Chapter Seventeen
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Max
“Hey, it’s the pretty thief!” Zeno said as I followed Miko into his apartment.
Zeno was… nothing like I’d been expecting. I guess some part of me had been expecting someone like Henry or Chuck. A little nerdy. Pale from staying inside and staring at screens.
But Zeno was actually kind of hot. Tall and tanned with dark hair, great bone structure, and dark eyes, he could have been in ads for men’s cologne.
Though he was inexplicably wearing nothing but a pair of board shorts with little flamingo floats all over them. Sure, it put his nicely toned body on display. But it was the middle of winter. And there wasn’t a pool anywhere nearby.
“Still didn’t get to that laundry, huh?” Miko asked with a smirk.
“You know, I kept meaning to,” Zeno said, gesturing over toward the overflowing laundry basket. He’d gotten as far as putting the container of detergent pods on top of it, but hadn’t gotten to the actual washing part. “But then… I dunno. Other shit, I guess. But I’ll be damned if I could tell you what that other shit is now,” he admitted with a head shake.
“Did a small hurricane blow through here in the past few days?” Miko asked, shaking his head at the mess of the apartment. Scattered takeaway containers littered the desk and kitchen counters, two trash bags sat behind the door but hadn’t made it down to the dumpster, and coffee cups and energy drink cans were everywhere. Including, somehow, on top of that laundry basket.
“I need to hire a housekeeper or something,” Zeno said, wincing. “All that hard work you did, gone.”
“Well, I got more work for you,” Miko said, exhaling hard. “So I can clean up again while you get started on that.”
“I’m Chuck,” Chuck interjected, making Zeno notice him for the first time.
“That your security blanket?” Zeno asked, nodding toward where Chuck was clutching his gaming console to his chest. “Word to the wise, it might just scare the chicks away.”
“We brought it in case it might help you track down someone.”
“O…kay,” Zeno said, brows pinching.
“On my last job, I hired two guys to help me. Chuck, here. And this guy Henry. Who we just found killed.”
“Oh, shit. Sucks, man.” But there was a detachment in Zeno’s voice that likely came from growing up around crime.
“He tried to kill me too,” Chuck said, tone indignant as he puffed his chest a bit.
“Hence why he’s here,” Miko said with a wide-eyed look at Zeno. “The thing is, Henry seemed to have a roommate.”
“A suspect?”
“Yeah,” Miko agreed. “We searched all through the apartment. We couldn’t find anything that gave away his identity. Chuck here played games with him sometimes, though. So I was wondering if you could check their conversations. Or if you could use Henry’s screen name to see who else he possibly played with. Or, you know, any trace of who that fuck is.”
“Well, it’s not much to go on,” Zeno said, walking over in his bare feet to the freezer, pulling out a pint of ice cream that already had a spoon sticking out of it, and making his way back to his desk. “But if you give me the screen names, address, phone numbers, socials, all that shit, I’m sure I can dig up something. Any physical descriptions I should be looking out for?”
Miko turned to me. “Dirty blond. Tall, but a little shorter than Miko. Thinner, but strong. Blue eyes. The bright kind of blue. There’s really nothing else. He was… average.”
“Alright. Well, blond is better than brunette, I guess. Accent?”
“No.”
“Okay,” Zeno said, reaching for Chuck’s console, actually having to tear it out of his hands. “Well, give me the list and get comfortable. It’s probably going to be a while.”
With that, Zeno got to work with Chuck sitting next to him as Miko started to straighten up. Knowing I would pass out if I sat still for too long, I got up and got to cleaning as well.
“This place was spotless when I left a few days ago,” Miko said as I piled more coffee cups into the sink already full of them that he was washing. “I’m concerned that he will just start going around naked when he runs out of ridiculous shit to wear.”
“There’s a laundromat right around the corner. I can go get some loads going. Sounds like he’s going to be a while.”
“I don’t want you going anywhere alone,” Miko said with a head shake.
“What? We’re back in the city, Miko. I’m going to be going a lot of places alone.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Dude, you’re not my boss,” I reminded him, even if some part of me I barely wanted to acknowledge—let alone cop to—felt all warm and fuzzy at the idea of him being so protective.
“Shit is different now,” Miko insisted, shutting off the water to give me his full attention. “If you hadn’t gone with me upstate, maybe it wouldn’t be a big deal. But you were there. In that house. He saw you. He already knows where you live. It’s not safe for you to go anywhere alone.”
