10. Dante
“Check these for any tech,then get rid of them,” Maddoc says, tossing Riley’s clothes at me as she follows Logan upstairs.
I catch them without commenting on the way his jaw clenches as he watches her leave, even though it takes some serious willpower not to give him shit about the way she so obviously got under his skin.
I hide my grin by lifting the soft leather of the sexy-as-fuck jacket Riley had on up to my face and drawing in her scent. It’s a fucking aphrodisiac, making my body remember exactly what it felt like to be buried inside her last night.
Guess I don’t hide my grin well enough, though, because Maddoc’s eyes zero right in on me, narrowing into slits.
“What the fuck are you doing?” he growls.
I’d be lying if I said a part of me doesn’t want to fuck with him just for the fun of seeing whether or not he’ll actually lose his cool and throw down. But now isn’t the time for that, as fun as it can be to let loose with my brothers now and then. Work some aggression out of the system.
I can’t help goading him a little bit, though.
“Just checking for bugs, like you said. Can’t have West Point listening in, can we?”
“Go do it right,” Maddoc grunts, seeing right through my bullshit but not rising to the bait. No need to guess why.
His gaze slides back toward the stairs and his jaw subtly clenches again.
I’d say he takes shit too seriously sometimes, but that relentless intensity of his is why the Reapers have dominated where so many others have fallen, so even if I like to poke at it sometimes, I definitely can’t fault it.
I’m pretty sure he doesn’t actually believe I’ll find anything in Riley’s clothes any more than I do. Still, we both know better than to take chances like that. A gut feeling is all well and good, but at the end of the day, it’s only cold hard facts that can actually be counted on.
And the fact is that none of us know for sure why Riley really came to us.
Maddoc was right. It’s a hell of a coincidence. But then again, sometimes shit really does go down like that.
Madd is still trying to death-ray the staircase with his eyes. It’s entertaining as fuck to watch, so I stay right where I am as I sort through Riley’s clothes, doing a preliminary check for any listening or recording devices and getting another whiff of her scent for my efforts.
My cock sits up and takes notice, twitching with interest in my boxer briefs. The sex last night was fucking incredible, and that seductive lily and vanilla scent of hers has already embedded itself into the pleasure centers of my brain.
But it’s more than just that.
Riley intrigues me.
She did last night when she caught my eye while she was dancing, then even more so when I saw the fire in her eyes as she fought off that juiced-up fuckhead who attacked her outside the club.
And I saw that same fire in her again when she walked into Clancy’s tonight.
I grin, glad Maddoc is still preoccupied so he doesn’t ask about it. She really is a princess, though. Not a pampered one, but a regal one. A fucking warrior princess who doesn’t back down, not even from Madd.
And that backbone, the spark in her, the way she pushes through her fear and keeps on coming, daring life to try to push her down again? Not gonna lie, that shit gets my cock going at least as much as her tight, fuckable little body does. Maybe even more, since hot bodies are a dime a dozen.
But the contrasts in her… those get to me.
The world is a dark, shitty place, and I grew up knowing exactly how deep that darkness goes, since no one can hide how tainted by it they truly are when they’re locking eyes with their own death.
When you’ve watched enough men stare down the moment of their demise, you see the truth. You see the darkness. And you fucking appreciate… not the light, but the bright.
The color that exists around that darkness.
The life.
That’s what the fire is. That’s what Riley brims over with. And that’s what I’m drawn to, like a moth to a flame.
It’s probably also why my brothers… well, let’s just say they’re reacting to her too.
My grin turns into a smirk. Maddoc is still reacting, judging by the look on his face. It’s been a while since I’ve seen him so affected.
His hard stare turns into a glower as Logan comes down the stairs a minute later—alone this time and clearly pissed the fuck off, no surprise there.
“You got something to get off your chest?” Maddoc asks, blocking his way when it looks like Logan’s gonna try to keep it all bottled up inside like he usually does and storm straight out the door now that he’s done his duty.
Logan gives Madd a chilling look that lesser men have literally shit themselves over. Usually right before Logan ended them.
But Maddoc doesn’t even blink.
