Timber (Hades Book 4)

by Tate James

  “Come on, Wilder,” I teased, using his new name like I used to when it was his stripper alias. “Show me those dance moves.”

  Linking my fingers through his, I led the way through the dense crowd until we were in the middle of the dance floor. Lucas didn’t need to be cajoled into dancing with me; this was his element. The thumping music tugged at my hips, and I spun around to face him as he moved in time with the beat.

  We danced together like we were fucking on the dance floor, all sexy glances, roaming hands, and grinding hips, until I was so sweaty I was dripping. Or, hell, maybe that wasn’t sweat.

  “Wanna find a supply room?” Lucas whispered in my ear, his voice low and drenched with desire. As if the hardness he was pressing against my ass hadn’t clued me in already.

  I groaned, grinding back against him. “Fuck yes, I do.”

  That was all the permission he needed, and he snatched my hand, making a beeline for the back of the club where we’d both already scouted out the most likely location for a supply room, accessible bathroom, or even just a dark corner to fuck in.

  “Score,” Lucas announced, as he pushed open a dark, “employees only” door. Inside was an accessible bathroom that was being used as a storeroom. So there was a lock on the door. A lock that I flicked the moment we closed the door behind us.

  Lucas dropped straight to his knees and peeled my short dress up, making me shiver when the air hit my soaking pussy.

  “Shit,” I whispered, “let me check my messages real fast, make sure Zed and Cass haven’t been arrested for public indecency or something.”

  Lucas huffed, but handed me my phone from his pocket. He was acting as my purse and holster tonight, which he was more than happy to do, considering the easy access it was giving him.

  “Do you know what they’re up to?” I asked curiously, obliging when he lifted one of my legs to drape over his shoulder.

  He grinned, then licked a long line down my pussy to make me moan. “Yeah, I do,” he admitted. “I’m the distraction. Can’t you tell?”

  Oh yeah, now that he mentioned it. “You’re the best distraction in the whole fucking world, Lucas,” I replied, then gasped and shuddered as his tongue pushed inside me, flicking and tasting.

  Shit. I had messages and missed calls. Of course I did.

  Not willing to pause Lucas’s distraction techniques, I gripped his hair tight with one hand, holding him against me as my hips rocked, and I rode his face. With the other hand, I swiped through the notifications and found they were all from Alexi.

  I frowned. What the hell did he want?

  Deciding I didn’t have the patience or concentration to read his messages, I just fired back one of my own.

  Hades: Is this urgent? I’m busy.

  His reply dinged almost instantly.

  Alexi: Yes

  That brought a frown to my face, but it was quickly erased as Lucas slid his fingers into me.

  “Oh shit,” I gasped, my legs shaking. “Dammit. Give me two seconds, Wilder.”

  With extreme effort, I pushed him back and dropped my leg to the ground so I could focus on replying to Alexi. I only typed out half a message before glancing down at Lucas, still on his knees, and tilting my head to the side.

  “Pull that gorgeous dick out, Wilder. Show me how much you love being a distraction.”

  He laughed huskily but leaned back to do as instructed.

  I hit send on my message and watched with hungry eyes as he stroked his huge dick, the tip gleaming with pre-cum already. Alexi’s reply buzzed in my hand, and I glanced down at it.

  “Alright. We’ve got ten minutes,” I told Lucas, holding out a hand to pull him to his feet. “Make me come at least twice.”

  Grinning, he lifted me by my thighs and crushed me against the door. “Yes, sir.”

  Oh yeah. Just like old times.

  It was more like twenty minutes before Lucas and I tumbled back out of the supply room, giggling and sweaty. Alexi had texted multiple times to say he was here, but I’d told him to fucking wait.

  I’d cleaned up as best I could with some napkins from the supply room, but still I groaned as Lucas and I threaded our way through the crowds toward the exit.

  “What’s that face for?” Lucas asked with a smile as we stepped out into the cool night air.

  I wrinkled my nose. “I can still feel your cum dripping out of my pussy,” I confessed, and his lips parted in shock.

  “Holy fuck,” he whispered on a laugh. “That just instantly got me hard.”

