by AJ Sherwood
Ari firmly set everything else aside and sank into the moment. Doing anything else with a sexy man in bed was a sacrilege and Carter definitely deserved his full attention.
22
Ari
Ari woke up to a little girl bouncing on his stomach. “Gattina, pietá!”
“You have to wake up,” Remi insisted, although she thankfully stopped bouncing. “Uncle Kyou says there’s a problem.”
Not another one. Groaning, he rolled, taking her with him and playfully pinning her to the bed. She wriggled and squirmed and used the rolling technique he’d taught her to get out of it. “I’m up. Get Carter up.”
“He’s making coffee for you,” she reported, pleased with her alarm clock skills.
Bless that man. Ari needed the coffee. They’d stayed up rather late last night, indulging in having a quiet space to themselves. They’d ended up giving each other hand jobs after that lovely frottage, which was a first for Ari. He’d never had sex with the same partner twice in a row before. Neither of them felt like ruining a good thing by pushing for more, so he’d retreated to his own bed at some early hour of the morning. He’d planned to sleep in a little this morning, but that plan was apparently a wash.
Remi bounced ahead of him as he zombie shuffled his way into jeans and a random t-shirt. Not exactly looking his sexy best, but Ari didn’t have the luxury of a shower if Kyou said there was a problem. He made it down the stairs before a yawn caught him.
A mug of steaming coffee wafted in front of his face and he latched onto it, sipping, a smile curling up the corners of his mouth. Delightful. Morning coffee made him feel like he had his shit together. He didn’t. But it felt like it. He took another sip to fully appreciate it before blinking into focus.
Carter watched him with obvious amusement, mouth kicked up on one side. “Morning?”
Closing in, Ari kissed him soft and sweet, lingering for a moment. “Morning. Thanks for the coffee.”
Licking his lips, Carter murmured, “I definitely need to give you coffee more often.”
“Hey, lovebirds!” Kyou called from the living room. “Focus, we’ve got a problem!”
Groaning, Ari went past him, his brain slowly booting online. If Kyou had woken him up at—good god it was barely six. Did the man sleep? Anyway, Kyou waking anyone up always meant a serious issue.
Entering the living room, he saw Ivan stretched out on the couch, Remi snuggled in with him. The thief did not look awake, but then, he was still on his first cup of coffee. It took more than one for him to really join the land of the living.
Ari sank into the couch, Carter joining him, close enough to brush up against each other but not snuggled in. Taking another sip of his coffee, Ari gestured for Kyou to lay it on them.
“Right, now that we’re all present,” Kyou’s look at Ivan expressed doubt on whether he thought the thief was mentally there or not, “I’ve got bad news. Our timetable just changed.”
Ari’s posture straightened, his mind suddenly much more awake than it had been two seconds ago. “How much time do we have to work with?”
“Three days. Max. Two to be safer.”
Carter groaned and slumped over the side of the couch. “Whyyy?”
“They’re moving the painting.” Kyou ran a hand roughshod through his hair, and it was only then that Ari realized the man was more than sleep deprived. Had he managed any sleep at all before his alerts woke him back up? “I think it’s because they don’t want anyone to see the painting in the vault. Their security guys are one thing, but new people coming in to change out the hardware? The more people who see that painting, the more rumor’s going to spread. I don’t know the reason, but that’s my guess. Could be they just want it in a different location. All I know is that they scheduled an armored truck this morning to move it in three days.”
Ari whimpered. Three days?! “Porca troia. I hate people.”
Ivan held out a fist and Ari bumped his against the thief’s knuckles.
Remi, adorable child that she was, didn’t seem disheartened. “Uncle Kyou, we can still do it, right? I know you said you’d need another week to get all the cameras for the street. But if I help, we can still do it.”
His first, instinctive response was no way. Yes, Kyou had been teaching Remi computer stuff since nearly the first week he’d met her. Five months of training wasn’t anything to sneeze at. But this was different from idly hacking blogs and sites for practice. Kyou tested her sometimes on harder things, just to see how well she could adapt what she’d been taught on the fly. To Ari’s knowledge, she didn’t succeed very often, but again: eight-year-old child and only five months of training. He didn’t expect her to. It was on the tip of Ari’s tongue to gently set her down.
