Timber (Hades, #4)

by Tate James

“Do you ever think about how many secrets just go to the grave? Like... how many mysteries we’re forced to simply live with, no fucking answers, because the last person who knew never told anyone?” His voice was cold. Bitter. I totally understood. I nodded. “All the damn time.”

“Death and sex. Your favorite pastimes, huh?” I shrugged because he wasn’t wrong.

I had a pleasant, relaxed buzz going, and if Lucas had asked me to take him to the moon, I probably would have been on the phone to Elon Musk.

“Best distractions around,” Zed muttered, watching with hungry eyes as I palmed Lucas’s cock and ran my tongue around the tip. “Pizza, death, and sex.”

“Fuck yeah. Alright, tell me the plan, and make it bloody.” If I wasn’t already head over heels for this man, that’d do it.

Zed and I were happy to let him sleep while we talked in low voices, but Cass scowled at us both and picked Lucas up in a fireman’s carry to take him up to bed.

“Ignore her,” Zed said with a wide grin. “She’s high and horny. Guarantee she just heard daddy and thought about you spanking her.” I squirmed, and Cass’s arm around my waist tightened. “Is that right?” Cass murmured, his fingers dipping lower under my waistband.

Cass was such a good multitasker, though. He returned his attention to Zed but slipped his fingers into my panties as he replied. “Yup, I think he can. All we need is one weak link, and the whole chain is broken, right?” He kissed my shoulder. “Angel, you’re soaking.”

“Go wake Gumdrop up. Let him take care of this.” His fingers stroked my throbbing clit, and I moaned. “Remind him that just because his mom is gone doesn’t mean he’s alone. He’s got family, still. He’s got us.”

“Fucking hell, Saint.” I cupped his face with my hands and kissed him deeply. “You’re just a big pussy cat, huh?” I grinned, teasing, but also painfully in love. I kissed him again, then climbed out of his lap with a small wobble. Zed smirked. “You need me to carry you, boss?” I extended my middle finger. “Bite me, De Rosa.” “Before, during, or after that spanking you want from Daddy Cass?” Zed was way too amused. “Because I’m cool with any of those options. How about you, Grumpy?” Cass flashed a toothy grin and flexed his hand. “Any time, Angel.”

I was too wired to sleep. So I just lay there with Lucas’s cheek on my chest, his arms and legs wrapped around me like I was his favorite stuffed animal. I lay there, stroking his hair and plotting. It was my new happy place.

“As you’d expect, I guess. Or better? I have no clue what the standard is on grief. I’ve never lost anyone I truly loved.”

“I fucking hope you never do, either,” he told me in a rough voice when he released me.

“What does it say about us,” he asked after a moment, “that we’re about to assassinate another city official and all I can think about is dragging you into the back seat here and impaling you with my dick?”

I laughed quickly, then shot him a hot glance. “It says we’re two peas in a pod, Zayden De Rosa. Fucking soulmates.”

“Do you think this is a good idea?” I whispered to him when we did finally peel ourselves free. “For Lucas, I mean.” Zed gave me a contemplative look. “I don’t know. But I know it helped you. When you were at your darkest, the violence and killing seemed to act as therapy for your damaged soul. Maybe it’ll be the same for him? He definitely gets off on the violence like you do.”

As for the other? He was at the end of the corridor, struggling and red-faced with his eyes rolling into his skull as Cass calmly choked him into unconsciousness. Or death. It was unclear what kind of mood Cass was in. The fact that he had to wear a hotel employee uniform—complete with a silly little hat—probably meant the man was dead.

He wanted this. He wanted to cleanse his aching soul with the blood of a bad man. But he just wasn’t there yet, and that was perfectly understandable. He hadn’t been raised with casual violence and death like the rest of us.

Bang. That answered that. “Shit, Gumdrop,” Cass growled, “could have warned me to get out of the way.” He swiped a hand over his blood-covered face.

Zed gave a long sigh before he picked up one of the knives from the table and tapping it against his palm.

“We need to go,” I whispered when I was damn near ready to climb him like a tree. He kissed me again, lingering a moment longer, then released me with a sigh. “I know. It just... hit me again how fucking lucky I am to still have you, Dare.” Swallowing hard, I simply linked my fingers together with his, and we left our crime scene together.

Yeah. Sex and death. What better combination was there, really?

“Oh, well, if you’re already that late”—he pinned me against the shower wall, his hands hitching my legs up around his waist and his dick sinking into my hot core—“then what’s ten more minutes?” “Fuck,” I breathed in response, feeling him push deeper, and I groaned at how fucking good it felt.

A cool breeze touched my legs as the shower door opened again and a half-asleep Cass lumbered his way into the shower cubicle. “Room in here for three?” he asked, a wicked gleam in his dark eyes.

“I could get used to showers like this,” he murmured against my throat, his hard cock against my ass. “Hold onto my neck, Red.” Doing as I was told, I raised my good arm to loop around Cass’s neck behind me, gasping as he pushed fully inside with one forceful thrust.

“Saint...” I breathed, clinging to both of them as they started to move with shallow thrusts, their motions synced up beautifully. “Did you lube up your dick before getting in the shower?” He huffed a laugh, his teeth scraping over my neck. “Damn right, I did. Always be prepared, Red.”