  Rolling my eyes, I tugged him further down the street to where I’d told Alexi to wait. There was a diner around the corner where I wanted to get a snack before Lucas and I called a cab to get home, seeing as we were both way past too intoxicated to drive.

  I spotted the heavyset, bulky figure stepping out of the alleyway beside the diner as though in slow motion. Something about him screamed threat, and my body flooded with adrenaline as he raised a gun.

  Lucas wasn’t the naïve, clueless, teenage stripper anymore, though. He spotted the man—the threat—at the same time I did. He grabbed me, wrapping his body around mine, and tugged me to the side right as the gunshot cracked through the night, echoing and deafening me by how close it’d been.

  A hard jolt shocked through Lucas, knocking us both to the ground, and sticky, wet blood sprayed the pavement.

  Terror swept through me, and I reacted on autopilot. I reached around Lucas’s heavy form to grab one of the guns from the holster in the small of his back and fired off three shots in the direction our attacker had been located.

  “Lucas!” I exclaimed, my free hand shaking him in a panic. There was blood. He’d been shot. “Lucas, talk to me!”

  He groaned. Good sign. “I’m fine,” he replied, flexing his shoulders to push up off me. “What the fuck—“

  His confusion faded along with mine when we saw whose blood it was. Alexi must have been nearby too. He’d thrown himself at both Lucas and me, knocking us down and taking the hit himself.

  “Check him,” I ordered Lucas, pointing in the direction of our fallen attacker. I had no clue if I’d killed him or just hurt him, but at least one of my bullets had found its mark.

  Lucas didn’t argue as he pulled his own gun and stalked cautiously closer to the gunman while I knelt beside Alexi and touched a hand to his cheek. The amount of blood pooling beneath him didn’t indicate a good outcome for my head of security, but he was still conscious. Just.

  “Alexi, what the fuck were you thinking?” I hissed, emotion clawing at my chest.

  “He was gonna shoot you, boss,” he mumbled back, blood bubbling from his lips as his eyes rolled back. “...knew I’d found him out,” he continued, his voice weak. “I hope you killed him.”

  I glanced up at Lucas for confirmation, and he gave me a sharp nod, his posture relaxing somewhat but his gun still in hand.

  “Yeah,” I told Alexi, “he’s dead.”

  More blood bubbled from his lips. “Me too, huh?”

  I wrinkled my nose, but shit. That was the life we lived. “Yeah, Alexi,” I breathed, “I think so.”

  He released a small sigh, his eyes closing. “Good way to go,” he murmured after a painful silence. “Don’t ever stop fighting, boss. Make that bastard pay.”

  I gave a heavy sigh. My fingers found his bloody ones and held tight. “I will,” I promised my friend—because despite my recent doubts, tonight proved that’s what Alexi was. A damn loyal friend. “He’ll get what’s coming to him.”

  Alexi tried to say something more, but more blood bubbled from his lips and then... nothing. He was gone.

  Swallowing back the unexpected tears burning at my eyes, I peeled my fingers free of his lifeless hand and stood up. In the distance, the sound of police sirens wailed, no doubt called by the gunshots, and I knew Lucas and I needed to get the hell out of there. Fast.

  “We need to go,” I told Lucas in a cold, hard voice.

  He nodded, stony-faced, but
indicated to the dead man he stood over. “You need to see this first.”

  Dread filled my stomach, and I crossed over to where he stood, then looked down into the lifeless eyes of Rodney, my Club 22 manager.

  53

  Maxine gasped in dismay on the phone as I filled her in on Rodney’s death and what that meant for his involvement with Chase. The reason I was telling her—aside from the fact that she had been calling me every day just to chat—was because I suspected he’d been the one to attack her.

  “Yeah,” she agreed, “it could have been. He wore a mask, but now that you suggest him... yeah, the height and build fit. I think. It’s a bit hazy, you know?”

  “Totally understandable,” I replied with a sigh. I had her on speakerphone while I did my hair and makeup after a particularly dirty shower with Zed. It was Friday night, and we were expecting a text with the starting point of the street race at any time. This was an appointment that required full Hades face.

