Chapter 27
C assie
Faintly, the sound of movement reached me. A person was sneaking through the apartment. Hell’s goddamned bells. Riordan had sent someone to free me and told them what to expect. If they were going slow, that was through embarrassment on my behalf.
My cheeks flamed.
I closed my eyes.
Dixie, I could handle. I’d seen her naked plenty of times. Not Gen or Everly. Not while their brother’s cum dried on my skin and a sex toy between my legs. My ego wouldn’t take it.
Further noises came, but no blondie stuck her head into the room. Then something odd reached me—the scent of food. Spicy and delicious. God. My mouth watered around the stupid gag.
The bedroom door swung open. Riordan stepped inside.
I glared at him, my nostrils flared where I tried to project anger.
I didn’t feel it.
Not at all. Only sharp, poignant relief. In the short time he’d been gone, I’d convinced myself he wouldn’t talk to me again. That I’d never receive his smile or feel his touch. That our single day of being something was done. All the while, he’d been outside.
Okay, maybe I was a little angry.
Riordan crossed the room and reached under my head. Quick fingers released my gag, and he pulled it free then ran his thumb over my lower lip.
God help me for my unwarranted burst of lust.
“Untie me.” I was proud of how my voice didn’t quake.
He loosened the knots at my wrists first, then my ankles. The moment the last was done, I leapt up and grabbed a pillow then tossed it at him. Hurt and loss rushed in and shoved aside my happier feelings.
Hopping off the bed, I reached for my bag, pulling out the contents to throw them at him as well. A ball of socks. A box of hair product.
He let me, only parrying them.
Outrage filled me.
My curl comb flew at him next, loosed with a growl, and bouncing off his chest. I reached blindly for another item, my fingers sliding over something cold and metallic. The gun I’d stolen from Arran.
Riordan lowered his gaze. “Go ahead. I know you want to.”
I raised it, my heart racing, palms sweating.
His focus slid down my naked body, lingering on my cum-soaked breasts. His lips parted. Cheeks reddened under the dark stubble he still hadn’t shaved.
This was turning him on? My body pulsed with twin need, and with an enraged growl, I threw the weapon. Riordan smacked it out of the air, and it clattered to the floorboards, spinning away harmlessly.
He launched at me. “You little wildcat.”
I shoved him away, catching a lucky break so he stumbled. “Me? You’re the one who dumped me then left me trussed up like a turkey, basted in cum.”
“Maybe I should have left you longer.”
“Maybe ye shouldn’t have come back at all.”
He rounded on me. Effortlessly, he snatched my arms behind my back and pushed me down on the mattress. Bending over my naked body, Riordan kicked my feet wider apart then rummaged at his jeans. “I see I need to fuck some more sense into you.”
Lust dazzled me, and I closed my eyes, my cheek to the cool duvet. I had no clue where his head was at, but I knew we both needed this. My nipples hardened against the bed, and Riordan ran the end of his dick up and down my soaked centre. He bucked into me, shooting fire through my veins. I grounded my backside to meet his thrust.
Abruptly, his palm slapped my arse.
“Don’t put yourself into unnecessary danger.”
I gave up an ungodly sound. The shock and the sting of pain was nothing to the burst of utter pleasure.
“If I’m doing something alone and ask you not to follow me, don’t fucking follow me.”
Another crack of his palm to my cheek. This time, he punctuated the act with a punishing thrust into me. My pussy throbbed with the warning of an orgasm.
Riordan groaned. “I ought to stop. Deny you. I will unless you tell me you learned a lesson. If not for your own sake then for mine.”
I didn’t reply. I couldn’t.
Holding my hips, Riordan slid in and out of me. The rough fill and glide tormented my body in the best possible way. I hadn’t seen a way out of the evening that could be anything good, but I’d been so wrong.
But true to his word, Riordan stopped, his fingers on the globes of my ass, and his dick buried deep inside. “I won’t seek to control you, but I can’t handle the thought of you following me into something dangerous. I could’ve fought my way out of that, if caught. But if you’d been grabbed without me even knowing you were there, I’d have lost you. How would you have felt if it was the other way around?”
Well, shite. That was different. Suddenly, I got his panic.
“At least tell me you understand.”
Slowly, I nodded, my hair ruffling on the bed. “I do.”
Riordan growled approval, then took off fucking me again. Every thrust hit somewhere inside that built pleasure in a slow, insistent pull. My whole body tensed up, everything winding tighter and tighter. Riordan rocketed into me then lifted my hips from the bed so there was space between my body and the mattress. Without slowing, he angled his free hand to slap me sharply between my thighs, right onto my clit.
