Chapter 58

Jovan sat in the kitchen of the mansion drinking coffee.

He had just come back from a four-mile run, and he was a sweaty mess, but feeling good, despite the massive amount of whiskey he had consumed. He wondered when Blake would make his way back to the mansion, and checked his cell phone again to see if he had called.

Nothing.

For all he knew, Blake could have been fucked to death.

He debated what to have for breakfast and decided on a box of macaroni and cheese, which made him smile as he remembered Liberty’s love for the crap, and his heart hurt as he also recalled how he had screwed everything up with her.

As he stirred the pot of macaroni, he heard the front door open. He hoped it was Blake, as whoever had entered was whistling. He went to the dining room and peeked around the corner.

Yep, Blake. Whistling. Looking like he had almost been fucked to death, but not quite.

“Hey,” he said as he heard the water boiling over onto the stove. Running back into the kitchen, he knew he was going to have a mess to clean up.

Blake strolled in the kitchen and put a bag down on the counter. “Forget mac and cheese, man. I stopped at Denny’s. You’ve got a real breakfast.”

Jovan dumped the macaroni in the garbage. “Nice. Thanks.”

They ate in silence at the small table in the kitchen nook.

“So how was your night?” Blake asked, not meeting Jovan’s eyes.

“It was good.”

Blake looked up at him. “No regrets?”

Jovan shrugged. Did he have regrets? Maybe. But they weren’t the regrets Blake was thinking of. “Not those kind.”

Blake stopped chewing and looked at him. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that nothing happened. I got to one of the girl’s apartment, and nothing happened.”

Blake put down his fork. “What? Did you have a junk malfunction?”

Jovan rolled his eyes. “I don’t have a problem in that department, okay? My junk is ready at the word ‘go.’ I just couldn’t do it, man. I was kissing this one girl, and all I could think of was Liberty. It was a mind fuck, so I just disentangled myself, bolted, and came back here.”

He didn’t mention what he did to his junk when he got home. Deciding the subject had to be changed, he said, “What about you? How was your night?”

Blake smiled while chowing down on his bacon. “It was good. Haven’t had to keep two women satisfied in a few years, and don’t plan on doing it again. I’m calming down in my old age.”

Jovan laughed. “And what is that? Thirty?”

“Thirty-four.”

“You’re just a baby.”

“Really?” Blake asked. “And how old would you be?”

Jovan thought a moment while doing the math. “I’m one thousand and something. I’ll live another thousand or so, give or take a century or two.”

Blake let out a long whistle. “Wow. I hope I have some of that good plasma rolling through my veins.”

“Don’t know, my friend. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see. But the fact that Cohen can heal you without killing you is probably a good indication that you do. Not that I’m an expert or anything.”

Jovan watched as his friend chowed through his breakfast like Pac Man through the white dots. He had been totally honest with Blake when he described what went down the previous night, but now he better understood his actions.

In a nutshell, Liberty had hurt him, and in his hurt, he wanted to lash out. He had tried to do the old-and-tired trick of screwing his troubles away. Thankfully, he had realized his mistake before he had gone through with the plan, and he realized he had been acting like a petulant child.

Was he still pissed? Yeah, he was. For the first time in his life he had allowed himself to open up and love a female, and on his first mistake, she had tossed him to the curb.

That didn’t mean that screwing two random women was going to help him.

Wasn’t he just the mature and responsible grownup.

“Well, I’m glad you came to your senses,” Blake said. “I only wish I had.” The male reached his arms over his head and stretched. “I’m going to take a quick shower and get the slut off me, and then we need to talk about what else went down last night.”

“Look, I don’t need a play-by-play of you and the blondes. Really, I—”

“Not my intention, my friend,” Blake said. He took a long sip of his coffee. “I don’t kiss and tell. I’m talking bright-eyed fuckers like yourself.”

Jovan went still, but his heart kicked into double time. “Seriously?”

“Oh, yeah, man. Five of them, all the size of outhouses, just like you guys. Walking down the street of Phoenix as we were getting into the cabs. If your tongue hadn’t been so far down that brunette’s throat, you might have seen them as well.”

Damn. It. To. Hell.

“So what did you do?”

Blake shrugged and chewed on the last piece of bacon. “What was I supposed to do? Take them on? I am just a mere mortal, my friend, plus I had two ladies I couldn’t disappoint.”

Jovan would have probably followed them, simply because it would have been a rush. However, he understood others had their self-preservation widget intact. “At least we know they’re here.”

“That was my thought exactly. After the holidays, we call in the cavalry and start hunting them before they can get to us.”

Jovan noted the “us.” Blake had totally aligned himself with the Six Saviors.

“I’m heading for the shower, man, and then I need a nap. You up for a ride in an hour or two?”

Jovan nodded, finished with his breakfast. “Sounds good. I say we chill for another day and then head back to Fernley. While you’re sleeping off last night, I’ll call Noah and let him know about the developments.”

“Cool,” Blake said through another yawn. “Just make sure I get the credit for the visual.”