Savage Queen

by Eva Ashwood

  He murmurs quiet words, and it takes me a second to realize he’s not talking to me. He’s talking to his team, telling them to pull out.

  Shouts and fresh gunfire rise up from the main part of the warehouse, and Hale tugs me in the opposite direction.

  “Frank and his team kept their exit clear,” he tells Ciro in a quiet voice. “They’re on their way out now.”

  My heart drums an erratic beat as I follow the men blindly, trusting that they know where they’re going. When two men in dark suits open fire on us, Ciro curses, wrapping his arm around me and shielding me with his body as he fires over his shoulder. Zaid and Lucas fire too, and then the five of us break into a sprint.

  I don’t know if the men went down. I don’t know if they’re dead. All I know is that a second later, Zaid fires at a dark door ahead of us, breaking the lock. Then we burst out into the night, racing down a dark alley.

  There’s a car parked near the mouth of the alley, and Lucas practically hurls me inside it, shoving me into the back seat. As we peel out, I glance back at the massive building to see more bodies emerging from it, spilling into the night. Loud pops sound in the distance, and I can see the bright flare of gunfire as Hale’s men cover their retreat.

  “Did everyone make it out?” I ask, my voice tight. “Are your men safe?”

  His eyes meet mine in the rearview mirror, glinting in the passing streetlights. “I don’t know yet.”

  23

  Grace

  It takes fifteen minutes for Hale to get the call from his other captains. Everyone is still alive, although there are a few who sustained pretty serious injuries. They’ll be taken back to Onyx and patched up.

  My stomach churns as I listen to Ciro and Hale talk quietly in the front seat. Thank fuck none of Hale’s men died. I don’t know how he and the others found me in the warehouse, but I would never have let them come if I knew the FBI would be there too. I played a dangerous fucking game trying to lead Brady to Camilla, and it almost came crashing down around my ears.

  The drive back to the house is mostly quiet, but for every mile that rolls by, I can feel my pulse pick up another notch. By the time we pull into the garage, I feel almost like I sprinted here.

  Hale slides out of the car, and Ciro gets out of the front passenger seat. Zaid and Lucas both glance down at me, then they wordlessly get out too. I slide out after Zaid, and all five of us head toward the door.

  Even in their anger, the men seem to instinctively gather around me, surrounding me on all sides like they’re still trying to protect me.

  I’m glad. I may not need protection anymore, but I do need their presence. The reminder that we’re all still here.

  Hale unlocks the door, and as soon as we’re inside the house, he turns to me. His glare is intense. He’s pissed, angrier than I’ve seen him since the days immediately following my abduction.

  “What the fuck happened back there, Grace?” His voice is a harsh growl, sending shivers down my spine.

  “It’s done,” I say quietly, struggling to keep my voice steady. “She’s finished. Camilla is done.”

  “But the fucking FBI isn’t,” Hale shoots back. “How the hell did they get involved? Why the fuck were they there? They’ll be breathing down our necks for months after this shit show, looking for something, anything, to pin on us.”

  “No. They won’t. They’ve been investigating you for the human trafficking ring. They were going to try to take you down. When I found out it was Camilla, I made a deal with one of their agents—if I could prove it was the Rooks and not you, if I could give him information that would help him take their operation down, he’d back off.”

  “A deal with one of their agents?” Hale’s eyes narrow, and even the twins look pissed as they stand behind him. Ciro’s face is unreadable, but his entire body is so tense it might as well be on a hair-trigger. “Explain. Now.”

  Fuck.

  There’s no point in lying about any of it, or in keeping any part of the truth from them.

  And more than that, I don’t want to lie anymore. I never wanted to in the first place, and I wouldn’t have kept it from the men if it weren’t for the fact that I didn’t want to risk them getting hurt.

  So I take a deep breath, and I start talking.

  I explain everything. How Agent Brady approached me, offering me a deal. I admit to my onetime fear that what he said could be true—that the Novaks could possibly be running a sex trafficking ring.

