Chapter Twelve
Rangi didn’t remember much of the drive back to the compound.
His mind was very much on other things. Well, two other people to be exact. Alexios sat quietly beside him as he drove with intent right on the tail of Keanu’s GT-R.
As soon as they were both stopped outside the garage, they all ignored the fact that the rest of Black Tide were in the command center, and they made their way to where the bus was parked by silent and mutual agreement.
Footsteps followed him. He didn’t turn. He didn’t need to. He knew the rhythm of them now.
Keanu first—quieter, measured.
Alexios behind—controlled, deliberate, always aware of everything.
Rangi reached the bus and stepped inside, the space opening around him—soft lighting, warm wood, the low hum of systems running quietly in the background. It should have felt like a sanctuary.
Instead, it felt charged.
He turned then and there they were. Framed in the doorway. And for a second—just a second—no one spoke.
Rangi exhaled slowly, dragging a hand through his hair.
“Well,” he said, voice rougher than he intended. “That was a hell of a plan.”
Keanu huffed a quiet breath. “Yeah, and now we have a way in.”
“Yeah,” Rangi shot back. “But I still don’t like the fact that you are inside the wire by yourself.”
Alexios stepped inside, closing the door behind him with a soft click. “You never like it when those you love are in danger.”
Rangi’s gaze snapped to his. Alexios met it. Unflinching.
“It’s worse when there is nothing I can do to protect you.” Rangi looked between the two men who held his heart between them. “Either of you.”
A weighted silence settled again—but this time it wasn’t just heavy. It was thick. Alive. And Rangi could feel it under his skin.
His gaze slid to Keanu.
Still standing near the door. Still holding himself just slightly apart. Like he wasn’t sure where he fit in this space yet.
Rangi’s chest tightened. Not this time.
He crossed the distance in two strides, caught Keanu by the front of his shirt and pulled him in.
The kiss wasn’t tentative, and there was no question. It was a firm statement of intent. Keanu went still for half a breath—then responded, heat and intent snapping into place like it had always been there waiting.
Rangi felt it—felt him—felt the choice in it. This kiss was deep, hot, and a pure show of arousal and dominance from both of them. Rangi reached up and gripped Keanu’s face, and tilted his head to the angle he needed and reveled in the moan of pleasure that came through his lover’s mouth.
He heard Alexios move then, to step in close, one hand sliding to the back of Keanu’s neck, the other settling at Rangi’s hip—drawing them together, not apart.
“That is so hot,” Alexios said quietly. “Watching the two of you kissing like this, devouring each other, makes me so damn hard.”
Rangi felt the shift immediately. Alexios wasn’t taking over. He was directing them. It was subtle and precise, and a huge damn turn-on. Being the dominant player in their love was not his natural role, but when he did take control, he made it so fucking good.
Rangi adjusted without thinking, his body aligning with the pressure of Alexios’s hand, moving his mouth to find the sensitive skin of Keanu’s neck—less about heat, more about connection.
Keanu’s hands came up—one at Rangi’s waist, the other catching Alexios’s wrist like he was grounding himself in both of them at once.
“Yeah,” Keanu breathed. “Like that.”
Alexios’s gaze sharpened slightly, tracking every response.
“Listen to your body,” he said quietly. “Don’t rush it.”
Rangi almost laughed.
Almost.
Because the irony of Alexios—who had very little patience—telling someone not to rush anything wasn’t lost on him.
Rangi’s hands moved with more intent now, mapping Keanu instead of just taking him, learning the lines of him, the reactions, the way he leaned into some touches and held steady through others.
Alexios adjusted them both—guiding Keanu’s stance, shifting Rangi’s angle, creating space and closing it again in a rhythm that felt ... designed.
Alexio then pulled Rangi away, putting space between the three of them.
Keanu’s breath hitched, his grip tightening slightly. “Don’t stop,” he said, quieter now but no less certain.
Rangi’s mouth curved against his skin. “Only for a minute, tāku manawa.”
Alexios’s hand slid along Keanu’s jaw, turning his face slightly. “Look at me.”
Keanu did. Immediately. Rangi felt his dick shift again.
“I want the three of us to strip, but no touching each other,” Alexios said, voice low but steady. “Not yet.”
Rangi grinned as he moved to comply, stepping back to give them all room, and watched as both men stripped before him, and he enjoyed watching each inch of delectable skin that appeared before him.