“If it’s not safe for me, then it’s not safe for my roommates either,” I said, stomach twisting. Sure, Tyler was a guy. But he wasn’t any sort of alpha guy. I doubted he’d ever hit someone in his life. And I didn’t even know how long he was going to be in town for.
“Been thinking about that. How do you think your roommates would feel about a little… trip?”
“A trip where?”
“I dunno. Anywhere. Just to get them out of the city for a while. There’s gotta be somewhere they’d like to go.”
They were always talking about trips but never took them. If I did it as an early anniversary present for Megs and Nicole, I really didn’t think they could object to it. And they were both able to work remotely, so that wasn’t an issue.
“Megs always said she wanted to see Vermont in the snow.”
“Vermont it is, then,” Miko said. “I will get it all set up.”
“It needs to be set up like an anniversary gift.”
“That’s not a problem. I just need to know how soon they can leave.”
“I’ll ask Tyler,” I said, reaching for my phone for the first time in what felt like ages.
“That was quick,” Miko said when my phone dinged almost immediately.
“He’s on his way to the airport,” I told Miko. “Said the girls are sad. This kind of… really works out.”
“Good,” Miko said, nodding. “That’s one less thing to worry about.”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine there myself.”
“The fuck you will,” Miko said, making me look up from my text.
“What?”
“You’re not staying there. No fucking way. It’s not safe.”
“Miko, I’m a grown-ass woman. I can stay in my own home if I want.”
“Look what happened in your own home,” he said, gesturing toward my face.
Admittedly, it was easy to forget about my face since I so rarely caught sight of it in the past day or so. But Miko was always looking at it, always remembering what had happened to me.
“That was before I knew there was a threat,” I reminded him. “It’s different now.”
“I don’t care. You’re not staying in your apartment until I know it’s safe.”
“I’m not wasting money staying at a ho—“
“You’re staying with me,” he cut me off.
“I’m… no, I’m not,” I said, even as heat bloomed through my body, that warm blanket-hugging sensation wrapping tightly around my shoulders and chest.
“Sugar, this isn’t up for debate.”
“What are you going to do, cuff me to the bed?” Even as the words escaped me, I knew exactly how they were going to be received.
Miko struggled to keep his lips in a straight line. And failed pretty miserably. “I’m not opposed to that idea,” he said, a wicked glint in his eyes. “But I am choosing to believe that when you stop being stubborn, you will see it is the smartest, safest option.”
He wasn’t exactly wrong there.
We would be better as a pair until this was over. Especially since he was trying not to use his family on this case.
“What about Chuck?”
“What about him?” Miko asked, glancing over just in time to catch Zeno slapping Chuck’s hand away from one of his keyboards.
“He needs to be somewhere safe.”
“Yeah. So?”
“So you only have one extra bedroom,” I reminded him.
“We’re both adults,” Miko said, the beginnings of a challenge on his face. “We can share a bed.”
“Hey, if you want to share a bed with Chuck, I’m not one to judge,” I said, loving the way his eyes crinkled as he turned away to smile.
“Unless you’re worried you won’t be able to control yourself in the same bed as me,” he said, leaning close, his voice a secret just for the two of us.
He knew exactly what he was doing, damn him.
And that it would work.
“Get over yourself, Miko,” I said with an eye roll that I hoped made it impossible for him to see how revved up I was getting at just the idea of being in bed with him again.
“Good, it’s settled then,” he said, stupidly handsome with the joy of his victory.
It was about three hours later when Miko and I both got back from the laundromat, since he dug his heels in about me not going alone, that Zeno approached, a muscle ticking in his jaw with his frustration.
“Miko, you’ve got to get him—“ he started, then exhaled hard, his head tilting to look up at the ceiling. “If you touch that, I swear to God, I will go deep into your search engine history and find every embarrassing search—like wondering what the inside of a real, live pussy might feel like—and blast it all over your socials for all your friends and family to see,” he called back to Chuck in the dramatic frustration of a big brother being annoyed to his breaking point by his sibling.
“Need some peace to work?” Miko asked, his smirk indicating he knew the feeling Zeno was experiencing all too well.
“God, yes,” Zeno said, sighing hard.
“Alright. We’ll get going so you can focus. You got my number?” To that, Zeno shot him a bemused expression that said even if he didn’t, he could figure it out.
“Chuck, get your shit. We’re heading out,” Miko called.
“Where are we going?”
“Home to get some sleep,” Miko said, and it was right then that I noticed just how worn out he looked. I felt the same fatigue deep in my bones.
“Your home?” Chuck asked, nearly overturning his chair in his rush to get over toward us.