I moaned and throbbed. Nearly collapsed from how good it felt. He repeated the action, raining three sharp slaps to my pussy like he had my backside. Each drove pleasure through my swollen flesh like nothing I’d ever felt before.
At the last, I detonated. Mindless pleasure spilled through me, my pussy pulsing around his dick. Riordan gave up a gasp and sank into me as hard as he could one final time, then he came, too.
The sensation broke me. I forgot to tell him I loved him. I couldn’t speak at all. It was all too utterly, exhaustingly perfect.
A minute on, and he peeled himself off my back and picked me up. In the bathroom, he switched on the shower and placed me on my feet. Then he peered around.
“Need something?” I managed.
“Soap and towels would be good, but your curls don’t like steam, so I was looking for a solution.”
He’d remembered. He cared .
From in my toiletries bag, I found body wash and a shower cap with a cute kitty cat design. Then I scampered to the bedroom to retrieve another bag with towels. All the things Manny had arranged to be brought up for us.
In the bathroom, Riordan waited, a hand out to lead me into the shower. Warm water rained down on me, and I shivered, huddling into his body as he closed us in.
For a minute, he held me, then squeezed shower gel onto his palm and set about washing me. The soapy suds and his sure fingers cleaned my body, removing the cum from my skin and between my legs.
I reached for him so I could reciprocate, but he stopped me. Kissed me instead. Even though he was hard again, his dick pinned between us.
Everything he did, I let him.
He was leading me. Owning the kiss. Stopping us from having sex again. Something in it calmed my system, and my mind quietened.
Part of it was trust.
Part of it was fear.
When we were done, Riordan bundled us into towels then found clothes from the bags. A crew shirt for him with grey sweats, soft leggings and a hoodie for me.
As meek and docile as a lamb, I let him dress me.
“I bought food. Should still be warm.”
I followed him into the living room. On the kitchen counter, a delivery bag held cartons. We sat on the floor and unpacked each, finding wooden cutlery to eat with.
I scooped up a piece of broccoli in soy sauce, spying beef in the mix with udon noodles. Damn, I was hungry. “Hate-sex builds up an appetite.”
Riordan lowered his spoon. “You don’t hate me. I definitely don’t hate you.”
“Maybe ye should. Safer than liking me.”
He chuffed a laugh and tucked into his meal, devouring half before slowing to offer me some. We shared. Gave each other bites of our food.
When we were done, he watched me.
“Did I hurt you, when I…?”
He mimed the spanking I’d taken.
My body warmed. Slowly, I shook my head. “I liked it. But you’re never tying me up again.”
“It’s the only way I can feel safe with you.”
I hung my head. “I’m sorry I scared ye. Are we broken up?”
Riordan sighed and rested against the wall with one leg extended and the other knee raised. “I have no idea what we are.”
Hope kindled inside me. “Ye didn’t walk away, though. Not for long.”
“I don’t seem able. I already had one near heart attack today when I saw your face at the mayor’s house. I couldn’t survive another from the way my chest hurt when I left you on the bed.”
My mind locked on to that sentiment. I crawled closer and rested my chin on his raised knee. “Give me another chance?”
“I don’t hold all the cards here.”
“Except ye do. We both know I’m already in love with ye.”
Riordan’s gaze flickered. Longing shone out. He closed his eyes tight and extinguished the compelling sight. “You have to stop saying that. If we’re going to continue, no more saying the L-word. And we don’t live together. If I ever move in with a woman, I at least expect to know about it.”
Well, shite. He’d asked me not to make decisions on his behalf, and I’d done exactly that. I’d had Manny empty his car and bring up all his belongings. “It’s just, we agreed to stay together. It’s cold outside. This place was sitting here empty.”
“I know. I get it. But we agreed a deal, and barely a day in and I’m fucked up over it.”
My pulse skipped. He was going to end it. This was just his form of a gentler goodbye now the anger had left him. He was talking himself around to walking away, and I’d be without him. God, it hurt .
I sat back on my haunches. “Then tell me what will change that. How can I be different?”
“I don’t want you different. I like you exactly how you are. I just need—” He exhaled what looked like unhappiness. “I need you not to love me. And also not to die or be hurt. I can live with my own death wish but not yours.”
Relief and heartbreak battled inside me. I gave him a tiny nod. “Do ye want to quit our deal?”
“No. I can’t give you up. I don’t know why I’m so messed up.” He mimed his head exploding, a cute action I’d seen him do another time when overwhelmed by me.
I scrambled for a solution. “What if we slow it down? Stop your needing to worry about me constantly. I know I’m full-on.”
“You’re perfect.”
“Clearly not.”
