Finch (Kindred #6)

by Scarlett Finn

  “You want to raise a fucking army?” Zave asked. “It doesn’t make sense. I can believe Mitchell is that arrogant. Fuck, we all know that Saint is. You want to talk about people who think they’re special, look no further than Grant McCormack Junior, the boy who always thought he was better. The boy who even when we were kicking around in diapers wouldn’t get mud on his shoes. Do you think that’s the guy who’s going to make a difference in the world and think big? Why? Because he’s squirreled away some money? Stolen a few supplies? What is it that Syn even want? Are you just going to keep plugging away until you have a million men standing behind you and then what? You want land? Your own fucking country? Your own planet? It won’t ever be enough, and you turned your fucking back on everyone who would stand beside you, everyone who would have laid down to die for you. Fucking us meant fucking yourself. You’re here because you’re expendable. You’re of no use to them.”

  “I’m of use to my father.”

  “Your father who took out mine and Raven’s? He’ll destroy anything to get what he wants, which is just the same as what Saint wants, the same as what Leatt wants. Power. You never wanted power.”

  “Maybe I did,” Thad said. “Maybe I just never got the chance to taste it because I was always running around after you, after Raven. You guys never respected me.”

  “What the fuck did you want? You were given access to everything you ever wanted. Did you want us to pat you on the head and tell you how amazing you were?”

  “I wanted you to trust me,” Thad said. “Any time shit hit the fan, it wasn’t me you turned to, even when I was right in front of your fucking face. You’d go to Raven on the other side of the country or call and he’d be here in a day. If I needed anything, I’d wait a week and a half.”

  “So you just weren’t invited to the cool kids table? Wow, maybe you and Saint are suited.”

  “Saint?” Devon asked, getting her first chance to speak.

  Zave glanced at her. “It’s what we called Grant McCormack when we were kids because he would never do anything wrong. He followed the rules, and he was the perfect child who tattletaled on the rest of us.”

  And wouldn’t get mud on his shoes, she thought. The men returned to glaring at each other, and she took it on herself to break the stalemate. “If you’ve done what you came to do, you can leave,” she said, moving in at her husband’s side to slide an arm around his waist. “Or we can have security remove you.”

  “And cause a scene?” Thad asked. “I’m family, think of what the media would say to that. I don’t think you’ll do that.”

  “Think again,” Zave said, fixating on Thad. Raising an arm, he summoned three men who approached as if from absolutely nowhere to close around the doctor. “My cousin’s had too much to drink. I think you should escort him out. Make sure he gets a ride home. Thad, if you come near me or my wife again, you won’t receive this same generosity.”

  He nodded once, and the three men began to take Thad out. The doctor had said that his removal would cause a scene, but it didn’t. People noticed, but Thad didn’t kick and scream, so they just whispered at each other as they had all night.

  Devon could only watch the progress of Thad’s escorted departure for a short distance, but Zave had height that allowed him to see farther. Remaining silent while he watched the progress she couldn’t see, Devon waited for her husband to confirm that the unwanted guest had gone.

  Which he did when he looked down at her again. “Are you ok?” he asked, stroking her arms and her shoulders. “I should get you home.”

  But she took his arm and drew him to a stop before he could get more than a couple of steps. Prioritizing her meant he didn’t address a potential hazard handed to him by a man they could no longer trust. Devon wouldn’t let him risk ignoring that threat. “That thing he put in your pocket, is it dangerous?”

  “I don’t know. But I’m not touching it. We’ll lift fingerprints, do physical forensics on the thing before we let Swift do a digital sweep.”

  “Swift isn’t here,” she said, but he brushed his thumb down her cheek and took his phone from his pocket.

  “Thad was right about one thing.” Zave dialed his phone. “If I need something, they’ll be here within a day.”

  Zave didn’t worry about civilities after he decided they were leaving. He spoke into his phone for a few minutes, then put an arm around her and took her out of the ballroom, ignoring anyone who tried to intercept them.