“Just… leave it,” Zeno grumbled when Chuck’s duffle caught the edge of his desk, sending a stack of shit tumbling to the ground. “And go. Please. For the love of God.”
“I’m picturing, like, a lair,” Chuck said as Miko half-shoved him out into the hall.
“Thanks for doing my laundry, you pretty little thief, you,” Zeno said with a smile that would have charmed the panties off any other woman in Manhattan. “Oh, and I give it half the night.”
“Give what half the night?” I asked as I moved into the doorway.
“You being able to keep your hands off of each other,” he said with a knowing little smile before turning and heading back to his desk.
That was some amazing hearing he had.
The sad thing was, I was worried he was right as we all made our way outside, piled back into the SUV, and made our way to Miko’s apartment.
“It is like a lair!” Chuck said, eyes about popping out of his skull as he looked around with the enthusiasm of a little kid.
“Yep,” Miko said, his tiredness making his usual charm wear thin. “This is you,” he said, opening the door to his office that also served as the guest room. “The couch pulls out. All the bedding is in the closet. There’s a closet hall. Towels are in the closet.”
“Nice. Nice. Where’s Max sleeping?”
“In my room,” Miko said.
“Oh. Oh. Nice. That’s cool, man,” he said, making Miko puff his air out through his nostrils, the closest he could get to a laugh, given how dead on his feet he was.
“Help yourself to anything. But do not, and I repeat do not , leave this apartment.”
“Go out there and get myself killed? No, not me, man.”
“And don’t go on any of your socials talking about where you are, either.”
“Got it,” Chuck agreed, rocking on his feet, still excited.
“We’re gonna catch a couple of hours. Then we will order something in for dinner,” he said before putting an arm around my hips and drawing me into his room.
“Just gonna take a quick shower,” Miko said, already stripping out of his clothes right there in front of me. And, I guess, I’d seen all of him now. There was no reason for him to feel shy.
The casual familiarity, though, had cartwheels going in my belly as I pretended to busy myself with digging into my duffle for a change of clothes myself, wanting to wash the dirt off of me from crawling on the floor, then on the ground outside of the dumpsters. But what I was really doing was watching as Miko peeled each layer off.
The shirt was gone first. Then there was a short pause of him topless as he took off his watch and cross.
Then off went the belt.
The shoes and socks.
And, finally, the pants.
I just barely managed to keep the little whimper that rose up my throat in as he hooked his fingers into his boxer briefs and lowered them down.
I was only getting a bit of a side and rear view until, suddenly, music blared seemingly through the whole apartment.
“Shoot. Sorry! Sorry!” Chuck yelled as Miko turned back, giving me the full, glorious view of him.
“Stereo can play through the whole apartment,” Miko explained as I tried to keep my gaze on his face.
Eventually, Chuck got the music to just play in the living area and hallway, a crooning singer-songwriter singing about love as that warm sensation wrapped around me again, willing me to acknowledge it, to put a name to it.
“Sugar?” Miko called, suddenly a lot closer than he’d been a second ago as I pretended to focus on my duffle bag.
“What?” I asked, refusing to look up, knowing he would see too much in my eyes, things I wasn’t even ready to think, let alone share.
“Nothing. Just… This,” he said as his hand grabbed the back of my neck, turning me so that his lips could claim mine.
Hard.
Hungry.
Possessive.
I was too far gone to pretend not to want it.
I melted into him, my hands sliding up his arms, feeling the chords of muscle, the warmth of his skin.
My arms wrapped around his neck as his free one went around my hips, crushing me to him, letting me feel the way his cock was hardening for me with each passing second.
Need pooled in my core, making a little mewling sound escape me.
But it was right then, when I was all warm and soft and ready that Miko pulled back, stepped away, leaving me actually freaking swaying at the lack of his closeness.
Then, with nothing else, he turned and walked into the bathroom.
Alone, I collapsed back onto the bed, hand pressed to my lips, too aching with need to do anything but sit there in my unsatisfied desire, listening to the way the water cascaded off of Miko’s body and onto the tile floor as he showered.
He was done far before I could get a hold of my runaway desire, coming out in another damned low-slung towel as he made his way to the closet.
Not trusting myself not to jump him, I grabbed my change of clothes and ran into the bathroom.
It didn’t help. The entire room was full of his whiskey and tobacco scent.
But by the time I got in the shower and washed the day away, the exhaustion was pulling so heavily at my eyes that I was surprised I managed to get myself dressed before moving out and falling into the bed.
Beside me, Miko was already still.
As for me, I was out cold before I could even draw the covers up over my body.