Chapter 13
thirteen
“Break, what’s up, man? Normal people are trying to sleep,” I say without opening my eyes or lifting my head from the pillow. I feel Kelsea shift behind me slightly.
“Bad news, brother. I need you to be fully awake for this.” His tone is serious, and I’m instantly shaken from my hazy dream state.
“Hold on,” I kick the blankets off of me, slipping out of bed carefully so I don’t disturb the little nymph snuggled up with my pillow next to me.
Looking over her beautiful tanned skin, a stark contrast against my black sheets, the curves and swells of her body stir arousal under my skin all over again.
I slip my black running shorts on over my already half-hard dick, wincing at the discomfort, and trudge into the bathroom.
“Ok, shoot. Whats up?” Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I sit on the edge of the tub, bracing for the conversation.
“I figured out why your name is coming up in my intel more often than it should be. The congressman put a fucking hit on you, Everett.” Breaker has never been one to beat around the bush, but the way he drops this bomb knocks the breath from my lungs.
“What the fuck does that mean, Breaker?” I’m wide awake now, adrenaline already setting my veins on fire.
“Like any well-respected politician, he has ties to the cartels. Pick a fucking country, he’s got a contact there.
It seems he reached out to some local gangs and none of them were willing to fuck with him.
So he went global.” The sound of heavy keystrokes comes through the line.
He’s obviously fallen down the cyber rabbit hole because of this.
“How much?” I ask, wondering what kind of price tag Justin’s dear old daddy put on my head.
“Currently, one point five mil.” Silence drags between us at the gravity of the situation.
That’s no small bounty. Obviously, this man knows how to draw interest from contract killers.
How many times has he done this before? Not that it really affects my situation, but the congressman is obviously not new to this game.
“Jesus fucking christ, Jason. Who’d he sell the contract to?” I ask, rubbing my hand down my face as anxiety crawls across my skin.
“If my intel is correct, which it is, I think it’s a crew from Louisiana.
I’m not sure how big their outfit is or what kind of ‘business’ they usually run, but I’m still digging.
I think we need to pay a visit to the congressman before this goes any further.
He’s already put a fucking target on your back.
If there’s nobody to pay the contract out, it won’t be fulfilled.
” I know what he’s insinuating. If the congressman disappears, so does the contract.
“Get me a location for Justin’s dad. Keep digging into the crew that picked up the contract.
I need to know what kind of experience they have, what I should be expecting.
” This shit is way over my head. I thought I got away from contract killing and revenge murders when I left the Corps, but obviously the darkness follows me wherever I go.
Breaker hangs up without another word and I doubt I’ll be getting anymore sleep tonight.
I emerge from the bathroom and find Kelsea still sleeping peacefully in the center of my bed. Her legs are tangled up in my sheets, her dark hair fanned out around her in a messy pile.
God, she is breathtaking. A sinking feeling in my chest tells me I shouldn’t get her mixed up in the mess that is my life, but it’s too late. She’s under my skin, burrowed so fucking deep into my soul that I could never dig her out. Not that I want to.
She stirs softly, her brow furrowing as if she’s in pain.
I know a nightmare is creeping in on her.
I slide my shorts off and slip back under the sheets, needing to feel her skin against mine as I pull her close to me.
I place a soft kiss on her forehead and feel her body relax slightly into my touch.
“It’s okay, Kels. You’re safe. Come back to me, baby,” I whisper into her hair, closing my eyes and breathing her in as the scent of sweet almonds washes over me.
I don’t know if she can actually hear me, but the way she slides her leg over my hip, bringing our bodies flush against each other, tells me some part of her can.
It takes everything I have not to slide inside her soft velvet heat right now.
It would be so easy, my now rock hard cock already nudging her core, begging for entrance.
But I won’t interrupt her sleep. For now, I just run my fingers down her back calmly and let the silence of the early morning lull me back to sleep.
When I wake again, the sun is shining brightly through the window.
Light cuts across Kelsea’s messy hair, exposing the brown, red, and black strands mingled between each other.
My eyes focus on her face and I see her staring back at me, her glacial blue eyes burning into mine.
She’s half smiling, chewing on her bottom lip the way she always does when she’s nervous.
“Good morning,” she whispers, as if speaking will break the spell we’re under.
“Morning, goddess,” I say, invading her space and planting a kiss on her lips as she tries to push me away.
“Hey, wait! Morning breath! At least, let me brush my teeth,” she says against my lips, not trying very hard to pull away from my kiss.
“I don’t care, Kels. Every part of you tastes like fucking heaven.” My voice is gravelly from sleep, and she melts into my touch, finally kissing me back.
We’re lost in each other in a matter of seconds, neither of us caring about oxygen or the rest of the world outside this room. A fist pounding on the door pops our lust bubble and we both snap our gazes to the offending sound.
“What?” I yell to whoever decided they want to die this morning for interrupting this moment.
“HOUSE MEETING!” I hear Rory yell from the hallway, and I turn back to Kelsea with a smirk.
“Oops, looks like we’re busted,” I chuckle, and Kelsea just rolls her eyes at me. She slips out of my hold despite my attempts at dragging her back under the covers.
“Come on, lover boy. We have to tell her. She lives here, too. She deserves to know why my middle of the night screams are coming from your room instead of mine.” I laugh loudly and she gives me a sexy smirk.
Little fucking vixen. Pulling my Foo Fighters t-shirt over her head, she pulls her hair up into a messy bun on top of her head.
