Page 39 of The White Rider
“They wouldn’t have killed me. They had orders from my father to bring me to him alive.”
“Still, Ariel. Shit, that scared all of us, and that’s not an emotion we feel often. We all knew the only way they could have taken you without us knowing was if they incapacitated you in some way. I’ve never wanted to kill someone so badly. Did you make it hurt?”
“Well, let’s just say I played with my food a bit. I’m so mad they kidnapped meagain.It’s not going to happen a third time. I’m ready for this to be over, Leif. I want my little house in Mexico with all of you.”
Leif laughed and started stroking my back.
“It’s not exactly little. I’ve been dying for some alone time with you but knowing my brothers, as soon as I kiss you, they are going to come barging in.”
I rolled on top of him and stroked his cheek.
“That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t kiss me.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Leif growled, flipping me on my back.
He claimed my mouth like I totally just got kidnapped again. Leif took my breath away. I ran my hands through his hair, gathered up a fistful and gave it a pull. But he was right. It was like we had summoned them. I heard Dice shriek like a girl just as Aeron plopped down next to us.
“My delicate Southern eyes!” Dice yelled. “I may faint from this.”
“You are the worst cockblockers in the cosmos,” Leif groaned. “And you aren’t even remotely Southern, Dice. Aeron, shove off. I was here first. You had your time with Ariel.”
Aeronleaned back and stuck his hands behind his head like he wasn’t going anywhere. Leif grunted and rolled with me so that he was spooning my back, but we were on the edge of the mattress, and Aeron couldn’t touch me. I started giggling.
“You little shit!” Aeron yelled.
I heard footsteps and Asher’s voice.
“Will you four shut the fuck up? I had Bubbas out there. You know how they feel about strangers. We don’t need them coming inside and seeing Speedy.”
Something beautiful hit my nose then, and I tried to roll over. I had to manhandle Leif and shove him a bit. Asher was wearing two oven mitts and was holding a massive pot. I licked my lips. I was such a whore for food.
“What’s that?”
“How iffy are you about your meat?”
“That depends, we talking before or after the apocalypse?”
“It’s squirrel, isn’t it?” Dice said, flopping on the foot of the mattress.
“Oh, my god. Squirrels are so cute!” I said.
“They are spiteful little cracked out bastards with an agenda,” Dice said.
“So, Aeron has his chickens, and Dice has his squirrels?”
Leif snorted and snuggled into my back.
“Remind me to tell you about the time a chicken and a squirrel nearly got Aeron and Dice committed.”
“Tell her over dinner,” Asher said. “It’s squirrel or Costco snacks.”
Was I going to eat squirrel? I totally was. It smelled amazing, and I was getting a little burnt out on my diet of chips and stale cookies. If I didn’t like it, I’d totally have a story to tell Miss Mabel about how I ate a tree rodent while I was plotting to kill my father.
“I’ll take the squirrel for five hundred, Alex,” I said.
“Good girl,” Asher said, setting the pot on the floor.
We all served ourselves, and it wasn’t that bad if I didn’t think about it. We would move in on my father soon, but I didn’t want to think about that. I had escaped my kidnappers, and I wanted to celebrate that. I wanted to laugh and get laid, though that last part would probably be impossible with Asher here.
