-changing secrets from him.
When I get to the garage, Pyro is sitting down with his head in his hands, his shoulders shake, and I’m not sure if it’s from anger or tears. I’m almost afraid to walk up to him, but my worry wins out.
“I probably have some dead person ashes in my hair now,” I joke. “Thanks a lot.”
Pyro doesn’t move, so I drop down on my knees in front of him. “What if it’s worse than that, what if it’s a bunch of ground up teeth!”
He chuckles and moves lightning fast, snatching me into his lap before I can even process what’s happening. “Was this your plan, Shortcake?” he breathes into my hair.
“What?” I laugh when his nose slides up the side of my neck.
“To distract me,” he whispers when his mouth reaches my ear.
Was that what Smokey’s plan was?
“No, I wanted to check on you. I thought maybe you would’ve been drowning in a sea of liquor all day, but you’re sober, and I smell no alcohol.”
Pyro licks my earlobe, then sticks his tongue in my ear, and I try to jerk from his hold.
“Kindly take your tongue out of my ear, sir.”
I’m enjoying the playfulness he’s dishing out, but I know he’s trying to use me as a distraction, and I refuse to be that for him.
I deserve more than that.
“I need to talk to you,” I say, using all my strength to pull away from him.
Pyro frowns, his green eyes blurry in the light, so I know he’s cried tonight.
“You know how we talked about your confused feelings in the courtyard a few weeks ago?” I ask him while my fingers play with his leather cut.
“Yeah.”
“No more confusion, Pyro,” I whisper. “You love or loved her. I think the emotions you were having, were of loss.”
He grunts. “A little weird to have you sittin’ on my lap and discussin’ my ex, darlin’.”
“Let me go, and I can get up.”
“No. Now what kind of conversation were you havin’ with her when I pulled in?”
I stiffen. “I wasn’t very nice.”
He gasps in fake horror. “You? Not nice?”
I slap his chest. “It isn’t funny.”
Pyro loosens his grip, leans us back, and swings my legs into his lap. “I know.”
“Very dramatic, smashing the urn.”
He leans his head back and closes his eyes and then reopens them. “I know. I desecrated someone’s ashes.”
I pull his chin down, his green eyes fixed on my expression. “No, the desecration was done by the person who gave you ashes that weren’t Lana’s.”
“I’m not handlin’ this well, am I?”
I drop my hold on his chin with a laugh. “I believe you are. I thought you were going to disappear again when you left earlier today.”
Pyro lifts me from his lap and sits me beside him.
“I don’t want to hurt you, Shortcake,” he says with sad eyes. “We’ve agreed to be friends and nothing more, but you’re easy going nature is alluring as hell, darlin.”
“Okay?”
“My heart was doin’ crazy shit when I was near her,” he admits, and my heart drops into my stomach. “I’m angry as hell, but what if there’s still somethin’ there?”
If I wanted a chance with Pyro, it’s not going to happen now.
“Then you owe it to yourself to see,” I say, the words tasting like battery acid on my tongue. “Do you still want to be my friend?”
“Jinx,” he murmurs. “Of course, I do.”
I stand. “I’m going to bed. I wanted to make sure you got home okay.”
He doesn’t stop me as I leave, and it’s for the best, if he were any kinder, I’d crack wide open.
∞∞∞