Page 15 of Lies Beneath Secrets (Skeleton Crew #1)
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Con
I’ve about enough of that fucking asshole neighbor yelling. We haven’t even been home for ten minutes, and that prick is cussing up a storm. Then when I hear him throwing stuff, I decide to bring Gabby over to Lauren’s apartment so I can put an end to the noise. When I go to get Gabby from her bedroom, I can’t find her. She’s hiding. I look all over her room, then come out to the kitchen and remember where Officer Rice had told me they had found her. I carefully open each cabinet until I find her huddled up with her stuffed horse, tears filling her eyes. “I’m here, Gabbs. Come on out.” It takes a minute for her to decide to come out of the cabinet. When she does, it takes everything in me not to grab her and hold her tight. The doctor had told me that doing so might trigger something unless she initiates it. “I’m going out there and telling them to be quiet, okay? Is it okay if you go over to Lauren’s while I do that?” She nods a little and clutches her horse tighter. “Good.”
After dropping her off at Lauren’s apartment, I grab my bat and take off upstairs, wishing I’d had my gun with me. I had decided that I wouldn’t keep one in the apartment with Gabby here. She has seen enough in her short life that I’d rather her not come across one of my guns and panic.
When I get up to their apartment, the door is already open a crack, so I kick it in further. The asshole is beating the hell out of the woman with his belt. She’s crouched down on the floor, covering her head and crying. It takes the guy all of ten seconds to reach over and grab a damn TV dinner tray and throw it right at me when he sees me step inside. It catches me off guard enough that it hits me in the head. After that, I go after him with my bat. He manages to catch my cheek with an elbow, but one good hit to his fucking head, and he’s out. Not long after that, the cops show up and haul him off. The woman leaves in an ambulance. Then I get Gabby. I had no idea I was bleeding so bad until Lauren points it out. If I had known, I would have cleaned up before I got her.
Holding the paper towel to my head, I do my best to get one of the shows Gabby likes to watch on the TV. Another thing I’m not used to navigating. Not once in my life have I owned a TV, let alone needed to figure out how to work one. Knox, of course, gave me shit about it when he helped me set it up so Gabby could have something to watch. At first, I told him no on the TV. “Trust me, you’re going to need it,” Knox had said. One week it took before I gave in and bought one.
Gabby sits happily as I flick through the options and flashes a big smile when I select a show about little ponies. I watch her as the music comes on, and she nods to the tune. She’s happy as she can be now. Nothing like she was an hour ago when I found her in the cupboard. I inhale a deep breath through my nose and walk over to the kitchen, eyeing up that cupboard door as I take the now blood-soaked paper towel from my head. I don’t think it’s bleeding anymore. Head wounds always seem to bleed a lot but in reality, turn out to not be that bad.
Soft knocking on my door breaks my intent of heading to the bathroom to clean my forehead. I’m surprised to find Lauren out in the hall, holding onto what looks like a first aid kit. “I wasn’t sure what you had here since you just moved in.” I think for a moment and realize she’s right. I don’t have jack shit here for taking care of a wound. The only thing I do have is this paper towel she gave me. That’s about it.
“Yeah. Thanks.” I let her come inside and glance over at Gabby, who’s occupied with the show. “Let’s go to the bathroom.” I gesture in Gabby’s direction as if I don’t need to explain any further. Lauren nods and follows me.
The bathroom is small, so the two of us in here puts us in close proximity. Close enough I can smell the sweetness of whatever shampoo she uses. I do my best not to take too deep of a breath and take a seat on the toilet. “She doesn’t like yelling,” I say, tossing the bloodied paper towel into the sink.
“Me either. When my mom and whatever boyfriend she had at the time would fight, Leah would lock the bedroom door and turn on some music. That’s what I did with Gabby.” Lauren unclasps the first aid kit and opens it up onto the countertop.
“I wondered why the music was so loud. Thank you for that.” She nods in response to my thank you, then cleans the cut. The silence seems to drag on, so I decide to go for it and apologize for earlier when I dropped her off. “I’m sorry for what I said earlier. I wasn’t trying to assume I know either of you.” I know damn well I had struck a nerve with my comment.
“It’s fine.” She lets out a sigh.
“The scariest word a woman can say,” I joke, getting her to laugh. She then dabs the cut with something that makes it sting. I flinch only slightly and watch the corner of her mouth turn up.
“This might sting a little,” she warns.
