Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
Wren
The drive back to Crescent Heights was quiet. Even Zayn hadn't said a word since we climbed into the SUV and decided to stay at Kingston's. We needed to get my stuff from the hotel I was staying at, pick up Sullivan's car, and pick up clothing from their houses before playing the waiting game.
Trevor had attempted to get me to go back to headquarters, but I knew if we went there, there was a chance none of us would be leaving. I was already fearing the wrath of my dad when he found out all that had happened.
Hopefully, that wouldn't be anytime soon.
It was already approaching dinner time by the time we pulled into Kingston's garage. My stomach rumbled with hunger, and Kingston looked over at me as he shut off the engine.
"I'll order us some food and take care of the stuff I need to for my businesses while we wait." Kingston reached over and brushed my hair behind my ear. "What do you want to eat?"
"We have ice cream," Zayn piped up from the backseat. We'd stopped at his place so he could pack a bag of clothes. I wasn't sure how many clothes he'd packed, but he'd filled a giant blue bag with ice cream.
"Ice cream isn't a proper meal." Kingston rolled his eyes and got out.
"Pizza sounds good." I followed him to the back of the SUV, grabbing one of my suitcases. "Cheesy bread and chicken wings too."
"Now that's a real dinner." Kingston dragged my other bag out with a grunt. "Jesus, what do you have in here?"
"Practically my entire life." I rolled my bag toward the door as Sullivan pulled up in the driveway. "Sullivan can bring the bag if it's too heavy for you."
"Something's too heavy for Kingston?" Sullivan got out of his car and went to his trunk. "I'm not surprised that he's weak. He has the cuticles of a princess."
Zayn laughed as he followed me into the house with his bags. "Roasted. That's what you get, BFF."
Zayn went straight to the kitchen and opened the freezer. He had at least ten gallons of ice cream. I'd thought he'd been joking about having a freezer full of it in his garage, but he hadn't been. He practically had an entire supermarket’s worth.
"I'm going to pretend you three aren't talking shit about me and go order us dinner. Zayn, can you show Wren the guest room?" Kingston kissed my forehead, leaving me with my other suitcase.
I watched him as he disappeared down the hall. He hadn't said much, but I could tell from the pain in his eyes that he was struggling with everything that was happening.
"There's only one guest bedroom?" Sullivan flopped down on the couch. "Oh, shit. This couch is comfortable as hell."
I bit my lip. "I don't mind sharing the guest bed."
Zayn shut the freezer and took my hand, yanking me toward the opposite hallway from where Kingston had gone. "We can worry about that later."
I hadn't done much snooping besides finding Kingston's office the last time I was in his house. On one side of the house was his bedroom, office, and a guest bathroom, and on the opposite side were three other rooms that shared a bathroom.
One of the rooms was completely empty, another had a shut door, and the third was a guest bedroom with a queen-sized bed. It was simple, with a nightstand, dresser, and a chair in the corner.
"This is where I used to sleep." Zayn sat down on the bed and patted the spot next to him. "The mattress is very comfortable."
"How are you doing?" I moved to stand in front of him and he spread his legs, his hands landing on my hips and pulling me forward.
His lips twisted to the side, and he squinted up at me. "What do you mean?"
It was as if nothing from the last few days had happened. Even now with me bringing it up, he didn't seem to connect that I was asking him about how he was after killing two men and having to leave his sister behind.
I tapped my forefinger against his temple. "How's your head?"
"My head is fine. I didn't hit it or anything." He grinned up at me. "Now, if you're asking me if my mind is in the gutter..."
"Zayn..." I started to pull away from him, and his grip tightened on me.
"I need to pretend none of it happened." He leaned forward, putting his forehead on my stomach so I couldn't see his face. "Can we just pretend?"
Running my fingers through his hair, I let out a shaky sigh. Avoiding it wasn't going to help anything, but at least for the night, we could all use a little pretending.
It had taken about an hour for our dinner to arrive, and in that time, we'd all showered, changed, and gotten comfortable in the living room. If someone would have told me I'd end up surrounded by three men I'd slept with, stuffing my face with food, I'd have called them crazy.
"I need to go to the nightclub to check on some things." Kingston stood with the empty pizza boxes and held out his hand for my empty plate. "Zayn, you coming with?"
