Chapter Seventeen
Seventeen
Keys sat on the edge of the bed and pushed back Lyric’s hair.
He’d taken care of her, given her a bath even though she was half-asleep, gotten her into her pajamas and tucked her under the covers.
She didn’t even question why he put her in pajamas when he preferred she slept naked.
That was just a sign of how tired she was.
“Gotta go, baby. I want you right here in this bed. Sleep as much as you can. We’ve got the thing with Rampage tonight, and it isn’t going to be so fun, not like the party with Trinity.
” He made the announcement as matter-of-factly as possible.
This was going to be the first real test of how she would handle his absence when he couldn’t tell her what he was doing.
Lyric caught his arm, the sleepy, sated look disappearing to be replaced by alarm. “Where are you going?”
“It’s club business, Wildfire. Can’t tell you exactly. Torpedo Ink runs two teams. We get the call, we answer.”
She tried to sit, but he kept his palm, fingers splayed wide, on her belly, preventing the movement.
“That’s why you didn’t really drink. You sipped that one beer a couple of times, but you didn’t even finish the can. You knew you were leaving tonight.” There was a note of accusation in her tone. And hurt.
Keys didn’t like the hurt. Accusation, yes, she had every right to question how he handled things, but that little note of hurt caught at him. He brought her hand to his chest, ignoring the way she tensed up as though she might pull away.
“I wanted you to have fun tonight. To get to know all the women and see that the club is a family that you’re now part of.
I wanted you to get the chance to realize they accept me when I’m different.
They don’t judge. They let everyone be who they are.
That was also one of the reasons I wanted you to stay and observe how kinky a party can get. ”
“You loved being there.”
“Yeah, I like kink. I’ve never hidden that from you.
I like dirty and rough. Again, Wildfire, I’ve always been up front about who and what I am.
But you’re missing the point. Every person there is accepted and not judged, no matter what their needs or desires are.
We’re a family, maybe strange and different, but you needed to see that strange and different is our normal. ”
A faint smile touched her mouth. “Which am I? Strange or different?”
He didn’t smile back because his heart ached.
He actually hurt with overwhelming emotion.
He pressed her hand tightly over his heart.
He didn’t do emotion all that well. “You’re a fucking miracle is what you are.
A treasure beyond any price. You’re the most beautiful woman in the world to me, and that means inside and out.
I have no idea what I did to earn you, but sometimes, when you’re sleeping, I just watch you.
I always ask myself how I managed to be with someone like you.
I’ll never deserve you, but I’ll always keep trying. ”
Her green eyes went liquid. “Keys, don’t think like that. It’s beautiful, but you’re my particular miracle. I have no idea what you see in me. I’m so very thankful you do see me. All the things you said about me apply to you for me.”
He flashed his grin at her when there was a lump in his throat and a strange burning behind his eyes. “Babe, that’s so fucking convoluted, I’m not sure it made any sense.”
She burst out laughing, dispelling the rising tension, just as he’d hoped. He felt far too much emotion when he was with her, and he needed to be 100 percent monster for the next few hours.
Her smile faded. “Are you certain I can’t go with you?”
“Yeah, baby, but you’ll be fine. I’ve got a couple of friends looking after you. If you get any visitors, they’ll take care of them.”
“Silly man. I wasn’t worried about myself. You get into trouble all the time, Keys. You might need me to get you out of it.”
She meant it. That was the thing about Lyric. She gave him hope and faith and didn’t have any idea she was doing it. He was a fucking assassin, for fuck’s sake, and she wanted to look after him. Have his back. She had no idea what that did to him.
“This time I’ve got an entire team with me, Wildfire. Nothing is going to happen to me.”
Her green eyes moved over his face, examining him slowly, inch by inch. Seeing too much because she always did. “An entire team? You’re definitely heading into danger. I could sit on a rooftop with a rifle.”