  Devon was relieved to be back in the limo but worried about the tension her husband exuded. There was nothing they could do until the others arrived, and it hurt her right down to the tips of her toes that Thad had come and ruined what was supposed to be a wonderful night.

  Devon had known it was going to be tense for them because Zave hadn’t been out in public for so long, and she was a complete newbie. But it wasn’t supposed to be about the Kindred or about Syn and peril.

  She and Zave had been tasked with keeping up appearances, that was what the night had been about. That and just being them, just being married and together for a while. With his new toy and her experience of being pleasured by him from afar, he’d promised her that the night was supposed to end on a positive note, not like this.

  Since they left the hotel, he’d been sitting with his elbow on the sill of the door with his knuckles over his lips, growling at the view he probably couldn’t decipher beyond the window. Twisting her body toward his, she stroked both hands around his thigh, from the top to the inside.

  “Lord?” she said, and his hand dropped from his mouth. “Show me what it can do.”

  This request was enough to make him turn. “Not tonight, sweetheart,” he said, brushing a knuckle down her cheek. “I have business to think about.”

  “KC is fine. The merger is going ahead.” He had to see through her deliberate attempt to divert him, but he didn’t let her get away with it.

  “Kindred business.”

  “The Kindred won’t be here for hours. Didn’t you say they would arrive in the morning? Do you plan to brood all night?” she asked. “Do I need to do a Bess and slap you to remind you that we’re not letting them take over our lives?”

  The harsh set of his brow softened a fraction, and he leaned forward. “Keep driving, Phil. We’re not ready to go home yet.” Twisting, he pressed the button to raise the privacy screen, ensconcing them in a secret shell. “You like the toys,” he said, and she nodded. “You once told me you felt like an experiment.”

  He was stroking her face, the side of her neck, her shoulder. The beautiful dress she wore was red satin covered with a red and black lace that made the gown more exquisite than any she’d worn in the past.

  “It amazes me,” she said, tipping up her chin. “That a man as incredible as you spoils me like you do.”

  He slid the back of his fingers over the swell of her breast and allowed them to descend to her hip. Gathering her skirt, he exposed her thighs and stroked them with the flat of his palm. “And it amazes me I found a woman so forgiving, one who understands me when I can’t understand myself.”

  He was so thorough in everything he did, so curious, not only about his technology and machines, but about her body, about each freckle, each crevice and rise. He scrutinized how every inch of her reacted to his varying caress. Pushing one knee away, he opened her legs wide. Hooking his strong calf over her shin, he touched her.

  “Let me take them off,” he said, skimming his fingertips up the delicate flesh of her inner thigh.

  “No,” she said, dropping a hand onto his before it could reach the lace of her underwear. “I want to know. What could you have done to me?”

  “This is the beginning, shy. You will feel everything you want to feel, and if you like it, you can experience it again and again.”

  Over time she’d get used to being in crowds again, just as he would. They wouldn’t need these games to distract each other. Although, Devon wouldn’t give up their trust and wouldn’t discourage his
public displays of secret affection.

  Now that she’d seen him in action, she understood. She wasn’t the only one dealing with anxiety in these groups where expectations were high. Everyone stayed quiet when Xavier Knight spoke. But he didn’t want influence, he didn’t trust that he deserved it or that his decisions were sound.

  This was probably why he relied on Cedric to make many business choices while Zave focused on the tech that he was confident he knew. With regards to the Kindred, his relationship with Brodie gave both of them a crutch, one that they now knew Thad resented.

  “What would you like, my shy?” he asked, and although she was ensnared by his gaze, Devon was aware of his hand leaving her leg and snaking its way into his pocket. Again, a silent buzz moved through her. She hadn’t heard him flip a switch or press a button. She didn’t hear a motor or anything that would suggest vibrations, and yet, she could feel them.

  Pursing her lips, she whimpered. “That’s amazing.”

  “Slide your hips to the edge,” he murmured. “Close your eyes.”