Standing at the end of my bed in nothing but my favorite t-shirt and her beautiful smile, I can feel my shaft already growing thicker just looking at her.
I will myself to think of literally anything else.
Grandma, baseball stats, unfinished sketches, anything that will calm my body’s constant reaction to her.
Once I can finally stand, I pull my shorts on and motion for her to take the lead out of the bedroom.
She stares at me wide-eyed as we both realize she has no underwear in here. Well… no usable underwear, at least.
“Damnit, Everett. Now she’s definitely gonna know what happened,” she says, looking around my room for anything she can use to cover her bottom half. She fishes her leggings out from under my bed where they ended up last night and slides them up over her bare ass.
“Babe, if she doesn’t already know what happened last night, then I really didn’t do a good enough job.
I’d be happy to try again. This time, I’ll make sure the entire fucking city knows.
” I pull her to me and whisper against the shell of her ear, eliciting a shiver from her as she leans in to me.
She whimpers as I bite her earlobe gently, and I pull back to see the lustful haze in her eyes.
As if breaking from a spell, her eyes snap open wide and she steps out of my hold.
“None of that, Everett Wayne. You keep your hands to yourself.” She points her finger at me like she’s scolding a child and it’s so fucking adorable I can’t help but laugh.
She strides past me to the door and I smack her ass, a playful giggle spilling from her lips as she opens the door.
“I couldn’t keep my hands to myself, even if I wanted to, goddess.” I make no attempt to whisper. If Rory hears us, then oh well. She’s not stupid. She knows what’s going on.
We walk into the kitchen and find her busying herself scurrying around the kitchen. She’s making scrambled eggs and pancakes as Kelsea and I drop onto the stools at the bar.
“Smells good, Aurora. Is this a celebratory breakfast? Now that we officially have a new niece and nephew to spoil?” Her face softens, and she smiles at the mention of yesterday’s events.
“Oh, I’m so excited to go see them again! I stopped by when I got off work yesterday and they’re seriously the most perfect babies I’ve ever seen!” She gushes over the new infants, and I can’t blame her. I agree.
“Thats because they look like Uncle Ev,” I say, puffing out my chest and smirking. Both ladies roll their eyes at me and scoff.
“Yeah right,” Kelsea says. “Those babies are the mirror image of Elijah, all blue eyes and dark hair. Poor Ember never had a chance.”
“Maybe that means they look like you, babe. I could totally see it,” I joke, pointing out Kelsea’s similarities to the twins.
“Oooooh, babe. Thats disgustingly adorable, Everett. Are we all gonna pretend like Kelsea isn’t wearing your shirt and you aren’t wearing her scratch marks all over your back this morning?
” Aurora gives us both a gotcha smirk and I break out in a full body laugh.
Kelsea's face flushes red in embarrassment and her eyes go wide as she leans back in the chair, looking at my back.
“Oh my god,” her hand flies up to cover her cherry red cheeks, and I just laugh harder.
“Damn, Aurora. Just call us out like that, why don’t ya?” I snag a pancake off the top of the stack she's building and take a bite. I’m not afraid of telling her or anybody else. I lean back in my chair, letting Kelsea take the lead on this one.
“Something I need to know, children?” Rory asks, grinning at us over the rim of her coffee cup.
“Everett and I -” Kelsea starts but gets cut off.
“AH HA! I KNEW IT!” Aurora says, pointing a finger at Kelsea with a huge smile.
“You knew what?! I didn’t even say anything, bitch!” Kelsea snaps back, playfully bantering with her.
“Oh, but I know what you were gonna say, you little slut!” Rory yells back, and I sit up straight in my chair.
“Hey hey hey, there’s no need for all that -” I attempt to defend Kelsea from Rory’s harsh words, but I’m cut off.
“Stay out of this, honey.” Kelsea says sweetly, humor dancing in her eyes, and I realize there’s some kind of secret girl conversation going on in front of me I’m totally oblivious to.
But I have to admit, the way Kelsea calls me honey does things to my heart that I really don’t expect.
“Look Rory, just because I got to see where every single one of those delicious tattoos leads doesn’t mean you have to be a jealous,” Kelsea shrugs nonchalantly and leans back in her chair, snagging the pancake from my hand and taking a bite.
“Well, aren’t you just a lucky bitch,” Rory says, and both girls dissolve into a fit of laughter. I stare at them, so incredibly confused.
“What the fuck just happened?” I ask, my eyes darting back and forth between the two girls.
“Rory’s thrilled for us, Ev,” Kelsea says with a sincere smile, and I relax in my seat.
“Oh… okay… all of us here who don’t speak girly talk are grateful for the translation.” I give her a mock salute and look at Rory for reassurance.
“I really am. If this is what the two of you want, then I’m happy for you. It’s not like I haven’t seen you making googly eyes at her when she’s not looking for the past year, Everett. You’re not exactly subtle.” Now it’s my turn to be embarrassed as Rory rats me out.
“Excuse me, isn’t it some kind of girl code that you’re not supposed to tell each other’s secrets? Jeez, Rory.” I lean my elbows on the bar but see the smile on Kelsea’s face out of the corner of my eye.
“Luckily for me, you’re not a girl, Everett.
” She plops the last pancake onto the stack and slides the plate across the counter.
It’s definitely a relief to know Rory is cool with the shift in dynamics because I like her living here.
She’s become a great friend. Besides, the family holidays would be really awkward if we didn’t get along.
I take in the scene in front of me. Me, basically living in a damn sorority house with these two girls conspiring against me. I never thought I’d see the day.