“To you,” she said, smiling, because it was nice that he was taking some time out to reassure her. Slipping off her shoes, she pushed back on the bed to lie down. “Will you lie with me?”
He glanced at the door. “We have to be around to hear what Caine has to say. It will be important, and we may pick up on something that the others don’t. Kindred strategy meetings are largely about brainstorming,” he said and stood up. “Sometimes there’s an obvious course of action or someone has a specific plan they’d like to follow. But situations like this, when there are so many variables…”
Devon sat up and reached over to take his hand. “It will take time for him to decide what he wants to eat and time for the food to be delivered. I’m not asking you to make love to me, Zave. I’m asking you to lie down and let me comfort you a minute.”
He couldn’t argue with logic. Caine would make more jibes, Brodie would rise to them, and Zara would be telling them to cut it out. But it was unlikely they would miss any earth-shattering revelations in the next few minutes. Caine was holding on to those secrets so that he could release them when they would be most valuable. He made no secret of his passion for monitoring people. Absorbing reactions to shocking news would be like a drug to him. Caine had done nothing except try to shock her when they’d met, like he got off on the idea that his words were unsettling.
But the more time she spent with him, the more she doubted how vicious he was. Caine said these things and his language was coarse, but he seemed too laid back, lazy almost, to actually follow through on the threats. He hadn’t cared when Brodie’s gun was trained on him. Caine, Devon was sure, was dangerous, but it would probably take quite a lot of pushing to make him exert the energy of actually killing somebody or hurting them.
Zave had finished his reflection, and he came around the bed to crawl on beside her. He lay down and gathered her body against his. Immediately, she felt better when both of them relaxed.
“This is a perk of being married,” she murmured into his chest. “We don’t need a reason to hold each other or have expectation that things have to go further than this. Your mind is so complex, such a complicated place, that I could never understand all your thoughts. It’s my job.” Devon stroked the small portion of his chest that she could reach while locked in the circle of his arms. “To slow everything down for you, to simplify it. You have to forget about the Kindred, about Syn and all the people downstairs. You have to forget about the island and the threats and what might happen down the road. Close your eyes and live for this exact minute when all you are is a husband holding his wife, enjoying the heat of her body and the softness of her skin.
“You’re a man with a woman who loves him with all of her heart. I don’t want you to be Falcon right now. I don’t even want you to be Xavier Knight, KC CEO. You’re not Thad’s cousin or your father’s son.” Tipping her head back, Devon rested her hand on his cheek. “You’re my lord, that’s it. That’s all. You’re the man who wouldn’t make love to me until he was sure he wanted to marry me. The man who kissed me outside my bedroom because it just felt so right, even though it was completely illogical.” She grinned when he lowered to kiss her again. “Forget everything else, Zave. Forget where we are and why, and just be here with me, right now. Can you do that for me?”
He drew her head against his chest and kissed the top. “Yes, shy, I can.”
Comforting her husband was a luxury he didn’t often let her indulge in. Devon wanted the freedom to do whatever she wanted to with the man she’d pledged her life to. She could lie here in his arms and let him breathe through his worries, but she knew him too well to think he was just going to let it go because she’d said a few soothing words.
Devon couldn’t blame him for being preoccupied. There was a lot of pressure on the Kindred, but beyond that, Syn had singled out Zave to do their work. From everything she’d seen so far, it looked like they were going to have to comply with what Syn wanted them to do.
If he gave these people he didn’t trust his technology, tech that he’d only ever made for Kindred purposes in the past, and then they did something that hurt innocent people, she wasn’t sure he would come through that.
Zave had gone to the extreme of shutting himself away on the island when he’d lost his parents through no fault of his own. And when they’d lost Bronwyn, despite again not doing anything to invite that tragedy, Zave had retreated even more while taking serious risks to save other women.
Syn were doing damage on a larger scale to strangers. She could only assume the worst when they’d been given no specifics. Men like Frank Mitchell and Grant McCormack weren’t righteous, despite what they tried to assert.
