4. Dax
DAX
Idecided to take everyone back to my apartment in the city, even if it gave away the location of my secret getaway. Right now, planning our next steps were more important than keeping a place I could hide out in when I got pissed off at my guys.
Being the middle of the day, my man, Sebastian, wasn’t working. Instead, it was Charles, the older gentleman who seemed to look down his nose at me. “Good afternoon, Ms. Rose, this is quite a surprise to see you coming instead of going in the middle of the day. With so many friends, no less.”
“You know me, Charles, gotta keep you on your toes,” I commented as I headed for the elevators.
Cognac jogged to catch up with me as the elevator doors opened. “Why does he call you Ms. Rose?”
“It wouldn’t be smart of me to keep a safe house in my real name for someone to look up in public records, now would it?” I pointed out as the others piled in. Smacking the button to my floor, we all stood in awkward silence, listening to the light jazz music playing softly.
This apartment showed the side of me that likes the finer things in life.
I’d grown up with nothing and even though I was fairly grounded in expectations, this place let me feel boujee as hell.
Thankfully, Wes still had the keys for this place, deciding to keep the second set instead of leaving it at the counter like I normally do.
I think I might still make another set if this location doesn’t get busted by the end of this whole ordeal.
“You hid this place well, beautiful. I didn’t even know about it. I knew you came to this place with your hookups, but we could never figure out what unit was yours,” Cam shared, causing me to glare at him.
There was no need for him to share that I came here with the men I used to fuck on the occasion I had an itch to scratch. Now I had a feeling that would never be a problem with the amount of dick I had. The guys were more than happy to let me play with them whenever I wanted.
“This is your hookup pad?” Eagle asked with a sneer in his voice. “Seriously, little hellcat, this is where you decide to bring us?”
I paused just inside the door and turned to look at the president.
“Oh, I’m sorry, did you think I was a nun before you met me?
Or is it the fact I’m female and should have kept my legs shut until I met the one?
I didn’t hear you complaining when you bent me over the counter in your bathroom and fucked the shit out of me after only knowing me for a matter of hours. ”
“You know that’s not what I meant,” Eagle grumbled. “I was just surprised, is all.”
“Wes and I had an agreement that neither of us could bring back flings to the house since we both shared the space. So it only seemed logical to have a crash pad double as a safe house since I didn’t use it all that often for bringing men back to.
Mostly, it happened if I was working all night or just wanted some space to myself,” I explained, even though I felt like I shouldn’t have to.
“Let it go, Eagle,” Sprocket murmured, gripping his friend’s shoulder as he walked into the space. “Let’s eat and talk about what our next steps are.”
Eagle grunted and flopped down onto the chaise part of the couch.
“Oh, I wouldn’t sit there. It’s a favorite spot of mine to do this one move…” I teased, doing my best to keep a straight face as he looked at me with possessive jealousy written all over his face.
“Now, now, spitfire, it's not nice to poke fun at him like that. You would be pissed if he said something like that to you back at the house,” Picasso warned, wrapping his arms around me. “I know my brother and I are still somewhat in the doghouse for the shit we pulled, but I don’t think we deserve this.”
Rolling my eyes, I looked up at the VP. “You have the biggest brother complex I have ever seen. You know that, right?”
“Yeah, well, he’s earned it over our life together, so I guess you’ll just have to get used to it,” Picasso answered with a shrug before kissing my temple and letting me go sit next to his brother. He reached for the pizza. “Please tell me you didn’t order the Ringburner again.”
My answer was just to give him a wide smile.
“It’s the only thing she gets from that place,” Wes said as he brought over plates and napkins for everyone. “There’s other food stocked in the place if you can’t handle the heat.”
The others all laughed at Picasso as he got up and headed for the kitchen while they all filled their plates. Thankfully, they’d made double what I normally got so it could feed us all. “The wings aren’t for the faint of heart either,” I cautioned.
“I like things in my life to pack a punch,” Cognac whispered in my ear before he nipped at it.
“Lucky for you to have found me then, isn’t it?” I responded, turning to press a kiss to his full lips before latching onto his bottom lip with my teeth and tugging before letting him go.
Cognac hummed in pleasure, his eyes hooded as he took me in and licked his lip, tasting me on him. “So where’s the bedroom in this place?”
“Who says you need a bed? I’m sure none of us would mind if you finished what you started right here,” Cam commented.
The guys all paused, unsure of what to say or do about that statement, but Wes didn’t take long to come up with an answer. “Out of everyone here, you haven’t earned the right to be able to suggest things like that. Try again once you’ve got skin in the game.”
“Skin in the game?” Cam drawled as he looked down at his nails like he wasn’t the least bit offended.
“Tell me what does that look like exactly? You forget I was her boyfriend before any of you, and I know what type of woman she is in bed. I bet there are things you haven’t yet discovered about our pink-haired vixen that some of you might not have the balls to do.
So forgive me if I don’t feel the need to play by the rules set by a jealous, insecure lover. ”
No one really had anything to say about that as they turned to look at me for my ruling on the matter. “Seriously? There are multiple threats on my life now and the people around me, and you all want to have a pissing contest about our sex life and relationship status?”
“I can see why you think this is pointless, considering all that’s going on right now, but I do think it will help to bring some peace to the group if we all know where Cameron stands with you,” Sprocket explained.
“To us, adding in Weston made sense. He was your best friend, and you were not so secretly in love with each other. Cameron is an old flame who has slithered his way back into your life out of the blue making it harder for us to trust anything he says or does.”
Letting out a sigh that turned into a groan, I flopped onto the couch and kicked my feet up onto Void’s lap. Immediately, he pulled off my boots and started to rub my feet, making me want to melt onto the couch.
