Timber (Hades, #4)

by Tate James

"What do you want, dickhead? I don't have time for bullshit right now," Lucas answered, and I snorted a laugh. "Um, it's me," I replied, grinning. "Zed gave me his phone to call." "Fuck, sorry, Hayden," Lucas groaned. "I always have time for you."

"So he's still alive," Lucas commented. "Cass owes me fifty bucks. How are you doing, Hayden? How's your shoulder?"

"Maxine? But... she's dead. Isn't she?" "Not as recently as an hour ago," Demi replied. "According to my source, her parents pulled her from life support two weeks ago, but she didn't die like expected. Then this morning, she woke up." Holy. Shit. Maxine was alive? I guess miracles did happen.

Ffs Tate! At least 5 people back from the dead now lmao

But those moments we shared over coffee or in the shower, when I let my tightly wound cage of functioning anxiety soften? They scared the hell out of me. I'd had enough of being scared to last me seven lifetimes, so I took the mature approach and just avoided the crap out of him when I could.

I was relieved to see the worst of my cuts and bruises had healed. With a bit of makeup, and not moving my left shoulder, no one would be the wiser.

Thinking for a moment, he then sketched out a design similar to the Darling logo inked on his chest. And on Lucas's too. "He had me make one for him, too, when I got yours tattooed. He was going to ask you to get it done." He handed me the paper, and I scowled at it.

"Cass can cover it up with something," Zed suggested. I sighed and let my T-shirt drop again. "Yeah. Doesn't matter, anyway. It's just skin." "Bullshit," he growled. "It's your skin. It fucking matters."

"You and me?" I repeated, and he jerked a nod. "We're Hades and Zed. Dynamic Duo." I offered a sly grin. "Same as always, Zeddy Bear. We're the tightest team in crime since Bonnie and Clyde." A slow smile spread over his face, and relief sagged his shoulders. "Without their tragic ending, please." "Agreed." I gave a small laugh.

"Fucking hell, Dare. This is why you should have run it past me first; I could have mapped it out." I gave a one-shouldered shrug, lifting a brow. "Yeah, well, I had a sneaking suspicion you were hiding something from me, and it made me paranoid. Turns out I was right." He winced. "Fair call."

"Anyway, I'll tell you what I'm thinking, and you can poke holes in it until we come up with something better. Yes?" I tossed my cleaning cloth aside, focusing on Zed.

"Boss," Zed murmured as I stopped in front of him. "You're back." I shot him a smirk. "Damn right, I am."

When he'd gone to visit her earlier in the week per my request, she'd refused to see him, and Rex backed her up on it. Some shit about not forcing her to do anything she didn't want to do, which was a load of horseshit from him.

"That reminds me," Zed spoke up. "I've had a few calls from Steele." I shifted in my seat to give him a narrow-eyed look over my shoulder. "What the fuck does he want?" Zed shrugged. "Testing the waters, was my guess. Offering assistance if we need it." "Fuck that," I muttered, still salty over their failure to keep Seph safe. Of course, it was just as much my own fault, but it was easier to lay the blame at someone else's feet.

Zed and Steele had history, with Zed having put Steele through a season of sniper training years ago. I knew he had a small soft spot for the former Reaper.

Lucas shot Zed a suspicious glare, then fell into step beside me as I moved inside the club. "I don't ever know when he's being sarcastic," he admitted. "Should I hit him anyway?" I swallowed a laugh. "If in doubt, always err on the side of violence."

"Hey brat," I whispered when she continued clinging and crying. "I thought you would’ve been happy to get a break from me." Seph gasped, pulling away from me with a stricken look on her face. "How could you even think that? Dare, I thought you were dead! Those bastards let me think you were dead for nearly three weeks, and the last thing I had said to you was some bitchy crap about how you didn't care about me."

"Hades, baby! My favorite niece!" He spread his arms, showing off dark circles under his armpits, and his breath wheezed. I leveled him with my ice-cold Hades glare. "Touch me and I'll castrate you, Rex. What the fuck were you doing down there?"

"Stop it," Demi snapped, smacking his arm with the back of her hand. "Just sit there and keep your trap shut." Rex shot an amused look at his ex-wife and turned back to me with a small grin.

I needed to thank Demi for putting that bag of clothes and makeup together for me because no one else would have done it, even with Zed's guidance.

"That's right," Zed answered for me. "Until Chase and his associates have been handled, we don't feel like you're safe." Seph's eyes rounded, but she nodded. "Okay. Yeah, I understand. Whatever it takes."

"I'll go with you, Seph. This isn't a conversation for me, either." Surprisingly, Seph went without complaint, and I stared after her in shock. Who the hell was that sweet, understanding girl, and what had she done with my snarling, sarcastic sister?

"Why do you want back in? You've got a good thing going with the garage." Rex scoffed. "You know why. I'm not a young man anymore, Hades, and I've got my boys to think of. Only an idiot doesn't seek shelter in a storm, and girl, you're the storm. What safer place than in the eye of it?"

Glancing down to the main bar, I spotted Seph and Demi sitting together, giggling about something. It gave me a weird, unfamiliar kind of warmth to watch them together. Circumstances could definitely have been better, but I was glad Seph was spending so much time with Demi.

So I finished my drink, then led the way downstairs with Zed and Lucas flanking me like my own personal guardian angels. Or devils.

"If you or your brothers lay a single finger on my little sister... if you even look at her the wrong way... I will personally take a knife to your balls and turn them into a Christmas ornament. Then I'll cut your chest open, reach into the cavity, and rip your heart right out to play tennis with." I flashed another toothy grin. "Clear?"