His arms had relaxed enough that she could skim hers down his ribs. Loosening his pants, Devon tipped her head back to make eye contact again. “I can give you your toys if you want to play,” he said. “But I have to get back downstairs.”
“In a minute,” she murmured, boosting close enough to kiss him. “I want to play with something else.”
She wasn’t interested in her own pleasure now. All that she cared about was his, and her voice wasn’t as sensual as his was to her when she was being pleasured, so she didn’t try to say anything to enhance the moment. All she did was take his dick out of his pants and massage it inside her fist.
Devon found he was already erect, and it was flattering to know that just being this close to her caused his arousal. Although she desperately wanted to do this, her heart was pounding in fear that he may tell her to stop at any moment.
Inching south, she knew it would be impossible for her to suck him off without him noticing that’s what she was doing. But she tried, like she had on the night they first kissed, to be subtle, as if any jerky movements might cause him to withdraw.
Sliding from his arms, Devon managed to push him onto his back, and maybe it was the stress of the day, or his overwhelming need, but he let her take him into her mouth. Devon dipped low, trying her best to watch him for as long as she could. But when his eyes closed, she didn’t ask him to look at her. She wanted him lost, wanted him so deep in this moment that just for a minute or two at least, she could make his world seem right again.
Dipping down, she took him deep until his engorged head rubbed on the back of her tongue and nudged into her throat. Devon wanted to do this more often because now that they were married, she was the only woman alive allowed to do this. It was a testament to how far he’d come from being the man who had once refused to kiss her because he didn’t deserve the taste of her lips, to now letting her tug his dick against her breast as she stroked her thumb over the apex every time she reached it.
She wanted sex because doing this, having such power over this incredible man overwhelmed her. He needed this, and he’d learned he was allowed to let her tease his body. So often he prioritized her needs, and many times, she’d fought with him, begging to be an equal. At times, she could tell it pained him, but he was doing his best to involve her in every part of his life.
Pushing him into her cheek, she fondled his balls and drummed her fingers on his shaft in a rhythmic, coiling motion. He hissed and as she pushed him deep into her mouth, she dug her nails in against his groin, and his hips rose as he reached the limit of what he could bear. His seed spurted into her throat, and she swallowed his release, hoping it would alleviate some of his burden.
No sooner had she licked her lips than he was drawing her up into his arms, putting her onto her back, but she laid her hands on her chest and resisted his kiss. “You have to go downstairs,” she said, smiling and stroking his jaw. There was a feral need in him now, and he cradled her breast, ready to reciprocate. She lifted her arms up around his neck and tucked her face against him. “How many times have you spoiled me and not let me return the favor?”
“I like to return the favor.”
His murmuring voice coupled with the gentle rise and fall of his chest betrayed that this wasn’t another act he’d add to his list of things to feel gu
ilty about. It shouldn’t be that way; she should be allowed to pleasure him without it taking on greater meaning than the moment. “I know, but right now, you can’t,” she said, kissing the underside of his chin. “Go back down to the others, lord. Finish what we started.”
Pouncing off the bed, there was a spring in her step as she headed for the bedroom door. He had to hurry to catch up with her at the top of the stairs. Devon couldn’t let him come up with a reason that he had to reciprocate. What she’d done was no big deal to her, it was a basic comfort meant to destress a man she loved. But to him, it meant the world.
They’d just reached the bottom of the stairs when there was a knock and Tuck went to bring in the boxes of food, which he dumped onto the dining table for Kadie and Zara to begin handing out.
“You get quick service up here,” Caine said. “Bet you tip well.”
“You ordered from a place a block over,” Zara said, tossing a takeout tray onto the table in front of him. “And I put all this on your credit card.”
“That’s cool, I’ve got a buddy who zeroes them every month,” Caine said, popping off the lid of his food and pulling out a plastic fork from the underside. “I can keep you like a queen.”
