A/N: Will you do me a favor? Could you comment and tell me how you found my book? A few words like "it was recommended by a friend/it was suggested in STORIES YOU MIGHT ENJOY/I've read other stories by you/etc." will do. Thank you! <3

*****

I instantly recognized the woman who walked towards us even though up until now I'd only seen her on TV.

Officer Kelly whatever-her-last-name-was was young, at about twenty-two or twenty-three years old. Even on the screen I could see that she kept herself in shape; that was more evident now that she was out of her standard uniform and into cotton shorts and a light blue spaghetti straps top.

The man whose hands moved the wheels of his chair was at about the same age as her. My first guess was that they might be related, but I quickly dismissed that thought. The features of his face were far more angular than Kelly's delicate ones - she resembled her cousin Keri - and his hair was a darker brown. As the two stopped in front of the porch, I noticed another difference: her eyes were bright - not as much as Kennedy's and with a different shade than his - and the man's were the same color as his hair.

"We are not interrupting, are we?" Kelly asked in a tone much more casual and friendlier than the one she'd used when speaking to the reporters.

"We were about to have breakfast," Rhys replied as the front door to his house opened and Kennedy carried out a chair. I had not foreseen that as there was only one deck chair here and both of us were to eat, we were one seat short.

"Do you want to join us?" My boyfriend offered, pointing to the abundant food.

"Thanks, but we already filled our stomachs," Kelly tapped her flat belly.

"So, you won't need more chairs?" Kennedy asked, ready to provide them for us. Perhaps Rhys had been right: the boy was acting suspiciously nice.

"Nah, we just came to meet Riley and we'll be on our way," the girl explained.

"Okay, but if you are ever short of a seat, you can always use my lap," the youngest Flemings winked, making her laugh.

"Oy, that's my wife you are talking to, you little devil!" The man in the wheelchair cracked his knuckles, but I could see the playful smile in his eyes. "And don't forget she has a gun."

The four of them laughed and Kennedy went inside back inside the house.

"And is a pretty good shooter," Rhys added when his younger sibling closed the door.

"Just pretty good?" Kelly raised her eyebrow.

"Really good," Rhys corrected, placing a hand over his chest. He then turned to me: "Allow me to properly introduce you to Kelly and Steven Smith. You two already know who Riley is."

He quickly licked his lips as his mouth formed a smile. Wrinkles build up around his eyes as he gazed at me with such excitement and pride that I couldn't help but blush. I shook Kelly's hand then climbed the few steps to repeat the greeting with her husband. As I did so I noticed a set of scars on his left arm - clearly visible as he was wearing a singlet - and I turned to my boyfriend; the lines on Steven's arm which resembled scratch marks were almost identical to the ones on Rhys' face.

"Nice to finally meet you," Kelly said as I let go of her spouse.

"You as well; I've seen you on TV," I replied than added: "You too, Steven; it's nice to meet you." I didn't want it to appear as if I was only interested in his wife.

"Steve would do," he assured me, then looked at Rhys. "We were just at Everett's house," he nodded to a building not far away. "I told him the parts for his car arrived yesterday. I'll bring the old girl back to life in a day or two. I'm a mechanic," the last sentence was aimed at me. "Got a repairs shop next to our house. Good thing my girl doesn't mind the smell of oil." He patted her on the butt and she smiled down at him lovingly.

"What can I say? Some girls have fantasies about the delivery boy, others are into firemen and I've got a thing for sweaty, grease-covered men." She leaned down to peck him on the forehead.

I couldn't help but laugh. Kelly seemed to be one of those people I'd enjoy being around when she wasn't all police-business-like. She'd came off as a much more serious gal on the TV. Then again, she'd been working at the time. That pushy female reporter had gotten even on my nerves; I should be congratulating Kelly for keeping her cool.

"You sure I can't tempt you with some juice?" The red liquid swirled in the plastic bottle as Rhys lifted it.

"Nah, hubbie has to work on your brother's car and I..." Kelly stretched, her bones letting out a loud crack, "I need to get some sleep. I really don't know how Callum does it!" She shook her head, a strand of brown hair falling in front of her eyes. "He works hard at the office, he takes work home," she went on, "and even though he looks tired all the time, he's not half asleep during a double shift."

