17. Aeris
Aeris
“It’s done,” Fletcher muttered. “But you need to be more careful. Messing with those guys is a death sentence.”
I pressed myself against his side, dropping my lips to his ear. “I’m always careful.”
“Red …” he hissed, his fingers digging into my thigh. “You’re going to end up as fish food.”
“I know what I’m doing.” I said it with so much confidence I had no choice but to believe it.
“You’ve asked me to mess with the Russians. Clearly you don’t know what you’re doing,” he said, breath feathering against my cheek with how close we sat together.
To the room it looked intimate, just two strangers getting to know each other at a club. In reality, Fletcher was here to give me information, secrets he’d pulled from low-level gangbangers, dealers, and anyone clawing their way up the Underworld food chain.
With his sandy blond hair and big, expressive eyes like the colour of the ocean, he had this boy-next-door look that made him approachable. Add his warm, slightly nervous smile, and he could make almost anyone talk.
But mostly, he was my fixer, the person I went to when I needed just about anything.
If something was broken, he could repair it.
If it needed replacing, he could make something new.
If something needed burying, it would stay buried.
And if I needed him to deal with the Russians, he’d figure it out because he was the most resourceful person I knew.
We’d been friends for as long as I could remember, and the only person Selene had never managed to use against me. Mostly because he was my secret, my only friend that knew of my past. More so because he was part of it.
He was the one that’d helped me try and talk to Mira when we found her.
He was the one that mourned her almost as much as I did when she refused to come home.
“What do you mean it isn’t enough?”
Fletcher had been on edge since Bradley interrupted us.
He usually disappeared at the first sign things might turn, and sometimes I wouldn’t see him again for weeks.
Months, if it got bad enough. He survived because he knew when to disappear until the dust settled.
But when it really mattered, like when I lost Mira, he was there.
“You know I love you, but …” His eyes darted over my shoulder, brows pulling together before he stiffened. “Uh … hey … I think that guy’s watching us.”
I turned, frozen as my gaze met his. Caden sat across the room, tucked in a corner behind a table.
Shit. He wasn’t supposed to be here. Not yet.
Caden didn’t move, his eyes flicking to Fletcher in a silent challenge before returning to me.
“Don’t worry, he’s a friend,” I lied, keeping my expression neutral as I slowly rose to my feet. I couldn’t afford Caden’s focus shifting, especially not to Fletcher. I needed to keep it on me. “See you around, Fletch.”
“Red …” he whispered, but I was already moving.
Caden lounged back, his eyes sharp even as his face was its usual stoic. He didn’t move when I sat beside him, accidentally knocking the table as I pressed my thigh against his.
“Prince,” I greeted with a strained smile. “It’s starting to feel like you’re stalking me.”
Bradley turning up was one thing, but Caden could become a serious problem. I was expecting Caden to track me down sooner rather than later, but not now. Not here.
Detective Kane was supposed to give me a warning.
Frustration simmered, because I thought I was being careful. Especially when it came to risking Fletcher.
“I thought I told you to stay out of trouble.”
“But it’s so much more fun,” I said lightly, hoping he’d forget Fletcher’s existence if I could distract him long enough. “Is that the reason you’ve interrupted my date?”
“I wouldn’t call that a date,” he said, his voice dropping an octave.
“You’re right. I don’t date.” Caden’s eyes darkened as I leaned forward, closing the space between us until I straddled his legs, leaving him nothing else to focus on but me. “I only fuck.”
He finally smirked, revealing a single dimple in his cheek before it disappeared.
“Why are you here?” I asked, hoping Fletcher had enough time to sneak out. “I doubt it’s to come watch me flirt with random men.” I threaded my fingers through his thick hair, leaning so close our lips almost touched. “And we both know you don’t want me.” A pause. “Or do you?” I teased.
“You’re playing a dangerous fucking game,” he said quietly, his breath brushing my ear when he turned his head. “Maybe I should just take you out back, fuck you against the wall … let the cold pierce your spine and take your breath away, let the brick scratch your skin.”
