Timber (Hades Book 4)

by Tate James

  My gaze darted to Zed out of habit before returning to Lucas. “Totally understandable,” I assured him. “I heard Sabine has been working the dancers twice as hard since she took over from Maxine.”

  Lucas arched a lopsided smile. “Good. But I’ll be home by this afternoon, so don’t have too much fun without me.”

  Zed laughed as he headed toward his office. “No promises, Gumdrop.”

  I lingered a moment longer, and Lucas swept me up in a tight embrace. His mom’s funeral was just one day away, and I knew it’d been steadily darkening his mood.

  “I’m okay,” he murmured into my hair before I could say anything. “I’m just... sad. But it’ll be okay. I just want to go and dance for a while today.”

  I nodded my understanding. “Have fun, then.”

  He cupped my face and kissed me hard. “Will you let me go onstage this weekend if Sabine approves?”

  I groaned. “Can I think about it?”

  He gave me a low chuckle, kissed me soundly then shook his head. “I wasn’t asking, babe. I’ll tell Sabine to put me on the schedule.” He kissed me again—dammit, my kryptonite—then smacked my ass as he left the room with a swagger.

  Shit, who was I to tell him no? If that was what made him happy... I wasn’t so insecure as to make my men keep their bodies covered in public for fear of other women ogling them. I was confident in the knowledge that Lucas might be stripping on stage for hundreds, but he was coming home to me.

  “Dare!” Zed shouted, snapping me out of my daydream. “We plotting this murder or what?”

  Grinning in excitement, I headed through to his office where his oversize printer was already spitting out a large-scale map of downtown Rainybanks and his desk was cleared off.

  The loose plan we’d already devised should be implemented easily enough; we just hadn’t known which city we’d be working with. I tapped my chin, thinking while the map printed. We’d need to grease the right pockets to keep the roads clear of cops, although the race organizers themselves would likely have taken care of a lot of that.

  Then there were the other racers to deal with. And how to work out which car held our rat...

  “You’re overthinking it,” Zed told me, and I realized I was thinking out loud. “We’ve already got the plan; we were just waiting for the race to be announced. It’ll work.”

  I bit my lip. “It has to. We’re so close to the end. I just want to map it out; do you have a highlighter?” The oversized printer was so slow, and it looked like Zed had printed in high resolution or something.

  Zed tugged his desk drawer open and held up a collection of bright colors. “That map is going to take a while to print, though.” My thoughts exactly. He slammed the door shut and slouched back in his chair, giving me a predatory look.

  With a knowing chuckle, I came around his desk to where he sat and perched my ass up on the top of it. “Oh really? What were you going to propose we do while waiting, huh?”

  He sat forward, sliding his palms up the outsides of my thighs and pushing my skirt up as he went. “I think you know.” His voice was a sultry murmur as his fingers hooked the elastic of my panties, and when I lifted my butt, he dragged them back down my legs.

  “Did someone say we’re plotting murder?” Cass rumbled from the doorway. “I love plotting. And murder. And whatever else is going on in here.” His sharp gaze locked on the panties dangling from Zed’s fingers. “Count me in.”

  Zed pushed my skirt up higher, bunching it around my waist, then he pulled me to the edge of the desk, spreading my knees so that his chair was tucked in between my legs. “Wait your turn, Grumpy Shit. That’s what you get for sleeping in.” Without waiting for a response, he parted my pussy with his fingers, then dove straight in tongue first.

  “Ah, shit,” I gasped. Bracing my hands on the desktop, I met Cass’s hot gaze as he prowled closer. Zed took that as the encouragement it was, tonguing me with determination as I moaned and rocked against his face.

  Cass must have slept well because he didn’t argue with Zed’s direction. He just dragged over a chair and kicked back to watch, his feet up on the corner of the desk and his eyes fucking me through my clothes. I held his gaze for a few moments while Zed ate me out, then I tugged my shirt over my head and popped the clasp on my bra. Why not give something Cass to really eye-fuck while he so patiently waited his turn?

  He slowly shook his head. “That’s just teasing now, Red,” he growled, rubbing his beard.

