Page 69 of Freeing Souls

He hums before pulling away and giving me a small smile. “No.”

“So much for you being the reasonable one,” I grumble.

He laughs. “Hey, I am reasonable, which is why I can’t save you. They need it, you need it. Avoiding it would only make it worse.”

“Fine.” I sigh dramatically before placing a kiss on his lips. “Thank you for talking to me like a normal boyfriend.”

“You’re welcome. Stop delaying now. Let’s go.” He takes my hand, and we head downstairs to the gym, where Cade and Ryker are lightly sparring with each other.

When they notice us, Ryker tells me, “Wrap your hands and take the hoodie off.”

Well then. I take the hoodie off, leaving me in leggings and a sports bra, before grabbing some wraps and securing them on my hands. When I get to the center mats, they both stop and face me.

“Anything you don’t think you can manage right now?” Cade asks me.

I shake my head, my throat growing dry at having them both standing in front of me shirtless, their bulky arms crossed over their chests.

“Stretch, and then we’ll do the speed bag before you spar with both of us,” Ryker says.

Knowing I am probably about to get my ass kicked, I sigh and get to stretching while Cade and Ryker share a secret smirk. Fuckers.

Grayson

Not needing to get sucked into the chaos I know is about to ensue in the gym, I sneak out and head back upstairs. When Cade woke us up to say Harley wasn’t in the club, we all were ready to spiral out of control until I got a message from Nerds with what was happening.

I calmed, I was upset she didn’t tell us, but I also understood why she felt the need to just get out after Ryker had called her out about her trauma. I was glad she wasn’t alone, so it was easy for me to let it go, especially once I had eyes on her again, I was fine.

But Cade and Ry were a different story. They were enraged, and it took both Sugar and I talking to them to get them to relax. Ryker demanded the tracker right away, and Cade just kept silently seething that his brother didn’t tell them he left with her.

We all discussed prior to everything that we would be there for Harley but try our best to keep our hands to ourselves unless she initiated it. We wanted her to work up to whatever she wanted. Knowing her, that means that when something happens, she isn’t going to be open about it right away. But what we didn’t take into account was last night, how she might try to push herself in a fight with her own demons to move on faster, to force herself tohealfaster because she is sick of feeling this way.

So now, we are at a loss for how to help her. I don’t know what to do besides just make it known I am here for her. I want her to be okay, and I will do whatever is necessary to make that happen. I just wish I could figure out what she needs.

When I get upstairs, everyone is slowly waking up for the day, so a few people are scattered around the main room. My eyes immediately find Lincoln sitting at a table by himself, staring down at a mug of coffee his hands are tightly wrapped around.

Delaying my plan to go to the tech room, I take a seat across from him. “Hey, you okay?” I ask him. We haven’t seen much of them lately, between Atlas going through some intense aftercare since the explosion and them having to take care of the business they own back in Virginia, it has been sparse.

His head snaps up to look at me before he relaxes back in the chair and runs his fingers along the rim of the mug. “Yeah, I guess. We are going back home today. I wish we could stay longer, but…” He shrugs, not finishing his sentence.

“Are all of you guys okay? I know before the explosion and everything you were looking at houses and stuff to move this way. Is that still something that is happening?”

Linc glances around before leaning forward and speaking quietly, “Being honest, no. We aren’t all okay. Brielle won’t tell anyone because she isn’t ready and I won’t break that trust, but we are working through some shit right now. We are still planning to move here, I just don’t know when.”

“I’m sorry you’re going through so much,” I say softly, questions forming in my head. I’m trying my best to hold them back. He clearly isn’t going to tell me what is going on.

“Don’t feel sorry for me. I’ll be fine. I just wish we all could’ve been here for you and the others through all this shit.”

“When it rains, it pours.” I shrug.

He chuckles. “Ain’t that the fucking truth.”

We sit and chat about my plans now that I have graduated high school, we talk a bit about my brother and what it was like when they were around each other. It feels nice, like a breath of fresh air to be able to just sit and talk to someone who knew my brother. I’m glad I decided to give Linc a real chance so I can have some kind of relationship with him.

We are interrupted when Sugar and Nerds come out from the hall with the offices and head our way. Nerds takes a seat next to me while Sugar sits at the head of the table. “Everything alright? I was going to come see if you needed help with anything soon,” I say to Nerds.

“Fine. We were just discussing how to track down Killer,” he tells me as he opens his laptop back up.

“Where are Stone and Axe?” Sugar asks.

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