“Actually…maybe?” Kyou stared back at Remi with a thoughtful expression, head canted as he thought it through. “I’ll do the actual hack. I’ll teach you how to link the feeds so we can watch and loop them, create the blind spots our guys need. That’ll speed up the process a lot.”
Remi beamed at him, pleased to be included.
Lifting up, Carter stared at the two, his face reflecting Ari’s own astonishment. “Wait, she knows enough to actually do that?”
“Well within her skillset,” Kyou assured the group as a whole. “It’s not complicated to begin with. The hack itself is the hardest part. We’re actually in a decent position, all things considered. Thanks to Ivan’s two field trips, I have access to the main parts of Knowles, at least. We’ve gotten a lot of the initial prep work done.”
“Just no time to do any simulations or dry runs. We don’t even have the timing worked out for this.” Carter looked at them all and a trace of the hard, ruthless mercenary seeped through. “Be honest. Is this doable or do I pull the plug? Tell the client to find someone else?”
Ari forced himself to really think of the logistics, of what it would take to pull this off, and not just trust his gut reaction. Even after he thought it through, his mind agreed with his gut. “I think we can do this.”
“I know we can,” Ivan responded. “You can’t take the route I did in—only a single person could make it. And it’s not possible to take anything bigger than a small pack in. Painting would be impossible. We’ll need to stick with our plan. I have only two questions: Kyou, you still want these two to go in?”
“You’re a little too famous, Ivan,” Kyou said apologetically. “Even with my best buffers, you’d trip their internal security if I tried to put your picture into the system. Better to send them.”
Ivan accepted this with a nod and not a word of protest. “You still want my drone up in the air to give you a visual on them?”
“Yes. And to be on hand for a distraction, if it comes to that. Guys, I’ll be frank, I hate rushing like this. Makes me hella nervous. But if we want to do the job, we gotta move.”
“A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week,” Ivan stated in a sage tone.
“So we’re doing this?” Carter sat up straighter and looked them over. “We’re crazy.”
“Best kind of luck, insanity,” Ivan intoned grandly. “Kyou, you said it moves in three days. We need to go in tomorrow.”
“We’ll need all of today to get the last-minute stuff done. And at least a mental simulation where we try to get the timing down.” Kyou reached out and without apology, stole Ari’s half-drunk cup of coffee. He downed it in one long pull. “God, I needed that. Alright, can I trust you guys to do the odds and ends? Rems and I have to focus on the cameras. And make sure your IDs are still solid in the system. And—”
Ari held up a hand. “We got the picture. Do your magic. Carter and I will pick up the rest of the work uniforms. I think we’re only missing shoes at this point. Kyou, badges are done, right?”
“More or less. Need to print them.”
“Okay. Ivan, let’s hold a planning meeting when we get back, see if we can’t nail down the timing.”
The thief nodded am
iably enough but a frown drew his brows together. “We haven’t had a chance to figure out traffic patterns around that place yet.”
“Don’t remind me,” Ari groaned. “Unfortunately, taking the metro for this is right out. They’ll expect a company SUV or van. And trying to navigate the DC metro system with a portfolio is a big No Thank You in my book.”
“I want a Plan B in case Plan A doesn’t work, too,” Carter threw in. “I don’t trust any plan to survive first contact.”
“None of us do.” Kyou held both hands to Remi, and she promptly abandoned Ivan for him. “Come on, kiddo, time to work. I’ve got a separate keyboard set up for you, and our computers are networked together, so I can throw you stuff, yeah?”
Ari left them to it. He’d need a five-minute shower, just so he didn’t get scrutinized in public while buying something.
It just figured that nothing about this job would go according to plan. It was Knowles, after all.
They hooked Kyou’s printer up, prepping to print their employee IDs. Ivan was out testing his drones, making sure everything worked as they should, and the buzz of the machines could be faintly heard through the window. Since the rest of the house had been more or less taken over, they’d set up in the mostly empty dining room on a folding card table.
