15. Dax
DAX
Sleep had been awful. My mind plagued me with scenario after scenario that I failed and lost them all.
It wasn’t just the bomb, either. No, my mind took great delight in just tossing out all the wild ideas it could possibly imagine.
A dark shadow with Marco’s voice taunted me, telling me all of this was my fault.
Finally, it had gotten so bad I woke myself up and felt too trapped to stay sleeping with my guys.
When I saw Sprocket on the couch, I knew he was up as I watched him rub his forehead like the weight of the world was stepping on it.
Had I been wrong to ask him and Cam to take the lead?
To me, it made perfect sense knowing how brilliant they both were.
Then combining them would make them unstoppable.
I had every intention of talking to him about it when I climbed onto his lap.
Yet the way he looked at me like he could see right into my fears had me crumbling.
Right now, all I wanted was to not fear falling asleep and get the rest I needed.
I’d done as he suggested and listened to his heart, counting the beats, and soon I was asleep once more.
When I woke up, the sun was well up in the sky, filling the room with sunlight.
My face was buried in Sprocket’s neck as he held me, having placed his body in front of mine.
If something had happened in the night, his body would have shielded me with my back against the couch.
Honestly, I’m not sure anyone would even know I was here with how tucked away I was.
I placed a gentle kiss on his neck right where his pulse was.
“So you’re finally awake,” Sprocket’s husky morning voice commented.
“You didn’t have to stay with me. I’m sure this wasn’t all that comfortable,” I pointed out.
Sprocket nuzzled a kiss on my head. “Little rebel, there isn’t anywhere in the world I’d rather be than right here. I think we both needed each other last night, and I slept far better than I thought with you safe in my arms.”
“Laying it on thick there, aren’t you?” I teased. “I still have nasty morning breath and probably drooled on your neck.”
He shifted back so he could see me better, then surprised me as he kissed the hell out of me. Taking advantage of my gasp to slip his tongue in, he made his point incredibly clear to me. Nothing was going to stop him from doing what he wanted with me.
“Now I can say good morning,” he whispered, followed up with a quick peck. “Sadly, we better get up. I know the others are already downstairs. They let us sleep, though, which was rather generous of them.”
“Hey,” I said, placing a hand on his chest, stalling him from moving. “I want you to know you can tell me no on heading up this shit show with Cam. It should have been your choice, not me forcing you to just because I think it will work.”
Sprocket’s eyes softened as he smiled at me. “God, when you put your mind to figuring something out, you really do learn fast.”
Confused, I scrunched up my brows. “What?”
He just chuckled and kissed my forehead. “Your plan is solid, Dax. No matter how I look at this, it’s going to take us all to pull this off. I think I needed to wrap my head around the concept that you aren’t stepping out of the equation, just adding in new factors to change the variable.”
“Ah… you lost me at math,” I pointed out.
Grinning, Sprocket sat up and pulled me with him so we were facing each other. “You’re not handing over control and walking away from the situation. Instead, you’re building a team that works together beside you to come up with ideas you wouldn’t normally think of.”
“Isn’t that what I said last night?” I questioned, super confused.
“Probably, I was just too in my own head to hear that. All my life, I’ve only ever been good at puzzles and fixing engines.
You’re not the only one in this family with personal things they need to work on,” Sprocket explained, standing and offering me a hand.
“You’re just the only one with an issue that could get you killed so it became the main focus. ”
“Aren’t I lucky,” I muttered as I let him pull me to my feet. “You’re right, though. The only way we’re going to take Marco down is if we use all the tricks we’ve got. Thankfully, I’ve got plenty of them up my sleeve. I just need to find a time to use them.”
Shaking his head, Sprocket tugged me to follow after him as we headed downstairs. The rest of my guys were still in their pajamas, lounging on the couch with coffee. Clearly, we weren’t going to be doing anything fast this morning. Glancing at the clock, I was stunned to see it was almost eleven.
“You let me sleep in this late?” I gasped, clutching my chest as I turned to my guys. “This is an act of true love, isn’t it? Only utterly devoted husbands would cherish their wife enough to let her sleep well into the day, squandering all hope of an early start.”
