Chapter Six
Dragon
I try to remember my life before Night Giant. Before he stole my innocence and made me his warped plaything. There was a time I had normal desires and wants. To love and be loved. To go to college and play ball. To make my parents proud.
All of it feels like a lost dream belonging to someone else.
My only dream now is to get my hands on that motherfucker so I can make him pay. I crave to slice and dice him. To cut his skin off inch by inch so he can feel one iota of the pain he caused me. I need to make him suffer.
Cracking my neck, I light up another cigarette. The soft click of the door behind me is my only tell I’m no longer alone. Katana, always in tune with my moods, sidles up beside me like a silent shadow. Immediately, the tension leaves my body and I can breathe easier. He’s always been the person who keeps me still when I feel as though I’m spinning out of control.
“You didn’t sleep much last night,” Katana muses, stealing my cigarette to take a drag. “Tossed and turned a lot.”
Like in the beginning.
After my first escape. Back before Koyn invited us into his home and club. Every night back then was like drowning. I struggled to stay afloat when my thoughts were like anchors pulling me down. So often, Katana would curl up behind me and simply wrap his warmth and safety around me like a blanket. He’ll always be the soothing presence in my world.
“A lot on my mind,” I grunt out, my stare on the horizon as the sun rises.
“Night Giant?”
“Yep.”
“And…”
I bristle because I’m not exactly eager to talk about what happened with Cove. I’m not even sure of it myself. All I know is I felt alive and whole and like the boy from my past. The fragile, innocent, trusting boy who walked right into the den of the devil. Those hot, frantic, stolen moments with Cove were like being given a morsel of my past. Greedily, I devoured it because I was so desperate in that moment for a glimpse of who I used to be. When reality set in, I realized the stupidity of letting my guard down.
I can’t ever be Chase again.
Chase got caught.
Chase got tortured and raped and wiped from existence.
Chase is dead to me.
An ache forms in my chest. Longing floods through me, making me yearn to open social media and seek out my brothers. The addiction is real. I can’t stop peeking in on them, making sure their lives are exactly as they should be. Normal. Boring. Simple. It’s more kernels of my past that I greedily snatch up.
But in the end, I’m standing here holding shards and pieces of a young man. I’ll never have him back in his entirety. Night Giant stole certain parts of me I’ll never get back. They’ll never be recovered. So instead of trying to rebuild who I used to be, I have to accept the man I am now. He might not be whole either, but he’s vicious and strong.
“It’s BP,” Katana says, his voice tight. “He has you all twisted up.”
I clench my jaw, grinding my teeth to dust so I don’t spill out a bunch of shit I’ll regret saying later. It was just one night. We got off. He’s still weak and fragile—something I’m tasked with protecting—and he still hates me. The alcohol changed the game, but if I know Cove, he’ll be full of stubborn bitchiness again today, keeping me at arms’ length where I belong.
“Anything from last night?” I demand, changing the subject.
Katana lets out a quiet sigh, fused with frustration. I know sometimes it bothers him that I don’t open up to him. It bothers me, but I can’t articulate some things. Cove is one of them.
“That girl,” Katana mutters, “that was getting beaten on?”
“I remember.”
“She came back. Said she didn’t want to say it in front of her boyfriend, but she knows where Corsetti might be.” He steals my cigarette again, taking another deep drag before blowing out a plume of smoke. “We should be able to wrangle him up easily enough tonight and take them back to Tulsa.”
This is good news, but I’m still filled with unease.
“Where?” I demand.
“A bar just a few miles away from here.”
“Let’s go.”
“We will. Tonight. Until then, we’re going to check in with Koyn and Bermuda. Research this bar a bit. You know we don’t go in half-cocked. That’s not the Koynakov way. Prez likes to do shit the smart way.”
I grit my teeth, knowing he’s right. It’s not like the bar will even be open this time of morning. If we want to be successful, we need to be prepared.
“Try to grab a few more hours of sleep,” I grumble. “After breakfast, we’ll make a plan.”
Katana gives me a nod, squeezes my shoulder, and then walks back into the room. After I burn through another cigarette, I stub it out beneath my boot and then head inside. Katana is already passed out on the bed he shared with me last night. Nees and Cove are fucking cozy in the other bed with Nees’s arm slung over Cove’s smaller body like they’re fuck buddies.
I should try to sleep, but all I can do is stare.
At him.
Baby Prospect.
Cove’s full, parted lips are a reminder of what happened last night. My own bottom lip is sore from where he bit me like a fucking puppy. I run my tongue along the soreness of it, somehow still able to taste the sweetness of him.
Katana was right.
Cove has me all twisted up.
Apparently we can’t just show up at this bar tonight or we’ll be obvious. According to Bermuda during our FaceTime call after breakfast, we need to make a stop by a tattoo shop. A guy there named Wex is supposed to be our ticket to the bar. If we show up with him, it lets everyone else know we’re cool. Then we can get inside to where Corsetti is lying low. It sounds like a lot of extra goddamn steps if you ask me, when we could just wait for the fucker to emerge, but Koyn’s word is the law. He wants us to get our mark in the quiet, less messy way.
“Any good bars around here?” Nees asks the receptionist at the tattoo shop. “We’re passing through and wanted to get smashed tonight.”
The girl has a face full of piercings and tattoos that color every available inch of skin. She seems annoyed with Nees’s friendliness based on the way she rolls her eyes and smacks her gum.