Ari really hated this truncated timeline. Not just on the professional level, either. He’d been banking on having several more weeks with Carter on this job. Ari had so little experience dating, he really didn’t know what to expect. Would they just go back to their own houses after this, work the relationship long distance, and meet up when they could? Carter had mentioned different houses he owned around the world. Ari had a similar setup. Would they even be in the same hemisphere?
Now that he had this man, he didn’t want to lose him because of poor planning. Or assuming things would work out. He’d finally settled in his skin with Carter. He felt like he was at the hump, that he was right on the verge of being really invested in this relationship. Losing that burgeoning connection to Carter scared him down to his marrow.
While he might not know how relationships worked in general, Ari was confident on one point. He could ask Carter anything. Carter had never once scoffed at him for not knowing something or being uncertain. He’d always patiently listened. Even if this came off as awkward, Ari had to ask. Before the uncertainty ate a hole through his stomach.
As Carter’s ID printed, Ari voiced his question as carefully as he could phrase it. “So, uh, after the job is done…what then?”
Carter met his eyes levelly across the narrow table. “Well, I hoped to talk you into a mini-vacation. Maybe hit up Disneyland; Remi would like that. Or the beach. I want proper time with the two of you that doesn’t involve timetables and crazy jobs. And after that, we figure out how to stay in the same area so we’re not doing some crazy long-distance relationship.”
Ari let out the breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. Yes. That was the answer he wanted. “Disneyland, huh. Rem’s will love that. Sure, I can do Disneyland. And I’ve got at least one house in the same state as you, I think we can stick close.”
Coming around the table, Carter slipped an arm around his waist, hugging him lightly. “I know you’re a little nervous with this. I’m not used to dating, either, honestly. Last time I attempted it was a good three years ago. And I’ve never dated a single dad, so I might screw things up from time to time. I want to do this right, Ari. I like you. I like Remi. The more time I spend with you, the more I want to keep you both.”
‘Being kept’ was such a strange concept, as he’d never really been kept before. His friendships and relationships with other people had been hit and miss until Remi. That had been the turning point, when he had someone constantly with him, day in, day out. Having Carter like that, on an everyday basis, sounded potentially amazing to Ari. He’d never put his faith in the future before. It wasn’t until he’d taken in Remi he’d even planned very far into the future. It seemed folly to do so. Wanting a future was strange—a jittery feeling in the pit of his stomach. Nerves and hope battled it out and Ari wasn’t sure which would win. What helped was Carter always putting his cards on the table. Ari never had to second guess his intentions. It created a path, something he could see, and surer footing of how to move forward with him. “I want more time with you. I know you’ll have jobs, I will too. And we can’t spend all of our time together—”
Carter shook his head. “If you take a job, I want to watch your back. It scares me you don’t have backup with every job. Let’s work together, sweetheart. Don’t give bad luck a chance to get its foot in the door.”
Oh. Yes. That was what was missing. Ari had never once had a dedicated partner for work. Kyou and Ivan were the closest he’d come. Remi had asked if he’d work with Kyou and Ivan from now on, but he’d not had the chance to really talk to them about it. And he did feel like he’d have to talk them into it. Carter saying this to him felt wildly different. The idea of always having support opened a door in his mind Ari hadn’t realized had been nailed shut before this. It felt like Carter had just taken chains and ripped them off, freeing Ari to move. The longing of his inner child to have a dedicated protector practically beamed with satisfaction. Carter had fulfilled that wish perfectly. His voice came out husky as he answered. “I like that idea. You sure?”
“Really sure. I realize we’re barely into dating but I’m not risking you. I won’t risk you. Let me shield you, Ari. No one should go it alone.”
Yes. All of that, yes. Ari hugged him tight, breathing the clean scent of the man in. Carter held him just as tightly, dropping a kiss against the side of his head. Ari’s guard dropped completely for a moment and he relaxed utterly into Carter’s arms. A feeling he knew, but normally associated with Remi, bubbled inside of him. The words left his mouth in a rush. “I want you safe and with me, Carter. I don’t know exactly how to manage that. I’ve never tried before with anyone.”
