Burn (Brothers of Ink and Steel #2) by Allie Juliette Mousseau

But he’s too busy right now to pester.
    I’m on the UFC fight card against Milano a month from now.
    First you’re on the fight card with Quinn Kelley, in about a half an hour.

 
    Chapter Five
     
    October, 2004
    Quinn
     
    “Fucking snow! Not tonight.” Liam curses the sky once we get away from his foster house and tries to figure out the new and almost as bad situation we’ve been thrown into.
    It feels worse than if we’d been dealing with the cold all through the night; instead, we were warm and asleep just a couple hours ago.
    The wind is blowing badly, too.
    “If I was alone, I’d go to Randy’s,” Liam says. “Crawl through his basement window. But if his mom found me there with a girl … not good.”
    “Then, go on. I know where the bridge is!” I snap back, hurt.
    “I didn’t mean it like that! I was just thinking out loud—”
    “That you’d be better off without me. Trust me, I’ve heard that one, Liam.” All of a sudden the cold doesn’t bother me anymore. “You know what? Fuck this and fuck you.”
    Abruptly I turn and walk the opposite way.
    “Quinn!” Liam catches hold of my arm.
    I scream, “Let go of my fucking arm!”
    “What the fuck is your problem?” He shoves my arm down.
    “You! You’re my problem!” I get in his face. “I didn’t ask you to take care of me!”
    “I didn’t say you did!” he yells.
    “Yeah, well, you’re acting like it!” It’s not right, and I try to stop myself—he just had his asshole foster parents try to snuff out his life and I’m going to be a bitch? “I’m not stopping you from going your own fucking way! Go to Randy’s! Maybe you can call Tina and get into her pants, and it can be like you never met me!”
    Fuck! I’m going to cry. “Screw this! Screw you!” I run away from him. I’m acting like a baby, but I can’t control my freaking thoughts or mouth!
    “Tina?” Liam shouts at my back. “What the fuck are you talking about? And get back here!”
    “None of that would have happened with your foster parents if I hadn’t been there. You’d be sleeping in your safe, warm bed!”
    “That’s ridiculous, he’s been pulling me out of that bed since I’ve been there—it was never warm or safe.”
    “Look, I’m really not trying to be an immature bitch. I’m serious. You’re better off without me! You don’t owe me anything.”
    “Would you just shut up? Stop talking like that! Jesus Christ! You’re a real pain in the ass, you know that?”
    “An even a better reason to go our separate ways.”
    “Quinn, I don’t want to go my own way. Friends don’t do that.”
    “I haven’t had many friends who haven’t done that. Could be I’m just a loser.”
    “You’re a pain in the ass, but you are definitely not a loser! You’re anything but a loser.”
    “I don’t want to be weak! This world isn’t kind to weaklings.”
    “You just feel weak ’cause you’re tired and have been fucked over so many times,” he says. “You’re not weak, you’re not a loser. And what I said before about wanting a home and a family not being a dream … I was acting like a dick. They’re perfectly real dreams … and maybe I want to help you get them.”
    I take a deep breath as Liam pulls me into his arms and holds me.
    “Christ, you’re freezing. Now stop fucking fighting with me, I have a good idea.” He takes my bare hand in his and stuffs them both in his coat pocket.
    I like it—the warmth of our skin together creates a thawing heat inside his pocket. We walk on the outskirts of the city for a while, until Liam stops in front of a 24 hour laundromat.
    We go in. It’s so wonderfully warm.
    And as my eyes adjust to the bright fluorescent overhead lights, Liam leads us to the back of the place, next to the cement wall.
    We carefully step past a homeless guy who is lying on the floor, bundled up in a blanket.
    That makes me seriously nervous. Liam catches me eyeing the guy.
    “I’m here, you don’t have to