Ghostwriter

Chapter 20

"Whoa, Jaybird, what happened to your car? ...Is that blood on the window?"

That must be the friend that he left Colton with.

I tug at the blindfold, but Jason grabs my hands. "Not until the garage door closes."

Jason opens his door and shuts it. "Antigone. Antigone happened to my car."

I don't hear any garage door closing. I stick my hands up and start feeling for the opener.

"And I thought Jade was destructive."

My car door opens. He wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me out, unclipping me in the process. He clicks the opener and the garage door rumbles and it drags it feet to the ground. "Roy, this is Antigone. Antigone, this is Roy."

"This would be nice, but I can't see anything." Jason stops me from tugging off the blindfold again. He's just antagonizing me now.

A hand that's too small and hairy to be Jason's grabs mine and shakes it. "Colton's taking a nap, by the way. Him and Lian are going to be great friends. So... did you two take the opportunity to have some fun while the baby was gone?" Who's Lian?

"Depends on your version of fun." Jason leads me somewhere, his hand resting on the small of my back.

"The car makes it look like you had a blast." The newcomer's foot falls heavy on the ground, but not as heavy as Jason's. He's probably smaller, which comes as no surprise. Jason's built tall and big. He almost dwarfs me, and I'm not small.

"That's one way to put it."

Another door opens, and the air of home hits my skin like a warm hug. For once, I wish Colton wasn't napping. I want to hold him and kiss his forehead, then hold him up so he can lean in and give me one of those sloppy open mouth head-bumps that he thinks are kisses.

We hurry inside, and once the door closes the blindfold comes off. It takes a moment to adjust to the light.

Roy's long orange hair snatches my attention first. He tips his hat—a red baseball cap. I take a step back. Jason snatches it off his head. "Not the best choice of headgear, Roy," he turns to me, hood still on and glaring. "He's fine. Just an idiot."

"You two must make great company." I remove Jason's hand from my back. Some part of me wants it to stay.

"I like her." Roy elbows Jason. Jason shoves him back, causing him to stumble and hit his hip on the table. "Ow!"

I sigh and grab on ice pack. I toss it to Roy, who holds it to his hip. Roy gestures to the pack. "See, Jason, this is how we treat our friends."

I scan Red. He's got no bullet injuries, thank deity, but that doesn't mean he isn't bruised somewhere. Didn't the guy tackle him to the ground at some point? "You want one too?"

He shakes his head. "Ice packs are for wimps like Roy."

Roy shoves his ice pack into Red's face. "Wimps like you, you mean!"

Is this really who Red trusts to take care of Colton?

Red knocks Roy's arm away. I lean against the counter and fix myself a drink as I watch them bicker. I think I like Barbara better.

Somewhere in the verbal jousting, Roy teases Red of hiding his face, so the hood and mask come off, and Jason's eyes are back.

I grin and sip my water, studying. Despite Jason's lack of laughter and smiles, which he's always short of, he seems happy. His lip twitches into a half smirk, and there's a little glimmer behind every eye roll. His voice doesn't hold that low, sharp edge that it does when he's actually upset or angry, like that time we walked into the living room and found Colton playing next to a left-out gun (that resulted in a screaming match) or when the men threatened to take me earlier.