Eagle twisted to look over the back of the couch just to roll his eyes at me. “Hellcat, you make it sound like we abuse you by expecting someone to be up before nine.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” I countered. “But I still vividly remember all those mornings when you woke me up at six. What the hell could possibly need to be done so goddamn early?” I challenged.
Everyone laughed at my dramatics, not bothering to answer my question.
A mug of coffee appeared in my hands, and I glanced up to find it was Cam.
He dropped a kiss on my head at my smile.
“Good morning, beautiful. If you want to take a seat, I’ll bring over breakfast. Hope you don’t mind we ordered an hour ago, but I kept it warm in the oven. ”
Not needing to be told twice, I headed for the couch and sat next to Wes. He bent down and gave me a good morning kiss on my cheek before licking his thumb and rubbing the side of my mouth. “Only you could look cute with dried drool on your face.”
I gaped at him and snapped my head in Sprocket’s direction. “Seriously?”
He shrugged and sipped his coffee.
“Men,” I muttered as Cam set a tray with my breakfast on it.
They’d gotten me chocolate pancakes with chocolate chips added to it, topped off with whipped cream. Eyeing it all, I looked up at my men. “Now what?”
“What’s wrong?” Void asked, looking confused. “Westy-boy told us it was your favorite.”
“Yeah, when I’ve had a bad day or he had bad news to tell me,” I explained. “So which is it? Or could it be a doubleheader, and there’s bad news, meaning I’m going to have a bad day?”
Wes grabbed the back of my neck and turned me to face him. “You had a rough night, so I was trying to start your day off with something I knew you really enjoyed. Also, since when do I make these for you when I have to tell you bad news?”
“Really? Are you telling me you had no idea the only time you ever made these coincided with shit days and shit news?” It took everything in me not to smile or laugh at the utter confusion on his face.
“No,” he answered with a shake of his head.
“Look, I know the fastest way to get you out of a funk is with food. So I just picked the one I knew we always have the ingredients for and can make fast. Pancakes require things you can find just about anywhere, and they cook fast. It’s not meant to be a doomsday meal. ”
Now I laughed. The look on his face told me he was thinking back through our whole life together and connecting the dots on how I viewed it. Grabbing his face, I pulled him to me and kissed him soundly. “God, I love you.”
“I say we change it up, and you only get pancakes when you’re being good, so maybe I can reinforce this habit,” Wes teased as he swiped some whipped cream and plopped it on my nose. “You’re kind of cute when you laugh, even if it’s at my expense.”
Wiping the cream off my nose, I licked it off my finger nice and slow, humming as I pulled my finger from my mouth. His eyes dilated, and I could see the hunger in them at my actions.
“Yum,” I announced and turned to dig into my meal, leaving Wes to growl at me.
“So much for the good behavior,” Picasso chuckled.
This had all the guys laughing, and for as shitty as my night was, this morning was turning out to be pretty awesome. Let’s just hope no one dared to fuck with it, or I wasn’t going to make their death as quick as our previous guest.
Halfway through my pancakes, I took a breather to drink some coffee and get the day going. “Do we have any plans for the day?”
“No solid plans since you and Sprocket were still sleeping, more like lists of things that need to get done,” Cam informed me. “High on the list is speaking to Mariana. I’ve checked in with her doctors, and they feel she’s well enough for us to come by for a visit.”
“We also found out that one of Diego’s sons worked as an intern for the company and had some interesting paperwork stashed in his desk,” Wes shared.
“I’ve been working on locating him since he didn’t live in the house with his parents.
My guess is they have a similar setup for him like they did for Axel, with an apartment under a dummy corporate name.
If Mariana possibly gives us a clue, that will make this all the easier. ”
Cam shifted uneasily, seeming to disagree with Wes.
“Do you have thoughts on that, Cam?” I asked.
He let out a sigh. “None of you really met or spoke to that woman. She’s broken, and whatever they did to her shattered her spirit to the point where she was upset I wouldn’t kill her.
I feel like we need to focus on just getting her to tell us about Marco.
No matter what, she’s still their mother who’s as much of a victim in all this. ”
He brought up a fair point. Mariana had suffered a whole life of being at the mercy of someone else. First, it was her father, then her brother, and finally her husband, a man I’m fairly sure she didn’t love.
