Page 85 of Their Property
I stifled my giggle as I turned his palm to face up. “Good! This is the letter Y, you use your pinky and thumb.” I signed the letter into his palm then spelled out,“Y-E-S.”
“Ah, meh,” he groaned, but another smile pulled at his lips. This time, it stayed there.
I wanted to kiss his cheek or forehead so badly, but settled for squeezing his hand instead. “It’s okay. You’ll pick it up quickly.”
“Can you show me, little lady?” T-Bone’s eyes brightened eagerly.
Maybe it was silly but I loved so much that he asked. None of us mentioned a thing about the attack or my apparent ability to shield bullets, and I preferred it that way. Teaching the ASL alphabet was the perfect distraction, at least for now.
“Sure. We’ll start from the beginning.” I placed my left hand in Grudge’s palm and brought my other hand next to my face so T-Bone could see and follow along. “Ready? This is A, B, C…”
TWENTY-SIX
KYRIE
My eyes blinked open, heavy with sleep but also refreshed. I barely remembered falling asleep, so I must have passed out hard. The bed was warm andsocomfortable, I curled up smaller against my pillow despite all my senses waking up.
The pillow, I quickly realized, was actually a man’s chest. And the heavy, warm blanket around me? His arm. Grudge’s arm.
And I’d been sleeping on Grudge’s chest.
Wide awake now, I lifted my head, feeling curious but also cautious. Grudge lie flat on his back, the bandages still over his eyes as he breathed deeply, completely asleep. The hand that wasn’t wrapped around me rested on his stomach, lifting and falling gently with his breaths.
He looked so much bigger like this. I only now took note of how big his hands were, the spanning width of his chest and shoulders. Not to mention the sight of all of his tattoos in clear detail. If he were anyone else, I’d be trying my damnedest not to wake up. But this was Grudge, and the sight of him just made me want to return to that warmth and cuddle him. So I did.
He stirred with a soft groan as I returned my head to his chest but didn’t wake. His arm around my back tightened, fingers curling into my shirt at the waist.
Moments before drifting off again, the scent of leather and whiskey surrounded me, and then T-Bone’s solid form pressed to my back. A light kiss fell to my shoulder. “Sleep well, little lady?”
“Mm-hm.” He felt so snug and perfectly aligned with my body, I knew we had to have slept like this throughout most of the night. The thought of spending the whole night between their two bodies sent warmth pooling in my belly.
“Good.” He peppered more kisses on my cheek and the back of my neck, then captured my mouth as I turned to face him.
I rolled to my back, sinking into the weight of T-Bone’s kiss. My legs slid apart and his solid body settled into the cradle between them. He was hard and warm everywhere, the fabric between us itchy and stifling. Our lips and tongues danced lazily while I explored the width of his shoulders. I went to deepen our kisses, clutched him tighter to pull more of his warm, delicious body on top of me, but he resisted when I tried.
“Do you want to talk about what happened yesterday?” He lifted away and rolled to his side, only keeping his arm around my waist, and I tried not to sigh out my disappointment.
“You mean you’ve never seen a girl just walk into the direct path of a bunch of guns and block all the bullets before?”
T-Bone humored me with a chuckle. “No, I can’t say that I have.”
Munin then hopped down from the headboard, cawing softly as he approached T-Bone.
“I know you’re hungry. We’ll get breakfast in a minute.” He scratched the bird’s head as he looked at me again. “Grudge told us about your valkyrie.”
I stole a glance at the other man in bed with me, still fast asleep. “I’ve been seeing her sometimes when I’m awake. She’s like a ghost, only visible in the corner of my vision. But yesterday was different.” Looking back at T-Bone, I was relieved to see that he was raptly listening. “You don’t think I’m nuts?”
His mouth quirked up in the smile that always put me at ease. “We’re all a little nuts, but no, not because you can see a valkyrie. That’s a gift, not an illness.” He looked at the raven, who returned his gaze. “Munin is a gift too. One that I don’t deserve but is mine all the same.” The bird closed his eyes, trilling softly as T-Bone rubbed a certain spot on his neck. “I can leave my body and see through him. We’re connected in a way that’s unexplainable.”
“That time in the hallway,” I said, recalling how he went eerily still and his eyes had rolled back until only the whites were visible.
“Correct. I saw through him to find out what was happening outside.” He scratched under the bird’s beak. “And when we went to the memorial, Munin spoke to me for the first time. He made me realize that I needed to let go of my guilt from the past.” Whiskey-colored eyes flicked up to me. “And make room for new memories.”
“The valkyrie said to me,” I swallowed at the memory of that heavy, omnipresent voice. “‘Shield them, daughter, and I will shield you.’ Then I looked down and I saw her shield on my arm. I felt her helmet on my head, and I just knew I had to protect everyone and wouldn’t get hit.”
“Well, I didn’t see a valkyrie out there. Just my favorite little lady.” T-Bone squeezed my waist, but his smile faded. “And I was scared to fucking death because I thought you were a goner. Grudge was about to jump in front of you.”
“Sorry I worried you.” I went to touch his face and got my finger lightly bitten instead. “I didn’t really know what was happening. It felt like I was in a bubble.”
