Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
Gideon
“That’s him,” Dean said as soon as we got into the SUV.
“Who?”
Dean motioned to the bar we’d just left. “Penn, him…those eyes. Gid, that voice. That’s the man who ran into my house!”
The first thing that had struck me when I’d met Penn had been his emerald eyes.
He was slightly shorter than me, definitely worked out or was used to hard labor.
His hair was pretty much a buzz cut…and all in all, he was gorgeous.
Hearing that he was my children’s savior had me itching to go back into Kaleidoscopes.
“Are you sure?”
Dean pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m like ninety-five percent sure. It took everything in me not to blurt it out in there.”
I was glad he hadn’t. I didn’t know Penn. Was he skittish? He obviously didn’t want the accolades that would come to him for saving anyone from a fire.
“Explains why he’s leaving in two weeks,” Alex added from the front.
“Gid, I respect his need for anonymity, but if Lorcan figures it out, how do you think he’s going to feel toward the man who ruined his chance to hurt you irrevocably?” Dean made a very good point.
Penn had saved my family, so I’d give him anything he wanted, but it seemed all he craved was to be left alone. After he left in two weeks, if Lorcan hadn’t figured out who he was, he’d likely be in the clear.
“Let’s get some guys on him—stay in the shadows, keep him safe until he leaves town.”
Dean cocked his head. “You don’t even want to thank him?”
“He doesn’t want to be thanked, Dean.” I stared out the window at the bar. “He wants to be forgotten.”
As we drove away from Kaleidoscopes, it felt as if were going in the wrong direction. I’d immediately been physically attracted to Penn when I’d seen him, but upon finding out he was the person who’d run into a burning building to protect my world, in my heart it was as if I were abandoning him.
“Get men on him ASAP, Danny.”
“Yes, Boss.”
The second we walked into the house, Rita was on me. “You found him?”
I glared at Dean. He must have texted her from the car.
“What? I tell her everything; she hurts me otherwise.” He shrugged, a smirk tugging at his lips.
“I’ll hurt you both in a second. Where is he? I want to thank him.”
I waved her off and handed my jacket to Danny. “He’s leaving town in two weeks. He doesn’t know we know, and I’m respecting his wishes to stay anonymous.”
“Fuck that, Gid.” Rita was almost a foot shorter than me, a tiny thing, but she was a viper.
“Rita, let him be.”
“No, I—”
“I said enough!” I raised my voice only because I had to. I didn’t like yelling at home with the kids, but Rita was out of line. “That’s final, am I clear?”
Dean wrapped his arm around his wife. “Yeah, Gideon. Come on, Rita.”
“This is bullshit,” she muttered as she stormed off toward the kitchen.
I lifted my brows at my brother and he nodded. “I’ll talk to her.”
“You do that.”
I made my way up the stairs. It was late, so I knew Owen and Olivia were in bed.
I peeked into Owen’s room first. He was zonked out, one leg over the covers and the other under, his mouth open, snoring lightly.
Olivia slept as if she were being graded on it.
Where she was a wildfire during the day, she was a sleeping beauty at night.
I saw the light under the room Matteo was staying in. It was almost his bedtime, but I knocked anyway.
“Yeah?”
When I opened the door, he was at the desk drawing. “Hey, Matteo.”
“Hi, Uncle Gideon.”
“Whatcha drawing?”
He shrugged and tried to push it away, but I stopped him. Reluctantly he showed me, and I didn’t need to ask who it was. A man dressed in all black with piercing green eyes, flames surrounding him.
“You’re very talented.”
“I can’t stop thinking about him…dude was on fire.”
Yeah, that part was stumping me. It had only been two weeks, and if he’d had burns on his body—one, he wouldn’t be able to do the physical labor at the bar, and two, he’d be in pain. The man I’d seen tonight had appeared unfazed.
“I’m glad he was there—grateful, words I can’t seem to form, honestly.”
“Think we’ll ever see him again?” He smiled wide.
I didn’t want his happy bubble to burst. “You never know.” I handed the drawing to him. “Better get to bed before your mom comes up.”
“ ’Kay, night, Uncle Gid.”
“Night, Matteo.”
“Boss.” Alex was walking toward me as I exited Matteo’s room.
“What’s wrong?”
“The docks, the shipment is here.”
“What!” I raced to my office. “It’s set for tomorrow.”
“Yeah, Henry said that’s what he was told, but seems someone changed it so they could clean up.”
I slammed my hand on my desk, smashing my keyboard in half. “Motherfucker! Get everyone over there, now!”
“On it.” Alex left, and I picked up my desk lamp and threw it.
I’d contacted seven of the businesses Lorcan was pilfering from, paid their debts, and offered protection. Lorcan had likely gotten wind of it. This back-and-forth he was playing at would only end one way—with one of us dead, and it sure as fuck wasn’t going to be me.
I trusted Alex to get to the docks and stop whatever fuckery Lorcan was conjuring up, but it felt like my veins were on fire, my muscles tightening…
I needed to fuck. Not make love, I needed to rage-fuck.
I shut my office door and paced, drank some bourbon, lit a cigar…
opening a window, of course. Nothing was working.
Green eyes invaded my mind. I fell onto my sofa, my cock rock hard.
I hadn’t had sex with a man in a long time.
After I’d met Ella I’d fallen hard and fast; she’d been my everything.
She’d known I was bisexual, hadn’t cared, and I’d never strayed.
Penn was the first person since Ella died that even got me excited.
Was it how beautiful he was or the fact that he’d almost died saving my children? Shit. I undid my pants and my dick sprang free, the tip red and angry. Fucking hell.
I spit on my hand, gripped my cock, and started jacking off as though if I didn’t come soon, I’d die.
I closed my eyes and saw him. His green eyes, his muscles, that face a mask of secrets I wanted to unwrap…
just as much as I wanted to strip him of every stitch of clothing and lick everywhere the fire had touched.
“Shit.” My orgasm tore through me as I thought about what he’d taste like.
My empire was being threatened, my power challenged, my family targeted, and here I was masturbating to thoughts of a stranger. I had to get it together. Everything that is mine will stay strong, and Penn will stay alive.