“You don’t like guns, baby.” Just remembering the state she’d been in when she’d shot Waylon Burrows, keeping her promise to him, tore at his heart. He never wanted to see her like that again, yet here she was, offering to shoot someone to save him.
“I’d like a gun if it saved your life.”
“I love you.” It just slipped out. It wasn’t like he hadn’t said it to her, but it felt different being torn out of him.
He hadn’t planned on proclaiming it so fiercely, but he just blurted the declaration out.
He got a reaction he should have expected.
She beamed. Her smile was so beautiful, he leaned down and brushed his mouth over hers.
“Be good for me, Wildfire. I have to be able to focus completely on what I’m doing. I can’t be worried that you’ll have a panic attack and leave me. I need to know that if you can’t sleep, you’ll take a long bath, curl up with a good book and stay inside for me. I need that, Lyric.”
“Then you have it, Keys. I want you to come home to me. Don’t think about me until you’re finished doing whatever it is, and then think, She’s home waiting, because I will be.”
His heart lurched. “I’ll be back in time for the party with the Rampage club.
This party will be completely different because we’re looking for traitors.
It really will look more like a barbecue.
You think about what you want to wear—something that covers you.
No wild sex this time, no matter how much you beg. At least not until we’re home.”
That bought him her laughter. He wanted more because the fright was fading from her eyes to be replaced by amusement.
“I’m serious, woman. You keep your hands to yourself tonight.”
More laughter. Beautiful, perfect notes he’d play when he boarded a private jet and made his way to Los Angeles, where Lana, Alena, Preacher and Ink waited for Steele, Keys, Master, Player, Maestro, Rock and Code.
It was going to be a very long night. He’d partied until one in the morning and made certain he was in front of the cameras they had in the clubhouse.
Others could testify he was outside a great deal of the time.
They only had a few hours to complete the mission. He would have to be back in Caspar by seven that evening to make his appearance at the barbecue. He kissed her thoroughly, pouring love down her throat, and then abruptly stood.
“Mean what I say, Wildfire. Be here. Need that from you.”
“Mean what I say, Wolfman, I’ll be here,” she reiterated.
He walked out and didn’t look back, finding that was the only way he could leave her.
Keys looked up at the tall skyscraper, the one owned by the Declan and Co.
Corporation. Miles, Nolan, Owen and Leo were the “and company.” Miles might be in prison, but he was listed as a partner, just as the others were.
Declan was president and CEO of the corporation.
Not that Code could find much on what the corporation actually did that was legitimate.
He didn’t understand how they hadn’t been investigated yet.
Mostly, they made huge profits from their underground casinos and shaking down every business in town.
Declan and Co. Corporation had their hand in every profitable pie there was.
They were in bed with organized crime and powerful enough not to be swallowed up.
Power corrupted. Keys had learned that at a very young age.
Sorbacov had craved power, and the more he’d gotten, the more he’d wanted.
He never had enough. He had no desire to run his country; he wanted to run those who did.
And he succeeded. People like Declan and his four friends woke the monster in Keys.
The way they felt entitled to take whatever they wanted—or who they wanted—without consequences.
They’d never been held accountable because there was no one who could touch them—or so they thought.
It hadn’t taken Lana and Alena much time before they met and were invited to a party being thrown by Owen, Nolan and Leo at the penthouse.
The two women were experts at getting noticed, playing their parts perfectly.
Two rich women with their own company. Code had built their images over time, and anyone researching would buy into their cover story.
They’d used it on the Ghosts successfully, and even after taking down their underground casino, that cover was still intact.
They hadn’t looked guilty. They’d fled a fire and the attack someone else orchestrated against the Ghosts.
They were beautiful. They wore designer clothes and shoes as if those clothes had been made for them.
The jewelry was understated unless you knew what you were looking for, and then anyone seeing them would know they each wore a fortune.
They’d been trained in the art of seduction from the time they were very young, and every single movement, every step, the tones they used, everything about them was irresistible.
The three members of the Declan and Co. Corporation were no exception.