I turned my head, seeking his lips, and moaned when he fucked my ass a little harder while we kissed. Then I turned back to kiss Lucas. It was heavenly, switching back and forth between them as they fucked me senseless and the shower continued to run.

Cass wasn’t quite done, though, giving a gruff order for Lucas to stay put as he fucked me harder. His fingers slipped down between Lucas and I and pinched my clit hard, which instantly forced another sharp, fast orgasm to ripple through me as he came.

“Seriously?” Seph asked, deadpan as she folded her arms and eyed me. “You kept me waiting while you had another round with both of them?” I shrugged. “I regret nothing.”

I hadn’t known how much her understanding meant to me, not really, until she gave it. But it’d struck something deep inside me, shifted that tiny remaining piece of resentment I was holding

I never would have guessed that my spoiled, bratty sister would find her calling in fixing cars. Never. But there was no denying the way she lit up while telling me about the inner workings of an engine.

Leon stared down at his hands a long time before responding. When he did, it was in a carefully neutral, emotionless voice. “I knew your sister. She asked a favor of me, and I’m finally upholding that agreement. As far as the Guild is concerned, Lucas Wildeboer, you don’t exist. No trace of your birth remains in any system on Earth. You’re a ghost. I suggest you pick a new name and get some records drawn up to bolster that identity, but the bottom line is that you’re no longer a target for the sins of your father... or uncle.”

“That’s it?” Lucas asked, frowning. Leon just stared back at him. “What more do you want? A hug? Fuck off. I just gave you the greatest gift on this planet. Say thank you, and forget we ever met.” He stalked away into the night without another word, melting into the shadows like he was made of inky darkness himself and leaving Lucas and I standing there speechless.

“Did you hear what he said?” he asked me in a pained voice. “I have a sister.” My chest tightened, and I looped my arm around his waist. “Had,” I corrected gently. “He spoke of her in past tense.”

A shudder ran through him, and his shoulders drooped. “Oh. Yeah, you’re right. That did feel like a debt-to-a-dead-woman kind of thing, huh?” I nodded. I hated it, but that was exactly what it sounded like. Lucas’s sister had been someone Leon cared for enough that he’d fulfilled her wishes after she was gone. He hadn’t been joking when he said he’d given Lucas a gift. With his entire existence erased, Lucas was safer from the Guild than I could have ever hoped.

“Fuck,” Lucas breathed as we slowly started toward the exit of Anarchy. “He erased my whole life? Everything documented is gone?” “That’s what he said, and Leon’s one of the best hackers in the w...

“You’re adorable when you’re plotting murder, Dare,” Zed told me with a huff of laughter. “But you know I’m in. Let’s take it to my office so we can print out a map to draw on.”

Seeming to agree, Cass pushed to his feet, looming over me with a darkly delicious expression on his face. “Zeddy Bear, sit back a moment, would you? Little Red just threw down the gauntlet.” Zed shot me a look that screamed I told you so. Then he smirked. “Yes, sir.”

“Hands on the desk, Red,” he growled.

The second he was done, he pulled away completely and opened my mouth with his fingers to watch as I rolled his seed over my tongue, then he whispered a curse as I swallowed it.

“First you smoke weed in Zed’s car; now you wanna fuck in the backseat?” I laughed. “Lucas, you’re choosing violence today, and I’m here for it.”

“Yeah,” I told Alexi, “he’s dead.” More blood bubbled from his lips. “Me too, huh?” I wrinkled my nose, but shit. That was the life we lived. “Yeah, Alexi,” I breathed, “I think so.” He released a small sigh, his eyes closing. “Good way to go,” he murmured after a painful silence. “Don’t ever stop fighting, boss. Make that bastard pay.”

F omg

“You need to see this first.” Dread filled my stomach, and I crossed over to where he stood, then looked down into the lifeless eyes of Rodney, my Club 22 manager.

“Hands on the mirror, Angel,” he rumbled, already unbuckling his belt to free his thick, tattooed cock. I bit my lip and grinned, locking eyes with him in the glass. “Yes, Daddy,” I teased. His eyes narrowed. “Call me that again, Angel, and I’ll fuck you right to the edge of climax, then leave you there. Then do it again and again and again, denying you release until you’re begging me. Then I’ll remind you why you shouldn’t push my buttons.”

Zed and I, we were cut from the same bulletproof cloth.

“Y-you can’t k-kill me. I’m FBI.” I laugh coldly. “I wasn’t aware that gave you immortality. Pretty sure dead’s dead, no matter what your job title.”

He pounced on me the moment the doors closed, hot and hard, riding the bloodlust like an aphrodisiac, and I was just as bad.

She may not understand the game, but she did recognize the danger.

Cass appeared at my side then. For such a big, tattoo-covered man, he slipped through the crowd like a ghost. It was scary, in a good kind of way.

Because I didn’t give a flying fuck about people knowing I had three lovers, I covered one of Cass’s hands with mine. Our fingers tangled together, and his thumb stroked over my ring as though it was from him as much as it was from Zed.