My brain took a second to react, heat rolling through me at his unexpected words. It took a lot to get a reaction out of Caden, and each one felt like a small victory. But this … this was different. He’d never engaged with my flirting before.
“You like a little pain with your sex, right? Or maybe I’ll just bend you over, right here, right now, so everyone can watch you take my cock like the bad girl you are.
” Caden’s grip tightened slightly on my thighs, just enough to hold me in place.
“Maybe that’s what you want,” he continued with a deep growl.
“For me to break you. Make you lose this game you’re so determined to play. ”
Holy shit.
“Speechless? Now that’s a first.” One hand came up to the back of my neck, large enough to nearly encircle my throat. “Now … Want to tell me why Peckham Crowns? They can barely string a fucking sentence together.”
Ah, that’s why he’s here.
I licked along my bottom lip, Caden’s eyes tracing the movement.
“You seem confident in that accusation.” I was acutely aware of how close he was, the heat from his chest seeping into mine.
But he didn’t pull back, if anything, he seemed to pull me closer.
“If all you wanted was another kiss,” I said, my voice rougher than I intended, “you could’ve just asked. ”
His jaw tightened, the muscle feathering beneath his skin. But there was something else there too. Just a flicker of desire.
Or maybe I was delusional.
“Selling out my route to a rival? You’ve really fucked up, Tempest.”
“Tempest?” I echoed, trying to swallow past the slight threat that vibrated the air between us. Tension pulled tight, the room fading until it was just him and me. “What happened to sweetheart?”
The bass dulled, the crowd blurring as everything else slipped out of focus.
“You don’t seem very sweet.” His smile was cruel. “No, you’re more like a storm. Beautiful, destructive, and seemingly impossible to stop once you fucking start.”
“Ah, so you think I’m beautiful?” I laughed, unable to hold it back.
“Even so, we both know I’m far more valuable alive than dead.
” It was the only reason he hadn’t already killed me.
But there was going to be a limit, and I had to walk the edge without stepping over.
Just close enough to steer him in the direction I needed, but never close enough to make him pull the trigger.
“Is that why you did it? Because you think you’re untouchable?”
“You weren’t taking me seriously.”
His brows raised with an actual emotion. “You want to be taken seriously?”
“I want an audience with the Beast.”
His gaze locked onto mine, blue so pale they didn’t look real. “Why?”
“That’s a conversation for him,” I replied cooly. “Not his dog.”
I knew I was provoking him, but for some reason I just couldn’t help myself. Any rational person would be terrified, especially with a man with a reputation such as Caden’s. But, for some reason, I wasn’t.
I wanted to push him, to see the muscle in his jaw tick when he fought for control, to catch that brief, unguarded dimple when he almost smiled.
It was reckless … and yet his reactions made me feel something other than the fucking void where my soul should have been.
Most days I felt detached from my own pulse, moving through life like a voiceless puppet.
But with him, I felt alive. Even if that was because he could easily take my life.
Sometimes I wondered if I wanted him to try.
Caden dipped his head closer, face hovering close to mine. “We don’t work with snakes.”
I ignored the way my stomach dropped, but if he thought this was over, he was about to be in for a surprise. “Do you really think you have a choice?”
Something dark flickered across his expression, and then his gaze shifted over my shoulder. I started to turn, to see what had caught his attention when his hands locked on my waist, twisting me easily until my back pressed against his chest.
Renley stood across the room, mismatched eyes watching us.
Shit. I didn’t want this to happen, to give Selene more of an excuse to use me this way.
“Caden …” I began, only for one hand to fist my hair at the scalp, keeping me in place while the other pressed against my thigh.
“Keep pushing, Tempest,” he growled, taking back the control I’d lost the moment I saw Renley. That tension between us coiled tight as a wire, winding higher and higher until it felt like it encircled my throat. But for once, it didn’t suffocate me.
My heart was racing, but I couldn’t back down.
“Or what?”