“Oh fuck,” he whispered against my lips. I kissed his moans, his prayers for more.
He met me each time I slammed into him, and when I reached between our bodies, taking his cock in my hand, his orgasm hit, and he spilled over my fingers. I chased my own, only seconds behind him. Bracing my arms on either side of him, I arched up, pushing into him as far as I could, and shouted as I came.
After I pulled out, slipped the condom off, and tossed it, I told Toby to stay there and I’d get him cleaned up. He mumbled through a serene expression. I went to the bathroom, got a warm washcloth, and when I returned to the bed I chuckled. He hadn’t moved an inch, and he was smiling at me.
“Your smile does things to me.” I gently washed away his drying come.
“Good things, I hope.”
“Very, very good things.”
After tossing the washcloth into the laundry bin and placing the lube in the nightstand, I pulled the comforter back, scooped Toby up in my arms, and tucked us both under it.
“That was the best date ever,” Toby slurred, exhaustion taking over.
“Agreed.”
I woke to my cell phone going off. Toby was snug in my arms, so I reached behind me and snagged it. Ciro.
“Hey.”
“Hey, so TJ got a good hit on something. Can we come by your place this afternoon?” Pulling the phone away from my ear, I saw the clock read nine thirty.
“Yeah, how about noon? We can have lunch here.”
“Sounds like a plan. See ya later.”
“Everything okay?” Toby’s voice was muffled with sleep.
“Yeah. Ciro and that detective, TJ, are coming at noon. He says she has something to tell us.”
He nodded but a second later, his soft snores were filling the room. As carefully as possible, I slid my arm out from under him. My bladder was protesting, and as much as I wanted to stay ensconced in bed with him, nature called.
I ended up showering, changing, and making coffee. I was on my second cup when a sleep-rumpled Toby entered the kitchen.
“Mmm coffee.” He shuffled over to the coffeepot and fixed a mug.
“Sleep well?” I asked when he joined me at the table. I’d had to clean it this morning, seeing as we didn’t bother to after dinner, but it was well worth it.
“Best sleep in a long time.” He sipped his coffee with a grin.
“Same.”
We sat in companionable silence, drinking coffee and eating some toast I made. Being the late morning hour, neither of us wanted to be full for lunch.
Toby left to shower and change while I called Vayne’s, our favorite restaurant, to place an order to be delivered for twelve.
Toby had just stepped out of his room when there was a knock on the door. Although Ciro had clearance to come up, no one but me had a key to my apartment. When I opened the door, Ciro and TJ stood there and the delivery guy too.
“You ordered from Vayne’s?” Ciro asked.
“Yeah, didn’t feel like cooking for you.” I let TJ and Ciro in and took the bag from the delivery guy. I’d already paid and tipped when I ordered.
I opted for my living room, where we could all sit comfortably. Toby got drinks while the rest of us set up the lunches.
As we ate, I filled TJ in on what happened at the club on Wednesday. Most she was aware of. I told her I wouldn’t be permitted to reopen until the investigation was complete, and I was cleared of any wrongdoing. She said she’d keep an ear to the ground and see if she could find anything out.
Once we were all done eating, I cleaned up and brought coffee out.
“Hopefully you have some good news for us,” I said, handing her a mug.
“Thanks. I think I do.”
When I started out in Haven Hart and made shitty business decisions, I vowed never to get into bed with criminals or unscrupulous people again. I knew with every passing year how impossible that promise was to keep. I wanted to save my club and keep Toby and his sister safe, and to do that, I was going to have to get my hands dirty.
“Let’s hear it.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Toby
TJ took out a tablet and began explaining her plan. “Like I said earlier, we need Vick to go head-to-head with someone bigger and more powerful than himself. He needs to piss someone off who wouldn’t blink at making him disappear.”
“Wait,” I interrupted. “You’re actually one of the good guys?”
She chuckled as did Ciro. “I learned a long time ago, there’s a way to take out the trash in this town, and the straight and narrow isn’t it. But I’d never take money or meddle in drugs. What Vick Keller is doing to you, your sister, and Atlas, won’t come to an end the old-fashioned way. He has too many cops on his payroll. So, we need to fight fire with fire.”