"Trevor was very clear we need to stay in." I put my plate on his stack of trash and sat back on the couch, resisting the urge to rub my belly.
"I'm not going to let my businesses suffer." Kingston headed into the kitchen. "We'll be gone an hour, tops."
"I'll have to run it by Trevor." I grabbed my phone and was about to dial Trevor when it was plucked from my hands from behind. "Hey!"
"I'm not going to be a prisoner in my own home." He set my phone on the island.
I jumped to my feet. "Just because Marcos is in a coma doesn't mean people working with him aren't out for blood."
"How would they even know what happened to him?" Kingston pulled his shirt off as he walked toward his bedroom.
He had a point, but that didn't mean I agreed with him. "If you're going, we're all going. I'll let Trevor know."
Kingston let out a sigh of defeat, stopping in the doorway of his bedroom to look at me. "I'm leaving in fifteen minutes. With or without you three."
He was such a moody bastard, and the temptation to run my mouth was strong. "Fine. I could use a strong drink."
I marched back down the halls and swiped my phone off the counter. Sullivan grabbed my wrist as I started to walk past the couch. "Let him be. Everyone handles stress differently." He looked over at Zayn, who was laughing at something on his phone. "Eventually they will both crash and burn."
That was the last thing we needed.
Twenty minutes later, all four of us were loaded up in Kingston's SUV. Sullivan's blood was still all over the seat, but Kingston had put a sheet over it until he could have it cleaned.
It was going to be weird being at the nightclub and not be working. I had been scheduled to work the last two nights and been a no-show. It wasn't the best idea for me to be going in.
Kingston backed out of the garage, his eyes holding mine for a moment as he looked back. I wanted to tell him everything was going to work out for all of us in the end, but I didn't know that for certain.
My phone pinged with a message from Trevor.
Trevor: There are two agents already at the nightclub and two more will follow you. If anything goes down, you need to get out of there.
I rolled my eyes and put my phone in my purse. Zayn was next to me and raised his eyebrows in question.
"Trevor is having agents follow us." I turned and looked out the back window as Kingston took off down the street. Sure enough, a pair of headlights pulled out behind us. "I guess that's for the best."
"We should try to lose them." Zayn rubbed his hands together. "Floor it, boss man."
"This isn't a movie, Zayn." Kingston sighed heavily and turned in the direction of downtown. "The last thing we need is for them to haul us into their headquarters."
"What's it like?" Zayn turned toward me, propping his leg on the seat.
"Headquarters? Depending on which one depends on what it's like. The one closest to here has the main estate for my family, a holding facility, and stuff like that."
"A prison, you mean." Sullivan turned in his seat so he could join the conversation. "Why does your family have an estate at headquarters?"
"They always have." I sighed. I could tell them part of the truth without telling them everything, couldn't I? "My dad built it several hundred years ago, but the more shifters and humans that came to be, the more he expanded."
"Wait, how old is he?" Sullivan was giving me his complete attention.
Kingston's jaw ticked, and he kept his eyes on the road.
"Not sure how old he is exactly. Since the beginning of human existence? I've never actually asked him." I hadn't asked him a lot about himself, come to think of it.
It wasn't that I didn't care, but when you finally process that your father is a god, it's a bit of a mindfuck. I didn't understand what it even meant until I was about eight years old.
"Your dad isn't Lucifer, is he?" Zayn threw his head back and laughed. "Can you imagine meeting him when we've all been fucking his daughter? Oh, man."
My face burned at the thought of them meeting Apollo. He'd probably shoot them with his golden arrows or pummel their heads until they turned to dust. I shuddered.
Zayn put his hand on my thigh. "Is he?"
"No." I laughed uncomfortably and patted his hand. "He's, ummm..."
"We're here." Kingston saved my ass as he pulled into the packed parking lot and into his spot. "We can talk about your father later."
"You don't have to be such an asshole." Sullivan unhooked his belt, letting it snap back into the holder. "We all have shit we're struggling with."
My eyes burned with tears and I focused on taking off my seatbelt and putting my purse strap across my body. I didn't want them to fight because of me, but that was exactly what was happening.
"I'll tell you guys everything, I promise. I need one night of forgetting that world exists." I let out a shaky breath. "Can we do that? Just for tonight?"
