Chapter 35
Zane
“How are you doing, man?” I ask Gage.
After the activities in the living room, the rest of them passed out. So, I tucked Holden onto the couch with Ryder and brought Gage outside since we are the only ones still awake. I haven’t had a chance to talk to him since everything happened with his dad, and I want to check on him.
“It’s weird, ya know?” he answers after a minute. “That man didn’t even try to hide that he hated me growing up. But it still hurts that he would shoot me in cold blood.”
I nod. It makes sense. “What about everything else?”
“Are you asking if I’m okay with the fact you shot my dad?”
I shrug. “Sort of.” I didn’t even think about what it would do to Gage when I pulled that trigger; my only thought was saving Gage.
“You did what you had to do. I don’t care.” He looks off into the distance. “I should care, right?”
When Gage listed off everything his dad did to him, I saw fucking red. Even though he was pissed, you could still hear the hurt in his voice. That made it worse. “You should feel whatever you want, Gage. We support you no matter what.”
“Thanks, man,” Gage says, still staring into space.
I let him do whatever he needs to do. He finally turns to me.
“You know this is why I say you have daddy vibes, right?” he jokes.
That was Gage’s natural defense to cover up how he felt most of the time.
But he also knows when he needs to be serious. It’s a damn good balance.
I roll my eyes heavenward. “Will you ever let that go?”
“Let me call you daddy one time, and I will.”
I shake my head. “Never going to happen.”
“Come on,” he says, turning the full force of those dimples on me. “One time.”
“No.”
The backdoor opens, and Les steps out, freshly showered. Micah didn’t do too bad with the clothes. Les expected something ridiculous since she made him go.
“Hey, Beautiful,” I greet, pulling her into my lap.
“Hey, Tesoro,” she greets back, snuggling into my chest. Nothing beats this feeling of finally having Les back in my arms. Now I have Ryder and Holden.
Ryder was the biggest surprise, and I can’t tell you how I knew what he needed; I just did.
After we showered that night, we talked.
It took some convincing for him to tell me why he felt he needed what I gave him.
And it made perfect sense. We all need each other in different ways, and that’s why we work so well.
There is more to this group than meets the eye; even I didn’t see it until I was thrust into the middle of them.
“How you feeling, Pretty girl?” Gage asks, grabbing her hand and laying them both on her thigh.
She shrugs. “I feel good.”
“But?” I could feel there is one coming.
“I just want this over,” she says miserably. “He really is trying to take everything from me.”
I thought about what she said last night, and as much as I wanted to argue, she was right. The only way this will end is to rain hell down on Viktor and fucking Jay. “We need to regroup for today. We can set your plan into action tomorrow.”
She slowly looks at me. “You’re willing to do that?”
“It’s what we need to do. The only way to get our lives back is to wipe those two assholes off the fucking map.”
“What about Ryder?” she asks with a lifted brow.
I run my knuckles down her cheek. “Let me handle Ryder.”
Gage snorts, “Please tell me what the hell happened between you two.”
“I took care of him. That’s all your nosy ass needs to know.”
“I’m not nosy. I have an inquiring mind,” Gage defends.
Les laughs. “You’re nosy.”
“Whatever,” Gage huffs.
“Are you pouting, Crazy boy?” I ask.
Gage stands up, marches to the door, then turns around with a grin. “Yes, Daddy.” He cracks up laughing, shutting the door behind him.
“That asshole,” I mutter.
“You don’t like that?” Les asks. “Even a little?”
“No,” I answer automatically.
“Then why did you suck in a breath?” she asks with a sly smile.
“I didn’t.” Did I?
“You so did,” she laughs. “Do you want him to call you just Daddy or Big daddy?”
“Watch it,” I growl, hooking my hands on her ribs.
“Or what about Big daddy Zane?”
That’s it. I lift her smoothly from my lap, twist her so she’s straddling my waist, and tickle the fuck out of her. “Take it back,” I tell her between her gasping laughs and squeals.
“Never!” she laughs, so I tickle harder. “Okay! Okay! I take it back!”
I sit her back on my lap, pushing her hair out of her face. “That’s what I thought.”
“Whatever,” she rolls her eyes. “Daddy.”
Before I can retaliate, Gage practically falls out the backdoor, tripping over his own feet before righting himself, laughing like hell. Ryder steps out behind him with narrowed eyes, with just a towel around his waist.
“I’m sorry,” Gage laughs, but he doesn’t look a bit sorry.
“What did you do now?” Les asks.
“This motherfucker just dumped a bowl of cold water on me while I was in the shower,” Ryder grits out, and I tuck my lips to keep from laughing.