  I laughed quickly, panting as Zed slid his fingers inside my pussy. “No,” I replied, cupping my breasts with my hands. “This would be teasing.” I pinched and rolled my nipples as I moaned.

  Cass’s gaze darkened. “You’re asking for trouble now, Angel.”

  Grinning, I rolled my nipple again. Zed scraped his teeth over my clit, and I let out a small cry of pleasure. “Oh yeah, Saint?” I taunted. “What are you going to do about it?”

  Zed froze, peering up at me with a you’re so fucked look on his face.

  “What?” I asked, frowning down at him.

  He swiped his tongue over his lips, tasting me, then groaned. “I think you just waved a red cape, Dare.”

  Seeming to agree, Cass pushed to his feet, looming over me with a darkly delicious expression on his face. “Zeddy Bear, sit back a moment, would you? Little Red just threw down the gauntlet.”

  Zed shot me a look that screamed I told you so. Then he smirked. “Yes, sir.”

  I gasped my outrage as he did what Cass told him, pushing his chair back from the desk to watch. “I can’t believe you just yes, sir-ed him,” I whisper screamed. “Traitor.”

  Cass was already tugging me off the desk, then pushed my bunched skirt down to the floor and helped me step out of it. “Hands on the desk, Red,” he growled.

  I squeaked a protest, but it was all an act. I was all too happy to plant my palms on the desk and waggle my bare ass at Cass. Now that I’d started taunting him, I couldn’t seem to stop.

  He gave a low laugh and smoothed his palm down my spine. “Further,” he ordered, and I obligingly pushed my hands to the back of the desk. My nipples brushed the smooth, wooden top, and my breath caught.

  “Now, what was the question again?” Cass murmured thoughtfully, his broad hand stroking my buttocks.

  Zed coughed a laugh. “Pretty sure Dare asked what you were gonna do about her teasing you.”

  I bit my lip, grinning over my shoulder. “Is that what I said?”

  Cass leveled me with a hard glare. “Sounds right to me.”

  Before I could find any better sense and talk my way out of it, his hand cracked across my bare ass. The smack was hard enough to make me yelp, and my pelvis hit the edge of the desk when I jerked forward. But it was so quickly followed by that delicious, stinging burn of red skin that made me moan when Cass massaged the flesh.

  “Did I make my point?” he asked in a husky voice.

  I arched my back pushing back into his grip. “Was that it?”

  This time, all I heard was Zed’s laughter before Cass’s palm met my ass cheek, and I trembled with anticipation. Still, I tossed another bratty comment over my shoulder at Cass, urging him on. Each time he smacked my ass, he immediately massaged the flesh. Pretty soon, my backside was glowing and stinging, and my cunt was so wet I could feel it on my thighs.

  Cass’s next smack hit so close to my pussy that I screamed and was rewarded with two very masculine chuckles in response.

  “Zed,” Cass grunted, “help our Angel out. She seems like she needs something to do with that mouth of hers.”

  I moaned, my fingers gripping the edge of the desk and my breasts against the top as Cass kicked my feet apart, spreading my legs.

  Zed moved without protest, coming around the desk with his dick already in hand and a wide grin on his lips. Anticipation, arousal, and excitement curled through me, and I opened my mouth wide, my tongue out in invitation as he stepped closer.

  Zed gathered my hair up in his hand
and tilted my face up to hold my gaze as his dick slid into my mouth. My lips closed around him, and I sucked his tip, tasting the salty pre-cum already leaking from his slit.

  “Oh, shit yeah,” he groaned as he pushed forward.

  Cass smacked me again, but this time, instead of massaging the flesh, he plunged his fingers into my cunt, and I bucked against him, moaning around Zed’s dick. My fingers gripped the desk tighter than ever, and Cass pumped his fingers in and out of me like a man on a mission, pushing me right up to the edge of climax while Zed fucked my mouth.

  Then Cass stopped, taking his hand away entirely and making me whimper and writhe with wordless pleas for more. Zed held my hair tighter, shoving his cock deeper into my throat as I swallowed around him.

  “Shit,” Zed panted, his hips jerking as I sucked. “Saint, make her come.”

  Cass grunted in agreement, then slammed his dick into me right up to the hilt with one rough thrust.