“Doesn’t fighting fire with fire just make more fire?” I asked, and she gave me an indulgent smile.
“You’re gonna have to trust me just a little here.” I shut up, sat back, and heard her out.
“Vick Keller has partial control on the docks over here.” She put the tablet down, showing a section of the inlet where a lot of shipments came in. I knew that well from the story Shane told me about Chester being beaten and strung up on the shipping crate.
“However, Wang Zhao pays Vick Keller a good amount to let his ships unload over there. The manifest always reads organic chemicals, but it’s drugs.”
“Wang Zhao is the boss of the Chinese gang. Don’t they own all the way from Graham Boulevard to Richmond Avenue?” Atlas asked.
“Yes, he has a huge chunk of space. And he’s smart with the other bosses. They keep the peace and because of that, we don’t have full-on gunfights in the streets.”
“But if Vick works for Wang, how’s this gonna work?” I asked.
“How Wang has it set up, shipment comes in and Vick has it unloaded, separated, and sent over to Wang. Now, this is where it gets tricky. We can’t just sit on the docks and bombard them. Vick has like, fifteen guys unloading. But”—she held up a finger—“once it’s all in the truck, it’s just two guys until it gets over to Wang’s; then his guys take it.”
“Okay, so that’s even more guys.” I hoped I wasn’t sounding dumb.
“What you’re saying is, between the docks and Wang’s, we fuck up the stuff,” Ciro said.
“It’s coke,” TJ said. “If we have something almost comparable to the naked eye and hijack the truck and replace it, when Wang checks it out, he’ll think Vick is stealing from him for his own financial gain.”
“Ummm…yeah, how do we do any of this? First off, I’ve never even let my license expire, let alone done a heist. Also, what do we do with Vick’s guys?” I hated being a downer on this, but it had to be said.
“I agree with Toby here, how do we get this to work?” Atlas reached over and squeezed my hand. His support meant a lot.
“Vick’s guys will have to disappear. Leave that part to me. When faced with jail time, most of these guys fold. Vick doesn’t pay them enough for their loyalty. When Vick’s guys don’t return, he’ll try to blame them for it, but Wang won’t care. Vick will have to pay the price.”
Made sense but… “And who is doing this? We can’t have the cops involved.”
“Not all the cops are on Vick’s payroll, and TJ here has a few she trusts. They’ll fill in as Vick’s guys.” Ciro was very matter-of-fact.
“When is all this taking place?” Atlas asked. I could see how worried he was about everything.
“Wang has a delivery Sunday. So that night, Vick’s guys will go over to the docks and unload. That’s when we do this.” TJ picked up her tablet. “If Vick is too busy trying not to start a war with Wang, it gets him off your back. But the thing about Wang is, he’s ruthless. Even if Vick comes up with the money or the coke, he won’t spare him. If he can kill his own son, he won’t blink at taking out Vick.”
“He killed his own kid?” I asked, heartbroken.
“Yeah. He’s a piece of shit, like
most of the scum in this city.”
“You don’t think this will backfire on Atlas or me or anyone?” I had to wonder. While Vick would try to put out fires, the coincidence this was all happening after he tried to destroy Atlas’s business wouldn’t go unnoticed.
“We’re going to have to hope Wang deals with him before he realizes any of that. It’s not a perfect plan, but it’s the best one we have right now.” TJ gave us a sympathetic smile, but I knew she was right, and judging by Ciro’s and Atlas’s faces, they did too.
“Okay.”
TJ and Ciro left shortly after that and told us they’d be in touch. My shoulder was sore, so Atlas said he’d run a warm bath, we could soak a bit, and then rest in bed and watch a movie. That sounded like the best idea in a long time.
“It’s weird not seeing you every day,” I said to Poppy late Saturday afternoon. She and Desi came over shortly after Ciro and TJ left, because we missed each other. Atlas and Desi were watching a baseball game on TV, and Poppy and I were drinking coffee and catching up in the kitchen.