“We’ll figure it out together, step by step. We don’t have to have an answer right now,” Carter breathed against his hair. His palm rubbed a soothing circle against the small of Ari’s back. “I just needed to know if we’re on the same page.”
“We are. We stay together. We work together. We’ll figure it out as we go.” The words felt strange in his mouth but right, in a way very few things in his life had. The last time he’d been so sure, he’d adopted Remi. That alone said a lot. Maybe he should stop listening to his fears so much. His gut made better decisions.
“Daddy, do you—uh. Oops.”
Ari pulled back enough to look towards the open doorway. Remi had stopped at the threshold, watching them with a sort of smug delight. It had done something to his daughter as well, seeing him with Carter. She seemed to settle more. “Hey, kiddo. Whatcha need?”
“Uncle Ivan was going to order in Thai,” she reported, still grinning at them. “You want anything?”
“Yeah. We’ll put in an order.”
Carter released him enough to face Remi properly. “Remi, after the job is done, what do you say we go to Disneyland?”
Delight consumed her, Remi shining like a second sun rising. “REALLY?!”
“Yeah. I think we all deserve a vacation, don’t you?” Carter grinned down at her. “I take it you’re on board with this plan?”
“You bet!” She launched herself at him and hugged him tight around the waist.
Carter cradled the back of her head, his expression soft and affectionate. “And your dad and I, we decided to take jobs together from now on. You okay with that too?”
She propped her chin on his hip and looked up at him with that expression that reminded Ari too much of an adult. It was an odd look on a child’s face, and hearkened back to the time when she’d had only herself to rely on. “I think that’s good. You can watch out for each other. What about Uncle Kyou and Uncle Ivan, though?”
“Yeah, we’ll talk to them properly about it, as well,” Carter surprised him by saying. “I hone
stly don’t know why the three of them aren’t already an official team. I think they should be.”
“Me too. See, Daddy, told you.”
Ari spluttered, eyes bouncing between the two of them. Now wait a second, when had this become a done thing? Kyou didn’t always take jobs that needed outside help. Neither did he or Ivan. There wasn’t a good reason to…well…his train of thought abruptly derailed as he remembered his relief and happiness of only a moment ago. If it felt like this to have Carter, a dedicated partner at his side, wouldn’t it be even better to have two of his closest friends with him too?
Huh. Why hadn’t he realized that earlier?
Carter watched him from the corner of his eye, his expression sardonic. “Just realized it, didn’t you?”
“Shut it,” Ari growled, already resigned to being teased about this for a while. “Assassins are lone wolves, alright?”
“You three are all lone wolves, but you best get over it. I want a team. And I like you.”
“Is this something like being adopted by a cat?” Ari couldn’t help but ask.
Carter grinned and shrugged, no denial on his lips. “Let’s go put in our lunch order. I’ll wrangle all three of you into agreeing to my master plan later.”
Somehow, Ari didn’t doubt that he’d get his way.
23
Carter
Tomorrow was the day. They’d spent the whole day prepping, and it was late into the night now. Whatever hadn’t been done would be either taken care of early in the morning or left undone. They were flat out of time.
Everyone had unanimously agreed to turn in and get some good sleep. They’d need it. Carter had seen too many jobs go bust because the team hadn’t been rested. Sleep-deprived people weren’t as quick to react and they made stupid decisions. He was glad to see these three had better sense than that. Kyou actually took Nyquil to make sure he slept soundly.
Carter still felt a little too tense from all that had happened today and chose to take a shower, see if that helped relax him any. It wasn’t just the job tomorrow, of acting well ahead of schedule, that had him wound up in knots. It was also the emotional impact of baring what he wanted to Ari. He’d been walking something of an emotional tightrope ever since he’d met the man, and while it was worth every second of effort, it had taken something of a toll on him. Like yesterday. Carter felt like he’d been pushing his luck, laying everything out now. But he’d also been afraid of losing his connection to Ari once the job ended.