"Just for tonight." Kingston's eyes searched mine. "I'm sorry."
"You guys are such Debbie Downers." Zayn climbed out and poked his head back in. "Let's go drink and dance while boss man yells at people in his office."
Once inside the club, Kingston headed to his office, and Zayn, Sullivan, and I went to the bar. Harlow was helping pour drinks, and she narrowed her eyes at me as soon as we squeezed our way to the front of the queue.
"I thought Kingston said he'd talked to Harlow about me not working," I yelled into Zayn's ear.
The one bad thing about being a shifter and working in a loud place was we couldn't really use our sense of hearing unless we wanted to hear all the other noise even louder.
"He did." He leaned on the bar as Harlow came closer. "We need something strong, Har. Hook us up."
She pointed her finger at me and I swear it felt like she was poking me in the chest. "Where the fuck have you been?"
"Kidnapped." I widened my eyes at her and tilted my head. "You should try it sometime."
"No, thank you. Once is enough for me." She grabbed three glasses and started pouring what looked like Long Island Iced Teas except with so much liquor there wasn't much room for anything else. "Will you be working your shift tomorrow?"
She was going to casually say she was kidnapped before and then ask me about working? Who did that?
"I don't think so. I'm not sure when I'll be back." I grabbed one of the drinks she'd placed on the bar and passed it back to Sullivan, who hadn't managed to squeeze in next to the counter.
"I guess I'm not surprised you'd have a pack to keep you occupied." She smirked as my jaw opened slightly. "Who wouldn't want a pack of hot men salivating over her?"
I wanted to ask her what the fuck she was, but now wasn't the time or place. She didn't seem to pose a threat, at least not at the moment.
"Put it on my tab!" Zayn grabbed his drink and raised it to Harlow before heading toward an empty booth off the main dance floor.
I nodded my goodbye to Harlow and followed, Sullivan right behind me. The club was busy but wasn't as packed as it could have been.
"Why did I get the feeling that Harlow is something other than human?" Sullivan slid in next to me in the curved booth after I slid in after Zayn. "I hadn't noticed before tonight."
"Kingston and I have never been able to figure it out. She lives in an apartment above the diner and has worked here since he opened the place." Zayn stirred his drink and took a sip. "Damn, that's strong."
Shifters weren't as affected by alcohol as humans, but we weren't immune to its effects. We just had to drink a heck of a lot more. "She could be a witch or something."
"Those aren't real." Sullivan shook his head. "Actually, never mind."
"There's a lot even I'm not aware of." I shrugged and sipped my drink.
"We should dance!" Zayn took the straw out of his glass and lifted it to take a giant chug.
"Uh, I don't dance." I shook my head vehemently. "You two can, though."
"You'd be okay with us dancing with other women?" Sullivan had his eyes on Zayn as he took his straw out of his glass and licked it.
"You’d better not." I glanced between them. "I meant you two could dance... together."
Sullivan's eyes slowly slid to mine, and he smirked. "You want to watch us grind together?"
Something about the lighting and the twinkle in his eye made my heart thud in my chest. I nodded and bit my lip as he took a gulp of his drink.
"It will cost you." Zayn scooted around the circular booth and stood. "I want to use your pussy as my ice cream cone later for dessert."
My sex clenched and I squirmed a bit in my seat. "That could be arranged."
"What do I get as payment?" Sullivan's hand went to my thigh and squeezed. I was very aware that it would take only a small slip of his hand under my skirt to be touching me.
"Whatever you want." I leaned forward and kissed him, my tongue swiping through the sweetness still on his lips from his drink.
He groaned, opening himself up to me, his hand moving up my skirt and finding nothing but my bare skin, slick with desire.
"Fuck, Wren," he said against my lips, spreading my folds with his fingers and pressing into my clit before he slid two fingers right in. "This is what I want later, wrapped around my cock."
I clung to his forearm as he pumped his fingers a few times and then he was gone, leaving me panting. He took another drink and leaned down to put his lips against my ear. "I want you begging for it."
Words failed me as he straightened and turned to Zayn, who had been waiting patiently. Zayn grabbed Sullivan's wrist and brought his hand up, taking the two fingers he'd had buried in my cunt in his mouth.
I was fairly certain my pussy was weeping.