CHAPTER TWELVE
Jett
I open my eyes to someone nudging my shoulder. My head is pressed against something warm and solid. Blade’s chest rises under my cheek. His arm is still around me.
“Hey,” a voice says above my head.
I raise my weapon. “Get back!”
“Jett, it’s me.” Dirk grabs the gun, brows drawn together like he’s trying to make sense of what he’s seeing.
I follow his gaze to me and Blade snuggled on the sofa. Gulp. “Oh. Um.”
“What the hell are you two doing?” Dirk’s brows are pulled together.
I shoot up fast, nearly tripping over the blanket tangled around my legs. “Dirk, Jesus Christ. Where the fuck have you been?”
My brother looks from me to Blade, still passed out, hair sticking up in all directions. “I think you’d better answer my question first.”
I scrub a hand down my face, feeling stubble. “We did the survival game. At the overlook, past the mid-trail, we came across two Feds combing the woods. They were looking for you. We listened from behind a tree. They said something about mercenaries wanting tattoos. Said you weren’t cooperating.”
Dirk curses under his breath and looks toward Hana. She’s standing in the kitchen, gobsmacked with a bottle of water hovering in front of her lips.
“Dirty blond flat top, looks like he hasn’t been laid in a decade?” he asks.
“Yeah.” My body goes cold.
Dirk’s expression shifts from irritation to something darker. “That’s Agent Reichart.”
“You know him?”
“He’s been harassing me for weeks,” Dirk mutters, taking a seat. “He and his dick partner keep asking about some mercenary ring, people marked up a certain way. I told them to shove it. I don’t do gang tats.”
“Dirk!” Blade finally wakes up and launches himself at my brother. “We were fucking worried about you.”
The way they hug, and then Dirk’s eyes flying to me, I can tell he smells my cologne on Blade. Or something more.
“I’m good, man.” Dirk grips Blade’s shirt. “Hana, give me a minute. Blade, can I talk to you a sec?”
Blade steps back, alarmed at the tone. “Sure.”
Dirk practically drags Blade to his bedroom. He slams the door, but the cabin is small and my brother is larger than life. His voice carries.
Still, I move closer and listen in the hallway.
“What’s going on with you and my brother?” Dirk asks in a low and tense voice.
“Nothing,” Blade shoots out quickly. Too quickly.
Dirk hesitates. “Don’t nothing me. My brother isn’t some fuck toy for you to get over your loneliness.”
“I said it’s nothing,” Blade snaps. Then softer with regret, he adds, “You know what I like. And your little brother isn’t it.”
The words punch through my chest like buckshot. A lie, sure. But he’s so damn good at it. Is he playing me?
“Stay away from him. You don’t want me on your bad side,” Dirk says in a voice I’ve not heard before.
“Good night, Hana,” I say and stalk toward my bedroom before I hear Blade say something else that will make me want to throw up.
My hands are shaking when I shut the door. I sit on the edge of the bed, elbows on my knees, trying to breathe.
Nothing. Blade told my brother I mean nothing to him.
The door creaks open a few minutes later. Blade stands there, jaw tight, guilt swimming in his blue eyes.
“I heard,” I say.
“Jett—”
“You can’t tell your best friend what you feel about me?” My voice comes out choked.
“Dirk knows me as some heartless manwhore. You heard him. He will strangle me if he thinks I’m corrupting you. I can’t... I can’t lose him as a friend if he won’t accept you and me together.”
“That really stings.”
“You’re my partner. We took an oath. But Dirk is my rock. I can’t lose him.”
“I thought I was your rock.” I hate how vulnerable I sound.
His silence hurts worse than anything else he could say.
“I was just a good time, then?” I ask. “Just for this weekend?”
He nods slowly, like it kills him to admit it. “You wanted to know what it was like. You’re figuring shit out. And I needed comfort.”
I bark out a laugh that sounds too much like a sob.
“That may have been what I agreed to on Wednesday night. But now that I’ve had a taste of you, I’m not ready to walk away.” I grab his shirt and pull him down to my mouth.
I roughly kiss Blade, desperate to feel wanted again.
His hands hover at my waist before he pushes me back gently. “Don’t,” he whispers. “Not after that warning from your brother.”
Then he turns and walks out of the bedroom.
The ugly sound that leaves my throat makes me cringe. Anger and heartbreak tangle in my chest. I follow him down the hall, ready to tell my brother to take his warning and shove it up his ass. How dare he make someone choose between him and me.
But a gunshot loudly cracks the air. I take off and skid to a stop, bumping into Blade, who stands in the shadow of the living room.
That Fed Reichart has my brother Dirk pinned to the floor with a gun to his head. Hana is struggling against the other Fed being dragged back into Dirk’s bedroom.
“Want to watch your woman be raped by both of us?” Reichart nudges the gun into Dirk’s temple. “Talk. I want names and credit card numbers. I know you’re doing those tats.”
“Fuck you, I’m not,” Dirk grinds out. “Get one of your hackers to floss my ass for my business records. I’m clean. No gangs.”
“Your little brother is a tracker for the Irish Mob. You telling me you ain’t tatting up those micks?”
“Is it me you want?” I say, pushing into the living room with my gun lowered. “You can have me.”
“No!” Blade says, shoving me behind him. “You two must be really stupid or desperate.”
That gets Reichart’s attention, and when he sneers at Blade, about to reply, Dirk pulls a knife from his boot and shoves Reichart onto his back.
Holding the serrated edge to his neck, he says, “If your partner touches my woman, we will not only kill you, but I’ll find your wives and kill them, too.”
Reichart’s jaw ticks. Dirk shifts slightly, taking advantage of the mindfuck my brother laid on the guy to steal his focus. My pulse is pounding so hard, something inside me snaps.
I launch, surprising Reichart. But he’s fast and turns his gun back to Dirk, ready to shoot. I pull the trigger first. Once, then twice. When the other agent flies out of the bedroom, I ice him, too. With both guys dead on the floor, Dirk runs to check on Hana.
Blade just stares at me, blinking. I just killed two men in front of him. Something he’s never seen.
My heart’s hammering as the world tilts, but my voice is steady when I say, “They weren’t taking my brother.”