  She did both, and he must have taken his control from his pocket and maybe switched hands because his hand returned to her thigh as the other arm coiled around her back and brought her head onto his shoulder.

  The heat that moved around her clit in delightful swirls made her swell and grow ready to accept him. “How are you doing this?” she gasped in a whispered exhale. “How…? How does it work?”

  He drew circles on the inside of her knee that mirrored those whirling around her clit, and the pressure grew, wringing more juice from her passage. Zave turned his lips against her hair. “It works on the same concept as our ear pieces and draws its power from your body.”

  So the hotter she was, the hotter it got. Devon liked the sound of that. “The elements inside react to the heat, and they undulate at different frequencies that stimulate you exactly as I tell them to.”

  All of her was enlivened, the pressure, the heat, the vibration, every inch of her was exposed. Lifting her hips, she invited his hand higher as it ascended her inner thigh. “Oh God, Zave,” she whispered as the pulse became a thrum, became a beat, and the bass in her core thumped so hard she wriggled against it.

  He touched her panties and whispered into her ear, “You’ve soaked right through these. Take them off.”

  At his mercy and used to following his commands, she did exactly as he requested in a hurried, undignified wriggle. But she was already moaning and gasping in short, shallow pants that she knew were a prelude to the crescendo. When her ass hit the seat again, he pushed her legs apart as they had been before and drove two digits inside of her. She screamed and bucked up, grabbing hold of his lapel.

  “Oh, yes! Yes!” she called out as he finger-fucked her in the back of this premium vehicle that was driving aimlessly through the city streets, giving him time to bring her to climax.

  Her whole body was vibrating, not because of the devices that were still stimulating her, but because the impact of orgasm wouldn’t subside as he turned up the intensity.

  “I can’t take any more,” she said and opened her drowsy eyes to find his lingering just above. Her head lolled to his shoulder.

  Zave dropped his lips onto hers. “What did I tell you before we came out?” he asked. Taking her hand from his lap, he slid it up and pressed it against the erection he’d freed at some point.

  Filled with desperate need, she leaped up, ready to climb aboard. But he sat her down and came over her, resting a knee on the seat between her thighs. “Close your eyes,” he said.

  The heat didn’t lessen, but the vibration seemed to slow. Although he slid his fingers down through her slick flesh, she didn’t realize that he’d removed the toy until he sat back down and tossed the strips to the floor.

  She was disappointed that her experience with their newest game was over until she saw that her husband was seated, ready for her. Devon climbed astride his lap and sank down onto his dick. “Oh, lord,” she said, rising and lowering in the cramped space of the back of this car.

  Although they weren’t restricted at either side, it took her some time to get used to the ceiling height, although Devon learned quickly how the roof could give her valuable leverage if she laid her palms upon it. Freeing the underarm zip, Zave helped her arms out of the dress and pressed her hands back to the ceiling. As she rode him hard, he kissed and licked and suckled on her, pushing her into another orgasm.

  If she had tried to make love with him or stimulate him on her own, he’d have put up resistance given that he’d been in such a bad mood. The toy had helped her to win more than just her own pleasure. Zave had a compulsion to fulfil her every request, and tonight was not an exception. By giving her what she wanted, he too got the chance to find oblivion.

  Devon was so proud of him for facing his cousin, for telling the truth, for resisting the urge to scream at Thad or pummel him. Whatever was on the device that Thad had given them, they would learn all of that tomorrow.

  But she wouldn’t be fulfilling her duty as his wife if she allowed him to brood and sulk all night. When he seized her waist and yanked her down, he spilled himself into her, and Devon knew his release was more than physical. She didn’t rush away from his lap, even after they were done. She stayed here, stroking him and holding him. Her body stayed limp on his.

  As he held her, she felt his need for more than just sex, he needed her comfort and reassurance that he wasn’t alone. As much as he might believe he deserved to be punished, his subconscious didn’t want to be abandoned.

