Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
WREN
The day was unseasonably warm for autumn. Most of the trees near the beach were evergreens, so it could pass for summer, or maybe spring.
If the sand was swarming with people, it would complete the picture.
Fortunately, it was the middle of the day, in the middle of the week. Most of Dusk Bay was at work or school.
Technically, I should have been at work, but I took an early lunch at the same time the guys weren't training, meeting or doing interviews. I didn't know when we'd get another chance and this was something better done without an audience.
I set up a blanket on the sand, under the shade of a couple of trees. On one corner, I placed a bag of sandwiches and a cardboard tray with cups nestled inside. Three held coffee. The fourth was tea for Bray, the tea bag string and label dangling from the side.
I sat down and tried not to let the anxiety get the better of me.
I didn't have to wait long. Tiger's Maserati was the first to turn into the car park. He was barely out and starting towards me when Lex pulled up beside him.
Absolutely no shock that Bray was last. He probably did that to piss me off.
"Took him long enough." Tiger sat down on one side of me. "He saw us make our move and decided it was finally time."
It took me a moment to realise he was talking about the relationship between Bray and me, not Bray's lateness. Was it that obvious?
"Lucky he's not that slow on the ice," Lex remarked as he sat in front of me, where he could see me and smirk at Bray at the same time. Evidently it was. That explained why Lex asked me about a third guy. They saw before either of us did. Certainly before I did.
"Fuck off." Bray flopped down on the blanket. "I always know when the time is right to act. When it is, I'm all over it, right Socks?" Apparently he was running with the nickname.
"If you say so, toothpick cock," I retorted.
Tiger and Lex both chuckled.
"They've seen my cock, they know it's bigger than a toothpick," Bray said with a shrug.
"Longer, maybe not thicker." Tiger eyed him like he wasn't sure if he was friendly or unfriendly competition. He hadn't decided if he was going to kill Bray yet or not.
A day or two ago, I might not have been concerned one way or another. Today, I preferred he not kill anyone currently sitting on the blanket.
"It’s both," Bray said. "So, what the fuck are we all doing here?"
"Having a picnic," I said lightly. I handed him his cup of tea, but then added, "I brought your favourite. Vegemite sandwiches."
"I hate Vegemite." He peeled back the lid of his tea and looked inside as though maybe it held urine or seawater instead.
I smiled. "I know. I decided I couldn't go too easy on you too soon. Wouldn't want you to get comfortable."
He flipped me off, but took a sip of the tea. "Is it poisoned?"
"If she wanted you dead, you'd be dead," Tiger told him. "I would have killed you long before you went anywhere near her."
"Or I would." Lex opened the bag and pulled out the sandwiches. He tossed one to Tiger, handed one to me and kept another for himself.
Tiger nodded his thanks, opened his and started eating. "Cheese and salad."
Bray rolled his eyes at me, but leaned over to grab the last sandwich. "Are you clowns sure you want to get involved with her? You can see what she gets like when she's known someone for long enough."
"Only when they're an asshole," I told him.
"That's it, you're both fucked." Bray leaned back and rested his weight on one hand.
"I'm an asshole, but she wouldn't do that to me," Tiger said. "She must really hate you."
"I can't admit to being an asshole," Lex said. "Not openly. I think I'll leave that to you two guys."
"She might have a type," Bray suggested. "She might prefer assholes."
"She prefers people who don't talk about her like she's not here," I said. "Anyway, we aren't here to talk about where any of you fall on the asshole scale."
"Wren and I fucked," Bray said.
They both turned to look at him.
"We know exactly where he falls on the asshole scale," I muttered. "Right in the morally grey section."
"Your favourite colour is morally grey," Bray said.
"My favourite colour is shut your fucking mouth," I told him.
I didn't want to start the conversation like that.
"Like I said, it took him long enough," Tiger said.
"We figured that much when you asked to meet us all here," Lex said. "We already said we don't mind sharing and figured if there was another it would be him."
"You don't mind sharing with him too?" I asked tentatively.
"As long as you're not planning to choose him over me, then no," Tiger said.
"Yeah, that." Lex jerked his head towards Tiger.
"Definitely not," I said firmly. "His cock is too small to keep me satisfied by himself."
Bray tore off a piece of crust and flicked it at me. "You're such a bitch."
Tiger narrowed his eyes at Bray. "It's not too late for me to kill you."
"Don't kill him," I said. After a moment I added, "Unless I ask you to. You never know, things might change."
Bray flicked a piece of cheese at me.
"Stop wasting food," Lex said. "I know exactly how much of it you need to eat."
The winger groaned. "Oh shit, do I have two stepfathers now?"
