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“I-I’ll get it for you,” Ren said, true fear in his eyes. “I will.”

My heart squeezed. Not that I wanted to put all our eggs in the strung-out Ren basket, but it was better than doing nothing. I stared up at Randy and tried to keep my cool. We had something to go on now. Sure, it may have only been a shot in the dark, but we were one step closer to figuring this out.

Randy nodded, his face still all business. “We’ll be back in a few days. If you’re not here with that book…” he trailed off, eyeing Ren dangerously.

The look on his face even made my skin crawl and I knew Randy would never do anything like that to me. Ren was probably shitting his pants about now.

“Do we understand each other?” Randy asked.

“We understand each other.”

I took Randy’s hand and squeezed it as we walked away from that dump. What did it say about me that him going all crazy animal on Ren’s ass made me want to jump him?

Chapter Four

There was only one thing I didn’t like about the bike in comparison to a car. On the bike, you couldn’t have actual conversations. During the ride back, my mind was brimming with the new information and with what happened, however there was no one to share it with but myself. It was nice to have a moment alone with just me and my thoughts, but I really would’ve liked to take this time to talk to Randy about what had just happened. It blew me away that there were people like Ren in this world who exploited people of their own kind. Then, of course, it led me to thinking about what Randy was going through knowing his father had frequented Ren’s den before he moved on to more evil shit. That place was disgusting. If there was a part of Randy that cared still, it must have made him sick.

Randy’s mood hadn’t improved when we left the house. He hadn’t spoken when he put the helmet on my head and helped me on the bike. He didn’t even speak as we got off the bike back at Liam’s parents’ house. Not knowing what to say to him, I looked up at the house itself. Liam’s light was on in his bedroom, but the lights downstairs were all on as well. I had to guess Travis and Gabe were downstairs most likely watching the soccer game Gabe was all excited about while Liam stayed in his room doing who knew what. I never would’ve described him as a loner before, but I did now. It ate at my heart knowing that there was nothing I could do about it at the moment.

We walked up to the house and as soon as we got in, Randy bent over to kiss my temple. He then ran up the stairs, not even looking back to ask me to follow. I had half a mind to follow him up there anyway, but Gabe called out, “Baby!”, making me laugh. He patted the sofa. “Come watch a little of the game with me.” I gazed up the stairs, unsure of what to do when Gabe yelled, “Some of these athletes are hotter than me!”

Ha. I walked forward, dropping my light jacket on the closet doorknob and went right into the living room. “Not possible,” I said. “No one can rock a soccer uniform better than my Gabe.”

Gabe patted my hand on the couch. “I love you dearly, Baby Girl, but please don’t call my sport soccer. It makes me go mental. It’s football.Football,” he said, over pronouncing it as if I were hard of hearing.

Travis and I both chuckled. “Got it,” I told him.

I stared down, noticing the guys had pretty much obliterated the snack aisle in the local grocery store. My stomach growled just looking at the array of chips, dip, and chocolate.

Travis peered over at me. “You and Randy didn’t get anything to eat?”

I checked the time on the new cable box. It was nine o’clock already, and I hadn’t eaten since lunch. I shook my head. “No, and I’m freaking starving.”

He moved over on the sofa and patted the spot between him and Gabe. I eyed him, then the spot, then Gabe. Taking a deep breath, I walked around the couch and sat between them. From Gabe’s side, I felt nothing but heat and the attraction that pulled us together. On my left side, the side toward Travis, there was nothing but confusion. A mix of anxiety and uncertainty. Yes, I had the pull. It was strung tight, as if it wanted to pull tighter, but our resistance to it was beginning to fray everything. It wasn’t really my resistance, anyway. A blush crept up my cheeks when I remembered the hotter than hell dream I had about him that morning.

“Are you a potato chip or Cheetos kind of girl?” he asked, motioning toward the snacks.

I stared at him from the corner of my eye. It was evident he’d been trying lately, and I was doing my best as well. I just wondered if we’d taken it to a point where it was too little, too late. “Both,” I said, moving forward and dipping a big ol’ potato chip into some sour cream and onion dip.

I continued to feast on what they had as Gabe explained more and more of the game of soccer—shit, I had to stop doing that—of football to me. Travis interrupted with his own thoughts from time to time. Eventually, Gabe placed his arm around me and I cozied into his side, reveling in the way his chest moved up and down when he breathed, and how I could hear his heart thump away inside. When his team got closer to the goal, it picked up speed ever so slightly.

Travis shifted on the couch, his thigh coming to rest on my leg. I almost pulled away, but a spark tingled my skin. I looked over to find him staring at me. It squeezed my stomach, the pure longing in his face, but at the same time, a confusion that muddied everything up. If I had bigger cohones, or any at all, I would’ve asked him what he wanted right then and there. Why did he show up in my room to get some, get us both over-the-top excited, only to leave without finishing the job? How could he look at me with two such clear emotions written all over his face with none of them clearly winning over the other? There was so much to be said, yet it never seemed to be the right time. It was getting exhausting though, this back and forth. Something needed to be done about it.

I kept my leg there to see if he’d shy away, and he didn’t. If anything, he kept it there on purpose. I couldn’t deny the attraction that pulled us together every time we touched. It was the same I had with the rest of the guys. I almost hated that I had it. Travis had given me a lot of shit since I’d come here, and I knew, deep down, that when Travis finally got over his hang-ups, I’d let him in. It didn’t mean I wasn’t going to make him beg for it, but I was going to let him in nonetheless. It wasn’t an option not to.

He scratched his jaw, and then his hand came down. It landed on top of my leg and I flinched. Gabe kissed the top of my head. “You okay?”

I bolted off the couch, Travis’s hand sliding away from me. “I’m okay. I’m just…exhausted. I have a big day at the shop tomorrow and I should probably just head to bed before I fall asleep right here.”

Gabe reached for my hand and gave a small tug back. “If you fall asleep, I’ll carry you up to the room.” It was a sweet gesture, but then he lifted his eyebrows suggestively.

I chuckled. “It’s okay. Thanks for offering though.” I walked by Travis, peeking at him as I did so. A shadow had crept over his features. I continued my way toward the stairs and was halfway up when a voice whispered my name.

I turned and looked down. Travis was there, his green eyes focused on me. “You don’t have to leave on my account. I won’t…touch you again, I promise.”

“It’s not that,” I said. Though, it was. His hand on my leg, his intentional touch, had freaked me out. That was only the second time he’d done that.

“I’m sorry. Okay?” Travis said, obviously not believing me. Maybe I wasn’t a good liar like Randy had said.