They have a tense, silent standoff, and Logan breaks first. Not because he’s weak, but because sometimes he needs Madd to break him. Something I’ll never say out loud, obviously. But I mean, shit, if Logan didn’t have the two of us in his life—people who know him well enough that we understand when to leave him the fuck alone so he can stew in his ever-present rage, versus when he’s better off getting shit off his chest—he’d probably snap and go nuclear at some point.
And sure enough…
“I can’t fucking believe you agreed to this,” Logan spits out after about two seconds of stewing.
Maddoc doesn’t respond other than with a raised brow, and Logan’s body goes so still he’s practically vibrating as he stares Madd down.
I try really fucking hard not to laugh.
Okay, I don’t try that hard.
Or at all.
Neither one of them breaks their stare-off to give me shit about it, so I gather Riley’s clothes against my chest and lean against the door jamb to watch the rest of the showdown.
Maddoc is as immovable as a mountain, and Logan’s still vibrating. Where some guys rage out, Logan always rages in. Seeing it in action always makes me think it’s a goddamn miracle his bones don’t crack from the constant tension. It’s entertaining as fuck, though, especially when he goes head to head with Maddoc.
“That it?” Maddoc asks him, calmly enough to spark the tinder.
“Why is she even here?” Logan demands, his hands curling into tight fists. “What the fuck is in it for us by taking that risk?”
Maddoc wouldn’t take being questioned like that from anyone else, and Logan would sooner suck broken glass than disrespect him in public like that. But here? In this house, Maddoc is still our leader, but he’s also our best friend. Our brother.
“You know why she’s here,” Maddoc finally answers, before Logan’s head can explode from the pressure he never seems to have a good relief valve for. “Whatever actually happened with her sister, West Point was involved. And that means—”
“It means what?” Logan interrupts in a low voice. “That we get to fuck with them a little?” He scoffs. “At best, it’s a waste of fucking time. At worst, we’re playing right into their hands. What we should be dealing with is the way they’ve been invading our territory and undercutting our business. We’re going to let them get away with that while we spin our wheels over some useless girl?”
Maddoc’s eyes go hard. “You know we’re not.”
“But that’s my fucking point,” Logan shoots back. “We’ve got serious issues to deal with. Reaper issues. What the fuck do we care about what happens to the sister? She doesn’t fucking matter.”
“She does to Riley,” I throw in, not quite sure why I’m speaking up.
Logan turns those icy blue death rays of his on me. “So? Riley doesn’t matter either,” he says coldly.
I’ve got no comeback, because he’s right. He’s also really fucking predictable since, from what I’ve seen, he’s never gonna consider anything female worthy of mattering.
And he’s sure as shit not gonna trust one.
Of course, none of us actually trust Riley—or anyone besides each other—but for some reason, it still makes me bristle to hear Logan say that shit about her not mattering. The reason, no doubt, being that my dick still remembers how perfect it felt to be balls deep inside her… which is no good reason at all.
I push away from the wall. Enough entertainment. It’s time I got busy doing what Maddoc told me to and making sure Riley’s clothes are clean.
But Logan doesn’t get out of my way, so I guess the fun’s not over yet.
“Chill,” I tell him, which has Maddoc snorting in the background since it’s one word we all know is the polar opposite of any state Logan is capable of existing in.
Logan’s eyes narrow. “Not while she’s under this roof.”
I bite back another grin. Yup, both my brothers are definitely reacting to her.
“The only reason you’re pissed about having Riley land in our laps like this is because you’re the only one of us who hasn’t noticed how fucking gorgeous she is,” I say, just to rile him. Well, that and because it’s true. “But you’re welcome to take the stick out of your ass anytime, you know. Maybe try having a little fun once in a while?”
We’ve gone round and round on this particular topic more times than I can count, and this time, Logan doesn’t blink. He barely fucking moves.
Which makes the punch he lands in my face feel like it comes out of nowhere.
That’sthe brother I know and love. My head snaps to one side from the precision of the blow, and I laugh and flip him off, feeling a little high on the rush of adrenaline that comes after the burst of pain.
Logan rolls his eyes, and I lick away the coppery taste of blood from the corner of my mouth. We both know he’ll never thank me for giving him an outlet for all that bottled up bullshit he carries around inside—just like he’s not gonna come out and verbally appreciate Madd pushing him like that—but hey, I don’t need him to skywrite his gratitude. I’m happy just knowing I’ve done my part for the greater good.