  I shattered. My screams muffled to nothing as Zed continued fucking my face, and Cass didn’t pause. He just grunted and thrust deeper as my pussy tightened and pulsed with my orgasm. When I started to come down off it, he propped a foot up on the desk and fucked me harder.

  My front ground against the edge of the desk, and I instantly came again, right on the heels of the first one. Zed’s movements became rough and jerky, his dick pulsing against my lips, and a moment later, he pulled out of my throat so he could come on my tongue. The second he was done, he pulled away completely and opened my mouth with his fingers to watch as I rolled his seed over my tongue, then he whispered a curse as I swallowed it.

  Cass finished a scarce second later with a couple of slamming thrusts that shoved me so hard into the desk I would have bruises on my hips for weeks.

  In the heavy, exhausted silence that immediately followed, the printer chirped a happy tune to announce the finished project, and I started laughing.

  52

  Sandra Wildeboer’s funeral was an intimate thing. No churches or overabundance of flowers. No weeping friends giving lengthy speeches about all the good times they’d had. It was just six people along with a priest around her grave site. After all, she’d spent her whole adult life on the run, never forming friendships or connections strong enough that anyone would care to attend her farewell.

  The priest kept it brief, per Lucas’s request. Claudette and Big Sal each took a moment at Sandra’s casket to toss in a rose and say goodbye, then left, and it was just the four of us.

  After standing in silence for several moments, Cass shifted and squeezed Lucas’s shoulder. “We’ll give you some privacy,” he rumbled, tipping his head to Zed to follow him back to the parking lot where we’d left the Escalade.

  I glanced up at Lucas, wondering if he wanted me to leave as well. His fingers tightened around mine, though, holding me tight as he stared down on his mother’s coffin. I took the hint and leaned into his side in comfort.

  “She was a coward,” he murmured after the longest time. His voice was rough with emotion, but he hadn’t shed a single tear, like he was numb to it all. “She took the easy way out, killing herself rather than facing the sins of her past. I had a sister, and she never told me. For all I know, I have other siblings out there too. Or had. It doesn’t sound like their child-assassin program was a huge success.”

  I didn’t try to defend Sandra. Lucas was just speaking his thoughts aloud, not seeking contradiction. I wiggled my hand free of his, then wrapped my arms around his waist, holding him tight.

  “She was a fucking coward,” Lucas whispered again, his voice cracking, “but she always loved me. Before she got sick, she did everything to support me and give me all the opportunities I could have hoped for. She was a good mom.”

  I nodded, then tipped my head back to look up at him. “She was a great mom, Lucas. She raised you.”

  Silent tears spilled from his eyes, and he hugged me back, crushing my face to his chest. His face buried in my hair, and his body shook with grief. We stayed like that for a few minutes, then he drew a deep, shuddering breath before relaxing his hold on me.

  “Let’s go,” he murmured, kissing my cheek softly. “Cass promised we could piss Zed off by smoking weed in his new car.”

  I snickered, loving how my guys showed their affection for one another. Zed would be severely unimpressed to replace that new car smell with musty marijuana smoke, but he’d also allow it because Lucas just buried his mom.

  We walked slowly back toward the parking lot, my arm still locked around Lucas’s waist and our steps in sync. Zed and Cass were already seated inside the Escalade, so we climbed into the spacious backseat. Lucas pulled me against his side.

  Cass glanced over his shoulder, then, without a word, passed back a freshly rolled joint and lighter.

  “I hate you,” Zed muttered to Cass, who just shot him a wicked smirk back.

  “Simmer down, Zeddy Bear,” he rumbled. “Gumdrop deserves it.”

  Zed huffed, glancing at us in the mirror. “Getting high? Or hotboxing in my car?”

  I met his gaze in the reflection, smiling softly. Cass was the one who answered, though. “Both.”

  Zed rolled his eyes but didn’t disagree. “Home?” he asked.

  “Lookout,” I suggested instead. “A storm is about to roll in; it’ll be nice to watch from up there.”

  “While high,” Lucas agreed, taking a long drag on the joint.

  No one disagreed with that part of the plan, and Zed sighed as he pulled out of our park to drive us up the mountain behind Shadow Grove. It wasn’t a long drive from the cemetery, but by the time we arrived, we were all buzzing with a nice, light high.