“I know. But, it’s not so bad.” Her cheeks pinked, a dead giveaway something was up.
“Care to tell me more, sister mine?”
She chuckled. “I really like Desi, and Toby, I think he likes me a lot too. He’s, like, the first guy in forever that sees me and not the chair.”
I’d had a feeling something was going on with them. “That’s wonderful.”
“Yeah? I was worried to say anything to you. But, he’s sweet. The other day, we went out to dinner to this little Italian place. It was on the bottom floor, and there were no elevators.” There’d been so many times Poppy and I had to go elsewhere due to lack of proper handicap accessibility.
“I’m sorry, Poppy.”
“No, no, no, shut up and listen.” I chuckled, and she powered through her story. “Without missing a beat, he scooped me up, walked me down the stairs, and asked the hostess for a table for two. Now it’s hard for me to sit in those shitty wooden chairs, so when she took us to our table, he said they had to go get my chair at the top of the stairs.” She was laughing so hard at this point, it was hard to follow her story.
“The hostess was all, ‘We don’t do that,’ so Desi said, ‘Well, it’s illegal not to have handicap accessibility,’ and told her if they didn’t want to be reported she’d get my fucking chair there, pronto.”
I loved seeing her so happy, and it sounded like Desi was amazing to her. “He sounds like a keeper.”
She smiled and nodded. “Yeah.” She eyed where Desi and Atlas were sitting. “What about you and The Greatest Showman?”
“Ha ha, you’re funny. We’re good…great, even.”
Her brows shot up to her hairline. “Yeah?”
“Yeah, but it’s early days. He’s working through some stuff and the shit with the club. We’re taking it a day at a time.”
She took my hand in hers. “That’s the best way to do it.”
Desi and Poppy left shortly after dinner, and after I shut the front door, I walked over to where Atlas was sitting on the couch, kneeled between his legs, and began to unbuckle his pants.
“Whatcha doing on the floor?” He grinned.
“You, I hope.”
“Far be it from me to stand in the way of someone so determined.”
I chuckled and slid his pants down to his ankles. His cock was hard, and my mouth watered.
“Oh, and I’m very fucking determined.” Nothing more was said as I took him into my mouth, sucked him to the root, and didn’t let up until I was swallowing every drop.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Atlas
Having Poppy and Desi come over on Saturday helped pass some time, but Toby and I were going a little stir-crazy. Whenever we spoke with Ciro, he told us we couldn’t do anything but be unseen. His explanation made sense, of course. If Toby or I, or even any of my guys, were seen near this, Vick would absolutely link us to it.
When Sunday morning came, we were feeling a little caged in, so Toby and I went down to the farmers market. I didn’t like being so exposed, but the truth of it was, we needed to get out. Don’t get me wrong, the copious amounts of sex we had to pass time was amazing, but we needed air and sunshine.
“Oh, look at this.” Toby held up a sculpture made from blown glass…a very phallic sculpture.
I slid my finger over the smooth object. “Are you trying to tell me you’re not satisfied?”
He bit his bottom lip, and without a thought, I kissed him. In front of everyone around I did it. Whereas normally I’d think it through, not want to lead anyone on or have anyone know someone meant anything to me. With Toby, everything washed away, and I only cared about what not showing him how I felt would do to him.
“I’m not sure the families in the area want to watch such a depraved act out in the open. What do you think, Liberio?” Vick Keller’s voice was like ice water on our lukewarm moment.
I spun around, instinctively pushing Toby behind me.
“Disgusting.” Liberio sneered.
“Trust me that these families would rather see a drug peddling, degenerate like you disappear long before me.”
Vick started laughing obnoxiously, parents with their kids moving out of the way fairly quickly. “How’s business?” he asked when he calmed.
“Opens back up soon. You know,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest, “I should thank you. Joker’s Sin has so much more attention now, which I didn’t think was possible, seeing how popular it already was. And, the insurance company is paying for some damages, so I can renovate a little. Make it even more amazing.” I stared him down, finding joy when a twitch formed in his cheek.
