Chapter 3
BANE
“You need a shower,” Kit says as he takes me in.
I look down at my bloody clothes and swipe at my ruined shirt. Alas, it’s a hazard of the job. I’ll have to throw this one away. But it’s not a problem. I have lots more in my makeshift closet down below the house.
“I think it’s not as bad as it could be. Plus, Anthony will want to know what they told us. He won’t want to wait for me to change.”
I move up the stairs from the catacombs and right into my boss’s office, appearing through the wall. Kit and Jax follow behind, ignoring each other intently. But I can feel the tension, thick and undeniable.
They’re so going to fuck.
I know it.
I hope I can watch when it happens. I want to see them both take it up the ass for the first time.
I move past the bookshelves and stare at the empty room.
“Huh. Why’s he not here?” I ask. “He should be here. We have an urgent situation!”
“It’s five in the morning,” Jax replies.
I glance at him and then at Kit, who gives me a nod. “Oh, well, I guess we better go to his bedroom then. He’ll wanna know everything.”
“I think I’d like to shower,” Kit says, and Jax clears his throat.
“I can show you where you can take one.”
I interrupt loudly. “If you shower together, I’d like to have a front-row seat.”
Kit stammers, and Jax runs a hand across his face. “I’m just showing him where he can rinse off. We aren’t showering together.”
“Bro job then?” I ask, and Jax rolls his eyes.
“Come on. I’ll show you where we hang out,” Jax says, ignoring me.
Kit gives me a small wave as he follows behind Jax, his eyes traveling from me to Jax’s ass, and I giggle to myself as I watch them go. I’m excited for them both. They’re going to blow each other’s minds. And dicks, I’m sure. And then declare they’re not into men at all.
Sure, sure, I think as I whistle slightly off tune and make my way down the hallway toward Anthony’s room. I find it locked and a note on the door.
Bane, wait until a decent goddamn hour.
I pull it off and stare at it. Well, that’s slightly rude.
And after all my hard work, too. He was so insistent, made me rush and everything.
And I got what he wanted. Mostly. Not really, but still…
I tried. Kit and Jax witnessed it when they were secretly ogling one another.
Actually, they were very unhelpful, and Virgin kept passing out. So I got nothing out of her.
She’s still down there, snoring.
Very rude, honestly.
I think I may need some smelling salts to pull her out of those sleeps.
I walk down the hallway, moving toward Viktor and Luca’s room, but they’ve locked the door, too. I knock and hear rustling on the other side of the door, but no one answers.
I purse my lips and move to the next floor up, looking for Angel and his husband, Mikhail. They’ll let me cuddle.
And just like I thought, their door is unlocked, and I walk right in.
“Oh, fuck off,” Mikhail grumbles, waking Angel.
“Wait, what happened?”
“Shh, little prince,” Mikhail says gently, kissing him on the temple. Angel sighs and leans into him.
“Oh, Bane. Oh dear. You’re all bloody,” Angel tells me. “Go shower and then come to bed.”
I clap my hands loudly, which earns a scowl from Mikhail, who is whispering something into Angel’s ear that I can’t hear. But it doesn’t matter. I’m going to shower and go to bed. Get some Zs before I have to meet with Anthony.
And Angel is the best cuddler.
I turn the shower on and strip my clothes off, leaving them where I step as I turn to look at my ass in the full-length mirror.
Oh yes. I peel the bandage away slightly and look at the tattoo there. The beginning of Georgiy’s name. On my skin. Forever and ever.
I sigh happily, adhering it once more to my ass cheek and then stepping inside the shower.
The water turns pink as it runs down the drain.
I scrub at my body, making sure to get beneath my fingernails and behind my ears.
And when I step from the bathroom, smelling like some kind of vanilla soap, I see Mikhail eyeing me from his place in bed.
“You will wear pants,” he says lowly, and I shiver at being told what to do.
I move toward the closet, dropping the towel on the floor and pulling a pair of pajama pants from one of the drawers.
They must be Mikhail’s because I swim in them, but my eyelids are starting to grow heavy, and I just want to close them for a bit.
Cutting people up is hard work. Really takes a toll on the body.
I let out a jaw-cracking yawn as I move toward the bed. Angel scoots over, letting me slip inside.
“Did you get the answers my dad wanted?” Angel asks as I press my forehead into his chest and throw a leg over his. Mikhail grunts his annoyance, but I can’t be bothered.
“Yep. Kind of. Mostly. I hope he doesn’t fire me,” I say, my voice fading as I slip into sleep. “I really like it here.”
“Where the fuck is he?” a voice growls, and I wiggle closer to the body I’m on top of. So warm and strong.
“Right here. Unfortunately,” a deep Russian accent replies, and I murmur into the chest.