  Rain began pelting down on our windshield as we parked, and for the better part of an hour we stayed there. Conversation stayed light and relaxed, and Lucas held me in a warm embrace the whole time. Eventually, when Zed murmured that we should head home, Lucas let out a soft snore.

  The three of us all grinned, but I carefully fastened our seatbelts without waking him up, and Zed drove us home.

  “Want me to carry him upstairs?” Cass offered when we pulled back into our garage.

  I shook my head, my eyes on Lucas and the way he was curled up against the door of the car. “Nah, leave him. I’ll hang out here until he wakes up. Didn’t you say you had something to do this afternoon?”

  Cass grunted, checking the time with slightly bloodshot eyes. “Shit. Yeah, I do. Zed, you coming with?”

  Zed grinned with teeth, a feral sort of smile that suggested they were going to do something bad. Damn, now I wanted to join them too.

  “You wanna come too, don’t ya, Dare?” he teased me in the mirror.

  I rolled my eyes. “Yes, and I don’t even know where you’re going.” I glanced at Lucas again and gave a small sigh. “Lucas needs me tonight, though. I think. You two have fun; just don’t get caught. Or killed.”

  Cass smirked, jerking a nod as he climbed out of the musty vehicle. Zed gave me a small salute of acknowledgement and a grin. “Yes, sir. Don’t wait up.”

  I shook my head, groaning internally. As if that wasn’t worrying. The sound of Zed’s Ferrari pulling out of the garage rumbled through our car, then a moment later, it faded away and the garage door whirred as it closed. For a second, there was nothing but silence. Then Lucas’s hand on my waist flexed, grabbing me tighter.

  “Are they gone?” he mumbled with a sleep-thick voice.

  I grinned. “Yup, both gone.”

  His eyes cracked open, and a smile of pure evil crossed his lips. “Finally. Come here.” He lifted me by the waist, pulling me to straddle him as he unbuckled his seat belt.

  “Lucas Wilder,” I purred as his hands pushed my black dress up my legs, “were you faking?”

  His response was to crash his lips against mine, his kiss tasting like smoke and grief as his grip on my hips begged for a distraction. It was something I was more than happy to provide.

  “First you smoke weed in Zed’s car; now yo
u wanna fuck in the backseat?” I laughed. “Lucas, you’re choosing violence today, and I’m here for it.”

  “Good,” he breathed. His fingers hooked my panties, pulling them aside, and plunged deep inside my pussy.

  I gasped, my back arching. He knew what he was doing, though. In seconds, I was moaning and riding his hand like a sex-starved vixen as an early orgasm started building. And he was only warming up.

  The bouncers at Hot Spot recognized me and let Lucas and me in ahead of the huge line of waiting patrons. It wasn’t one of my bars, nor was it owned by any of my associates. It was a normal nightclub, owned by clean operators. Bouncers just tended to know who the scary bastards were, to avoid uncomfortable misunderstandings, which I was grateful for when it gave us easy entry into the club.

  “You call that anonymous?” Lucas laughed in my ear as we made our way through the packed club, heading for the bar.

  I shrugged, tugging him closer to my back as I led the way. “As good as it gets within driving distance, hot stuff. Tequila?”

  “Absolutely, yes.” His hands gripped my hips possessively as we waited our turn to be served—proving my point that I was decently anonymous here—then downed two shots of tequila each.

  Lucas’s eyes flared with heat as I sucked on the lime wedge, and he dragged his tongue over his lower lip with a groan. “Fucking hell,” he murmured.

  I smirked, then looped an arm around his neck and crushed my body to his as I kissed him. “I thought you wanted to dance,” I teased when his hands groped my ass.

  “I did,” he groaned. “I do. But I was unprepared for how scorching you would look tonight.”

  When Lucas had said he wanted to go out dancing, I’d dressed with public sex in mind: tight minidress and no underwear whatsoever. I wasn’t even wearing my guns—but had loaded Lucas with a spare in case of emergencies. I wasn’t totally dense.

  But, shit. Fucking in a nightclub supply room held special sentimentality to us.