“Little shit.” I chuckle, getting her to smile.
“It’s not really deep, and the bleeding has stopped. I’ll put some tape on it to try to keep it closed,” she tells me. I look over at her kit and notice a bigger bottle of burn gel along with the gauze and tape.There’s more than just ointment and band-aids in there.
“That doesn’t seem like a typical first aid kit.”
She glances over at it, then back to my cut. “I’ve put my own stuff in it over time.”
“Get a lot of burns?” She doesn’t answer my question; instead, she pretends to ignore me and gives my now-bandaged cut a closer look.
“All done.” She closes the kit and snaps the clasp into place, then bundles up the used supplies in the sink, holding them in one hand.
“Thank you again. For this and for taking care of Gabby.” She nods and tosses the garbage into the small wastebasket on the floor. She’s about to turn and go out the door when I stand. It must have been too fast because it catches her off guard, and she stumbles a little. I reach out and grab her elbow to stabilize her, so she doesn’t fall on her ass.
“You have a small bathroom.” I nod in response and suddenly find it hard to let her arm go. Instead of backing away, I find myself leaning in a little closer.She’s so short and damn, it’s cute as hell. Like I could just pick her right up. Maybe wrap her legs around me. Wait, what? Her round face looks up at mine, and I watch as her throat flexes when she swallows. Shit.
“What’s that smell?”
“What?” She almost sounds offended by the question.
“Your hair. It smells sweet.” I lean a little closer and inhale deep. A light tingle forms at the tips of my fingers and suddenly, along with wrapping her legs around my waist, I want to grip the thick, brown strands of her hair in my hands.
“Apples,”she tells me in a whisper.
“Never thought apples could smell so damn good.” A red tint suddenly spreads across her chest and up to her cheeks. She’s looking everywhere but at me. I should feel bad for forcing the close proximity on her but with the response her body is having, I can’t find it in me to care. In fact, I want to step even closer to her. My eyes wander back down and catch the sight of her nipples hardening under the V-neck tee shirt she’s wearing. I force myself to bite back a groan at the thought of taking one of those into my mouth, biting down just hard enough to get a gasp to fall from her lips. Fuck, them lips. The second those cross my mind, I bring my focus upward again, only to find she’s now looking right at me.
We stand there for a moment, air hanging heavy between us. The flecks of gold in her green eyes burn bright with desire behind them glasses of hers. Then she slightly sucks one side of her bottom lip into her mouth. The action has my hand rising so I can tug on it. Her words stop me before I can.
“I need to get going.” She blurts out and manages to back up a step in the small space. I suddenly realize I’m still holding her elbow and break the connection.
“Yeah.” I clear my throat and give her some space. “Thank you. Again. And again,” I say, realizing I’ve already thanked her. Who knew the scent of fucking apples would turn me into a blundering idiot.
Lauren finds the doorknob and manages to get herself out of the room and close the door behind her. “Fucking her isn’t the plan,” I say, looking down at my jeans. My cock strains to get out. He would probably chase after her if he could. “Christ.” I turn to the sink and splash some cold water on my face, careful not to get it on the bandage she just put in place. “You’re only here to keep an eye on her and find out what she knows.” My mind goes back to the conversation I had with Knox before Gabby and I moved in here.
“ You ever wonder how King found Gabe before we did? I know he left the clubhouse before us,” Knox says as I fill out the damn application to the apartment we just toured.
“You think he was maybe tracking him or something?” I put down my full name, thinking I should probably introduce myself as Conner when I meet my neighbors. One in particular.
“Maybe.” Knox leans back in his chair. “Think you should do a little more than just watching that girl too.” I look up from the application.
“What do you mean?”
“Just a feeling I have. Why her apartment? Gabe never struck me as the breaking and entering kind of guy. If he wanted to hide out, he would have done it in one of them businesses, not an apartment. He wasn’t one to put his fate in some stranger’s hands. Let alone put them in danger.” I suppose he does have a point. “I’m not saying you should start fucking the girl.” I look up at him again, this time with a glare. “I mean, if you fuck her, then I can’t.”
“No one will be fucking her,” I tell him sternly. The thought of Knox anywhere near Lauren heats my skin.
“All right, brother, if you say so.”
I stare at myself in the mirror. I’m not Con anymore. Staring back at me is Conner. My hair is short, and my face is still smooth from the shave it got this morning. I fucking hate this whole situation.