I turn toward the hall leading down to the basement, but before I can leave the two of them to it, Maddoc grabs my shoulder, his other hand landing on Logan’s.
“Maybe Riley’s sister doesn’t matter,” Madd says. “Maybe she does. We’re not going to know until we dig a little deeper here, and that’s my call to make.”
He gives us each a hard look, and we both nod.
“Good,” he says with a sharp nod of satisfaction once we’ve both acknowledged his authority. He let Logan say his piece because Logan needed to, and because he’s smart enough to know that both Logan and I sometimes see shit that he doesn’t. But he’s right. Maddoc’s not just our chosen brother, he’s our leader. I’ve got no problem with the fact that his word is Reaper law, and under all that hissing and scratching, neither does Logan.
Maddoc has earned the right to our loyalty ten times over, and he’s got it from both of us until the grave.
He drops his hands from our shoulders and glances back toward the stairs with a calculating look in his eyes. “If you think Riley’s sister doesn’t matter, Logan, then it’s highly likely McKenna feels the same.”
We all trade looks. Sounds like an opportunity.
“What are we gonna do about that?” I ask.
Maddoc’s grin is fucking predatory this time. “One thing I learned from my father is that it’s the seemingly inconsequential things that often yield the biggest results. It’s the little weaknesses an organization doesn’t even realize it has that are the easiest to exploit. And even if she doesn’t matter, taking Riley’s sister back from them will fuck with McKenna’s head.”
I like it already, but Logan scowls.
“And what if Riley becomes our weakness?” he asks.
“She won’t,” Maddoc says flatly, his tone daring us to disagree. I can tell Logan is about to do just that, but before he can, Madd’s eyes go hard and he lays down the law. Reaper law. Inviolate. “We’ll do this thing for us, keep her close because it’s smart, but that’s it. She doesn’t get her hooks in us. We don’t have sex with her. None of us.”
“Too late,” Logan says, giving me a pointed look.
Maddoc clearly isn’t amused. “From here on out, it doesn’t happen again. Sex will just cloud our judgment.”
That’s bullshit. Sex is just sex. And sure, it’s a stone cold fact that fucking her was the best I’ve had in, shit… a long damn while. But still, getting my dick wet has never affected my head, and it’s never going to.
I know Madd’s history, though, so I keep my mouth shut and give him a lazy smile, agreeing to his edict. If I need some relief, I can provide that with my own right hand. And if that’s not enough, it won’t be a big thing to go find it elsewhere, no matter how fucking convenient it might be to get it closer to home while Riley is under our roof.
Logan looks like he’s swallowed a whole lemon, but I’m pretty sure it’s not because he’s being denied the chance to bang our new houseguest. More likely, he’s pissed about the whole “under our roof” part. I’m sure nothing that Maddoc said has changed Logan’s point of view, but he drops it for the moment and fucks off to go do whatever else is on his agenda for today.
I can tell this little conversation has managed to defuse his rage enough that he’s not about to go out and carve anyone up, so I still call it a win and am more than happy to fuck off myself for a while and get shit done without the two of them breathing down my neck.
That’s the thing with being closer than brothers. I’d lay down my life for either one of those two, but not gonna lie, sometimes I’m also glad this place Maddoc invested in for us is big enough that we’re not always in each other’s back pockets.
Besides, he gave me a job to do. I think I know what I’ll find—a whole lot of nothing, since I believe Riley’s story and mostly believe that my trust in her isn’t just my dick talking—but I’m still pretty curious to see if I’m right.
So I head down to the basement to find out.
Madd has enough weapons stored down here to outfit half the gang, but more importantly at the moment, it’s where we store other tools of our trade. I head straight to a workbench in the back and spread Riley’s clothes out on it. I felt up the seams while I was upstairs and didn’t notice anything suspicious, but my attention wasn’t fully on it.
This time, I do a more thorough job. Slicing through every seam, removing the lining from the jacket, turning out the pockets and then running some electronic sensors over the resulting scraps. It’s all clean.
I carry what’s left of her clothes to the small, unfinished room in the back of the garage. We use it as a wet room when needed, with a drain built into the floor, and the concrete walls make it a discreet place to burn things that we don’t need tied back to us later.