Lex grinned. "Yeah, because you're lucky that way. Actually, this could be a beneficial arrangement for both of you. I can keep a very close eye on your diet and exercise—"
Tiger flicked a piece of lettuce at Lex. "Leave work at work." He spoke to him in a similar tone as he spoke to me. A little harder, a little more bro-to-bro, but not as harsh as he spoke to most other people.
I realised he spoke to Bray the same way too. Apparently my stepbrother was in before either of us admitted it to ourselves. That was reassuring. Tiger would probably not get pissed off at Bray and kill him. Maybe.
"I'm only looking out for your best interests," Lex argued, but his eyes shone with humour.
"It's in your best interest to separate work from not-work," Tiger said. "Lucky for you, I'm focused on trying to find Nicholas Fiorelli. You get a free pass for a while."
"Is there anything we can do?" Bray asked. "No one abducts my stepsister without my permission." He looked furious and, for once, it wasn't directed at me.
Lex mentioned he was angry, even scared, when I was missing, but I hadn't seen it myself until now. He'd played it cool and arrogant, like usual. This was an interesting side of him. I liked it. He might hate me less than he thought he did.
"Excuse me, but under what circumstances would you give anyone permission to abduct me?" I asked.
He grinned. "If I told you that, you'd be waiting for it to happen."
Tiger growled. "No one abducts her without my permission either."
"No one is going to abduct her without her permission." Lex said it firmly. He turned to me and raised an eyebrow.
My heart was racing. Was he suggesting what I thought he was suggesting?
"You'd kidnap me if I asked you to?"
"We'd do whatever you ask us to," Lex said. "But we should call it what it is. CNC. Consensual non-consent."
My face was suddenly warm. "I've read about it in romance novels, but I've never… That's a thing people do? Can we do it?"
"We have to discuss boundaries and safe words, but if that's something you want to do, I'd be down for it," Lex said.
"CNC," Tiger said slowly. "So, rough but with her permission? Anything goes unless she says it doesn't?"
"Exactly." Lex nodded. "We do what we want to her, but we stay within those boundaries and stop immediately if she says the safe word."
"I'm in," Bray drawled. "But we should talk about Nicholas Fiorelli first."
Of course it was him tipping the bucket of ice cold water onto all of us, but he was right. We shouldn't let our guard down until Nicholas was dealt with.
I'd feel a lot safer being abducted if I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, it wasn't by him.
"I really, really hate to say this, but Bray is right." I pointed a finger at him before he could speak. "This might be the first and last time, but you're right, right now."
He smirked. "Good enough for me. But I've been right before and I'll be right again." With a subtle tilt of his eyes, he reminded me that I screamed his name when he made me come.
I responded with the sides of my mouth pulling up slightly, reminding him that he screamed mine too. It was his cum that leaked out of me after we were done. Because he couldn't keep his hands or cock off me.
I turned to Tiger. "What can we do? I'd offer myself as bait, but we all agree it wasn't me he went after. I'm not offering any of my friends."
As far as I was concerned, the further from Nicholas Fiorelli any of them were, the better. For them and myself, I'd rest easy knowing he was dead and gone. With no one left to get revenge for him.
Technically, he wasn't the last Fiorelli, but his sister Amity was with Lucas Brantley and a couple of other guys, having babies. Last I heard, they were up to number four. She was no threat. I hoped.
"I wouldn't ask you to," Tiger said. "We all know there's no chance their guys would agree to it anyway. Since I don't feel like being murdered by Coast, Javey, Phoenix, Aidan, Orion or Finley, or any combination of those, let's rule that out."
"Nicholas would see that coming anyway," Lex said. "That's exactly the kind of thing he'd expect us to do." He looked frustrated.
A nice trap to catch a big mouse would certainly be an easier way to deal with the problem. Unfortunately this mouse wasn't going to take our cheese. Not after pulling the same thing on his stepbrother.
"So we should do it," Bray said. When we all turned to look at him, he continued. "Not literally, but we set something up that looks like bait. We know he won't take it, but it'll pique his interest. Use it as a distraction. Then we hit him where it hurts."
"His business interests," I said. "He still has a stake in lot of things here in Dusk Bay. And outside Dusk Bay, too."
"Especially in Sydney," Tiger said.
"Where we have a bunch of games this season," Bray said.
"I picture some sightseeing in our future," Lex said.
"I picture a dead Nicholas Fiorelli in our future," Tiger said. "We might even get a medal from Reuben or Caleb." He rolled his eyes as if that mattered or was something he cared about.
"There's only two prizes I want," Bray said. "The Goodall cup and Wren's pussy. I want to drink champagne out of both of them."
"You have to win first," I said.
He grinned. "I always do. Sometimes it takes a while, but I always win in the end."