“I still have my gun,” Brodie said from the kitchen.
Nothing could make Caine lose that cool confidence that irked the men and intrigued the ladies. “When are you going to start talking?” Zara asked. “Tell us what you know about Syn’s plan.”
“So far, all I know is they have a list,” Caine said, “of people they’re going after, some to kill, some to recruit. It’s all part of their plan to mobilize for the big work, as they call it. They’re treating these guys as kind of a training and morale exercise.”
Monitoring the room and the mood, she and Zave made their way to the group. “Have you seen the list?” Zara asked.
Caine shook his head, his mouth full of food. “No. I never asked to. Why would I? I don’t give a fuck. They can kill anybody they want to, it means fuck all to me.”
It seemed he wasn’t much of a forward planner, though it was possible he was just that laid back. Zara didn’t berate him, just explained why it meant something to the Kindred. “If we knew who was on the list,” she said, “we might be able to figure out where they’re going to be next.”
But he wasn’t understanding, he was smug. “I could tell you where they are right now,” Caine said, and everybody stopped what they were doing.
Zave and Devon had just sat down at the table when Caine revealed that truth. Despite not being around to order food, there were takeout trays at their places waiting for them.
Impatient, Zara prompted him. “So tell us,” she said. “And we can end this now.”
Caine was skeptical. “Are you gonna go in and shoot them all?” he asked. “Don’t forget your boyfriend is related to fifty percent of the guys in there. Seventy-five if you include Mitchell, although, I don’t know how that works out.”
His attitude wouldn’t be appreciated by most of the people in the room, but he had a point that they had to come up with a plan before storming anywhere and that would mean facing some tough questions about what to do with their relatives. These weren’t strangers who could be taken down without breaking a sweat; the Kindred had blood in that room.
Caine wasn’t going to make this an easy grab for the Kindred, maybe because he enjoyed watching people squirm or because he had loyalty to his Syn friends. Devon didn’t want him to get too much satisfaction from the power he was holding.
“Thad says that they’re doing important work; that they’re going after the cartels,” Devon said. “Is that true?”
Watching people was his thing, and it was clear how much he liked to scrutinize those around him when new information was shared. If he wasn’t a thug, he’d have made a good politician because he managed to respond without answering her question.
“Why? You wanna come back with me and join our cause?” Caine asked. Except he would know about her experience with those bastards, which would explain why he wasn’t affected when she shook her head. “We’ll take care of your pussy over there too, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“Enough,” Zave growled.
The word was enough to make Caine shrug and move on. “Like I said, I haven’t seen the list. I know they started a war down there at that meet. I don’t know how long it will take your cartel buddies to get their shit together again. They put you through some crap, huh, honey?”
Devon focused on her food and was surprised to feel Zave’s hand cover hers. Comfort would only bring her emotions closer to the surface, and she didn’t want to appear weak in front of this audience. “Did we get something for Bess?” she asked. “I don’t want her to feel like a prisoner.”
Zara lifted another box. “Yeah, I’ll take it to her.”
Devon stood up. “Let me do it. You guys are talking business; I don’t need to be around for that.”
Devon took the box from Zara and headed for the room they’d sent Bess to. That the woman had stayed out of the way, without asking any questions, made Devon worry that their caretaker was more upset about what was going on than she’d admitted to anyone.
Knocking on the door, she went inside to find Bess sitting on the bed, holding a book. But she wasn’t reading, she was gazing out the window that covered the wall opposite the bed. A glazed door led to the balcony that stretched to the living room, but it was locked.
Bess smiled when she saw Devon. “This is a role reversal,” she said, patting the bed.
Devon went over to put the box on the bedside and took a seat facing her friend. Usually Bess was the one bringing her food and comfort. “Caine wanted to order food.”
Bess glanced at the box and was still trying to smile, but Devon knew something was on her mind. “Why is he here?” she asked.
“I think that’s what the Kindred are trying to figure out,” Devon said. “The only one who really seems to trust him is Zara. Kadie’s not afraid of him. But none of the guys like him.”
