Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Roman’s phone lit up in the middle of the night, the insistent buzzing waking Sidian from his light doze and tearing a snarl from his chest. He buried his face in Roman’s chest and whined at him, unwilling to relinquish his hold as Roman tried to roll over to grab the phone.
Fuck him and fuck phones; it was the middle of the night, and Sidian wanted to sleep when everything was warm and cozy.
To his credit at least, Roman wrapped himself back around Sidian, cradling him in warmth as he answered the phone. “Kane.”
“The boss told me you’re interested in something within our territory.
” The smooth, masculine voice that issued from the speaker was unfamiliar to Sidian, though he bared his teeth at it just the same as he snuggled back into his alpha’s chest. “I was given the clear to contact you. Where are you stationed?”
Roman snorted. “Eastern Nebraska, right on the very edge of it. Nowhere special. What do you need?”
“Information.” There was a beat of silence during which Roman made a low noise of confusion. “Our captive won’t talk. It’s been a very frustrating couple of days. We need the information he has. In return, we’ll grant you the personal home address of Dax Kincaid, which is what you’re looking for.”
“What?” Sidian’s head snapped up, his eyes wide with hope.
Roman’s brow furrowed. “Why are you making it an exchange? What do you stand to lose if we kill them?”
“We’ve been monitoring their movements and using them in order to locate potential auction sites,” the man on the other end of the phone said. “Allowing you to kill them would make our jobs harder than they already are, but this is out of my hands.”
“You don’t sound happy about that, Hadeon.”
Sidian tapped Roman on the chest, and the alpha glanced down at him. “Who are you talking to?”
“Is someone else there?” the man—Hadeon, Sidian guessed—demanded.
Roman loosed a little growl, tucking Sidian more firmly against his side as if the other man could reach through the phone and do something about him listening in.
“That’s my mate. The entire point of taking down Pack Kincaid is doing it for his benefit.
Make sure you hold your tongue. And to answer you, darling, he’s a Mamba. One of the very best.”
Hadeon grumbled something just out of earshot. “No one told me someone else accompanied you. Is he a recent acquisition of the Vipers?”
“No,” Roman growled, and Sidian bit back a delighted giggle at how needlessly territorial he could be sometimes. But it was sexy watching Roman act like that.
“Regardless, bring him along. He might prove useful for our needs.” The call cut, the phone screen going dark.
Roman let the phone fall to the nightstand before rolling back over to wrap Sidian in his arms, nuzzling down into the top of Sidian’s head.
It was just another little shred of evidence that the two of them were leading different lives because how could Roman just go back to sleep after that conversation?
Did he hear a single word that Hadeon guy just said?
Did he just agree to torture someone for possible information?
“Hey.” Sidian patted him on the back, and Roman grumbled against his scalp. “Roe, what was all that about?”
Roman dipped his head down to kiss Sidian’s forehead. “Talk to me about it in the morning. I’m tired.”
Sidian could push Roman, and Roman would speak, but he let him rest and snuggled back into his chest instead. Maybe he should show a little mercy considering how good Roman was for him. And besides, it was late. They needed to sleep.
But did Roman just volunteer Sidian to help torture someone?
“Hadeon is one of the elite Mambas. He’s on a similar level to Mal on our side of the fence,” Roman explained to Sidian the next morning, letting him comb his fingers through Roman’s hair to tame his wild, damp, freshly washed curls.
“He’s not a friendly person. I believe he’s from Oregon, but I know nothing more than that.
Like Ghost, he appeared one day, and they took him in as one of their own. ”
Sidian frowned down at where his alpha’s head lay in his lap. “Seems like they’re just willing to take anyone into the super-secret mercenary group.”
“It’s not like that,” Roman said, even though that was what it sounded like.
“Wayward alphas have very few places to go. Ouroboros can put them to use provided they can prove they can handle it. And if they’re not, they’re cut loose.
The leaders are excellent judges of who can make it and who can’t.
We don’t take in anyone we cannot be sure will thrive. ”
“He sounded like a prick on the phone,” Sidian muttered, and Roman muffled a soft laugh.
“That would be because he is.” He reached up to give Sidian’s thigh a little squeeze. “When he meets you in person, he’ll be on his best behavior. But he is an asshole every chance he gets.”
Figured. Roman’s buddy sounded polite on the phone, but Sidian guessed expecting the people who lined up to commit murders as part of their job to be nice was a bit of a stretch.
Or maybe it was just stupid to give a fuck about it; the Mambas took down omega auctions, so maybe that gave this guy a free pass to be as much of an asshole as he wanted.
Granted, Sidian didn’t know if Hadeon was involved in the work, but still.
“Why are we torturing someone? Are they not capable of doing it?” Given they were mercenaries, it seemed like they would have been able to take care of it themselves.
“I’m not sure. They are, in fact, capable of doing it.” Roman shrugged, then turned his head and pressed his face into Sidian’s stomach. “I’ll do what it takes to get that address.”
Sidian tensed, not sure he liked Roman anywhere near his stomach, but he had said nothing yet. He couldn’t have noticed. “And then we can go kill Pack Kincaid once and for all.”
