“Of course.”
“God damn.” He kissed me, and suddenly it was like a kiss with his whole body, meaty hands roaming and holding me everywhere, as though he had to touch every inch of me to ensure I was okay. He moved to planting feverish kisses on my cheek and neck.
“I’m okay,” I whispered, enjoying his warm hands and lips on my skin. “We’re okay.”
“This guy goes down,” he growled, pushing me up against a wall, kissing me, mauling me. It was unspeakably hot to be totally taken over by him in this state.
“I know,” I said.
He forced my lips open in a bruising kiss, invading my mouth with his tongue, his heat, his lips, grinding the back of my head against the wall.
“I know you will,” I said again, holding onto his rock-solid waist. Part of me was scared by his brutish protectiveness.
And part of me wanted him to take me wild.
With a groan he lowered himself slightly and pressed the outline of his rock solid shaft between my legs, thick and hard as a fist. My belly tightened as he bore upwards, pressing himself into my sex, humping relentlessly.
“I have to…” He panted between kisses, seeming to forget what he was going to say.
“Yes,” I whispered, clinging onto him, riding him as the electricity between my legs mounted. “Everything, baby—bring everything.”
“I need to…” he moaned, practically fucking me right through my skirt. “If you like these clothes…”
“Do it,” I whispered.
He stilled just long enough to grab the sides of my blouse and rip it asunder, pulling the stray pieces off me like tissue paper. Feverishly, he yanked my bra down, letting my breasts pop up, one of which he took into his sucking, panting mouth as he demolished the waistband of my skirt, stripping me the rest of the way with harsh efficiency.
The snaps on his jumpsuit clacked as he tore it clear off and rid himself of his underwear. “Yes,” I whispered as he came back onto me, flattening me with his heat and bulk. He kissed and nuzzled my neck, abrading my skin, setting my libido on fire.
Somewhere nearby I heard the clink of glass and then the sound of a bottle cap coming off a bottle. Odin, or maybe Thor, signaling we had an observer.
Fuck, yeah. I nearly came right there.
A thick, meaty finger slid into my crotch. “Be ready, baby,” he gusted. “Be ready.” It was more a prayer than a command. Because he so didn’t want to wait. Maybe he couldn’t.
“Fuck me so hard,” I whispered as he plundered me with his finger. I grabbed the back of his neck. “Take me right here. I’m crazy wet for you,” I added, stating, what was no doubt, quite obvious to him.
Two firm hands gripped the bottoms of my thighs and he lifted me with a gust of breath and pressed me against the wall, kissing me.
I wound my legs around him and reached down to take his huge cock, wrapping my fingers around his steely shaft and pressing the bulbous tip of his cock into me. He sighed and drove into me the rest of the way, filling me mercilessly.
“Yes. Fuck me.”
At first he fucked me slow and strong, all full of pent up emotion. It was all the sweeter knowing somebody was watching me be completely taken and pleasurized, like the watcher was fucking me a little, too. Thor, I guessed. I could sometimes tell who was watching by the way their eyes felt all over my naked skin.
Zeus drove into me, holding me, owning me. I grabbed on.
He breathed in his rhythmic pant—uh, uh, uh.
“Everything,” I whispered incoherently, meaning what I wanted and what he was and maybe a million other things.
He began to go harder, pistoning me into the wall, filling me with a dark, sparkly pain that spiraled the pleasure up to crazy heights until I almost couldn’t stand how beautiful it felt.
“God, Zeus!” I cried out as something fell off a nearby shelf and shattered on the floor. On he went. More glass stuff fell off and then my mind exploded apart in a wild orgasm that spun on and on.
“Goddess,” he cried out, thrusting into me anew, crying out, and finally stilling.
Odin’s phone rang.
We all stood by while he had a conversation that consisted of grunts and a thank you. He clicked off. “Bolo’s at IHOP on Clister Avenue.”
“Load up, we’re going to the IHOP,” Zeus said, stomping out of the room.
Odin opened the gun cabinet and strapped on an ankle holster. Thor got out a double shoulder holster.
