5. Threx Black Threads
five
Threx: Black Threads
I remember the first night my arms were no longer her home, the way my sheets felt crumpled and disoriented as they pressed into the center of my back.
For fourteen years, I’d fallen asleep to the pattern of her heart.
The pretty way it moved blood in and out in even, safe hums against my chest was my favorite sound in the universe.
It was the only thing that mattered.
And the one thing my body could not forget.
I was picturing her on her stomach, watching the shadows glide across her naked spine, when I smelled her across the room.
It did not matter that the club was pumping with sex and adrenaline.
I always knew when she was close. Because of course I did.
My entire sensory system had developed around her, forming a strange cage of sinewy lines and unforgiving impulses.
Fuck.
I told her not to come tonight. But, she didn’t listen. She is so fucking stubborn, and that little side piece she’s been living with treats her key to the Underworld like it’s a goddamn magic wand.
Asshole.
If Kandy only knew what we had to do to unlock all these damn doors, she would never ask Daphne to use it. But people don’t venture that deep without wanting something. All they do is use you for your resources, emotional energy, and your dick until they’re off to feed on their next victim.
My vision had parted just in time to see her shimmering in the blinking lights, looking at me with sick in her eyes. She couldn’t possibly think that these faceless, sucking things on my body were even real, could she?
A growl broke free inside me.
I told her not to come tonight!
I knew enough to know she’d stand there and watch like the dark little angel of death she was, had this been about me.
But of course, it wasn’t. She had to go and save the fucking day instead, landing on the unhinged piece of shit list that is Rinley.
As if I did not have enough to deal with, without having to play dick smash with that punk fuck, dead body scraper.
“Where have you been?” I side-eyed Wolfe, whose particular shade of Daphne made me want to punch it off his goddamn face. He shot a half-smirk at me, but kept his mouth shut.
Wolfe wasn’t the type to brag about his women, but when it came to Daphne, he protected her with every bit of his non-existent soul.
“Everyone who doesn’t matter, get the fuck out!” he demanded, ushering the last of the naked bodies down the stairs before plopping into the chair beside me.
“Where is she?” I was not about to play his power games.
The truth was Wolfe was in control of everything but his feelings for Daphne!
He was fearless until she walked in, and then his dick was the only thing that mattered.
That, and fuck, I think he might actually love her.
A nervous laugh shot straight into my throat, and I paused…
But he’s never kept her. And that is the only reason he still breathes.
“Wolfe?” I growled, tossing a glance at the stream of ignored texts. “I can smell her on you. Tell me where she is!”
The bastard cracked a laugh, rolling his fingertips into his mouth with a suck.
“Now that we are all here.” He pulled his fingers out, savoring her taste. “Less for Nathem, who will be joining us in a moment, let’s talk about the clusterfuck that was today.”
“What are you talking about?” Jessie arched a brow. He was a torturer with a poet’s soul, smelled of cedar, and radiated all that dark romantic shit. “We retrieved the guns and the stolen cash. Most people would call that a win!”
“And got Karsten’s son shot!” Wolfe huffed. “So I call it a clusterfuck!”
“Shot is not dead,” Blade laughed, leaning on the stair banister. “And everyone who comes to play knows the risk.”
“Didn’t I banish you to door duty?” Wolfe asked, flicking his cigarette on the floor.
Oh yes, he’d finally banged Carissa. Wolfe’s sister! It had only been ten years since that infatuation started. All of us smirked, tapping the edge of our chairs in his honor.
“Shut the fuck up,” Wolfe shook his head, pointing at an empty chair. “And shot is almost worse,” he continued. “Why? Because now Karsten’s son will name us in that grab! Which means Marianne’s gonna turn around to shield her people, and our faction support is going to drop until this shit clears.”
“And,” Nathem stormed in, dropping into the other seat next to me, smelling like… I turned. “He is already pissed about the little side job we did to set up the Reapers.”
The Reapers were a factionless crew who didn’t meddle in Underworld politics and were granted amnesty in all major territories. Their sole purpose was to carry out contracts. It wasn’t personal; death never is.
When I was seventeen, I had done some work with one of their uppers, Zade Carden, and was asked to join their guild. However, Daphne was a hard stop. Accepting their order meant severing all ties to her, so I told them to go fuck themselves and never looked back.
Besides, hiding behind a hood was never my style.
“Sounds like it might be time to call in a favor,” I advised, still drilling holes into Nathem’s skull. “Where were you?” I changed the subject, watching that smug, Irish son of a bitch toy with the idea of not telling me.
“I was making a drop,” he said casually. “But speaking of Daphne!” Nathem laughed, confirming… what exactly? He had about two seconds before I yanked the words out of his mouth, along with the accent most women dropped their panties for. “She is on Rinley’s shit list.”