“I told you I wasn’t playing games, Atlas.”
“And yet here you are, in the middle of the market…playing.”
If there weren’t so many people around, I was sure either Vick or Liberio would’ve tried to punch me. But they both curled their lips, grunted something, and stormed away.
“Do you really think egging him on like that was smart?” Toby slid his hand in mine.
“What’s he gonna do, Toby? Try to destroy my business, hurt you? Oh look, he’s done that.” I leaned closer to his ear and whispered, “After tonight, I’m hoping Vick Keller isn’t a problem for us anymore.”
“For both our sakes, I hope you’re right.”
Later in the afternoon, Ciro came by my place to go over everything happening that night. TJ was with her guys preparing, so it was just the three of us here.
“What are they using instead of the coke?” Toby asked as he set three mugs of coffee down.
Ciro’s grin told me he was about to give us a lesson. He surprised me sometimes with what he knew and what he’d done in his life.
“I’m not sure how much you know about cocaine, but Hollywood hasn’t exactly been honest with its portrayal.”
Toby sipped his coffee. “So, like, it’s not white or…?”
“It can be when it’s mixed with like, talcum powder or something like that. But it’s generally a beige or almost pinkish color. Wang’s does happen to be white, but we suspect it’s something that they do before they ship it here. Thank God too—we wouldn’t have time for a coloring process.”
“So they’re gonna look at it, shrug, and it’s over?” Toby asked.
“No. Wang isn’t a fucking idiot. He will have it tested, and that’s how it becomes tricky. We have to fool them long enough that they’ll let our guys go. He does this quick test, and because he’s worked with Vick so long, his guys won’t suspect foul play right away.”
Ciro sat back with his mug, but Toby wasn’t done. I had to smile at how inquisitive he was.
“So if you use flour or whatever, and they taste it, won’t they know? I mean I’ve never done drugs in my life, but I’m sure it has a unique taste.”
Ciro nodded. “It does. It tends to actually have a smell too. Sometimes it’s a sweet smell with a chemical twinge to it. I did get my hands on Wang�
��s product, and it has a sweeter smell to it, not super pungent in the chemical department. Reminded me of a perfume my mother wore once, so I grabbed that. Sprayed my hands with it and ran them through the powder. Not overpowering but passable.”
“And the taste?”
“So many questions.” Ciro chuckled. “Okay, the taste is kinda what it smells like. When you test cocaine, you generally rub it over your gums. It’s the quickest way to test for purity. Uncut cocaine will numb the gums. Obviously ours isn’t even near to being cocaine, so we mixed the powder with a numbing agent. It’ll be convincing enough to get TJ’s guys out of there.”
“Wow,” Toby whispered. “You’re terrifying, Ciro.”
“Only ’cause I have to be.”
Ciro ended up staying. He was in contact with TJ, and I think he wasn’t one hundred percent convinced one of us wouldn’t leave the penthouse to head to the docks.
For the most part, the evening was quiet. We watched a movie, ordered pizza. It was boring but safe. We weren’t near the shit, and even though I wanted to end Vick myself, knowing that if our plan worked Wang would make him go away appeased me enough to let myself be bored.
It was close to midnight when Ciro’s phone buzzed. He read whatever it was and texted something back. It went that way for a while. Toby and I looked at each other and shrugged.
“So?” I asked when he stood and slipped his phone into his pocket.
“Went off without a hitch. TJ has Vick’s guys, and they’ll be on the first plane out of here.”
“Now what do we do?” Toby sat up, peering at Ciro imploringly.
“Now we wait. Wang will realize what’s happened, and that’s when the fireworks begin.” He pointed to the two of us. “Go about your lives like you don’t know. I’m sure Joker’s Sin will be cleared. TJ said the investigation concluded. You probably want to focus on that.”
I nodded and got off the couch. “Yeah. Thanks, Ciro. Be safe out there.”
My Whole World Page 15