"Years of practice," her husband supposed.

"I guess," his wife agreed. "The guy's got a lot of flaws, but being a slacker isn't one of them. Anyway," she moved behind her spouse's wheelchair and placed her hands on the handles, "we got to get going. Hope we'll be seeing you around, Riley."

I nodded with a smile - hanging around the Silver Bullet's neighborhood wasn't as scary as I'd imagined it would be - and she swirled the wheelchair around, pushing Steve away from us.

"What did she mean when she mentioned Callum's flaws?" I asked.

"He smokes too much, drinks too much... Which do you want? This chair or the deck one?"

"Doesn't matter." I took a seat on the one Kennedy had brought as it was closer.

"Callum is also not what you'd call a people's person," Rhys continued, sitting down as well. "And he's got one very colorful vocabulary, completely unsuited for children. Kelly has been stepping in when he gives interviews as he might punch the reporters. It won't be the first time."

I snorted.

"Some of them are begging for it!" I pointed out and he nodded in agreement, lifting up the plate with the bacon.

"How many strips do you want?"

"I can serve myself," I noted, feeling my cheeks heat up for a second time this morning.

"Let me do it for you," he pleaded so I answered him:

"Three. And two eggs but... I only like the yolks," I admitted. "Can I have those?"

"Of course." He laughed, moving some of the bacon from the large plate into my smaller one. "It works out perfectly as I don't like the yolks and only eat the rest."

"Really? Don't you get nauseous from that?" I unwind the cap from the bottle. If he was serving me the food, I'd be serving us the drinks. "I always get nauseous if I eat the whole egg instead of just the yolk."

"That's strange," he commented. "And I feel just fine. Toast?"

"Two." I finished pouring the tart cherry juice and pushed one of the glasses towards him. "So why did you want me to meet Kelly and Steve?"

"Actually, I wanted you to meet each other." He took a fork and knife and began cutting his bacon. His head was tilted strangely as if he purposefully avoided looking at me. "To be honest... To be honest I wanted to show you off." His hands stopped moving and he gazed up at me.

"Does that sound bad? I don't see you as a prize or an expensive item; I'm just happy to have finally met you."

It was official: red became the color of the day, at least when my cheeks were concerned.

"There's not much to show off," I muttered, finding it hard to keep my eyes on his. He let go of the utensils to cover my right hand with both of his.

"You are a wonderful person, Riley Rivers. You are kind and compassioned, and a lot stronger than you give yourself credit for. You make me happy," he whispered. He then made a pause, his expression changing from sincere to playful. "Besides, I wanted to show off my talented coffee artist boy."

I laughed. That was the perfect line to end his narration with - one to lighten the mood after simple words which had an enormous impact on me and my selfesteem.

"The coffee artist boy?" I pretended to sulk and pouted in what I hoped was an adorable fashion. "Is that how you describe me to your friends?"

"Oh, yeah, I'm promoting you so you can get a few more clients."

If Kennedy had said that line, he would've winked, but his sibling simply kept smiling at me. I had to admit though, Rhys was seldom this playful. I enjoyed this side of him, but then again, I've enjoyed every side of him that I'd seen so far. Including his back side; my boy had a really nice butt to go with those powerful thighs of his.

"Come on," he urged, letting go of me. "Breakfast is getting cold."

"This only answered part of my question though," I told him as I began peeling an egg. "Why did you want me to meet Kelly and Steve?"

"I want you to eventually meet all of the Bullets," he replied, grabbing an egg as well. "Naturally, I want to introduce you to my closest ones first. Like her cousin, Kelly is a very good childhood friend. We've known Steve for only about six years..."

"Wait." I stopped removing the shell to look at him. "Isn't he one of the Bullets?"

"He is considered one now, but he's not from here. The community he was born in - one like ours - is in another state. Didn't you notice his accent?" I shook my head. "Well, it's a slight one. Anyway, he was on a trip with some friends and went camping at the same grounds as Kelly and a few others of us did, the two met, fell in love and he moved here. It was difficult for him to leave his family behind, but he did it to start a new one. It's only natural that one of them had to move. If each community kept to themselves, we'd all be related."

"I've never thought about that," I admitted. "I've always seen the Silver Bullets as one."