“I’m going, too?” I asked.
“That’s right,” Odin said. “Hell if we’re leaving you alone. What if he’s not there? We stay together until this threat is handled.”
Zeus returned in big black boots and cargo pants and a black T-shirt, short brown hair still mussed from sex. He looked hot and scary.
“Hey,” said Odin, who was wearing the same thing. “You make us into fucking-g twins?” It was kind of a joke. My guys were always wearing T-shirts and cargo pants. They were very into cargo pants because of all the shit they could put in the pockets.
“Come on,” Zeus said, not in any kind of mood for humor.
Twenty minutes later, Thor and I were waiting in the back seat of the SUV, which was parked in front of the International House of Pancakes just off Santa Monica Boulevard. Its steep chalet-style roof and giant wall of windows afforded a great view of Zeus and Odin storming into the place.
“There he is. Guy in the Dodgers cap at the middle table,” Thor said.
I spotted him. The place was busy. Dinner rush. It was kind of like a silent movie, watching Zeus and Odin walk up. Watching the terrified cringe form on the face of Bolo, unmistakable even from outside.
“He knows he’s fucked,” Thor said. “He thinks Zeus would have no problem shooting him in the face right there in the restaurant. Zeus wouldn’t do that, of course, especially not in front of kids, but that’s the rep that Zeus has. He’s not above exploiting it.”
“I don’t want some guy hurt if it’s not him. I mean, creepy proposition, fine.”
“Don’t worry,” Thor said. “They’ll figure it out. This is their thing.”
Bolo rose. The three of them were talking. Bolo gesturing.
“‘I’m innocent,’” Thor said. “That’s what Bolo’s saying. Look at his hands. His shoulders. ‘I know nothing.’”
“Then you fucking-g prove it,” I said, taking Odin’s part.
Thor smiled.
“Isis is so beautiful,” Thor said, playing Bolo’s part now. “I lost my mind when I said that thing about watching, but I didn’t send the box.”
I snorted. “You prove it or the clouds will fucking-g weep as we gouge out your eyes with a small, shit-covered stick.”
“Odin would never say that,” Thor said. “A shit-covered stick.”
“I know.”
“Bolo will try to prove his innocence, though,” Thor said.
“Guilty until proven innocent,” I said.
“Man insulted you mightily,” Thor reminded me.
We watched Zeus walk Bolo away from the table. Odin flicked a bill onto it and followed.
“Here is your fucking-g money,” I whispered.
They headed out the doors and across the parking lot. Bolo was a big guy, but he was dwarfed by Odin and Zeus, who both stood well over six feet. They seemed to be heading toward our SUV. I wasn’t sure how I liked the idea of actually having to talk with Bolo, considering his indecent proposition.
Zeus came around, pulled open the driver’s side door, and got in. Odin opened the passenger side door and shoved Bolo in. His hat fell off onto his lap.
“Eyes on the front,” Odin said, getting in and squishing him to the side. “You don’t get to look at her.”
“I didn’t fucking leave anything,” Bolo said. “I was in Vegas until the morning. I was just back today. Thor—”
“You’re not dealing with Thor, you’re dealing with me and Odin.” Zeus started up the truck. If you’re telling the truth, I’ll find out.” He
peeled out of the parking lot.
I felt a little sorry for Bolo. You could practically smell the fear on him. Was this the kind of man to leave a threatening package?
Twenty minutes later, we were all traipsing up to Bolo’s long-term room at the Hampshire Hotel. Bolo swiped his key card and swung the door open.
The place was a sty.
Odin sat Bolo on the couch. “Babysit him. And Isis sits here.” He indicated a chair across from Bolo, which was pretty much the last place I wanted to sit. “And if you so much as look at her, Thor will break your fingers.”
“How about if I sit here?” I indicated a chair off to the side.
Odin growled his grudging assent, not in the mood to argue. “Be grateful for her benevolence.”
Thor pulled out his Sig and set a foot on the arm of the couch, gun in hand, looking every inch the mercenary himself, while Odin and Zeus looked around. They were looking for the paper, the markers.