I toss Riley’s clothes on the ground and reach for an accelerant, then hesitate for a second.
“Fuck it,” I mutter, grabbing the silky blue panties back out. They’re intact. So fucking small that I didn’t bother cutting them up.
I run them through my fingers, then bring them up to my nose. They’re not the ones she wore last night—those are upstairs in my room—but the sweet musk takes me right back there.
Me and my dick.
It hardens, and I shove the little scrap of silk into my pocket.
Fuck, at this rate, I’m basically starting a collection. But nothing good is gonna come from overthinking that fact, so I don’t. I flick my lighter to light the pile of shredded clothes on fire, clean up the mess once they’ve been reduced to ash, then head back upstairs, passing by the spot where Maddoc had Riley strip.
It was sexy as hell, despite the shit Logan gave her about the way she did it. She’s so fucking strong, although there’s a vulnerability to her that sits right below the surface despite her best efforts to hide it. I’m not gonna go against Maddoc’s no-sex rule, but I’d be lying if I said Riley isn’t everything I crave.
I finger the silk in my pocket, taking the stairs two at a time. I head straight to my room and grab a couple of things, then make my way down the hall to the bedroom I figure Logan put Riley in.
I’m right.
She’s standing by the window when I open the door, still so fuckably naked, and she jumps when I walk in, whirling around to face me. Fucking gorgeous.
She doesn’t bother covering up, and she looks pissed. The combination is hot as hell.
“Dante.” Her breath hitches, her nipples hardening, and my name comes out of her mouth like it’s another word for asshole.
I grin. I like how she always wants to fight.
I like how her body responds to me even more.
“You enjoying the accommodations, princess?” I ask, just to see if I can get more of a rise out of her.
She narrows her eyes. “No.”
I chuckle, not really having expected anything different. “Brought you something.”
As I speak, I toss the clothes I grabbed from my room on the bed for her. Her eyes flick in that direction for a split second before they lock back on to me.
“Are those yours?” she asks.
It’s what she’s getting, so does it really matter? “If you want to put something on, they’ll have to do until we have someone pick up your stuff,” I tell her.
Her eyes rake my body like claws, and I tuck my hand back in my pocket to caress that little scrap of silk, my cock starting to fill again.
“They won’t fit,” she bites out.
I shrug. She’s right. She’s gonna swim in the t-shirt and workout pants I brought her, but since the pants have a drawstring, I figure she can make them work. Not her usual look, but… yeah.
The clothes are mine, and my cock likes something about the image.
Riley looks torn, and I grin, shrugging. “You wanna stay naked, that’s fine too.”
I don’t even realize I’m moving toward her until she starts backing up. I keep coming until her back hits the wall behind her, then lean down to whisper in her ear, “I’ve got no complaints with this look, princess.”
Her body goes tense, her breath coming in short, ragged gasps, and although she glares up at me when I lift my head, she doesn’t try to push me away.
“Maddoc and Logan think I’m working for West Point,” she says, which is half right.
Maddoc is reserving judgment, but Logan definitely doesn’t trust her. “Well?” she demands when I don’t respond.
“Well, what?” I ask, planting my hands on the wall on either side of her head and dropping my eyes to that lush mouth of hers.
“Do you think I’m working for them too?” she presses.
I lift one shoulder. “Not sure, princess. Are you? Kinda curious, you showing up like this.”
She huffs out an angry breath. “I didn’t know who you were last night. This wasn’t about that. It was just…”
I raise an eyebrow when she doesn’t finish.
Pretty sure it was one of the hottest fucks of my life, is what it was. I’m still curious what she was gonna say, though.
“I wasn’t trying to use you,” she says a little stiffly, a hint of pink coloring her cheeks. “This isn’t a setup or anything.”
“Okay.” I nod. My cock is throbbing and, if I’m being honest, my attention is only half on what she’s saying.
She goes still, blinking up at me. “Okay… you believe me?”
“Okay, I hear you,” I shoot back, smirking. “But it’s the same thing you’d say if West Point really had sent you here, so…” I shrug again.
“You’re a fucking asshole.” Riley smacks my chest again, just as uselessly as the first time. Not that she doesn’t have some power in her, but she’s got no room to swing here.