Keanu’s startling blue eyes, dark skin, and tribal tattoos that wrapped both his forearms and thighs were a stark contrast to the paler skin of Alexios, his green eyes, dark blond hair, and the large griffin tattoo that ran up his side and over his left pectoral muscle.
When all three of them were naked, they stood for a moment, taking in the moment.
Rangi felt it settle into his chest like something locking into place.
This was the moment in their relationship that marked the connection between all three of them.
He stepped forward, placing one hand on Alexios shoulder and his other on Keanu’s hip.
“This is going to go hard and fast.” Rangi could hear the arousal in Alexios’s voice. “This time, Rangi, I want you on your back. You’re going to let Keanu take you.”
Rangi leaned forward and took Keanu’s mouth in a quick, hot kiss before he moved to lie down on the mattress. He was all in with that plan. He settled himself in the center of the large mattress, pillow beneath his head, and watched as Keanu moved to grab the lube from the drawer beside the bed.
“And where will you be, ipo?” Rangi asked Alexios as anticipation built.
“Oh,” Alexios growled as he watched Keanu move to the mattress, and settle in between Rangi’s spread legs, already rubbing lubricant along his impressive erection with one hand, and Rangi’s ass with the other.
“I’m going to be balls deep in our man here.
He needs to know that he is very much a part of us, of this, and I cannot think of a better way to show that than by him being the very center of our attention, so to speak.
Rangi inhaled and exhaled a moan at those words and the feel of Keanu’s fingers readying him for possession.
A heated few minutes of touches, kisses and firm strokes of hands that brought shouts of pleasure later, nearly drove Rangi out of his mind, then finally he felt the head of Keanu’s impressive erection pushing against the ring of muscle of his ass.
After a few rolls of Keanu’s hips and Rangi pushing out against him, Keanu was seated within him, and Rangi sighed at the feel of it.
“Christ, look at that,” Keanu murmured, his eyes locked on where his cock disappeared within Rangi’s body. “That is so fucking hot.”
“Yes, it is,” Alexios said as he shuffled closer to Keanu on the bed. “And it is about to get a whole lot hotter.”
Rangi grinned when Keanu froze, knowing that Alexios was making his own entrance.
“Gamó ... nióthis tóso kalá,” Alexios groaned
“Wh—what?” Keanu asked, his head thrown back, holding as still as he could.
“He swore and said you feel good,” Rangi translated. “Our man forgets his English when he’s aroused as hell.”
Rangi groaned as Keanu arched beneath him, the movement dragging him deeper, tighter—stealing the breath from his lungs and any coherent thought along with it.
“Fuck—”
The word broke out of him, rough, uncontrolled.
Alexios inhaled sharply behind them, the sound cutting through the moment as his control slipped just enough to show.
“Yes,” he said, voice low, edged, and far too steady for what was happening. His hand slid around Keanu’s torso, anchoring him, while the other closed over Rangi’s hip—firm, deliberate, claiming both of them in the same breath.
“I am definitely aroused.”
Rangi let out a breathless laugh that dissolved into another groan as Keanu moved again—no hesitation, no mercy.
“Yeah?” Rangi managed, voice wrecked. “You going to just analyze it, or—”
Alexios’s grip tightened. “Let’s see who loses control first.”
Rangi didn’t get the chance to answer.
Because Keanu shifted again, and the world snapped—tilted—and then there was nothing but heat, pressure, and the relentless, consuming rhythm that drove every other thought clean out of his head.
****
Keanu didn’t expect the command center to feel different. But it did.
Same room. Same banks of screens. Same low hum of systems running beneath everything like a second heartbeat. But today it felt different, like everything did, like it all had a different gravity. He felt it the second he stepped inside.
It had nothing to do with the room itself, but with them.
Rangi was already there, leaning back in a chair like he owned the place, boots hooked on the edge of the console, grinning at something Drew had just said.
Alexios stood to one side, posture relaxed but alert, gaze moving across the data Luca had pulled up—taking it in, cataloging, already working angles.
And when Keanu walked in—neither of them missed it.
Rangi’s grin shifted, sharper now. “Look who finally made it.”
Keanu snorted. “You’ve been here what, all of five seconds?”
“Late is late, tāku manawa,” Rangi said.
