39. Chapter 34
The setting sun at my back washes the ocean in front of me a garish gold, the sky turning purple slashed with pink and yellow as the light fades. The waves crash against the large rocks below, a fine mist dampening my face with cold, salty water. I shove my hands deeper into the pockets of my jacket, turning my face up toward the sky. Now I know why Reaper comes here to think. It’s peaceful. A vast open area to spill out the disaster whirling through my head.
I squeeze my eyes shut as I tilt back on my heels. The skin around my ankles pulls, reminding me I still have Viper’s cum on me.
Jesus.
My shoulders drop, and I rake a hand through my hair, trying to shove the memory of him away, but the heat behind his blue eyes as he looked up at me with a mixture of shock and…
Want.
As much as I’ve told myself we were all worked up, driven practically mad by need after our punishment that I lost control and fucked any mouth that was near, I’m a liar and I know. He knows it.
I don’t know why I’ve denied this attraction for so long. It’s not like I’d receive judgement from Reaper, or be less. I know I wouldn’t. Even in my head, I know that what I feel, this craving for him, them, isn’t something to be ashamed of.
I think, though, it’s my heart that I’m too scared to lose.
I’ve already lost someone who held parts of my heart, and the thought of risking it further was too much. If I gave my body to Viper, he’d own more of me than I was willing to share. Reaper already holds all my delicate parts. If I give too many away, I’ll have nothing left for myself.
The thought creates a sick feeling in my gut.
Isn’t that what we’re doing to her? Forcing Delilah to share pieces of herself with us until we own every acre of skin? Until her heart and mind are ours to use?
“Which one?” Reaper asks from behind me, snapping me back, the icy wind nearly carrying his voice away.
When I don’t turn around or answer, he steps up onto the ledge next to me. When he leans over, boots tipping on the edge, I resist the urge to pull him back as he peers at the rocks and crashing waves below.
Reaper leans back, his shoulder brushing mine, and stares out at the ocean with me for a while. “They’re being weird,” he says after a few minutes.
My eyes dart his way, my stomach hollowing out. “Weird?”
He smirks, gaze still floating over the sea. “Weirder than usual. Breaker looks irritated by Viper’s existence, but he usually does. Viper looks a little subdued, and you’re out here wallowing.”
“I’m not wallowing,” I snap. Maybe I am a little.
Reaper remains quiet, capturing his bottom lip in his teeth like it will hide his smirk.
Sometimes, I hate how good he is at reading people.
“Viper,” I say in defeat, looking down at my boots. There’s dirt scuffing the top, sending a rush of agitation through my chest.
Reaper shifts, turning to face me, but I grind my teeth, avoiding his penetrating, knowing eyes. “What did you do? Because he’s quiet for once, so you should do it again.”
Despite myself, I chuckle. “He’d probably let me.”
From the corner of my eye, I see his brows raise, that shit-eating grin shifting until it’s a little lopsided. Like he can’t even hide his delight. “How bad?”
I wince, letting out a huff of air. “I pinned him against the wall and fucked his mouth.” Saying it out loud makes it true, and it sounds brutal.
God, I’m an asshole.
He makes a half shocked, half knowing sound in his throat that sounds a lot like approval. “Serves him right.” Then after a heartbeat he asks, “Did he complain?”
“No.”
“Did he try to stop you?”
“No.”
Reap nods. “Did he want you to stop?”
I shoot him a look.
His lip curls with glee. “So you’re out here mentally flogging yourself because you face-fucked the man you’ve wanted for years? I didn’t think you had such a weak constitution, Strike.” Reaper grips the back of my neck, turning me to face him, and it feels like a reward. Being touched my him. It always has, considering he won’t let anyone touch him, and it feels so much like his hand on me. “It was bound to happen. I’m surprised it took you this long to face-fuck that crazy asshole into submission. He’s practically been begging for it with the way he’s been acting lately.”
He squeezes my neck and then his hand drops. Digging into his pocket, he pulls out his phone, then hands it to me. I unlock the screen with my thumbprint and read the text that’s already loaded. My hand falls to my side and I curse.
“Come on,” he says. “We have to discuss this with the others.”