He held my gaze. There was so much warmth in the connection, and in the eye contact I never wanted to get used to. He made me feel so much.
Where I made him feel too much.
Eventually, he inclined his head.
At last, I could breathe again. I crawled onto his body and hugged him. “I’ll try harder to stay safe. But please agree to sleep over here. Don’t go back to your car.”
Riordan hugged me. Over my head, he eyed the tall window across the room, where rain soaked the dark night, then his focus slid to the hall where our comfortable bed waited for daylight to send us scurrying to it. “Okay.”
My breathing came easier. “I’ll try to fall out of love with ye faster.”
His lips twitched, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes.
Together, we cleaned up the food cartons and checked our phones. I had messages from my family—Lottie and Sin were back at the Great House, thank the gods, and I scanned them fast.
Lottie: Sorry for the late message, but I was so tired when we got home and slept hard. Short story: the hospital visit went fine. We had to stay another day because our first appointment was postponed. I can now confirm we are expecting a healthy baby boy. He’s due in March, and his scan pictures are the cutest.
She’d attached one, and I smiled wobbly at my new nephew’s black-and-white profile. A flurry of replies had congratulated them, and I added my own then read a more detailed answer about why they’d needed the appointment—some concern by Lottie’s regular doctor had sent them there.
Another separate message pinged in from Lottie, just for me.
Lottie: Are you okay? I know all went well with them capturing the man who threatened you, but you must be stressed.
She meant about her. I could never hide anything from her.
Cassie: If you’re okay, I’m okay. I can’t believe we’ll have another baby in the house.
The youngest was Seraphina, Jamieson and Summer’s baby. She wasn’t even one yet. Lottie sent further messages, my tight fear easing with her familiar and relaxed tone. Then she switched out the subject.
Lottie: Sin had a message from Jamieson, asking him to inflate your tyres. Any reason why that was needed?
Cassie: We had a fight. He’s a jerk.
Lottie: He did that to you?
I confirmed it, and she went quiet for a moment. A minute on, and a voice message from my youngest brother popped up in the family group chat.
Jamieson: Cassie, I’m sorry for being an overbearing dickhole. Can we be friends again, please? I promise to behave.
The sounds of the night were behind him, but it was his contrite tone that had me snorting a laugh. I loved how Lottie had gone to bat for me, and how easily our family disputes could be solved. All she had to do was get the two arguing members to talk to each other and the problem was sorted. No one wanted to see her upset.
I sent him the middle finger and Lottie a bunch of hearts, telling her to rest up. Then I sent Jamieson one small heart to show my acceptance.
Leaning against the kitchen counter, Riordan finished up the call he’d been having. He shot me a look. “Manny said that the cops are downstairs. They asked to talk to Arran about his sister. Manny said no such person existed, and he’s getting rid of them, but one guess why they came.”
My lips curved in a grin. “Piggy Piers went squealing? That’s just delightful. What did they know?”
“Nothing. They had a hunch based on Piers’ information and a low-quality CCTV picture of two people in skeleton masks. Not enough to ID either of us.” He palmed his jaw. “I’m beyond pissed off that you’re in the frame for this.”
Like Piers could hurt me. If Arran’s pet cop didn’t help, I knew someone who would.
I shrugged, unbothered. “He’d have to catch me to give me trouble, and from what Manny said, they don’t even have my name.”
“If that changes, if anything happens, promise me you’ll tell them I did it.”
“Like hell am I promising that.”
“Then know that I’ll do it for you.”
We stared at each other, a battle of wills playing out. I was meant to be backing off and not being so in his face, but that didn’t apply to this. He wasn’t alone in his plan to bring the mayor down. I’d taken the first hit for him and intended to keep going.
I relented, pretending to yield by pushing up to kiss his cheek. “Want to show me what we stole?”
In the bedroom, Riordan collected his prize from the mayor’s house and unrolled it on the floor. The painting was of a family tree with names and birthdates of a line of people, starting with royalty at the top and ending with the mayor at the bottom. That guy was a world-class narcissist.
“I wonder if he cried when Piers told him it was missing,” I mused.
Riordan poked it with his foot. “Hope so. I want to know that he raged about it.”
My grin came more easily. “I have a whole list of other stuff we can do to him. Most of the ideas are petty and anonymous, such as calling his office to leave a message about his erectile dysfunction meds, subscribing him to girlie magazines at his work address, putting his number in the city’s free paper, begging for a Domme to talk dirty to him. Did Everly tell ye his landline’s answerphone plays messages out loud in the house? That one will be fun to be going on all night. I’m also going to get his house keys copied a bunch of times then drop them around the city, with his address on the key fob, of course. Happy for me to go ahead with those? I won’t lift a finger without your say-so.”