"I'm getting better, I promise. Every day I feel more like myself." He turned his face, pressing a soft kiss to my palm. "No one expects you to be the same, babe. However long you need, we'll be here. All three of us."

Lucas was a part of me, tightly woven into my heart. I wouldn't be whole until I could be totally at ease with all three of my soulmates. That, I knew for sure.

That damaged version of me was on mute, not deleted. She wasn't ready.

"Come home to me, Grumpy Cat. I miss you." I really did. Cass was the missing link in our little quartet, and I felt his absence like a physical thing. "I miss you too, Angel," he replied, his tone low and rough. "I'll be home soon."

"He made me come." Those words were like poison, and my chest constricted with dread. "He would trick me while I was out of my mind. He pretended to be you..."

"I'll fucking murder him," he swore, his voice threaded with pure violence. "I'll gut him slowly with a blunt knife and make him choke on his own entrails. I'll—" "No," I cut him off, "you won't. He's mine to punish." There wasn't a single note of weakness or uncertainty in that statement, just cold determination.

Zed, of all people, knew how serious I was about that too. Chase would get what was coming to him, and it'd be at my hand. When he eventually met his maker, there would be no question who had sent him there. Painfully.

Fuck the noise, I missed my Grumpy Cat.

"Did he explain it all to you?" I asked when I'd swallowed. Cass shook his head. "I wasn't interested in hearing it. You were the only one he needed to explain himself to, and I trusted you to make the right call."

"In my apartment," he admitted after a moment's silence, "after I made you come six times back to back and you passed out cold. You already had bruises and scrapes all over that gorgeous skin; one extra mark went totally unnoticed." A deep shudder ran though me at the dark, possessiveness in his tone. In his eyes. He wasn't sorry at all. And I was weirdly more turned on than furious about it.

He heaved a long exhale, tipping his head to the side as he stared back at me. "Because when you were lying there in my bed, naked and so fucking serene... I knew that you were my whole reason for existing. My whole damn reason. Then I started thinking about all your enemies, all the threats to your empire, and the bastards who would constantly be challenging the woman in criminal power. I sat there for hours, letting the worst scenarios play out in my mind, and I just..." He trailed off with a frustrated head shake. "I had to do something to keep you safe. Even if you didn't know about it."

"That's how you found me at the lookout that night?" He nodded. "I don't check it constantly. You're not my fucking pet. It's only for emergencies. Like if you were abducted by your psychotic, obsessed, serial killer ex."

Did I? That chip, no matter how sneaky inserting it had been, had saved my ass. Big time. As much as I liked to think I'd escaped Chase all on my own, I was also sane enough to know that if Zed hadn't showed up when he had... if Cass hadn't picked me up in that helicopter... I'd have never made it out.

Did I want the tracker removed? No. Not really. It kind of made me feel safe knowing Cass could find me anywhere. Or almost anywhere. Bad luck that Chase had created a faraday cage within his house to block the signal.

He motioned for me to spin around, then tugged his fingers through my hair, weaving it into a messy braid and securing it with my hair tie. "Perfect," he murmured before pressing a soft kiss to my temple. "Let's go before one of these other assholes wakes up and wants to tag along."

Glass shattered, the sound of it jarring in the silent night air, but no alarms sounded. "Told you," Cass chuckled, reaching through the broken window to unlock the door. "Mind your feet on the glass."

Cute

"What the fuck," I muttered when we came out into the living room. Or what was supposed to be the living room. There was no furniture, but every available surface—walls, floor, windows, even the ceiling—was covered in text. Jagged, often illegible handwriting. Random words and sentence fragments, but over and over... Darling. On one wall, from floor to ceiling, the Darling logo that Zed had designed was painted. On closer inspection, though, I got a chilling feeling that it wasn't paint.

"God damn," I muttered. "You really do know the way to a girl's heat, Saint." He took a step closer, curling my fingers around the explosive device, then kissed my knuckles. "I'd burn the whole fucking world down for you, Angel." Ugh. Be still my heart.

"Do I know how to fucking set them?" I muttered, outraged. "How dare you?" Humming a happy tune, I wandered through Chase's mostly empty mansion, placing and activating explosive devices as I went. I didn't want to go overkill and waste them. I knew firsthand how expensive the bastards were. But I sure as fuck wanted to ensure the whole house was little more than rubble when we were done.

I nodded, then sniffed the air. "Is that gas?" His smirk was pure evil. "It seemed fitting."

"Nothing. Just..." Butterflies were going crazy inside me, and for the first time since my arrest, I felt totally alive. "Kiss me." Cass didn't hesitate, gripping the back of my neck and crushing his mouth to mine in a rough, demanding kiss that flooded me with desire. His teeth scraped my lower lip, tugging playfully, and I groaned. Then pressed the detonator button.

Sixteen remote explosive devices all triggered simultaneously, igniting the gas we'd left filling the house. The collective sound was deafening, and for a moment we stood there, gaping at the fireball that had just shot up into the night sky. Then our lips were crashing back together in a desperate kiss.

There was no doubt in my mind I wanted him to continue. And I trusted him. Cass read my body better than anyone.

"Red," he groaned as he stroked me through my panties, "you're such a goddess. Blowing shit up gets you hot, huh?"

I gave a slightly nervous laugh, riding the razor edge of arousal and trauma while Cass blanketed me with his huge frame. "Violence and destruction," I murmured back, jerking slightly as his fingers slipped beneath the fabric of my panties and stroked me deeper. "It's part of our love language, isn't it?"