Love's Cruel Redemption (The Ghost Bird #12)(42)

A few of us thought to stay here more long term, but there was too little room for us.

Someone had brought one of the big bean bag chairs from Kota’s house and set it in the corner. I went to it the moment we were inside, rolling around on it, stretching and yawning.

Victor put his bag near the door, then made sure the door was locked. He unbuttoned the front of his shirt and rolled up the sleeves a bit higher on his forearm. “What a day, yeah?”

I made a noise that wasn’t quite a grunt but close. “Can I ask you something?”

“Always.”

My head had been partially sideways and upside down on the bag. I picked it up, the blood rushing out and making me a bit dizzy. “How long do you think Karen might have been stealing stuff from lockers? And was she always doing it for Hendricks?”

Victor finished fiddling with the sleeves and sat down next to me on the bag, causing me to roll into him. He put an arm around my shoulder, reclining and putting his head back. “Remember when you were in trouble because someone stole stuff out of girls’ lockers?”

I couldn’t forget. The girls had been herded into the showers, and I was cornered by Mr. McCoy, before he went rogue. “I was wondering the same thing.”

“If she did it,” Victor said.

“And if Hendricks...or McCoy put her up to it?”

“I don’t know if there’s a way to find out unless she tells us. I don’t know if she’d be willing.”

It had bugged me since earlier today. Karen wasn’t the only one taking odd orders from Hendricks. We knew this. The problem was, I knew she wasn’t on his side. She couldn’t have been volunteering. She’d helped me out before when it came to Hendricks.

I scratched absently at my leg, exposed a bit more with the way we were sitting. The space was a bit cold, but the seat with Victor was warming up.

“How much time do I have?” I asked.

Victor leaned into me to pull his cell phone out and check the time. “A couple of hours. Although I recommend eating something and taking a good nap. We don’t know how long this is going to take tonight and you might be up late.”

I considered it, but I wasn’t really sleepy.

With his arm around my shoulders, he leaned closer. He sniffed once. “That’s the bath bombs?”

“Can you still smell it?” I asked. When I lifted my arm to my nose, I smelled it to. Sugar and sweet fruit flavors. I realized then I’d been smelling it all day. I hadn’t noticed because I got used to it.

“I think I like that one. Which one did you use?”

“Three of them? Thank you, by the way. I forgot to say that earlier.”

He chuckled with his face close to my shoulder. He kissed it once. “Maybe next time we’ll get to enjoy it together instead of Luke and Gabriel.”

My cheeks heated and I sighed. “I tried to get them to hold off.”

“They weren’t going to. That’s why I bought so many. If they found a single basket or two, they would have opened them all unless they knew they were for someone else completely.”

“What’s yours is mine, right?” I giggled. It was sort of how their group worked. I was still getting used to the concept. But then, I constantly borrowed clothing, books, blankets, beds...nearly everything. Asking ahead didn’t always work, because they could be unreachable. Knowing I could just borrow or use and it was okay made it much easier.

He lifted his head, the fire in his eyes lighting up to a full blaze. “Absolutely,” he said, his voice huskier than before. “Everything I’ve got. Want anything?”

I smiled at this, a bit warmer. The tone of the conversation changed. “I don’t need anything.”

He started rubbing my shoulder, and then massaged a bit. “It’s a shame I wasn’t there last night.”

“It was a little weird to be there without you.”

He beamed at this, leaning over to kiss at my shoulder again gently. “Maybe...soon I won’t be so far away.”

I swallowed and then turned over, shifting so I was more on my side, looking at him. He shifted around as well, letting me prop my head up on his arm, but turning so we were stomach to stomach.

I put a hand on his side to stabilize while I was shifting around but then left it there. It was odd how with some of them, I got used to some things, touching and leaning into them. Sometimes, like now, it had been a while since I’d been around Victor like this, and I was feeling a bit shy. Not as bad as like when we were first getting to know each other, but still I was blushing and hesitating.

“I know you want out,” I said softly.

The fire eyes lit up. “I want to be with you,” he said.

“If there’s a house for us...”

“We’ll find one.”

“But...I mean you know the others will want to go. Luke and the rest...”

He pressed his lips together and nodded slowly. “I think it will be okay. If I want to see you, you’re down the hall. Or at least not an hour away.”

When I thought about it like that, I liked it. “I do worry about the others, if this might push at them...with how they feel.”

I didn’t want to say what I was thinking, but my nerves lit up like his eyes when I thought of them in the same space. Would they find it harder to be around each other? Even outside of the relationship issues, their personalities were so different. Being friends and then going to their own homes was one thing. Living with each other was totally different.