Page 85 of Hide From Me

“Not going to disturb the beast right now. Yeah, give us twenty. She’s making food.”

He chuckled again as he hung up.

“Well?” I asked.

“Well what there, short stuff?”

I pushed around the egg, making scrambled eggs. There was a knock at the door, and I hated admitting the spike in my pulse as I wished it was Cas.

“That’s Zeid. Got enough eggs?”

I looked at the pan and at the carton.

“I guess I can add more. You two look like you eat a lot.”

He answered the door a second later and Zeid walked in.

“Great. So warning you about the car might be better after we have a full stomach,” Zeiden said, taking in what I was doing.

I was plating the eggs as the sausages popped and sizzled in the second pan.

“Warning me? Did something happen to my baby?”

I looked up at him and watched the look over my head to Xander like I was dumb and wouldn’t notice.

“Boys, I will leave you without the damn food and eat it all myself if you don’t tell me right now what happened to my car. I really can’t afford a new one right now. Was it shot up or something after I left?”

Zeiden reached for cups and started filling them with orange juice. I couldn’t decide if I was impressed that they were better stocked than I was or annoyed at how they weren’t answering my question.

“Give it five minutes, and then I’ll tell you, alright, Rys?”

Why is it that, when he looked at me like I was a part of his family and that he actually cared what I thought even behind all the tattoos and piercings, I just rolled over and gave in?

“Fine, Zeiden, but you don’t tell me in five, then I get to knee you in the balls.”

He just smiled like I’d offered him a gift.

“I knew it was a mistake when we sent you off to live with that aunt of yours.”

I pulled the sausages out one by one and put them on three plates. I stopped when I noticed Zeiden grabbing a fourth plate.

“I’m glad you regret that because it sucked. And wait who?—”

The banging at the door stopped my words.

“Huh. I thought it would take him five minutes to get over here once he realized you weren’t in his apartment anymore. Turns out it was two,” Zeiden checked his phone and walked to the door.

“Where is she?” Cas demanded.

I ignored the voice that melted me like a damn ice cream in the heat. Of course, the idea of him licking me like that, well. I pressed my thighs together and took a deep, calming breath. There, that was better.

I grabbed the three plates and left the fourth. If he thought he could get all mad and just walk away? So could I. Or, rather, I could protest and not give him food.

“Oh, boys, breakfast.”

Xander was already next to me taking a plate, but what I’d said did the trick on getting his attention.

“Rylee, what the hell do you think you’re doing?”