Before I lost all brain function, I spoke my mind on the matter.
“Look, I claimed Cam as mine just as I have each of you, the difference being I branded him with my name. Doing so means that no matter where he goes or what he does, when he looks in the mirror, he knows if he fucks up, I’ll carve my name and his heart out at the same time.
When it comes to the lot of you, we grew into this naturally, or as naturally as having six boyfriends happens.
In my eyes, we function like any other boyfriend and girlfriend…
we’ll fight or irritate the shit out of each other, but we’ll work things out together.
With so many involved, we need to learn how to cohabitate with each other. ”
I paused, looking at each of them in turn. “Let me be clear that none of you mean more to me than the others, including Wes. Yeah, we’ve been friends for what seems like my whole life but being more is completely different in how we typically interact with each other.”
“So you’re saying we need to make sure we have conversations like this so we don’t end up having misunderstandings?” Sprocket stated, giving me a wink and a teasing smile.
“Fine, yes. I know I’m the worst about being open about how I’m feeling or taking the time to talk through things. So I’ll need you guys to push me like you did today to make sure we settle whatever is bothering you guys.” I huffed.
“You too,” Picasso interjected. “We all get that emotions aren’t your strongest area, but you have to be willing to tell us if there’s something we’re doing that isn’t working for you too.
You have the job of dealing with all our asses all the time.
I know you have Tilly and Harper to talk to, but if you feel like one of us needs to step up or chill the fuck out, you can come to us directly. ”
“Geez, you guys make it sound like I’ve never dated anyone before,” I mutter, rubbing my hands over my face.
They all snorted or chuckled, but I got where they were coming from. None of us wanted to fuck this up now that we got it somewhat figured out before Cam butted into the situation.
“Speaking as someone you dated… this was a conversation we needed to have, but neither of us was ready for that kind of commitment,” Cam shared, his voice soft with a tinge of sadness to it, causing me to look at him.
As I took in his handsome face, I saw an echo of the boy he once was when I dated him.
He wasn’t as cocky or sure of himself as he was now, but he still had that magnetism that just drew you to him like a moth to a flame.
I knew Cam was going to be dangerous to my heart, so I knew I had to leave him behind.
When I came up with the batshit crazy idea of taking out the Blackjax, I had no idea if I would live through it.
Cam would have stood by my side like Wes did, but he’d have always tried to pull me back from the edge I needed to jump off to make this work.
To become Two Tricks, I had to cut out any weakness, and he was one I couldn’t risk anyone finding out about.
Now that he was back, I didn’t really know what to do.
Part of me wanted to hate him and be pissed for sneaking around in my life the way he had, but on the other hand, it reminded me why I fell for him in the first place.
“Cam,” I started, pulling my feet from Void’s hands, much to his displeasure, so I could sit up.
“I need you to understand that no matter what kind of relationship we had back then, I still would have walked away. You used to cling to the light I once held within me, but to be who I am today, I had to snuff it, out and that meant letting you go.”
“You’re telling me that Wes could stay with you because he wasn’t in love with that part of you as well?” Cam challenged, his gaze narrowing in on the man in question.
Shaking my head, I knew he wasn’t going to understand this, not really. “Wes, you try and explain it.”
“When you saw the choice Dax made to become what she is today, did you have to adjust your thinking or come to terms with the ‘new’ version of Dax?” Wes asked.
Cam tilted his head as he thought about Weston’s question.
“Since I didn’t know all the information right away, I felt abandoned and betrayed when I found out she let you and Harper stay close, but I was tossed aside.
The woman who I was madly in love with decided I wasn’t important enough to take with her as she went on this revenge quest. Then as I started to track her more closely and see the hardships she purposefully put herself through, it did make me angry.
It would have been so easy to make her the queen of her empire, but she chose to work her way up the ranks in the eyes of her people.
The higher she got, the darker and more calloused she became.
Harper was the one person who got to see the Dax I fell in love with.
Meanwhile, the others only knew Dax, the enforcer for Two Tricks, who I believed was you at the time.
I raged at the fact you did that to her.
It took me a while to figure out you were doing what she asked without question.
This is the point I’m guessing you’re trying to make…
I wouldn’t have been able to do that at that point in my life.
I was so against my father and his criminal ways and how it made him view people as disposable… a means to an end.”
“Dax started out just wanting to avenge her brother,” Wes interjected.
“Then when she figured out everyone believed in Two Tricks, and she was so damn good at this kind of work, it was hard for her to just let go of it. You’re right, I didn’t question her when she asked me to help her.
Never once did I judge her for her choices, the blood she spilled, or the innocents lost in getting her to where she is today.
I knew if I wanted to keep her safe that being top dog was a better place to be, and I could get her there while making sure to watch her back the entire time. ”
Wes grinned at me, shaking his head. “The brat didn’t make it easy and kept things hidden from me, but all I wanted was to support her in any way she’d let me.
There wasn’t a chance in hell I would let her slip through my fingers.
It’s one reason I wanted us to live together.
I never dated anyone, but I let her do what she wanted because she left them in the dust at the end of the day.
I was always by her side, no matter what.
Nothing has changed for me even with these men now being in her life.
I’ll always put Dax first and be what she needs me to be. Can you say the same?”
The tension in the air after Wes spoke was so thick you could cut it.
One thing I’d never do is regret the choices I made to get where I am today.
Wes was right about everything. I was fucking amazing at being a boss bitch in the dark and seedy side of our world, and it kept me safe and warm at night.
Now it was just a matter of whether they all would be as willing as Weston to follow me deeper into its depths as we handle this challenge together, or will they jump ship?