  Maxine hummed thoughtfully. “Kinda irrelevant now, though. I’m alive and he’s dead, so, like, Rodney can suck my spirit dick.”

  I snickered at that imagery. “He would have been acting on Chase’s instructions anyway.” I paused, drawing a deep breath. She didn’t know the whole Chase story, just enough to understand who was responsible for nearly killing her. “And I’ll deal with him. Don’t worry about that.”

  She gave a throaty laugh, and I could see why Zed had been attracted to her. Even after the violent attack that’d nearly killed her and left her relearning how to walk properly, Maxine oozed sex.

  “I never doubted that for a second, H,” she told me with a chuckle. “Hey, did I tell you that I finally got an appointment with the physical therapist you recommended?”

  I smiled. Misha was crazy overbooked, but I’d sweet-talked him into accepting Maxine as a patient too. She needed the best for her recovery, and that was Misha.

  “Really?” I feigned surprise. “Well, that’s great.”

  She scoffed. “Yeah, nice try. His voicemail was literally Hades told me I don’t have a choice; be at my clinic tomorrow at twelve. But thank you. What are friends for if not leveraging their scary-ass reputations to get shit?”

  “I’m sure I have no clue what you’re talking about.” I laughed. “Must be a different Hades running around threatening people to get you shit. Did Cass sort out your security?” When I’d visited her place, I’d been quietly horrified at the lack of security on the building. She’d been targeted once; she could easily be targeted again.

  Maxine made a sound of confirmation. “Sure did. I’m locked up tighter than a nun’s cunt.”

  Cass, entering the bathroom as she said that, met my eyes in the mirror and gave me an amused look.

  “You’re a classy bitch, Max,” I replied with a chuckle, leaning back into Cass as he clasped my hips and kissed my neck.

  “Uh-huh, that’s why you like me so much,” she shot back—and wasn’t that the truth. “Anyway, you just got a whole sexy, sultry sound in your voice, which probably means you have company. I’ll leave you to it.”

  I grinned. We’d spent a lot of time talking, and though we’d been friends for a short time, she read my tonal shifts better than anyone I knew. “Not gonna deny it,” I replied, tilting my head to the side as Cass kissed higher, his beard teasing my skin.

  Maxine groaned. “I’m so jealous. Wanna leave speakerphone on so I can listen in? It’s been so long since I got laid I’m considering shares in Satisfyer.”

  “Bye Maxine,” Cass growled, reaching out to end the call before snaking a hand up my skirt. “Fuck, Red.”

  Dabbing concealer under my eyes, I smirked at him in the mirror. “This skirt shows awful panty lines,” I lied. “Better to just go without.”

  Cass hummed happily as he peeled my skirt all the way up, folding it over at my waist. We still had time; the text message hadn’t arrived with the race location yet. As for the trap, everything was in place. So I had no qualms about bending further over the sink and pushing my ass back into his groping hands.

  “Hands on the mirror, Angel,” he rumbled, already unbuckling his belt to free his thick, tattooed cock.

  I bit my lip and grinned, locking eyes with him in the glass. “Yes, Daddy,” I teased.

  His eyes narrowed. “Call me that again, Angel, and I’ll fuck you right to the edge of climax, then leave you there. Then do it again and again and again, denying you release until you’re begging me. Then I’ll remind you why you shouldn’t push my buttons.”

  I shivered because that kind of sounded like a good time. But not right now. We definitely didn’t have time for that. So I mimed zipping my lips and planted my hands against the mirror as instructed.

  Satisfied with my submission, Cass didn’t mess around teasing me. He knew, like I did, that we would have to leave the second that text arrived, and neither one of us wanted to be left hanging. So he fucked me hard and fast, both of us coming simultaneously within minutes.

  He grabbed my chin, tilting my face back to kiss me roughly, then smacked my ass and told me to hurry up with getting ready.

  Shithead.

  I made a mental note to call him Daddy later we had more time to play.

  Fifteen minutes later, as I was making my way downstairs, Zed called out that it was time to go. We had the location of the starting point, but that in itself didn’t matter to us. We weren’t racing; that was what I had Rex’s boys for. But it gave us a reasonable time frame for when our rat would come scurrying into our trap.