***
“What the fuck do you mean, take her back?” Breaker yells, fists at his sides, his voice echoing around the empty room. He drops to the piano bench, laying his mask on his knee.
“We can’t,” Viper says as he crosses his arms, propping a hip on the side of the piano. “You saw her that day what if…” He doesn’t finish the sentence. He doesn’t need to.
We all saw her that day she left Rune’s office. It’s the entire reason we became suspicious. Cora had left his office just a few weeks before we took them, with a bloody nose. We knew something was off, but had no proof. I think we all feared the worst. When we took her, it was confirmed.
Rune has been hurting her. More than likely in ways that make me want to kill him a thousand times over.
“You read the text,” Reaper says from behind me. “We have orders to take her back.”
“We stopped following orders the second we took Cora,” Viper snaps. His eyes slide my way, then down to my crotch.
Fuck. I recognize that look. I give it to the girls anytime I’m with in a few feet of them.
I glance at Breaker and catch his knitted brows. “Wait, wait, wait,” he says, motioning between me and Viper at his side. “What the fuck is this?”
My stomach drops.
“What the fuck happened?” Breaker asks, his lip somehow managing to pull up into a smirk and down into a frown all at the same time.
Is he upset?Why am I worried? It’s not like Breaker has any claim over Viper.
Shit. Why am I thinking like this?
“Not now,” Viper growls, standing upright to walk further away from me. He stops next to Reaper in the center of the room, eyes dropping to his boots. “We have to decide how we’re going to deal with this.”
“There’s nothing to decide. She goes back.” Reaper rakes his fingers roughly through his hair. “You know damn well we have to. This isn’t something we can ignore. They made a deal.”
He’s right. Even if we don’t like it.
“And why the fuck should we care?” Breaker asks. “Too bad if Rune made a deal. We don’t have to abide by it.”
Reaper sighs. “But she does. Rune does. We all do, otherwise we’ll start an all out war.”
“We’ve already waged war the second we took his daughter,” Viper reminds him.
“Against Rune,” Reaper barks. He doesn”t like this any more than the rest of us, but he’s also not stupid. We were told to take Cora back. She’s not ours to keep. She’s already been promised to another. He gestures to the window and the black sky outside. “If we don’t send her back, it’ll be fucking World War Three out there.”
“Does she even know?” Breaker asks.
“I doubt it,” Viper says. “I doubt Rune would care enough to let her know she’s been promised to Zane Devin.”
My fists curl at my sides. Fucking Zane. He’s a sick motherfucker, maybe even worse than Rune, and that’s a hard task.
“Rune promised Zane a wife,” Reaper says, looking down at his mask in his hands. He stretches it out, thumb sliding over the eyehole, then his shoulders drop. “You know how these families work. He didn’t want to sentence Delilah to such a fate—”
“So he gave him Cora,” Breaker says for him.
“Zane Devin is a powerful man with a powerful name. That’s why he’s Rune’s right-hand man,” Reaper says. “If he’s been promised a pretty trophy, then that’s what he’s going to get.”
“You know what he’s like,” I remind him. We all do. We have files, pages and pages detailing the level of depravity that lives under his skin.
“We don’t have a choice,” Reaper hisses. “If he doesn’t get Cora as promised, Zane will make a move against Rune and all hell will break loose. The backlash will cause Rune to go into hiding. He’ll be forced to clean up his act and we’ll never be able to touch him.”
He”s right. Even if we hate it.
“I don’t like this,” Breaker says, eyes moving between all of us. His jaw pops and I wonder for a second if we can get away with defying these orders just so that tense look in his eyes leaves.
“I don’t like it either,” Reaper says, “but it has to be done.”
“Fuck.” Viper snatches his mask from the bench seat, stalking toward the door.
“No,” I hear myself saying, thinking of the way Delilah holds her. We’ll lose her if we send Cora back. “She can’t go.”
Reaper spins to look at me. It’s like he can see what I’m thinking and his jaw tenses. I was right. Some part of him wanted Cora for Delilah and he knows the second she finds out we sent her best friend back, we’re going to lose any chance we may have at making her ours. “It’s already done.”