“You looked like you needed to cool down,” Gage says with a straight face, then loses it again.
With a growl, Ryder steps forward. Quick as hell, Gage snatches the towel from Ryder’s waist, then takes off around the house, cackling the whole way. All I can do is shake my head at them. Even I have to admit the shit that happens here sometimes is funny as hell.
Les reaches out and grabs a handful of Ryder’s ass, making him jump two feet in the air. “I’m so jealous of that ass,” she says.
He swats her hand away. “Hands off the merchandise.”
She pouts. “You let Zane touch it.” I can’t hold it anymore; I finally laugh, making him turn those dark eyes on me.
“You want to touch my ass the same way he does, Il mio sole?” Ryder asks with heated eyes.
“Oh,” Les breathes. “Well. Um.”
I laugh again. “What’s the matter, Beautiful?”
“Did Ryder just ask me if I wanted to peg him?” she asks, looking genuinely confused.
Ryder barks a laugh. “That wasn’t my intention.” He palms his cock roughly. “Now that you mention it, though.” Still stroking his cock, he backs into the house, shutting the door behind him.
Her mouth pops open. “What the hell?”
“I have no idea what the fuck just happened,” I laugh.
“You and me both.”
We settle into the chair when Les’ phone rings. She picks it up, swiping it to answer when she sees Micah’s name. She switches to speakerphone. “What’s up?”
“You want the good news or bad news?” he asks without preamble.
“Either one.”
“The front part of the house is a total loss. Ghost said he thinks that’s where the biggest charge was,” he sighs.
“So are the cars parked in the front part of the garage.” Besides Ryder’s Explorer, because we were in it, that meant the cars they drove daily, including Les’ Ferrari and Gage’s Bugatti.
“What about the bikes?” Les asks with a sigh. They loved those damn things.
“Bikes were far enough back. Scratched a little, but otherwise fine.”
Les looks at me with wide eyes. “What about Ryder’s Mustang?” I don’t understand the significance, but it must mean a lot to him from the look on her face.
“Gone,” Micah answers, and Les shuts her eyes. “That part of the house caved in.”
“Damn it,” she whispers. “Give me some good news.”
“The back part of the house is fine besides water damage. Including Holden’s computers.”
That perks her up. “All of them?”
“As far as I can tell, nothing touched them.” So that meant if Holden had been in his office when the blast went off, he would have been fine. I still can’t get a grip on the fact that he almost died yesterday and how that made me feel.
“We need them,” I say.
“What about the potential bugs?” I ask. “We don’t know if they’re attached to his computers somehow.”
“As much as I don’t want to admit this. He’s right,” Micah says reluctantly.
Les snorts a laugh. “There are bug sweepers in his office. Check them because I think the answer to our mole problem is on those computers.”
“Got it.”
“Let me know when you have them, and we can come meet you,” she sighs. “And Micah? It starts tomorrow.”
He chuckles, but it sounds evil. “I’ll let the others know. I can’t fucking wait.” On that note, he hangs up.
I rub Les’ back. “What’s the deal with the Mustang?”
She snuggles back into my chest. “When Ryder was fifteen, he mentioned in front of my dad about that being his dream car. He had posters on his wall and everything of this jet black sixty-seven Ford Mustang Shelby.” She smiles.
“They’re still there. Anyway, on Ryder’s sixteenth birthday, Dad surprised him with one to rebuild because Ryder had been researching how to.
” My heart sinks because I already know what she’s going to say. “That’s the car he just lost.”
I know how close Ryder was to Luca. He was as close to him as his own dad. Losing something like that is going to break Ryder’s fucking heart.
“I don’t know how to tell him,” she says softly.
“I can tell him if you want me to.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I want to,” I kiss her forehead. “Let me take care of it.”
Now I just have to figure out how.
It’s the following day before I find the nerve to tell Ryder about the car.
After breakfast, I pull him outside on the little back patio. “There’s something you need to know.”
Ryder’s brows knit together. “What’s that?”
“When Micah called about the damage to the house, he told us something else.” We already told everyone about the computers and broke the news to Gage about his car. Who the hell spends three million dollars on a car? “Your Mustang is a total loss.”
I watch Ryder’s face closely, and I see when his heart breaks. “Complete loss?”
“I’m sorry, Love,” I say because I don’t know what else to say.
“Luca got me that car,” Ryder says gruffly. “That’s the last thing I had of him.” He rakes a hand down his face. “I was almost done with it. When I was done, I was going to take Les out in it.”
“Les told me about Xander’s car.” It’s the same one except for silver. “I know it’s not the same, but we can see what we can salvage off yours and build another.”