  Hale’s expression shifts when I get to that part, and I know he’s remembering the night I came to his room. Realizing that it wasn’t Camilla who put that idea in my head, but Agent Brady. He crosses his arms over his chest, stone-faced and silent as I continue.

  He’s furious. I know he is. But the fact that he’s letting me speak gives me a small amount of hope that he won’t hate me forever for what I’ve done. He’s giving me a chance to explain, and I need to use it to make him see—make them all see—that I did this for them.

  I continue talking, words pouring out of me as I tell them that once I realized Camilla was the one running the trafficking ring, I made a bargain with Brady.

  “If I could help him nail her for that crime, if I could prove she was the one responsible for it, he would back off the investigation into you. Us. The Novaks,” I say quietly, glancing from one face to another, holding each of their gazes. “He accepted. And I hope like hell that he’ll keep his word.”

  All four men stare back at me. The tension hasn’t drained from their bodies, but some of the anger has left their expressions. Zaid looks almost thoughtful as he tilts his head, his eyebrows rising.

  “It is a big fucking win for him, taking down Camilla’s whole operation. The media loves that kind of thing, and it gives the feds something to point to when they need to prove they’re doing their job.” He shrugs. “Fucking shit up by bringing us into it, especially when he knows he won’t be able to find proof of any Novak involvement, will only fuck up his picture perfect bust. I think she’s right, Hale. She made the right call.”

  Lucas nods. Hurt still lingers in his green eyes, but I can practically see the wheels turning in his head as he processes his brother’s words.

  “It was still dangerous,” Ciro points out, and I bite my lip. I think Ciro would forgive me for almost anything—except putting myself in harm’s way. His expression is hard, his hands clenched into fists, and I wish I could close the space between us and hug him, wrap my arms around him and reassure both of us that we’re still alive.

  But I can’t. Not yet.

  Not until they decide whether they can forgive what I did.

  “It was dangerous, Grace,” Hale says quietly. “It paid off, but only barely. So many things could’ve gone wrong tonight. You could’ve fucking died. If we hadn’t been able to access security footage of you talking to Lucy, we wouldn’t have gotten to the warehouse when we did.”

  His blue eyes glint, and he looks away for a second, swallowing. When he looks back, I’m shocked to see so much raw pain on his face. He looks like he’s physically restraining himself from moving, and I wonder if he’s holding back from walking toward me or turning away.

  God, I hope it’s the first one.

  “Do you remember what I told you the night you came to my room?” he asks softly. “The night you asked if the Novaks bought and sold people?”

  I nod. I remember everything about that night.

  “I told you I would never lie to you, Grace.” His nostrils flare. “I fucking meant it. But you lied to all of us.”

  “I know.” Tears sting my eyes, and I shake my head, taking a half-step toward them all. “I know, and I’m sorry. But I had to protect you.”

  “No.”

  Finally, Hale moves, crossing toward me so quickly that it makes my heart jump. He’s so close to me that our chests are practically touching, his head tilted down as he stares at me.

  “That’s not how this works,” he grits out. “We don’t protect each ot
her by lying. By making deals behind each other’s backs.” He gestures to himself, then me, then the other three men, who all stepped forward when he did. They’re surrounding me now, the heat of their bodies seeping into mine. “We protect each other by being the only people we can trust unequivocally. That’s what love is.”

  I blink, my heart lurching in my chest. “What?”

  “Love,” Hale repeats, his eyes still flashing. “That’s what this is, isn’t it? I fucking love you.”

  “You do?” I whisper.

  “Yes.” He reaches up to trail his fingertips down the side of my face. “So fucking much my heart might stop if I ever lost you. So promise me you won’t pull this shit again.”

  Zaid catches my hand, turning me to face him. “I love you too, kitten. I think I’ve loved you since I was sixteen.”

  Lucas chuckles, although when I turn to him, his expression is serious. “I know he loved you since he was sixteen. Because I fell in love with you too, and I knew even then that neither of us would let you go.”

