Ash(64)

I didn’t know where Lucas was, but I figured the best place to start would be his penthouse. I practically ran my ass through the Hive, up the elevator, and out onto level fifty. I didn’t pause before I reached his suite and started slamming my fist repeatedly against the white door.

“Lucas!” Patience was not my strongest suit right now. I was panicking, and this made me do stupid shit.

There was no answer and I could hear nothing on the other side. He wasn’t here. Dammit! I’d have to come back later. I couldn’t hang around now, I was due for my shift in the call center. At least the enforcers should be back. Maybe I’d work off some of this frustration by kicking the shit out of kiss-me-and-not-call-for-three-days Ryder. Yes, I decided, as I turned away from Lucas’ suite, that sounded like a perfect plan.



There were two ash in the room when I entered ten minutes later, neither of them enforcers, both lowly shit-kickers like me. I so badly wanted to be an enforcer. It was unfair they were out there doing things and I was stuck here taking calls. Ninety percent of which were false alarms. Their shift was over, so they left without a word. I was still getting plenty of extra looks, and more than a few had approached me about spending some quality time with them, but these two were professional. They did their job and barely talked to me. Which was how I liked it.

I settled back into my padded, high-backed chair. For some reason, even though it was generally a two person shift, I was always in here alone. Or with one of the sexy six or the extended group of enforcers.

Speaking of, they should have been back by now. I swiveled in the chair, one eye on the door at all times. I’d like to think I wasn’t so much acting like a crazy girlfriend as much as I was acting like a concerned friend. But, in reality I was dying to see Ryder. For so many reasons. But mostly to stare into those silver and black eyes for the first time since “the kiss” and see if the same heavy emotions still laced them. I needed to see if he had missed me too.

In my musing, I didn’t hear the scuff of boots, and by the time my head shot up, Kyle was in the doorway. I jumped to my feet, taking the two steps across the room to stand right before him.

“Hey…” I sounded a little breathless, and knew I needed to try and find some cool again. I was officially screwed right now, and my feels were leaking all over the place. “How was the call out?”

Details on their operation were limited and had seemed a little sketchy. Oliver had told Jayden that the Hive in Seattle had had some sort of internal problem which required specialist treatment. And Ryder and his men were the best enforcers in America, so they’d had to step in. It just seemed awfully strange that no one else had heard of any mass craziness in other Hives. To take away all of our top enforcers, it should have been huge enough to make the gossip-vine light up. They’d left us virtually unprotected. But clearly I was just a worrier, because they were back now and nothing terrible had happened while they were gone.

“Hey, Charlie bear,” Kyle said with a massive grin. He leaned forward and swept me into a hug. “Good to see you holding this place together while we were gone.” I hadn’t expected the show of affection from him. I think I had officially been accepted into the enforcer inner circle.

Yes!

I couldn’t hold back the grin. Ryder’s best friend was such a relaxed dude. The only time I’d seen him lose his cool was in regards to Ryder. Their history clearly had some pain buried deep down.

“It’s been quiet here. What was the big deal in Seattle?”

Kyle, who was dressed in the usual black on black, patted me on the head as he strode in and dropped heavily into the chair I hadn’t been using before. “Seattle was a pain in my ass. Their culling ash rioted and joined forces to hold the Quorum hostage. They killed their lead enforcer. Bloody mess. We’re called in for anything to do with Quorum members. By the time we got there, it had died down a bit. Only one member was in any danger, and that was mild at best. We had to stay for a few days of the culling to make sure no trouble stirred up again, but it was all calm. Ryder and I barely slept. Spent nearly the entire time throwing ash bitches in their version of the pit.”

He lifted his long legs and dropped heavy boots onto the bench, stretching back in his chair.

“We were supposed to be there for another day. Their Quorum had some sort of fancy-ass dinner for us, but Ryder was at the end of his patience with politics. He sent us back behind their backs, and stuck around just long enough to ream them a new one for wasting our time. He should be back tonight.”

I sort of knew I wasn’t hiding my interest in Ryder, even though I hadn’t said anything specific. Kyle wasn’t stupid, and he’d seen our heavy make-out session. I worked hard to conceal my disappointment that he wasn’t back yet, but clearly failed at that task.