“There’s a shit-kicker bar next door.” She smirks at him. “Not that you’re old enough to get in.”
Knowing we’ll never get anywhere with Nees leading the operation, I grab him by the back of his cut and drag him out of the way.
“I heard Empty Moon was a good place to get a drink.” I narrow my gaze at her. “And I’m thirsty.”
Her eyes narrow as she studies me. “You a cop or somethin’?”
Cove snorts. “Worse. He’s Batman.”
The girl peels her eyes from me to study Cove. “Blank canvas. Wex loves a virgin.”
Katana’s heat is behind me, calming the storm of irritation whipping inside me. I’m ready to reach across the counter and grab the girl by her nose ring if she doesn’t cut the coy shit soon.
“I’ve been wanting a tatt,” Cove says, shrugging.
Stormy would kill my ass if I let him get inked by some fuckface in OKC.
“No. Not here,” I grit out. “Unless you’re into shitty stick figures forever stained on your skin.”
The girl scoffs. “The only way you’re getting into Empty Moon is paying the price.”
Still not marking up the kid on my watch.
“Fine,” I snap. “He can ink me.”
She crosses her arms over her chest and shakes her head. “Nope. You all get something done or you don’t go to Empty Moon.”
“Then we don’t go.” I nod my head toward the door. “We’re out.”
Cove pulls out his wallet and tosses some bills onto the counter. “I don’t want a shitty stick figure, but it said on your website he does piercings too.”
Her eyes gleam with delight. “Wex enjoys poking a virgin.”
I’m seriously going to kill this bitch.
“Cool,” Cove says, shrugging his shoulders. “I’ve been wanting to get my nipples pierced.”
Fiery heat chases away all the ice in my veins. My mind fixates on what Cove’s nipples would look like with metal piercing through the tender flesh. I can’t help but imagine the way they’d taste, too. A little salty like his personality, but sweet because he’s fucking soft.
“That settles it. I’ll get a room ready and call Wex in.” She sneers at me before disappearing into a back room.
Nees playfully punches Cove. “Your nipples? Kinky fucker. You think Nick is into that shit?”
Cove stiffens and scowls at Nees’s words. Someone hit a nerve. Just thinking about that douchebag from Stormy and Copper’s wedding has me fisting my hand, eager to smash the fuck out of something or someone.
“Nick’s married and straight,” Cove grumbles. “It’s not for anyone but me.”
And me.
I’m going to have the metal that’s attached to the bitchy boy between my teeth one day. My dick hardens painfully at the image. All thoughts of Cove’s naked body writhing beneath me vanish when a fat fucker with a long-ass gray beard waddles out of the backroom. Stains litter his once-white T-shirt and he brings with him the scent of greasy fast food. I’m revolted and would prefer to beat the hell out of the slobby fuckface to get answers and access to Empty Moon rather than letting him do work on us.
“I’ll do the virgin first,” Wex says, grinning at Cove.
I know he’s talking about piercing him, but the way he looks at him says something entirely different. Older men seem to lose their fucking sense around this kid. I want to choke the fucker, but Katana’s grip on the back of my neck prevents me from going apeshit.
Cove ignores Wex’s lascivious stare and gives him a nod. Wex shuffles into one of the side rooms, Cove right behind him. I shake off Katana’s hand to follow. The room isn’t that big, but I manage to squeeze into it, my attention solely on Cove. Irritation blazes in his blue eyes—hot and violent. It’s not far off from the look he gave me as our dicks rubbed together. I’m hard as hell in my jeans. Based on the slight pink color on Cove’s cheeks, I’d say he knows it too.
Shame doesn’t flood through me.
Desire does.
It’s such a foreign, unknown concept, I welcome it, allowing fantasies to evolve in my mind. I imagine what it would feel like to pull Cove’s jeans down, smack his pale ass, and then press the head of my thick cock between his cheeks.
“Take your shirt off,” Wex says, snapping me from my daydream.
I crack my neck. My eyes never leave Cove, but I keep Wex in my peripheral. Cove slowly tugs off his cut like it’s a striptease, his antagonizing grin aimed my way.
“Keep it up, Baby Prospect,” I warn, my voice a low growl. “You tease the dragon and you’re going to meet his fire.”
He shivers, which only seems to wake my dick up even more. My mouth goes dry when he peels away his T-shirt, revealing more of his bare flesh. He sits down in the chair and leans back. Without shame, I boldly rake my gaze down over his slightly muscular chest. There isn’t a hair to be found on his young chest, though there is a golden trail of hair below his navel that leads beneath his jeans. The slight bulge in his jeans tells me he doesn’t hate me nearly as much as he thinks he does.
I lean against the wall on my shoulder and pull my knife out so I have something to do with my hands rather than run them over Cove’s silky flesh. The tip of my blade is sharp and stings when I press it a little too hard into the palm of my hand. Crimson dots my skin, slowly growing in size. As Wex sanitizes Cove’s nipples, a dark rage rolls in like thunderclouds, swallowing up all peaceful sense.
“Perfect little nipples,” Wex praises, tugging at the pebbled skin with gloved fingers. “Sometimes I love this job.”
With a perverted grin, he readies himself to pierce Cove. The moment the needle pushes through the tender skin, Cove whimpers, clearly not expecting the pain of it.
“Fuck,” Cove hisses. “That fucking hurt.”