  My mouth is dry, my fingers shaking from the rush of emotions that’s flooding me. Without a conscious command from me, my body turns toward Ciro, my searching gaze colliding with his.

  The hard line between his eyebrows softens, and he lets out a slow breath. “You’re… everything, Grace.” He grimaces, frustration passing over his features. “Love isn’t enough. It’s not the right word. I…” He searches for a moment, then shakes his head. “I need you.”

  His face blurs in my vision as tears well in my eyes, and I blink them away, wanting to see all of them. All of my men.

  “I love you too,” I murmur. “I need you too. And I promise, I will never, ever lie to you again.”

  “Then this is real?” Hale’s deep voice draws my attention toward him, and I find him watching me with a strange intensity. “This is what you want? All of us?”

  I swallow. My hands are still shaking, but my voice is completely steady when I answer. “Yes. That’s what I want. I want to be with all of you.”

  A ripple seems to go through the room, some kind of shift in the very fabric of the atmosphere. We’ve all been dancing around this for weeks, slowly falling into it without ever openly acknowledging that this was what was happening. I fell in love with four men, and they fell in love right back.

  And instead of fighting over me, the four of them will share me.

  “Thank fuck.” Zaid grins, making a smile tug at my lips. Then he drops his head a little, his expression turning serious. “Make deals, kitten. Keep secrets. Play the fucking game. But do it with us by your side. Always.”

  I nod, too overwhelmed by the rush of emotions to speak.

  And then it doesn’t matter anyway, because the world tilts in my vision as I’m suddenly lifted and thrown over a broad shoulder. I yelp in surprise as Hale grips my thighs, pinning them to his chest as my upper body dangles over his back.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Are you fucking kidding me, Grace?” he growls, turning and striding toward the stairs. “You almost died tonight, you told us you love us, and you agreed to make this thing fucking official. If you think you could say all of that and not get thoroughly fucked afterward, you don’t know any of us as well as I thought.”

  24

  Grace

  Hale’s words crash through my mind, making me flush with heat and anticipation. A noise that’s half laugh and half gasp falls from my lips, and I let him carry me up the stairs toward my bedroom. I’m not sure I could walk anyway, after everything the men just told me.

  I’m sure Hale is still angry, and Ciro and the twins too—but their anger is born of fear for me, and I know they’ll get over it in time.

  Because they know I did what I did for them.

  And they love me.

  Just like I love them.

  Zaid opens the door to my bedroom, and Hale strides inside. I expect him to toss me down on the bed, but he surprises me by setting me down gently. He perches me on the end of the mattress and takes my face in his hands, kissing me deeply. Then he steps back.

  My eyes widen, a new shock of surprise moving through me when I realize what he’s doing. He’s solidifying this thing between all of us.

  He’s sharing me.

  Zaid and Lucas both glance at him, and I know they see the same thing I do. Lucas doesn’t hesitate for a second, making a hungry noise as he crawls onto the bed beside me, kissing me as he lays me back on the mattress. We scoot up toward the center of the bed, making room as Zaid joins us.

  Being passed back and forth between these two men is familiar, something I’m already pleasantly accustomed to, and I allow myself to get lost in it for a while, moving my body against theirs for friction as I kiss one, then the other, then switch again.

  My panties are already slick with arousal, the high of adrenaline from earlier tonight making everything that’s happening now feel heightened somehow. The reminder of our mortality, of the fragility of life, makes me want to hold the men I love as close as possible and never let them go.

  A low groan draws my attention, and I pull my lips away from Zaid’s ravenous kiss to see Ciro and Hale watching us. They’re still standing by the foot of the bed, and when Hale sees me looking over at him, he smirks slightly, unzipping his pants with slow deliberation and stroking his cock with leisurely movements.

  I have a sudden vivid memory of the first time he made me come, the way he forced Zaid to watch. I could never have guessed then that the five of us would end up here, but looking back on it now, everything that led us from that point to this one feels inevitable.

  As if this is how we were always meant to be.