  Devon was happy to stay in his lap, even as Zave ordered the driver home. When she had to, she would dress and they’d go upstairs to bed where she hoped they would enjoy each other again. But she wasn’t budging from this spot on his lap one second before she had to.

  THIRTEEN

  “Ok,” Tuck declared to the room, leaning back in the dining chair to link his fingers at the back of his head. “The good news is it’s not gonna blow up the building.”

  Everyone gravitated back toward him. Devon and Zara had been standing on the balcony talking about bullshit, both of them aware that they were biding time until Tuck was done. Kadie had been chatting with them until Tuck began muttering to himself, and that was when she’d gone over to sit at her boyfriend’s side.

  Zave and Brodie had, as per usual, been whispering with each other. This time they elected to stand in the kitchen, not to do anything, just in prime position to keep an eye on everyone else.

  They all crowded around Tuck, but he picked up the laptop and strode towards the living room on the other side of the staircase, where he put the machine on the entertainment center beneath the large-screen, wall-mounted television.

  He turned on the TV, pressed a few buttons, and a few seconds later the screen matched the laptop display. Tuck stood up and gestured everyone over. “Sit down, you’re gonna want to see this,” he said, and it didn’t take more than a few seconds for everyone to seat themselves in the living room on the couch and armchair around the TV.

  “What’s going on?” Zara asked.

  As though this was a standard presentation, Tuck cracked his knuckles and took a breath. “They’re not asking for weapons, and there are a couple of files on there which will mean something to you, Falc, but the schematics are crude, and it’s nothing we couldn’t deliberately sabotage.”

  “So why give it to us?” Zara asked, sliding further into her place on the couch between Devon and her husband.

  Brodie was at the end of the couch, and Kadie was at the other end on Devon’s other side. Zave was seated on an armchair beyond Kadie, and Devon wanted to go and sit with him but didn’t want her comfort to be conspicuous.

  “Why are we sitting around here if it just contains a couple of engineering plans? Unless it’s about Game Time, do you think—”

  “No,” Tuck said. “This is incendiary.”

  “What does that mean?” Devon asked, and Kadie took her hand.

  “It’s a
message,” Kadie said, looking at her man, who was standing in front of the television.

  Tuck went to tap a key on the keyboard, then paused in a crouch to look at Zara. “Rave, Swallow, I don’t know which one of you we’ll have to tie down, but you’re definitely gonna want to see this.”

  Devon wanted to see it, too, if for no other reason than to learn what all the fuss was about. Zave touched a button that was built into the cube table next to his chair, and the lights dimmed as the panels she’d now become familiar with slid from the walls to cover the windows, plunging the room into complete darkness.

  Tuck pressed another button on the computer and white noise faded up. There was a crackle.

  A few seconds ago, this space had been benign. Despite the obvious class of the environment, they were just people standing in an apartment. Now it felt like a secret military bunker, like they’d hunkered down in a trench, ready for warfare.

  With bated breath, Devon anticipated what their enemy’s first move may be.

  A light flickered onto the wide television screen, and it illuminated the body of a man. They couldn’t see his face. All around him was dark, but he was sitting in a chair wearing jeans and a blue checked shirt.

  His hands curled around the arms of what appeared to be an executive chair. Devon didn’t know who he was, and she wondered why he’d shrouded his face, at least until Zara broke the thick silence.

  “It’s Grant,” Zara whispered, and Devon glanced around to see Zara dig her nails into Brodie’s thigh.

  “I wish I could be there to see your face, Zar,” came the slow words from the shaded man on the screen. “I don’t know whether to laugh or apologize. It’s tough to think that just a few years ago we were worker bees in corporate offices. You’d never have envisioned this future. But I could. The only difference between my plan and this reality is where you are. You were supposed to be with Syn, not there with those cretins.

  “But,” he said, raising his hands and slapping them onto the arms of his chair. “You’ve made your choice. I miss you. But I wouldn’t have you here. He’d changed who you are, and that woman is corrupt.”