Page 26 of Fighting Fate (Monsters of London #4)

Vince

I really hope Kieran or Dax—especially Dax—didn’t pick up on how worried I was back at the warehouse.

I’ve never heard Jamie scared before. Not like that, with that hollow, shocked core to his voice.

I make a lot of noise as I let myself into the house. I don’t want my appearance to take him off guard, and if that fucker happens to be in here with him, maybe it’ll distract him from Jamie for just a second.

Jamie’s sitting in the living room when I stick my head around the door, and I let out a sigh of relief. “How’re you doing?”

He glares up at me. “Fine.”

“Jamie.”

All the fight goes out of him at once. He sinks back into the cushions, and I kick off my shoes before I walk fully into the room. Jamie lets out a quiet sound when I lower myself onto the sofa next to him, and it only takes a second of coaxing before he leans against me, resting his head on my shoulder.

“Fucker shouldn’t have scared me like that,” he says.

“What happened?”

Jamie rolls his eyes, but they’re shining with tears. He clears his throat before he speaks again. “Tim came by,” he says. “I didn’t let him in. When I realised he was the one knocking, I didn’t even open the door. But he knew I was here. He started screaming at me, hammering on the door like he was going to break it down…”

I put my arm around him and Jamie sniffles.

“He only stopped when I called you,” he says. “I told him I was gonna call the police and he left.”

“Did you?”

“Did I what?”

“Call the police?”

Jamie scoffs. “Did I fuck. What are they gonna do? How many people get killed by their ex-partners because they don’t take shit like that seriously?”

I tighten my arm around him. He’s not wrong, and we’ve all been relatively lucky so far. We’ll have to deal with this ourselves.

“Okay, so we need to keep you safe. Or get him to fuck off.”

“I don’t want him anywhere near me.”

I nod. I get it. “Right. You’re safe at work?”

“Yeah. He’d have to have a badge to get access, and there are cameras everywhere.”

Jamie works for some big firm in central London, so yeah, I’m not super worried about him there. From what I can tell, his boss loves him and so do his co-workers. They’d notice if something happened.

“The rest of the time—”

Jamie sits up and scrubs a hand over his face. “It’s really not that bad. I overreacted. It’ll be fine.”

“Jamie.” I keep my voice firm, and it takes a moment, but he looks up at me. “We’re taking this seriously. You didn’t overreact. Some guy you broke up with just showed up to scream at you and scare you. We’re not going to let him do that again.”

“But you were in your class, and I called you away.”

“That’s fine,” I say with a shrug. More than fine. Kieran would be angrier if I didn’t leave a class for something like this, I’m sure. “I’ll always come back here if you need me. You’re my friend.”

Jamie blinks quickly, gaze darting away. “Thank you,” he says to his lap.

“We just need to work out what to do when Nick and I aren’t around,” I say. “Not forever—just until we can be sure Tim isn’t coming back.”

As if on cue, the front door unlocks and opens, and Nick calls out to us.

“We’re in here!”

He locks the door again before he joins us in the living room, dropping on Jamie’s other side. It’s a tight fit, all three of us on the sofa, and Jamie squeaks and glares at us but settles in all the same.

“What happened?” Nick asks, meeting my eyes over Jamie’s head.

Jamie explains, less angry than before but still sounding defeated in a way I really don’t like. When he’s done, Nick scowls off into the distance.

“Where does the little fucker live? I’ll—”

“No!” Jamie exclaims. “Nothing like that. We can’t do that.”

Kieran could, but I don’t mention that. I like knowing we have an ace up our collective sleeve, should we need it.

“We just need to keep an eye on things for a while,” I say and ignore the way Nick’s shooting daggers at me. Oh, I agree with him. I’d rather Tim be out of our lives completely, but we’ve got to follow what Jamie wants. This isn’t about us.

“Okay, so?”

“We’re all together a lot of the time. I just don’t like the idea of you being in the house alone right now,” I say to Jamie.

To his credit, Jamie doesn’t argue that point. “Yeah, I’m not a big fan of that all of a sudden, either.”

“When you’re out, I should be able to be here most of the time,” I say to Nick. He usually only goes into the office once a week, but he’s often out at the weekend. “Except when I have classes.”

“Can’t we come along to those?” Nick asks.

Jamie looks over at me when I don’t answer. Fuck. There’s no real reason I can give them as to why they can’t—but the classes with the vampires, at least, would be impossible. They’re less about self-defence and more about training.

“Yeah, some of them would be fine,” I say. “I’ll rearrange what I can. Make it work.”

Jamie nods, satisfied, but Nick watches me for a moment longer. I rack my mind. I can talk to Kieran. We can move things around, at least for a little while. I’m going to have to tell him something, though. He’ll know there’s something up.

We sit there for a while longer before Jamie gets up and says he’s going to take a nap. I offer to make dinner and when I wander into the kitchen, Nick is right on my heels.

I grab the bag of potatoes we keep in a dark cupboard and get to work. I expect him to ask about the classes, so I’m surprised when he instead says, “How was last night?”

I glance over at him. There’s nothing lascivious in his tone or expression, so I shrug, unable to help my smile. “Nice. Good.”

“Yeah?” Nick washes his hands and grabs veg from the fridge. He sets up a chopping board next to mine and our shoulders brush. “If Jamie had called me first, I’d have come back, you know.”

“Yeah, I know.” Jamie and I have been friends for years, so I’m not surprised I’m the one he called. “I was going to hang out with Dax after the class,” I admit, “but I’m not sure it would’ve been a good idea.”

Nick chops up some cabbage. “Why not?”

“I dunno. I don’t want to lead him on.”

“He’s been led.”

I roll my eyes. “I’m not trying to—”

“I know ,” Nick says quickly. “I’m not saying you’re doing anything you shouldn’t. You’ve made it clear. But fuck, Vince. The rest of us might as well have not existed last night for the way he was looking at you.”

I finish peeling the potatoes and start chopping them up. “I know. That’s why I feel bad. I’m not blind.”

“You really don’t wanna go out with him?”

“It’s not—” I shake my head. It’s not about that. About what I want . It’s about what comes after. “It’s complicated.”

Nick hums. He’s not judging me—at least, not any more than he should. “Well,” he says finally, “I hope it becomes less complicated for you eventually.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Dax is sweet. He’s safe.

He has the power to ruin me, and I’m not sure he knows it, and I’m not sure if that makes him more dangerous or less so.

I put the potatoes in a pan, moving around Nick as we cook our meal together.

Am I brave enough to find out?

Not now, certainly. I want to be sure Jamie is safe and that I don’t let Kieran down. I sigh and put the pan of potatoes on the stove.

Maybe I will be. Maybe for him, I can be.