  We took the Escalade again so that we all fit into one car—not to mention the amount of trunk space for weapons and ammo. Also, with every passing day, Zed grew more paranoid that Chase would flip his lid and try to kill me outright.

  I disagreed; Chase would want me alive for a long time before I died. But I also didn’t put it past him to try and take out my guys with a car bomb or by running them off the road. So I had no objections to taking the bulletproof SUV when we were out together. Besides, the backseat was all kinds of spacious for sex.

  The mood in the car crackled with anticipation as we drove to Rainybanks, and I spent the majority of the drive texting with Dallas. This was a long shot, and we still weren’t totally sure the rat would show up for this race. Shelby had a photo of our guy, though, and would send confirmation if he was among the racers at the start line.

  “You reckon these kids are good enough for this job?” Zed asked as we pulled into the old shipping yard. Every visible surface was covered in graffiti, and rodents scurried around in the light cast by our headlights. We were miles from the nearest residential area. Miles away from anyone hearing gunshots or screams.

  I nodded. “Rex vouches for them. He’s determined to get all five of them blooded into the Timberwolves as fast as possible. Makes me think he’s got other enemies he hasn’t told me about.”

  Zed huffed. “Rex? Unquestionably. So long as they’re useful, though, I don’t have an issue with it.”

  “Agreed. This will be a good test for the three helping Shelby tonight. We can always do with new skills in the Wolves, and according to Rex, one of them is some kind of auto electrical genius.” I couldn’t remember which one. It was either Nix or Micah.

  We parked at our planned spot and killed the lights, then sat in silence a moment before my phone buzzed with a message from Shelby.

  “We got him,” I confirmed with a wicked grin. “Stupid, arrogant rat. Should have stayed in hiding where we couldn’t reach him.”

  Dallas sent me a link to the GPS tracking app he had linked to each boy's car. We could follow their progress from the start of the race through the streets of downtown Rainybanks as they herded our mark all the way to us, like sheepdogs in fast cars.

  Cass and Lucas got out of the car to load their guns while Zed and I watched the little colored dots moving on the screen. We couldn’t see the actual race, but the way those dots all worked together had me wishing we could.

  “Not bad,
” Zed murmured. We didn’t have a tracker on the mark’s car, but we could guess where he was based on the way the four boys were splitting up and blocking any routes other than the one carrying him right to us.

  I sent him a wild grin, and he reached over the center console. He grabbed my face, bringing it to his to kiss me hard and fast, the thrill of our mission infectious. Zed and I, we were cut from the same bulletproof cloth.

  “After,” I promised him in a rough, husky voice, my pussy already heating with anticipation.

  “Deal,” he agreed, kissing me again, then climbing out of the car to arm himself up with the others.

  I waited where I was, keeping an eye on the moving dots as I buzzed with nervous energy. Or not nervous so much as... determined. After this, there would be just one very high-profile name left. Things were about to get crazy; Chase wouldn’t leave this one unpunished.

  Headlights caught my attention as they flew around the corner in the distance, and I reached over to turn the Escalade lights on high. All five cars came to a screeching halt in front of us, the mark’s modified Supra trapped in a net of my making with nowhere to go.

  Smiling a cold, cruel smile, I climbed out of the car and stalked to the front of the Escalade where my guys waited, each heavily armed. The bright headlights of the SUV backlit us in a dramatic way that would have made the Guild proud.

  My mark revved his engine, like he was threatening to run us over to get out. That was his only option, too, with four other cars hemming him in.

  I nodded to Lucas and Cass, and they moved as previously instructed, Lucas to the passenger window, his gun trained on the driver, and Cass to the driver’s side. Not bothering to try the door, Cass used the butt of his rifle to smash straight through the window. He reached in, grabbed the shrieking driver by his shirt, and hauled him through the broken window before throwing him down on the hard ground.

  The man twisted, rolling to his feet, and immediately tried to make a run for it. He only made it as far as the shimmering gold Nissan 350Z when he pulled up short. The driver of that car had stepped out and aimed a gun right at my mark’s head as he sprinted closer.