“Oh yeah, I saw her tonight,” Blade grinned. “Is it me, or has she gotten prettier?”
Wolfe got to him before I did.
“You know what? I think the door is lonely without you. Maybe you should go keep it company.”
Blade only smiled.
“Rinley knows if he goes anywhere near Daphne that Threx and Wolfe will have him by the balls,” Jessie said as if it were common knowledge. And it was.
“That doesn’t mean he won’t do it, though. That fucker is unhinged,” Nathem leaned forward. “And bitter that she left.”
“Speaking of,” Jace, our medical advisor, who somehow managed to get more pussy than all of us combined, chimed in. Must be the dollars because God knows it wasn’t his face. “What is Daphne now that she is out?”
I arched a brow at the doc in silent thought. I didn’t quite care for the way “out” and her name touched each other in the same sentence.
“Daphne is family,” I declared. “She has earned her place.”
“And non-negotiable,” Wolfe added. “Does anyone here think otherwise?”
They all huffed and shrugged, with the same pathetic smiles she always seemed to conjure even in the Underworld. Dark things liked her! Me most of all.
“You know we all love her,” Jessie tossed a glance at me. “I mean, some of us more than others.”
The men laughed.
“I’ll take care of Rinley,” I said, grabbing the nearest bottle of whatever and choking it down.
“No. We will take care of him!”
Oh, yay, slumber party with Wolfe. My favorite.
“He is in direct violation of club rules if he so much as smiles at another woman while Molly is with child. You should know I threatened to give her to one of you,” he said with a smile. “If he fucks this all up.”
“No.” Nathem made a face, and it was hard not to laugh.
I glanced at my phone, still nothing. This would be easier if I knew where the hell she was.
“You’d be a good father!” Wolfe teased. “And Molly is…”
“A brainless half-wit who fell for RINLEY,” he pointed out. “Rinley! And my dick is not going anywhere he’s been.”
“I guess then maybe make sure he doesn’t fuck this up.”
Molly wouldn’t be the first wife to get tossed around. My brothers were great at killing and not feeling things, but when it came to actual heartbeats, they did not know what to do. However, Wolfe was right. Out of all of us, Nathem would be the best father.
“Did you take her home?” I asked, shifting my weight onto my knees.
“No.” The tension gathering in his neck meant he was paying attention.
Good.
“She was called out on a birth,” Wolfe intervened. “We gave her some clothes, and I sent her with Nathem so she did not have to call a cab.”
I glanced at my phone, then back at him.
“As for our issue with Karsten. I want all security measures exchanged,” they groaned. “And intel starts tonight. Threx. Nathem. Blade. You’re up! Find out their reaction, who they called, and which member of Marianne’s team leaked our involvement.”
And here I thought naked night meant I would get to see my bed before dawn.
We ambled to our feet as the dark lights of the club pulsed from below. Some nights stretched on forever, and this was going to be one of them.
“Is she okay?” I asked Wolfe before I made my way to the stairs.
“We did not really have time to talk about you,” he said through a drag.
“I did not ask you if she was pissed at me. I asked if she was okay.”
I dug my fists into my pockets, where Daphne says rage goes to die. She taught me that little trick after my temper landed me in juvie for two weeks. Apparently, ramming the Quickie Mart attendant’s head into the slushie machine for inappropriately touching my girl was not a lawful response.
And if I were being honest, I did not hate being locked up.
It came with three meals and a bed, which was a hell of a lot better than what I had at home at the time.
But leaving Daphne wasn’t. The missing sounds of her breath tore through my core like a fever that I couldn’t escape.
There was a curve to her body, a shape I needed to feel whole, and whenever it was gone, my humanity ceased to exist. But none of that compared to the fear that something had happened to her, or that she was starving and alone.
I barely slept! I couldn’t think. The absence of her was everywhere.
When I crawled through her window, the night I got out, she was folded like a crushed piece of paper in the middle of her mattress.
“Hey,” I had said, her brown hair sweeping past her shoulders.
Usually, she would rush to find me, pull me into her chest until all the air came crashing in.
But this time, she lay still. Almost as if she wished I weren’t there, looking at her.
I was young, but even then, the idea of a world where she shut me out made my insides burn.
“Daph.”
I crawled into the center of the bed we had slept on for most of our lives. I was pretty sure the bottom was covered in mold, and I hated the way our imprints never faded when you stood up. Everything in Seattle is wet. Your floor. Your clothes. Your goddamn marrow.
“Hey.”
Her head rolled back, and when two purple eyes and a busted lip looked up at me, the entire fucking world went black.