House of Darken (Secret Keepers #1)(31)

What is wrong with you, Emma?

“You’re wasting your worry, sweetheart,” Jero said softly. He had moved forward again. “Lex is the predator in this situation.”

I let out a low huff, crossing my arms over my chest. “He’s holding me hostage. I don’t care if he gets eaten by bears.”

“And yet you haven’t fought that hard to get free. Why is that?”

Jero was starting to annoy me. I let out another huff. “Because I want answers. Because your council seems to know about my guardians. I followed you to figure out what was going on. I still don’t know, therefore I will be staying until someone tells me what I need to know.”

“Uh huh,” he said, sounding not at all convinced. “Don’t put your heart in Lexen’s hands, honey. Trust me, he’s not for you.”

I didn’t bother to reply again; more protest would only make it worse. I remained silent, my eyes locked on the figure visible in the headlights of the car. Actually, make that figures. Lexen had been joined by three other tall men, all of them pretty much equal to his giant height, all of them broad shouldered and throwing off an aura of menace I could somehow feel from the car.

Jero, losing his relaxed attitude, focused on them as well, his body tense beside me as we stared. Despite the lights from the car, I couldn’t really make out the features of the other three. One was very blond; another looked to have a shaved head. The last was hidden in the shadows.

“Who are they?” I asked, not expecting Jero would answer. He just leaned even farther forward, pushing me to the side with his bulk. His scar was shining in the dimly-lit interior, and I looked closer – this was the first time I’d been in close proximity.

“How did you get your scar?” I tried, pausing when I realized how rude it might be to ask that. I was on edge; my brain and mouth were working independently it seemed.

Thankfully Jero just winked at me. “Chicks dig scars, right? Lexen gave it to me when we were younger. He lost control of his … temper. He says it was an accident, but since I had been annoying him at the time, I wonder if there wasn’t a little intention behind it.”

Jero didn’t seem torn up about it, and he was kind of right. The scar gave a rakish look to his handsome face. It didn’t detract at all. “Lexen is a bastard, but … your scar is pretty cool. I wouldn’t go around thanking him for it, though. He could have taken your eye out.”

He laughed, tugging annoyingly on a few strands of my long hair. “It takes a lot to scar us. We heal … fast. Lexen lost control. It happens.”

Movement outside the window caught both of our attentions. I forgot what I was about to ask, focusing again on the group of four. My eyes sought out Lexen, feeling some relief that he was okay. I shouldn’t be this tense. Seriously, it was weird. Because he was a stranger, a dangerous, scary, supernatural stranger.

I tried to relax. The only thing I should be worried about was this situation getting out of hand and someone attacking me. I did not care about my kidnappers.

Screw you, Stockholm. Screw. You.

Before I could beat myself up any further about my apparently overly huge heart, the little clandestine meeting broke up. The four dispersed off into the shadows. Well, three did, the other bad boy made his way back to our car.

Jero relaxed back, and by the time Lexen opened his door to slide inside, you would never have known that his brother had been worried at all. It was a silent drive back to Daelight Crescent. I bit back multiple questions. I hated mysteries. Even in books it was a genre I avoided, and if I did happen to find one where there was a huge mystery involved, I was sometimes guilty of reading the last page when I was only halfway through.

I made no apologies for that. People should just be straight up.

“How did you end up on Daelight Crescent?” Lexen’s question took me completely by surprise. I left an awkwardly long period of time before I answered.

“As you know, Sara and Michael … my guardians,” I added quickly, “search for supernatural happenings around the world. They picked up a lot of signs in Astoria, and packed us up to move here. Apparently a shack in Daelight Crescent was the only rental in Astoria we could afford.”

I was really hoping that if I was honest he would be honest, but I wasn’t going to hold my breath.

“That’s impossible,” Jero said. I turned to find him shaking his head.

“Which part?”

“The supernatural signs part. We don’t have signs. There are no signs. You won’t find a damn sign for a mile…”

“I think she gets the point,” Lexen drawled.

I looked between the two of them. “Well, they did tell me that the signs appeared all of a sudden, despite them having run the same checks multiple times in this area over the years.”

Lexen’s jaw was rigid. “Someone lured your family to Astoria.”

That was the theory I was starting to run with. “Why do you have rentals for humans on your street anyway? Especially if you’re trying to stay under the radar. And why would anyone lure us here?”

A secret fear I was hiding inside was that we’d been lured here because someone didn’t want my guardians poking around in their business any longer, that they brought them here to get rid of them. I was hoping Lexen would have a different theory, one which resulted in them both still being alive.