Alexios didn’t look away from the screen. “He is not late, lover. You were early.”
Rangi shot him a look. “You’re both insufferable.”
“Efficient,” Alexios corrected.
Keanu huffed a laugh before he could stop it.
And this was their thing. The ease of it.
The way it settled around them like it had always been there—like the shift from last night hadn’t broken anything, hadn’t complicated it beyond repair.
It had clarified it. He moved in beside them without thinking about it, because there wasn’t anything to hesitate over. Not anymore.
Rangi’s hand brushed his side as he shifted—casual, grounding. Alexios’s gaze flicked to him briefly, assessing, confirming with a soft smile—then away again. Keanu leaned his hip against the console, crossing his arms loosely as he looked at the screens.
“Tell me we’ve got something,” he said.
Luca didn’t look up. “We always have something.”
“Something that’s useful?”
“That depends on your definition of useful.”
Victor, posted near the back wall, didn’t bother hiding his faint smirk. Drew muttered something about “geeks and their definitions,” earning himself a quiet, unimpressed look from Luca that didn’t even require words.
“Alright,” Kael said, stepping in from the far side, attention already shifting the room. “Let’s focus.”
Just like that, the air changed.
Rangi dropped his boots, Alexios straightened slightly, and Keanu pushed off the console, attention sharpening.
“The handler Keanu met last night has already reached out,” Kael continued. “He says he’s got a job.”
Rangi snorted. “They always do.”
Kael’s gaze didn’t shift. “This one pays enough that we’re listening.”
Rangi’s grin returned. “Now you’ve got my attention.”
Alexios glanced at Keanu. “High payouts usually indicate high risk.”
“Yeah,” Keanu said. “That sounds about right.”
Luca’s fingers moved again, pulling the incoming data packet onto the main screen. Lines of intel unfolded—routes, names, partial identifiers, financial flows bleeding through the edges.
“Give me a second,” Luca said. “Let me see what they’re actually offering.”
Silence settled—focused now, all eyes on the data as it resolved.
Keanu watched it shift, but part of his attention stayed anchored—Rangi at his shoulder, Alexios just within reach.
Luca leaned in slightly, eyes narrowing as the deeper layers came through.
“...that’s fucked up,” he murmured.
Kael’s gaze sharpened. “Explain.”
Luca didn’t look away from the screen.
“This isn’t just a job,” he said. “It’s a kill-chain.”
Rangi straightened. “Explain.”
Luca tapped the display, isolating routes that pulsed red—checkpoints, choke points, handoff nodes.
“Drivers are being run through escalating routes,” he said. “Each leg adds pressure—speed, surveillance, hostile contact. Fail a segment, and you disappear.”
Alexios stepped closer, eyes narrowing. “Selection under duress.”
“Exactly,” Luca said. “They’re not moving cargo.”
A beat. Then, quieter—colder—
“Crucible is building a network of compliant drivers who can run lethal routes without question. High-risk transport. Human trafficking. Weapons. Anything that needs someone expendable at the wheel. Just like you said.”
Keanu’s jaw tightened slightly.
Rangi saw it anyway. “Same pattern?”
Luca nodded once. “Close enough to matter.”
Kael’s expression didn’t change—but the temperature in the room dropped.
“All right,” he said. “Are we all in agreement? This ends with the death of the leadership.”
No hesitation. No debate. Unanimous, decision made.
Rangi cracked his knuckles lightly. “Thought you’d say that. I have to say, as a group of assassins, I do love the way Black Tide works.”
Alexios’s gaze flicked to Keanu. “We take off the head. No one gets a pass.”
“Yeah,” Keanu said. “That’s how we roll. The call is made. It is unanimous.”
Rangi’s hand came down briefly on his shoulder. “Then we go in together.”
Keanu nodded once.
“Together,” Alexios echoed.
Kael looked between them for a fraction of a second—taking it in, recalibrating, accepting it without comment.
“Then get ready,” he said. “We move as soon as Luca finishes mapping the route.”
Luca didn’t look up. “Already ahead of you.”
The room shifted again. Not into chaos but into purposeful intention. Assignments were given and gear gathered, Black Tide rolling into place like it always did.
Keanu stood in the middle of it for a second—watching it come alive around him—then glanced once more at the two men beside him.
Rangi met his gaze. Alexios did the same. And just like that—everything aligned.