  Lucas tugs my shirt over my head from behind me, and Zaid drops his lips to the swell of my breast, tugging my bra off when Lucas unclasps it. He draws one of my nipples into his mouth, and this time, I hear Ciro groan. It’s hot as fuck to know that they’re watching this, getting off on what their friends are doing to me.

  But I want more than that tonight. I want all of them, with no boundaries or walls up between any of us.

  Lucas wraps an arm around me and slides his hand down my stomach. He undoes my pants and delves his hand inside, slipping a finger into my pussy as I undulate against him, glancing back over at the two men by the foot of the bed.

  I don’t even have to crook a finger. I don’t even have to ask. Something about the look on my face must tell them what I need, because they both move at the same time, crawling up onto the bed to join us.

  Hale tugs his shirt off before finishing what Lucas started with my pants, pulling them over my hips and tossing them on the floor. More clothes quickly join my discarded ones, and when I glance around at the four very naked men around me, heat surges through me.

  Holy fuck.

  I don’t know who to reach for first. Who to touch or kiss or grind against first.

  But luckily, I don’t have to decide.

  Pressing me back down onto the mattress, they all begin exploring my body, making me pant and whine as I try to ride the wave of pleasure that comes from four mouths and eight hands all over my skin.

  It’s incredible.

  Overwhelming.

  Perfect.

  Zaid laps at my nipple while Ciro runs his large hand up my thigh. He helps Hale spread my legs apart, and when a warm tongue laps at my clit, Lucas finds my lips with his and kisses me deeply, letting me cling to him as my body tightens with pleasure.

  They work me up until I’m thrashing, begging, panting all four of their names, and then Hale swaps places with Lucas, who hooks his arms under my knees and drags me down the bed a little toward him. Keeping his grip on my legs, he spreads me open and enters me slowly, and I know all three of the other men are watching.

  I want to watch too, but my eyes roll back in my head as pleasure engulfs me, my back arching as my pussy clenches around his cock.

  His brother takes advantage of my position and draws my nipple into his mouth again, and Ci
ro matches him on the other side.

  When Lucas draws out of me and moves to the side, Hale kisses my ankle before sliding in to take his place, bracing my leg against his shoulder as he slams into me. The shock of feeling them both inside me in such quick succession makes an orgasm burst through me, bright and sudden.

  Hale rides me through it, driving into me as my pussy clenches around him.

  “Fuck, you like that, don’t you?” Zaid murmurs, nipping at my lips before kissing me. I nod as much as I can while kissing him back, and when they switch again, I groan loudly at the feel of Zaid filling me with his cock.

  He fucks me hard and fast, and I can feel how close he is to losing control, how close he is to coming. But before he finishes, he stops, grinding against me for a moment before pulling out.

  He leans down to kiss me, palming the back of my head, then draws back, humor glinting in his beautiful green eyes. “Fuck if I’ll be the first one across the finish line. I want to hear you scream my name first.”

  I whimper, lifting my head to chase his lips when he pulls away. But before I can register what’s happening, hands are on me again, lifting me and moving me. Zaid settles between my legs, spreading my thighs open with his large hands, as my head drops slightly off the edge of the mattress.

  “Can you take me, Grace?” Hale murmurs, coming to stand in front of me, his cock fisted in his hand. “Like this?”

  I’m already a little lightheaded from the angle of my head, and my stomach flips with anticipation as I nod. I open my mouth, and he slides inside, groaning as I wrap my lips around him.

  At the same time, Zaid’s grip on my thighs tightens, and as Hale starts to pump in and out of my mouth, his friend eats me out like I’m his last fucking meal.

  It’s so much.

  Too much.

  Too fucking good.

  My body writhes, and I feel more hands come to rest on me, holding me and helping me ride out the waves of sensation. Hale isn’t being gentle as he fucks my mouth, and drool drips down his cock as I gasp for breath every chance I get. The lack of oxygen is making my head spin even more, and with that feeling of lightness comes a wash of pleasure like nothing I’ve ever experienced.