“Georgiy. Mmm.”
“No. Not Georgiy. Mikhail.”
I hear a sweet tittering laugh to my right, and my eyelids flutter open. Oh. Yes. I’m in Angel’s bed. And have somehow managed to wiggle my way between them and onto Mikhail.
“Do I even want to know?” Anthony asks lowly, and I hear Tatum choke back a laugh.
“Don’t be annoyed. You put that note on our door. He had to find another place to burrow,” Tatum explains, and Anthony scoffs.
“Well, at least he’s Mikhail’s problem now.”
I lean up and glance down at Mikhail, who is holding me and Angel against him. He’s very handsome. I would very much like to watch him shower.
“You can get up now,” Mikhail says.
“No, thank you. I have no desire to leave where I’m at,” I say, trying to lie back down, but I’m pulled up by Anthony before I can get too comfortable.
“Leave them be,” he says as I stumble onto my feet. “And for fuck’s sake, Bane. Pull up your pants.”
“What? You like my dick. You told me so,” I say, even as I pull the pajama pants over my prized possessions and tighten the drawstring.
“Did you really compliment his dick?” Tatum asks with a laugh, and Anthony scoffs.
“I did not.”
I roll my eyes. “He did. He said, ‘Bane, you have a nice dick.’ It was in my dream, but still, it counts.”
Anthony shakes his head with a small chuckle and then moves toward the door. “Come on. I want to know what you found. And I also want to know why you have a tattoo on your ass cheeks.”
I run a hand through my messy hair as Tatum hands me a shirt. “I also want to know what happened. I bet it’s delicious.”
“It is. I will tell you everything after breakfast. I’m starving.”
“Well, then you’re right on time. Agatha made you some tea and a few snacks,” Tatum explains.
“Oh, Teddy’s scones?” I ask as Tatum links his arm through mine and pulls me forward.
“Yep. Come on.”
I lean into him and feel him press a kiss to the top of my head.
“You smell like Angel,” he says.
“I used his shampoo. I’m a sugar cookie now.”
“Should put some sprinkles on you.”
“And bake me in the oven,” I add, and Tatum laughs.
“No. No baking. I’d like you to stay alive.”
Well, that just warms my heart. For as long as I can remember, no one’s wanted me alive. My memories are filled with nothing but the weight of hate sitting heavily on my chest. Suffocation. Drowning.
If you escape, no one will ever want you.
I’d never felt like I belonged, not until I met the Costellos.
As we walk into the kitchen, the scent of freshly baked treats hits me and pulls me from those memories. Agatha greets me with a pat on the cheek.
“Hello, little bug. I heard you were very busy last night, working so hard. Here are your tea and scones.” With a soft grin reserved only for me, she hands me a plate, and I shove one in my mouth, my eyes rolling into the back of my head as the taste explodes in my mouth.
“Mm. So good.”
“And where’s mine?” Anthony asks dryly.
Agatha arches an eyebrow at him. “Did you ask nicely? Give me a nice knuckle bone bracelet just because?”
I giggle, bits of food puffing out of my mouth.
Anthony scoffs. “I pay your wages. And give you a bonus each quarter.”
Her other eyebrow joins the first. “Anthony Costello. If your mother could hear you now. Money. Honestly. You know me better than that. I prefer manners.”
Anthony glowers at her and then sighs. “Please, may I have my breakfast, which I pay you to make?”
“Don’t mind his rudeness. He’s very hungry, Aggie,” Tatum explains. “I wore him out last night, and he’s come to the realization that he’s just an old man and can’t really keep up with my stamina. It’s put him in a mood.”
“I kept up just fine. If anything, you were begging me to stop.”
“I would never!” Tatum says, and I bob my head at that.
“He’d never,” I agree around a mouthful.
Anthony glowers at me and then sighs. “All right. No more of this. Agatha, if you’d please bring some food and tea into my office so we can get started, I’d appreciate it.
It’s been a fucking night, and I suspect that we’ll have what’s left of the Sirens—those the soldiers didn’t kill last night—coming for us soon. ”
I follow them into the office, all of us getting situated. I take a seat on the couch and feel the sting of the tattoo on my ass. It aches in the best way. It reminds me that he cares.
That he went through all that trouble.
“Bane,” Anthony says, interrupting my slutty thoughts. Too bad my dick isn’t getting the clue. It’s hard and sticking up. A scone crumb sits on the tip of it, and I flick it away.
“Hm?”
“The info. If you will.”
“Oh, yes. I was just thinking about Georgiy and the tattoo on my ass, but…Tish is useless. Said it was a shadow that was controlling everything. Said he’s big and bad and we’ll never find him. He sounds really boring…”
“Did you get the name of this shadow?”