"Lisa's also not born as one of us. Her community lives closer to us than Steve's though, about a day's trip with a car." Rhys had already peeled his egg so he reached for the one in front of me.

"I got it," I said and went back to removing the shell.

"After the mishap with Alec's mother, Everett's spirit was pretty low." Rhys frowned as he cut the egg, removed the yolk and placed it in my plate. "He thought that putting some distance between them would help him so he travelled for a while although he didn't stray very far. That's how he met Lisa. She... She really healed him. When he came back and told us he's met the woman, he was glowing. He kept smiling, he couldn't stop talking about her... He brought her the next weekend to visit us and then the weekend after that and the one after that and in a couple of months they were married so she moved here."

"They fell in love that quickly?"

"We are big on the idea of love at first sight." He said it casually, but his head was in the same position as when he was avoiding to look at me earlier.

Was that idea part of the views of communities like theirs?

I couldn't comprehend how it could be. Love was something intangible; you couldn't convince hundreds of people it sparked from a single glance.

I made a mental note to ask him to elaborate later as I now wanted to inquire after something else - a topic that might've proven delicate in which case I was sure he wouldn't share the details.

"How did..." I placed the shell-less egg in front of me and took a knife to cut out the yolk. "How did Steve end up in a wheelchair?"

Rhys paused as he was about to take a bite of his toast. He returned the bread in his plate and cleared out his throat.

"By being a hero, that's how."

He fell silent and I thought he wouldn't tell me more so my eyebrows rose in surprise when he continued:

"Every now and then, someone or a group of people would leave the societies that are like ours. They may have done something the community disapproves of and gotten exiled as a result or maybe they don't share the same views as the majority of the community and they want to start their own group. The latter happened a few years back and the seceders began enlisting people from other communities to join them in the forming of a new one."

He reached for the toast again, but he put it back without tasting it.

"I think at first they were civil about it, visiting one society after the other and inviting people, but after a while - I guess they didn't get enough supporters - they changed their strategy. They actually began abducting children to raise them as a part of the newly-formed group."

"T-they... They took them from their parents?" I exclaimed so loudly that a little girl with a ponytail stopped her bike to look at me. Rhys nodded at her, trying to smile despite of the grim story he was telling me. She returned the gesture and hopped back on, driving away.

"Yes, they did." He sounded angered as he went on.

"We got a heads-up from Lisa's family - the seceders had passed by them - so we doubled the patrols, warned the parents to keep the children close at all times and the kids were instructed to stay inside. One boy managed to get out though. His father was at work and his mother was taking care of his younger siblings downstairs. He told her he was going to his room to study for a test then snuck out to meet with a girl from his school. At some point the mother noticed he was missing and called for help. A patrol usually consist of at least two members, but there was a lot of ground to cover so some split up. The seceders had almost dragged the boy to their car when Steve got a hold of them. He won the boy time to escape, but he was alone and there were three of them so by the time the rest of us joined the fight, he was already..." Rhys took in a deep breath, his eyes closing briefly until he went on.

"The doctors are optimistic though. Steve's strong, he goes to therapy and exercises at home. A couple of years ago he couldn't even move his toes, now he can stand up for a minute without any support. Who knows? After a few more years he might be able to walk again."

"What happened to the seceders?"

"We informed the proper authorities and gave up the ones we'd caught. The rest of them were eventually captured."

"Was the fight where Steve got the scars on his arm from?" I dared to quietly ask after a few minutes of silence.

"Yeah. Those won't heal."

"Is that where you got yours from?"

He looked down at his plate and grabbed the fork to stab a piece of bacon.

"No, that's a story for another time, Riley. You should eat; the meal is getting really cold."

I put one of the yolks in my mouth and chewed slowly.

Rhys had almost the same scars as Steve, yet he'd gotten them elsewhere. Could it be that their communities quarreled more often than he'd told me?

Maybe they had some special weapons to leave those marks; otherwise how would the two men get similar wounds in different fights?

I placed a hand over my own scar.

We both had our stories to tell and I couldn't blame Rhys for not sharing his with me on this morning. After all, I was not ready to share mine either.

*****

A/N: So, yay for the chapter or nay for the chapter?

What do you think of Kelly and Steve?

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