“Let’s plan to do all we can to find the guy on our own and use his mother as a last resort,” I agreed.
“There’s also the matter of handing off the Diego situation to Tommaso,” Sprocket added. “Part of the reason we keep getting turned around is there are two problems that are converging. The more we dig, we find bits and pieces of both, adding to the challenge of what belongs where.”
“Can you tell what relates and what doesn’t?” I questioned.
Sprocket gestured that he was iffy on it, but that also told me he was close.
“Personally, I think the bomber is part of the Diego issue. It was rash, amateur, and way too quick for Marco to pull off, even with connections in the States. Tommaso wants to prove he’s the big dog who doesn’t just follow at your heels.
Have him use whoever this is as an example,” Sprocket said, showing me just how right I was to have him take a bigger role.
“Solid… I like what we’ve got going on so far. Where are we at with Dante and the triplets joining us?”
Void grinned like he was super excited about something. “Ghost and I talked this morning. It seems they’re all in. Oh, and Harper wanted me to tell you they’re back in their apartment.”
“When did you and Ghost become besties?” I demanded, feeling like this was far too dangerous to happen.
“I’m the weapons expert out of the group, so I chatted with him about what our options were.
Wes mentioned they used some unusual things for their jobs, so I wanted to get their thoughts, and Ghost was more than happy to share,” Void explained, then handed over a piece of paper with scribbles on it. “I’ve made a list for you.”
Taking the list, I looked over what he’d written. “Okay, when I was talking about the flame thrower earlier, I was kidding.”
“Just think, little demon, you’ve got a car full of bad guys, and you can’t get to them because of bulletproof glass. The car is still metal and can be heated up like a toaster oven, then pop, out come the people.” The excitement on Void’s face shouldn’t be that adorable, but it was.
Groaning, I raked a hand through my hair, looking over the rest. It was a solid list of many things I’d gotten for them personally. Some were even suggestions I’d made to them over the years they now seemed to have adopted.
“Alright, I’ll reach out to my people as soon as we get back to LA,” I answered. “Just so we’re clear, though. The tank is mine.”
Void scowled at this declaration. “Will you let me ride in it with you?”
“Possibly, but only if you promise not to beg me to shoot the first shell,” I countered.
He stroked his beard as he thought about this. “Can I load the shell?”
Narrowing my eyes, I waited for a beat then nodded. “Those are acceptable terms.”
The smile that lit up Void’s face was priceless.
“You two are fucking weird,” Picasso muttered.
Cognac punched him in the arm. “Like you wouldn’t want to drive around in a tank running over shit and blowing up buildings.”
“No, actually, I don’t want to ride around in a metal death machine that could become an oven doing just what Void explained earlier. Haven’t any of you watched the History Channel?” Picasso argued.
Predictably, they all shook their heads.
“Does watching Saving Private Ryan count?” Eagle asked.
“Hopeless, utterly hopeless,” Picasso muttered, chucking a pillow at his brother’s face. “How are we even related?”
Done with my meal, I got up and stretched my arms over my head, leaning side to side humming with the welcoming burn of knowing I’d been fucked well and good last night. With a happy little sigh, I lowered my arms and found the guys watching me with heated expressions.
“Wow, didn’t know stretching was such a turn-on,” I commented.
Cognac gave me a sly grin. “Oh, it most certainly is, loba, when doing so puts your pretty pussy on display.”
Curious, I lifted my arms, and sure enough, half my pussy peeked out from under the shirt. “Huh, well, that’s good to know so I don’t do that in mixed company.”
“Now why would that be something you need to worry about?” Eagle demanded with an edge to his tone. “You better not be walking around in just a T-shirt with other people around. That just-fucked-and-put-to-bed look is for us and us alone.”
“You say the sweetest things,” I gushed, blowing him a kiss. “Now I’m going to take a shower and get ready for the day. I’ll leave what that will consist of to you guys since I agree all these things are important.”
“I can’t tell what I like better in that shirt… watching her coming or going,” Cam said with mutterings of agreement from the rest.
Damn, these men of mine are good for my ego.
Not that I had a problem with it before, but still, every woman needed compliments like this in their life.