“That would be the plan.” Roman tilted his head back, and Sidian brushed the curls off of his forehead, tracing the scar through his eyebrow with the tip of one finger. “They just lost an auction location, so maybe the captive is supposed to know something about that. It’s possible.”
Sidian sucked his bottom lip into his mouth, considering. “Like the location details?”
“No, it's been a couple of days, so the auction might have already happened.” Roman didn’t note the obvious; Pack Kincaid might be on the way home if the auction had already happened, but Sidian chose not to bring it up.
Not yet. “It might be more about an information leak. How would the traffickers have known the Mambas were closing in on them if not for a leak?”
“I guess that makes sense. A rat in the snake pit. How nice.” And how fucking worrisome to think about.
Sidian could tell it was a stressful job for everyone involved, much less with someone feeding information to the worst lowlifes in the world likely for a quick buck.
He didn’t understand how anyone would go through the trouble of joining Ouroboros—and it had to be trouble—just to cash in their morals at the last second for someone who didn’t even deserve to draw breath.
No wonder the Mambas were ready to outsource help. Maybe they didn’t trust who they had available to do the torturing. “What makes Hadeon think we can get the information? He’s used to torturing people. I’ve never done it before.”
Roman puckered his lips. “I think you can get it out of the guy if you want to. Knives go a long way toward loosening someone’s tongue, sometimes, but still. You can do a lot of damage with blades alone.”
“Why can’t Hadeon do that damage instead?” What was it about the guy that made him not willing to trust even himself to get the job done?
“He’s impatient,” Roman murmured. “He might have called us in to take the guy off of his hands before he kills him, which wouldn’t be the first time.
If their information is slipping through holes, then he’s likely desperate to get a foothold in what’s going on, and this might be the only way for him to do that.
I don’t think he wants to risk fucking it up over his anger issues. ”
That sounded pretty reasonable, even if Sidian still had severe doubts about what they were expected to do. “So we just carve the guy up and hope he talks?”
“Carve him up, splash him with some alcohol while he’s bleeding. Maybe I can break some of his fingers.” Roman cracked his knuckles, and Sidian’s clit twitched in response. "If you’re up for it. I won’t make you do it, but… We could do it together. We could enjoy it together.”
Together. The thought of bleeding some asshole alongside Roman was far too attractive of a concept to just write off. “You wanna do that with me?”
“I’d like to see what you could do to someone if you knew you didn’t have to hold back.” Roman grinned at him, and Sidian studied the sharp points of his alpha canines.
He considered the idea, wondering what it would feel like to hurt someone alongside his mate rather than doing it on his own.
Though he wounded his fair share of people over the years, he’d never gotten to dig into them the way he wanted to.
No one at the center would let him near anything resembling a weapon, but he’d done some pretty significant damage at the psych ward.
If only he’d stood up for himself that night…
Let it go, he urged himself. Roman’s waiting for you to give him an answer, idiot.
When he brushed his fingers over Roman’s lips, Roman parted them just enough for Sidian to slip them inside.
A warm tongue laved his fingers before Roman sucked, reminding Sidian of last night, of Roman’s cock heavy and hot on his tongue.
When Pack Kincaid came for his heats, they’d dragged him down to his knees even with his cunt inflamed from how desperate he was, but that was nothing like what he’d done for Roman.
There was no force, no violence, nothing but him restrained and beautiful and letting Sidian suck him off.
Sighing, he leaned down to kiss Roman’s forehead. “Yeah, Roe. I’ll torture a guy to death with you. Sounds like a fun date night idea.”
“I know.” Roman sucked his fingers harder, and Sidian’s cunt throbbed. “You’re going to look so sexy covered in someone else’s blood. I don’t know if I’ll be able to control myself.”
Now there was an image. Sidian considered what Roman might look like caked in someone else’s blood, gorgeous and wild like when they were kids.
It might be risky to take him into the middle of that, given what happened last time, but as long as they got the information, did it matter what happened after?
Maybe they could see how many pieces they could chop the guy into before he hit the incinerator.
The only drawback was Hadeon. Sidian was not looking forward to meeting another alpha.
Roman drew his hand down and pressed a kiss to the inside of Sidian’s wrist. “If you don’t want to do it, I can handle it on my own. Won’t differ greatly from what I already do to people who piss me off.”
“I do wanna do it with you.” Fuck it. Roman came back to him last time. Sidian could get him to come back if he lost Roman again.
Roman nodded and straightened up, rolling his back.
“We should get a move on, then. We’re still a couple of days out from the Mambas’ Pit.
Hadeon should be waiting for us since it seems like he’s expected to arrange this.
And trust me when I say that no matter what, he’s harmless to you.
An asshole, but he would never harm an omega. Especially not my mate.”
“Time to pack it up?” Sidian asked, hopping to his feet.
“Time to pack it up.” Roman caught him around the waist and kissed him, warm and slow. “And when the guy’s dead and we have what we want, I hope you’ll grant me the privilege of fucking you.”
Oh, Sidian was down for that.