“There’s a lot of history,” Bess said. “Caine saved Zara’s life and Kadie’s, too, during a Kindred mission when they were pulling Howie out of captivity.”
Most aspects of Kindred history were complex, and relationships were complicated. Devon felt for the poor kid who’d already been a pawn used against the Circle once. “And now he’s trapped again.”
Focusing on a negative would remind Bess of her own worries. She reverted to her usual role of worrying about everyone except herself. “Where’s Dempsey?” Bess asked. “I’ve never met him.”
She’d come here to support Bess, but Devon considered the woman a friend and didn’t mind asking her to fill in a few blanks. “He’s Kadie’s cousin, right? Kadie said he was staying at a hotel somewhere, I think they want to keep him out of it. Unless they need him, I suppose. I don’t know much about him.”
Bess explained why he was being held at arm’s length. “They don’t have the time right now to initiate a new Kindred member. Swift still has to do his due diligence even for one of his oldest friends. Dempsey never knew the truth about what Swift does, he ran Swift’s legitimate company with Kadie. Kadie only found out the truth after she and Swift split up and she went looking for him.”
“Sounds like an interesting story,” Devon said, pulling her bare feet onto the bed to cross her legs.
“All of the Kindred stories are interesting,” Bess said. “I just wish they all had happy endings.”
Tuck and Kadie had a happy ending in that they were together. Bess didn’t have much of one. The boy she’d raised on her own after being knocked up during a frivolous affair had scarpered to run to the father he’d never known. That would hurt any mother. But to know he’d betrayed everyone they both cared about, betrayed her family to run away to the paternal side to do harm, it had to make the deception sting more.
“I’m sorry we had to take you away from Thad’s apartment,” Devon said. “We just didn�
�t want you to be out there on your own.”
“I understand.” Bess leaned forward to take her hand after putting the book aside. She didn’t even look at the food tray. “I couldn’t settle there anyway, I tried my best. I expected to find some sort of note or message, but there was nothing, and then I tried to go through some of his things to find out if maybe he was being coerced or blackmailed and…”
Bess didn’t finish the sentence. “You found nothing?”
“It was eerie. Everything was so normal. Nothing seemed staged or hurried or cleaned up or erased. His sneakers were still in the closet by the door. His stethoscope lay with his hospital ID. Sometimes he worked at the free clinics, he volunteered, so he’d always bring his things home. I suppose it came from the Kindred, too, the always be prepared, never leave evidence… those things were engrained in him… At least, I thought they were.”
Difficult as it was for Bess to talk about, Devon was encouraged that her friend trusted her enough to open up and be honest. “I know you might not believe it now, but it will get easier.”
“He’s my only son,” Bess said, and when her gaze drifted toward the window again, she didn’t even attempt to smile. “I love Zave and Brodie, and I feel awful that they lost their parents. With Art gone, it’s just occurring to me that I’m… alone.”
“You’re not alone!” Devon moved up the bed to get closer to Bess. “You have me and Zave, and Brodie and Zara, right out there. We’re family.”
“I know,” Bess said, “but your children won’t have paternal grandparents.” Or maternal either, Devon thought, but now wasn’t the time to bring up her own family troubles. “The Kindred was a part of Brodie’s life from a young age. Zave was forced to grow up when his father started KC and thrust him into the professional world too early. Those boys had extraordinary lives, Grant did too, taking on the responsibility of CI while finishing school and dealing with the grief of losing his parents. I know it sounds horrible of me now, but there was always a part of me which was a little bit smug because Thad had as close to a normal childhood as I could give him as a single mother. Mitchell did send money, but I was always employed, I tried to instill a strong work ethic into him… We visited sometimes with his aunts, uncles, and cousins, but for the most part… he went to high school, he went to college, he went to med school. He got a job at the hospital and met Bronwyn, it was all normal.
Finch (Kindred #6) Page 17
