Page 84 of Their Property
“Started to wonder if you’d changed your mind.” He stepped aside to let me through.
“Never.” I walked in, stopping directly in front of him and lifted to my tiptoes to kiss him. “How’s Grudge?”
His kiss was warm and lingering, tasting slightly of whiskey while his fingers caressed my neck. “He’s alright,” he murmured, running his touch lightly over my cheek. “Mostly calmed down and resting.”
He turned aside, giving me a view of Grudge laid up in bed while he closed the door. Grudge was still shirtless, the sheet pulled up to his waist and white gauze wrapped around his head, covering his eyes.
Munin was perched on the headboard, preening his feathers and vocalizing softly.
“Hey, Grudge,” I called softly, heading to his bedside. “It’s me.”
At the sound of my voice, his head turned abruptly, facing away from me. His fists clenched at his sides, gripping the sheet as his mouth curled into a snarl.
T-Bone gave him a chiding look. “Don’t be like that, man. It’s just Kyrie.” He sat down and scooted toward his partner in the middle of the wide, king-sized mattress. “He doesn’t like being seen as weak,” T-Bone said to me. “Especially by people he likes.”
Grudge growled and swung his arm out blindly, whacking T-Bone in the chest.
“Oh, Grudge, are you kidding me?” I climbed on the bed and crawled toward the two of them, prompting Grudge’s head to swivel back in my direction. “You’re one of the strongest men I know.” I took his hand, lacing my fingers with his and squeezing like how we did after the shootout. “You’re in the top three, for sure.”
“Huh.” A smile twitched at his lips before he went stone-faced again.
Moving slowly, I took my chances getting closer to him. Stretching my legs out over the sheet next to him, I scooted in until my temple rested lightly on Grudge’s shoulder. Across from me, T-Bone copied my position and rested his head on the opposite shoulder, his expression warm and amused.
“I’m really glad you’re okay, Grudge.” I stroked my thumb over our combined fingers. “It could have been so much worse. Thank God it wasn’t.”
He pulled in a long breath and sighed it out, along with a soft groan of frustration from his throat. T-Bone lifted his head, resting his chin on Grudge’s shoulder. “What’s the matter? You’re still hot as fuck, if that’s what’s bothering you.”
Grudge snorted, then pantomimed writing before cutting his hand sharply through the air.
“Oh, I get it.” My heart ached painfully with the realization. “You can’t write like this. It’s even harder to communicate when you can’t see.”
Grudge nodded and T-Bone pushed aside his hair to kiss his neck. “It’s just until your eyes heal. A couple of days, maybe even sooner.”
“Hrmmm.” The rumble from Grudge’s throat was frustrated, dissatisfied. I could only imagine how slowly two days would go by when you couldn’t communicate your needs.
An idea struck me when I looked down at our hands clasped together. It could work, but considering how he reacted when I first brought it up, I’d have to tread carefully.
“Hey, Grudge?”
“Mm, Kah?” His face turned toward me, and he must not have realized how close I was, because his lips just barely brushed my forehead.
“We could try signing, if you’d like,” I said. “Not anything complex, but we could finger spell into each other’s hands. It would just take learning the alphabet.”
T-Bone sat up excitedly. “That’s a great idea.”
“Hmm.” Grudge didn’t sound convinced.
“Aw, come on, man. You know D and I have wanted to learn it. Kyrie can teach us. I mean, why the fuck not?”
Grudge made another disgruntled noise, and T-Bone rolled his eyes. “He does know some words and most of the alphabet already. He’s just…got some bad memories associated with it.”
“That’s okay, we don’t have to. Instead, we can keep it simple to yes or no questions, or—”
Grudge pulled his hand from my grasp and clumsily splayed my fingers open. He used his opposite hand to sign into my palm,“O-K.”
“Okay?” I repeated. “You’re sure you want to do this, Grudge?”
He nodded and spelled another word into my hand.“V-E-S.”