“Ask Double D,” Bolo said. “He was with me.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Odin said. “Double D never lies.”
Zeus grabbed a pizza box and opened it up. Empty except for crusts. He smelled a crust.
“That was from before I left,” Bolo said. “I swear! You can call PizzaMiza.”
“I don’t need to,” Zeus said, smashing it between his fingers, creating a small stream of crumbs that fell down to the floor. “Wednesday.”
“Yes! Which is when we left. See?”
“Only proves you’re a slob,” Zeus said.
“How’d you know that was Wednesday’s crust?” Bolo asked, careful to look anywhere except at me. “Why not Tuesday’s or Thursday’s?”
“Shut up,” Thor said, ice blue eyes fixed on the guy’s face.
Odin came in with a to-go coffee. “This is today,” he said.
“Yes, yes!” Bolo exclaimed. “I bought it before I left, with a credit card.”
“You have a receipt?” Zeus asked.
“No, but online. I can prove it online.”
Odin pulled out his phone. “Go into your credit card. Can you do that?”
Bolo tapped the screen with shaking hands. Eventually, he got his password right and got into his account. “There! Six in the morning. Starbucks. Grand Mahaj hotel.”
“Where’s the hotel charge?” Odin asked.
“I paid cash for the room.”
Thor snorted. “You paid cash for the hotel room and not the coffee? What kind of asshole pays cash for a hotel room and charges coffee in the morning? It slows up the fucking line.”
“The kind of asshole who lost all his money the previous night,” Bolo said.
“Fine,” Odin said.
Eventually we left.
When we were back in the Nav, I asked, “How can you tell today’s coffee from yesterday’s?”
Zeus seemed calm for maybe the first time that day. “State of the dairy. Evaporation rate. In a heavily air-conditioned environment like that room, you’d have a ring above the liquid line. It was maybe five hours old. No more. And he has a coffee maker there. It did make me think he didn’t wake up there this morning.”
“And the pizza crust?”
He shrugged.
I said, “You have a mobile lab I didn’t see?”
“I have the power of observation,” he said.
“Now what?” Thor asked.
“Home. I’m going to check out his alibi, but I don’t think it was him,” Zeus said. “Once he’s cleared, we’re beating the bushes at Guvvey’s. This is somebody from our circle.”
“Agreed,” Odin said.
Thor nodded, snapping his holster.
My guys seemed energized, alive—sparkling, almost, in a way I had never seen and didn’t quite understand.
CHAPTER SIX
Most nightclubs in Los Angeles have things like, oh, valet parking and front doors. But not Guvvey’s, the nightclub of the crème de la crème of the criminal elite. Instead of a front door, there is a scary parking ramp to park in and a scuffed-up secret door that takes you underground into foreboding series of tunnels, eventually leading you to an elevator that whisks you upwards.
Even the floor Guvvey’s occupies isn’t a real floor. Zeus explained once that it’s a between-floors floor. The regular elevators don’t stop at it.
Zeus swung a protective arm around me, and Thor set a hand on the small of my back as we walked into Guvvey’s. Odin trailed behind, on the lookout no doubt. I was used to being flanked by my guys, but nothing like this. It gave me the shivers.
It was midnight—early still—but the place was full of people and thrumming with music. We moved across the dark expanse and took a booth, the four of us, with me sandwiched in between Zeus and Odin.
My guys were on high alert, looking discreetly all around. I ordered a champagne, and they ordered sodas.
“Wait,” I said, “change mine to soda if we’re not drinking.”
“No, keep her champagne,” Zeus said, sending the waiter away. “You deserve it,” he said. “You get to drink what you prefer. We’re on the job.” He touched a finger under my chin and lowered his voice. “We won’t let anything happen to you, Isis.” He paused, seeming like he was about to say something, and I had the wild thought that he was going to say we love you, but he simply let his hand slide to my bare shoulder where it rested, heavy and warm. He smiled and kissed me. “You look beautiful.”
