Page 27 of Gray Area

Bailey gawks at me, her eyes going wide. “With feeling.”

I screw my face up in confusion. “What does that even mean, Bailey?”

“Like he feels stuff for you.”

I roll my eyes. “Yeah, like pity,” I say. “I puked on him, Bailey,” I tell her and then recount the entire night’s events, from Declan finding me asleep in the classroom to him bringing me home and putting me to bed and everything in between.

“Wow, you described this guy like a total douche, but he seems actually really sweet,” Bailey says.

“Well, he is really weird in class,” I say, trying to defend my assessment of Declan. “And you saw him; he is so serious.”

“I like it,” Bailey says. “He’s broody. I dig it. But honestly, Viv, you’re missing what I’m saying! He didn’t look at you with pity,” she says. “He looked at you like he cares about you. And from what you’ve told me about him, he doesn’t seem like the kind ofguy to do caring a whole lot. And he is coming back to fix the door! I mean, he is like a white knight with a significant resting bitch face.”

I laugh and Bailey yawns. “You need to get to bed,” I remind her and she nods. “Shower off your night, and I will change the bed so you don’t get sick.”

“Please,” she says as she does the sleepy shuffle to the bathroom. “I totally hate puking. But if I had a hottie like Declan to hold my hair back, I might just change my tune.”

I love Bailey. She makes me laugh even when I feel like junk. I still feel wiped, and I need to get food in me, but first things first—bed change.

Chapter 13

DECLAN

Ienter Persey’s Place and find Axel at the back of the restaurant.

“You didn’t come home last night,” Axel points out as he takes a drink from his coffee and doesn’t even bother to look up at me, keeping his eyes trained on the spot where my head will be when I sit down.

“I’m aware,” I tell him as I sit. “The plants were returned to the greenhouse?” I ask him as a waitress appears and pours me a cup of coffee. I’m referring to the stuff we found while sweeping the bars. I had no idea the best way to handle it, so I reached out to Perez who said my brothers could drop it off to him and he would handle it.

Axel gives me a slight nod. We place our predictable order with the waitress, and once we are alone he looks at me. “Where were you?” he demands.

I do a stare off with him for a few beats. “Why? Did you need me?”

“You never ask me to cover you for the whole night. You ask for an hour, sometimes a few, never the whole night. Where were you?”

He has me there. “I was helping a friend.”

Axel stares at me for a few seconds, and then takes another sip of coffee.

“I had the crew do another search overnight at all of the places. They are still clean. No new hires until after this is sorted out. So we are down two people in the Flint location now. I have a few people that have covered the holes, but that is stretching us.”

“Okay, we’ll need to put the word out that we need some staff,” I say. “But nobody unless we meet with them first.” Axel nods. We didn’t handle hiring those last two knuckleheads, and it hadn’t turned out well.

Our breakfast comes and we go through some of our weekly rundowns. Axel and I meet like this each week. Sometimes Slade comes, but he is newer to the business, so he spends more time with Dad right now, learning the ins and outs. Axel is kind of the head security guy, and this slip in of those two fools has shaken him. He is now doubling his efforts at all the spots to make sure things are running okay. He is good at keeping everyone in check. He is a scary motherfucker, that brother of mine. Being in the marines made him that way.

When we are done and paid, we head outside.

I get in my car and call my dad, deciding I can kill two birds with one stone. I’ll get him alone to talk with him and he can help me out. I have been strung out and edgy about whatever is going on with him, and I need to get to the bottom of it.

“Dec,” my Dad says in salutation.

“Dad. Do you know how to install a doorknob?”

Silence meets me and then my dad lets out a deep chuckle. “Break something?” he asks me.

“Kind of,” I say, relaxing.

“Meet me at the hardware store.”

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