Chapter 55 Maeve
MAEVE
I was sore when I woke up the next morning. Not that I was complaining.
I was all tangled up in the Butchers and there was no place I’d rather be.
Our fucking had gotten more intense since I’d been back from Romania, the lines between us blurred until we were basically all fucking each other. It wasn’t something I’d expected but I wasn’t mad at it.
It felt right, like it was the way it was always supposed to be.
No me and them. No Bram separate from Poe and Remy.
Just us, all of us, together.
I woke them up with my hands and mouth, savored the sensation of them stirring next to me, their dicks already hard. We fucked again, then moved into the shower together.
The invasion of Ethan Todd’s hideaway lurked in the background as we took a walk, grabbed lunch at a local restaurant, and returned to the suite. By then the sky was darkening, and the prospect of the Butchers leaving was becoming all too real.
But I didn’t have second thoughts. Any I might have had been destroyed by Ethan Todd’s attempt to contact Olivia. I’d put us — all of us — on Todd’s radar, and I had to fix it.
But I couldn’t do it alone. I knew that now.
And the truth was, I didn’t want to.
But that didn’t mean my stomach wasn’t in knots as the Butchers went through the duffels, inverting the items, deciding which to leave since Rafe had over supplied them by a lot, or according to Remy, “like we’re a fucking army.”
They fit everything they needed into three duffels, then set it all by the door to take to the car.
It was almost midnight when it was time to say goodbye.
“You better come back,” I said to Remy when he took me in his arms.
He looked dangerously beautiful, his fair hair a contrast to his black jeans and T-shirt.
“We wouldn’t have it any other way, killer.” He bent to kiss me. “Don’t worry about a thing.”
I hugged Poe, lingering as long as I could get away with, wondering how I’d ever lived without his strong steady presence in my life.
“We’ll be back before you know it,” he said, kissing the top of my head. “We can order room service again.”
I laughed. “I have a feeling it’s not the food you’re looking forward to.”
He grinned. “Why choose? We can have it all.”
He was right, and with them, I did.
Then Bram was stepping toward me, a manila envelope in his hand.
“What’s this?” I asked when he handed it to me.
He shifted on his feet and refused to meet my gaze. “Just some legal stuff.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What kind of legal stuff?”
“The kind that protects you if something happens to us.”
And now I knew what he was talking about.
I thrust the envelope at his stomach. “I don’t want it.”
I didn’t want to think about the possibility that they weren’t coming back to me. Didn’t want to think about the possibility that my vengeance would be their end.
“Goddamn it, Maeve, take it.” There was no mistaking the angry edge in his voice, and he inhaled a deep breath and took my face in his hands. “You have to do this for us because we’re not going to be able to think straight if we don’t know you’re taken care of.”
My throat closed with emotion. “I don’t want to think about it.”
“You don’t have to think about it.” His voice was surprisingly tender. “Just take it, and if anything happens to us promise you’ll call the lawyer listed in the paperwork.”
He was pleading with me. Begging me.
I nodded. “Okay.”
“I fucking love you, Maeve. Don’t you forget it. And we’re not doing this just for you, so don’t spend even a second feeling guilty. We’re doing it because we’re one, and if you don’t have peace, we don’t have peace.”
He bent to kiss me, lingering over my lips as he made long, slow sweeps of my mouth.
I sank against him, memorizing the feel of his strong body molded to mine, his big hands warm on my face.
Then he was pulling gently away from me, Poe and Remy filing out after him. One by one, they picked up their bone masks, waiting by the door, and stepped into the night.
The closed with a click of finality that sounded like a warning.