Blood Bonds(The Bonds That Tie #3)(72)

He grins at me like I’m the sun, warming him right down to his core.

I stare back at him the same way, both of us looking like sappy idiots in love. I know this for sure because Elliot, the foreman, tells me so with a hell of a lot of snark in his old, gravelly tone.

“I’m not sure if you noticed, but she’s my Bond. There’d be something majorly fucking wrong if I wasn’t a sappy shit over her. Besides, look at her with all that dirt over her and that big grin. Can’t blame me,” Gabe drawls. Elliot waves us both off for the night, demanding we show up on time tomorrow morning.

“No promises. I’m a delicate princess about my sleep,” Gabe calls back, draping his arm over my shoulders. He’s just as dirty and sweaty as I am, so I don’t feel self-conscious of how bad I must smell.

We walk together through the almost empty streets, it’s mostly dirt and loose gravel on this side of the town because the houses are not move-in ready yet. Eventually, there’ll be cars and all sorts of vehicles here, but we’re not quite at that point yet. The logistics of starting a whole new town and community makes my head hurt. I can’t think about it too much without wanting to puke on North’s behalf.

How is money going to work here?

Job allocation, education, what do we do about crime and neighborhood disputes? I’m fairly certain we’re still in the States, but does the government know about this place? Taxes?

Too much for me right now.

So I focus on the small stuff, the questions I can ask and get simple answers for instead. “How did you learn how to build houses? Or are you just a natural at it?”

He scoffs at me. “I’m not sure there’s any such thing as being a natural at framing, but my dad was a partner in the family construction company. My great-grandfather started it, and it was sort of a tradition that all of the family worked there during the summers. My dad took over the business side of it, but one of my uncles is still on the tools. He’s finishing a job in Nevada and then heading over here, but his family is here. What’s left of it, I mean.”

I grimace, that seems to be a recurring theme with everyone here in the Sanctuary. Loss of family, loss of Bonds, loss of the people that matter most to us all.

He hesitates for a second and then asks, “What did your family do? Before the accident?”

It throws me for a second, but of course he’d ask about my family. Of course he’d be interested. We’re Bonds, and I’ve told him basically nothing about my life before the Resistance took me. Very, very little.

“We mostly moved a lot. I didn’t understand why but now—now I’m pretty sure that Davies knew about me. I think my parents were on the run to keep him away from me. But my father, my biological father, he did something with the stock market. Andrew was an engineer; he ran a business remotely and always had his computer with him while he did consulting work. Vincenzo was once a chef, but gave it up to stay home with me and mom. He was a Neuro and spent a lot of time training me on how to manage my emotions and my bond. My mom… I don’t actually know what she once did. I never asked.”

My voice breaks a little as I say that and his arm tightens around me, bundling me into his warmth a little closer. “You were a kid. You didn’t get the time to grow up and ask her all the shit you wanted to. Nothing to feel guilty about, Bond.”

I nod, but it’s there nonetheless. It always will be.

When we get back to the house, I duck into North’s room to use his bathroom. No one else is home yet, and when Gabe offers to grab dinner for us both, I shake my head.

“I want to find North. It’s Nox’s night tonight, and I need to… make sure it’s going to be okay. I always do.”

Gabe scowls but nods, walking me over to North’s offices without another word. He sees me all the way to the elevator before kissing me goodbye soundly. It’s only been two days since I slept in his bed, but without being Bonded, it still feels like an age.

I’m not sure the ache will ever really go away. I’m doomed to feel incomplete forever.

I scan my card to get access to North’s level and when the elevator doors open back up straight into North’s office, he’s on the phone, frowning and rustling papers in a very frustrated-looking way. He glances up at me and his frown eases a little. August comes out from behind him and bounds over to me joyfully.

I stoop down to give him scratches, cooing at him in a hushed tone so I don’t interrupt the phone call, but North’s tone gets snappier as it goes on, clearly trying to get it over with so he can speak with me.

I feel bad for interrupting, but not quite enough to leave. I’ve barely seen him since we got here, and I’m already missing those long days of being trapped in his bed in the post-Bonding haze.

“Councilman Rockelle, I’m done for the evening. We can get back to this tomorrow. I’m not having another late night. Even I have limits.”

When I take a seat on the other side of his desk, August tucks his head into my lap as he sits on my feet, a weightless bundle of smoke that is still comforting as hell. North glances up at me again and scowls at the distance between us, pushing his seat back a little and then motioning to his lap like he really expects me to get up and climb onto him, no matter that he’s on the phone doing important councilman things.

Well.

That’s exactly what I do.