Riordan’s gaze danced. “Do it. I want the man sweating.”
“If we could get hold of his phone, I’d change the ringtone to ‘I have to pay pros for sex’, but that means going near him and I won’t do that. All the ideas on my list that involve being close to him are off the table for now.” I returned my gaze to the painting. “Question is, what do we do with this?”
Riordan pursed his lips. “He can’t have it back. No matter if it means the difference between me going to jail or not. He ruined lives over his precious ego. I want to take him apart in pieces, and this is the first cut.”
“Then we’ll go to the roof and have a bonfire. Let the cops see the flames and a rumour spread.”
Riordan didn’t hesitate. He rolled up the painting while I sent a voice message to Jamieson.
Cassie: Are you still in Deadwater and do you have lighter fuel?
My brother’s reply came in quick. I hit play.
Jamieson: Course I do. Just returning to the warehouse with Shade and Arran.
Cassie: Can you come up to the roof?
Jamieson: Give us five. There’s something we need to tell you.
I went to record another message but hesitated. There was something in Jamieson’s phrasing that gave me pause. We’d known Arran for over a decade, but Shade for less. The warehouse was Arran’s deal, so why had my brother named Shade first?
We waited until another message came in, Jamieson telling us to meet them now. From a fire escape in the apartment’s hallway, Riordan and I climbed the metal steps to the cage at the top of the building.
Wind whipped us, the sky lightening in the east where dawn was coming in. The city was never so peaceful as in this hour. I’d spent a lot of time up here, watching the neon pink of the warehouse sign reflected in the river, or the light trails of cars in the streets spread out far beyond. It gave me a place to calm down and contemplate my life. I used to find it restful, being so high above it all.
All I felt now was a sense of foreboding. An energy in the air. Something tangible and looming.
In the centre of the space, Shade helped Everly out of another entrance. He drove her back against a brick wall that housed some kind of equipment and kissed the fuck out of her.
My brother jumped up after, passing them without a look.
Approaching us, Jamieson held out a small yellow tin. “Arran and Genevieve are coming up but needed a minute. What are we burning?”
I passed the lighter fuel to Riordan to do the honours. He unfurled the painting on a concrete block and squirted the contents over it, soaking it in even lines. The other couple on the roof drew closer, then Everly took an audible breath.
“Is that my father’s family tree?” Her wide-eyed gaze shot up to Riordan. “I mean our father. You took it?”
He finished with the can and tossed it, accepting the Zippo from my brother. “If I don’t tell you, you don’t officially know.” He paused and eyed her for a moment, the stench of the fuel rising. “Do you care?”
She paled. Huddled closer to Shade. “God, no. I hate that thing. It’s why I told you about it. It was used throughout my childhood to torment me, and it was right there in front of me the night he gave me to Piers. He cares more about that twisted view of history than he ever could about us.”
“Then enjoy watching it burn with me.”
Riordan flicked the lighter wheel, and a spark leapt, the fuel accepting it with hunger. Instantly, a blue flame sped across the canvas, yellow flickers appearing when it began to consume and destroy.
He watched with a small, enraptured smile, not dissimilar to the one my brother wore, though for different reasons. But my attention had gone elsewhere.
Whispering something in Everly’s ear, Shade wore sweats and a t-shirt, not what he’d typically be seen in after an evening in the warehouse. More like something he’d change into if his clothes had become dirty.
Or bloodstained.
My unease grew. I gestured to the enforcer. “Where have ye been this evening?”
Shade kissed Everly’s temple and stepped aside. I moved with him, but his grim, satisfied expression told me all I needed to know.
My guess came out low and dark. “Ye took out Bronson?”
The enforcer pressed his lips together. “Don’t give me shite about doing my job. Aye, we went back, and we got the result we needed.”
“He’s dead?”
My heart stuttered at his confirming nod.
“But—”
“But nothing. Your taser incident could’ve ended him and left us with no answers. I took this one on my own.” Dangerous control played out in his voice, and the yellow flames from the burning canvas reflected in his eyes. “It was worth the effort.”
Fucking hell. I’d missed out. I’d wanted the kill so badly.
“What did he give up?” I gritted my teeth.
“Red’s trafficking route was first. Arran passed that to Tyler.”
First? I stood taller, the city at my back and misery in my heart. “What else?”
Shade shot a look to the main stairwell entrance where Arran emerged with Genevieve, the jewelled choker at her throat glinting in the firelight. “Tell Cassie what we got.”
The gang leader closed in, and his smile was all the more savage for the words that followed. “Everything. Bronson confessed. We found our killer.”