“Thank you.” I was wearing a red, one-shoulder dress they all really liked. My guys were in sports coats, all the better to conceal lots of weaponry. Not that you needed to conceal at Guvvey’s, but they were packing an unusual amount.
“You think he’s going to show up?”
“Very likely,” Odin said. “He needs a reaction. That’s the only function that package served—to get a reaction. Once it circulates we’re here, he’s going to come.”
“Ugh,” I said.
“It’s shocking,” Thor said. “That anybody can possibly think they can get away with this. They know we have resources.”
“Not the extent of them, perhaps.” Odin said, and then he eyed Zeus. “It’s been so long. Playing the hunter.”
“It feels good,” Zeus said, waving at a man across the room, standing at the bar. “I’m going to talk to Clarence on the Dodgers aspect.” He got up and walked off.
Odin nudged Thor. “Look—Henry.”
“Who’s Henry?” I asked.
“Go-to gossip man,” Thor said, nodding at a blond man in a blue suit. “Anything going around the grapevine hits Henry. If anybody is unduly fascinated with you.”
“You talk to him, Thor,” Odin said. “He’s more comfortable with you.”
“He’s more frightened of you,” Thor said.
“Comfort is best for now. Go at him soft, and then I’ll go at him if you think he’s holding back.”
“Right.” Thor gave me a kiss on the cheek and went over to talk to Henry.
The drinks arrived. I was glad for the champagne now.
“We’ll find him,” Odin said. “It’s what we do. I think a lot of people don’t fucking-g understand that. We could find people on the other side of the world.”
Find them and kill them. But Odin didn’t say that. But it’s how they’d hooked up with Thor—Odin had been sent by their clandestine government agency ZOX to kill Thor, back when Thor was a relief organization doctor who’d had the bad fortune to witness something he shouldn’t have. When Odin learned who Thor was and what he’d seen—they would never tell me what, exactly—he’d decided to protect Thor from ZOX instead of executing him. Then Zeus had been sent to kill them both.
Odin had fought Zeus and brought him around to the idea that ZOX was fucking up and that Thor shouldn’t be killed. Eventually, another agent had been sent to kill all three of them. They killed that person. It was at that point they knew they’d have targets on their backs forever. Which was when their path of vengeance robbery began.
Matteo came over and slid in nex
t to Odin, looking angry. “This stalker is still out there? Everybody’s talking about it.”
“What’d you hear?” Odin asked. “From who?”
“Vanessa Foy heard about it and she’s telling people.”
“From Bolo. Fuck,” Odin said. “That was fast.”
“We have big plans next week,” Matteo said. “Do we need to put them off?”
“Hell no.” Zeus slid in on the other side of me, squeezing in close. He brushed a strand of hair from my forehead and kissed me. “Heya, baby,” he said.
“Hey,” I whispered.
“Like that. We can’t have your attentions divided,” Matteo said. “There’s a lot of recon to do in the next few days, and here you are conducting some fucking side investigation? Not that I blame you.”
“We got this handled,” Zeus said. “You watch how sizzling fast we catch this guy.”
“I sat on the bank on my own all afternoon,” Matteo said. “I didn’t mind taking your shifts, but it can’t happen anymore.”
“The Prime is important to our family,” Zeus said. “We’ve got bandwidth to do both. Nobody fucks with us.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Matteo said, looking off at Thor across the room.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah?” Zeus said.
I stiffened in my seat, thinking Zeus might haul off and hit Matteo.
“Nobody fucks with you. We all get that,” Matteo said.
The veins on Zeus’s neck became dangerously defined.
“You trying to make a point, here, Matteo?” Zeus growled.
I was starting to feel dizzy off the sheer testosterone.
“Reacting is letting them fuck with you,” Matteo said. “They are fucking with you already.”
“You’re saying we should let this go unchallenged?” Zeus said.
“No, I’m saying somebody is fucking with you, and I’m pointing out that you’re dancing like a puppet. That is the feeling I’m getting off you right now.”
The Deeper Game (Taken Hostage by Hunky Bank Robbers Book 3) Page 6