I lift her hands to the wall above her head and crowd in even closer, crushing her breasts against my chest as I stare down at her. “Either way, we’ll figure it out.”
She doesn’t fight me at all this time. She just stares back at me.
Then her breath hitches, her eyes turning glassy.
She blinks fast, looking away. “Why the hell would I work with them when they stole my sister?” she asks, her voice breaking. “Why… why would I do anything for that fucking animal? He took Chloe.”
“That’s why. You’re the one who said it. If he took her, you’d do anything to get her back.”
“Not for him,” she spits out, cold fury on her face.
Fuck. I believe her.
I’m damn good at reading people, and Riley seems genuinely broken up over this shit with her sister. And that hatred she’s got for Austin McKenna? It may come from a different place, but it looks a hell of a lot like the same hatred Maddoc carries around. The kind of hate that will stop at nothing to bring West Point down.
I appreciate that she didn’t let her tears fall, though. That shit serves no purpose. The world is a fucked up place, there’s just no getting around that fact. I’ve got no idea why McKenna took Riley’s sister, and I’ve got no doubt that when we do get her back, whatever he’s used her for will have left its scars. But it is what it is. I stopped feeling pity for the cruel turns of fate a long-ass time ago, and no amount of tears—genuine or not—are gonna revive a useless emotion like that. It would only get in the way.
But Riley is a tantalizing mix of soft, hard, and hot as fucking hell.
Even if I don’t pity her, I’m definitely… curious.
“Why the hell would you do something as reckless as asking us for help?” I ask, lacing our fingers together where I’ve still got her hands pressed against the wall over her head. “Since you tracked us down, you’ve gotta know what it means to be a Reaper.”
“I know the Reapers’ reputation,” she whispers, fear flickering through her dark brown eyes. She tilts her chin up, a hint of something vicious underlying her tone as she adds, “And I hope it’s true.”
That startles a laugh out of me. “Do you now? Why is that? You get off on danger?”
“No,” she straight-up lies. I can feel the way her body is responding to me, proving how false her words are. “But the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
“Is that what you wanna be?” I ask, releasing one of her hands and running my fingers over her jaw. “Friends?”
“No,” she repeats, her chest heaving against mine as I press in even closer. I shouldn’t, not with Maddoc’s law laid down. But I can’t seem to stop myself.
“Good. Because my brothers and I aren’t your friends,” I murmur, my blood on fire with the same unquenchable desire she sparked in me last night. I grip her jaw and tilt her head up, dropping mine down until our lips are so close I can taste her on the air I’m breathing. “Don’t ever forget it, princess.”
Her exhales come in short, quick puffs, and I suck each one in like a drug.
The scent is better than the panties in my pocket. She smells like fear and lilies and lust, and I’m so fucking hard for her that my cock aches.
“Dante,” she whispers. “I can’t—”
Whatever she was going to say gets cut off by the sudden sound of my phone buzzing in my pocket. The sound isn’t even that loud, but it might as well be a fucking sonic boom, the way it cuts through the haze of chemical attraction that surrounds us. The room around me seems to snap back into focus as I come to my senses.
Goddamn. She really is like a drug.
Clearing my throat, I let go of her and take a step back.
“Get dressed,” I tell her with a jerk of my chin as I fish my phone out of my pocket. “Or… not.”
Before she can respond to that, I turn away and answer the call, glancing at the caller ID as I swipe across the screen.
It’s fucking Mario Ricci.
“What’s up, Mario?” I ask, vaguely registering that Riley hasn’t made any move toward the clothes I brought her. She’s leaning against the wall I had her pinned against as if she’s not quite ready to trust her legs yet, and it makes me want to see what else I could do to make her weak in the knees. But Mario is already groveling on the other end of the line, and my mind reluctantly shifts back to business.
Mario runs a casino and occasionally cleans money for us… and it takes about two seconds of listening to his sorry list of excuses for me to figure out that he’s trying to back out of a deal we recently made.
His casino isn’t the only money laundering setup we’ve got in place for the Reapers. Not even the biggest. But even without the way his excuses reek of West Point interference, there’s no fucking way we’d survive if we let him set a precedent of screwing us over.
I set the fucker straight about that as I take the call out of Riley’s room and head down the stairs.
Maddoc’s gonna need an update on this.