by Never , M.
“Fine,” I relent. “We’ll go see what’s in the box. But we need to case the place first. I don't want us walking in blind.”
“I’m excellent at research,” Alec boasts.
“A high-powered lawyer, I’d hope so,” I mock.
“It’s decided, then.” Everly stands up dripping wet. Alec and I pant like dogs. “We go see what’s in the box.”
“Where are you going?” I grab at her leg as she steps over me.
“Well, I was hoping the two of you could take care of my box before we tend to the other box.”
Alec and I stand up faster than an Olympic sprinter at the sound of the gun. All Everly has to do is hint she wants us and we are ready and willing.
The three of us are still wet from the tub, but that doesn’t stop the momentum. Alec and I manhandle Everly into the position we want. Situated on all fours, Alec settles behind her with me kneeling in front of her.
“Alec’s gonna come in that sweet pussy of yours, while I come in your hot little mouth.” I quake with lust.
Alec and I make eye contact. He nods and so do I. This is about taking care of so much more than Everly’s box.
I caress her face, coaxing her to open her mouth. Just as she does, Alec sinks inside of her. Her moan around my cock is insatiable. It’s greedy and ravenous. She loves to get taken, to be ruled, to be commanded.
Alec fucks her slow, as I indulge in the back and forth motion of her body, her mouth sliding over my erection, making it slick with saliva and pulsing with pleasure.
It’s a prolonged build to her climax. A drawn-out dance that has us wringing the ecstasy from her little by little.
Trapped between us, she has no choice but to submit, to succumb to our speed. Alec drives deep into her pussy at the same exact time I thrust animalistically into her mouth. A carnal union of arousal has us ensnared. The three of us shaken, stirred, and stimulated all at the same time. Hot breaths, sexual noises, and guttural strains play out like a concentrated harmony all around the room. It’s a frenzy of push and pull, jostle and jerk as Alec and I propel Everly straight to her breaking point.
She’s beautiful to fucking watch. A woman so strong and smart, breaking down under our control. The craving, the longing, the yearning. The lust and passion. The ache and throb. It all comes together in a vortex of voracity.
“Aw, shit, baby, you want more?” Alec grunts, the thrusts of his pelvis becoming more erratic. “You need to come?” He concentrates hard as Ever begins to push back and suck harder.
She whines so desperately, inhaling air fanatically through her nose.
I barely have to move, the force of Alec’s hips and the clamp of Ever’s mouth have me in the perfect position. I dig my fingers into her hair and grip the thick strands tightly, keeping my body stiff. I watch Alec fuck her, getting off on every stoke and every moan he elicits.
Everly’s arms give way when she finally comes, the pressure of her mouth and pull of her lips around my erection has me seeing stars. I pump my hips greedily, grunting wildly until I follow her right down the same orgasmic rabbit hole. My whole being gravitates toward her mouth as Alec rings out every drop of her pleasure. It’s a domino effect and a three-way connection all rolled up into one ravenousness moment.
I’m left shaking on my knees, my cock still firmly secure in Ever’s mouth, her small, spacy sucks sending aftershocks to my balls.
“Fuck, baby, I love you, and that hot mouth.” I groan, supremely satisfied. I told you, I’m not great with the lovey-dovey stuff, but I’m working on it.
“I love you, too,” she emotes after she pops my semi from between her lips and stands up on her knees. She leans back against Alec for support as we share a heated, dizzying kiss. She then does the same with him.
Stunning, adventurous, majestic, I could call Everly Paige a thousand things, but my favorite thing to call her, by far, is ours.
27
Everly
Tage and Alec spend a majority of the day researching the Dominus Savings and Trust while I stare at my fingertip. The small, seemingly insignificant part of my body is what Gunner wanted all along. Not me, just the print of my little finger.
I try to think back all those years ago to a time, an instance, where he could have fingerprinted me. Did he lift it from a door knob? A fork? A glass? How does this whole thing work? Questions upon questions upon questions mount.
“Okay.” Alec pushes himself back from Tage’s laptop. “From what I can gather this ‘bank’ is totally unique and state of the art. It’s accessible twenty-four-seven with a facial rec, retina scan, or fingerprint ID.”
“So, we can just stroll in at midnight?” I snort.
“Yup,” Tage smacks his lips, “and that’s exactly what we’re going to do. Providing your print can really get us into the building.”
“Why midnight?” I question him.
“Safer. No one out and about. Hide under the cover of night. You know, all that spy stuff.” He winks.
“Sounds mysterious,” I poke fun.
“You may think it’s funny, but protocol is there for a reason, and it keeps you alive.” Most of the time.
“I don’t think protocol is funny. I think the way you aloofly described it is.”
“Fair enough. Here’s the deal. I’ll have some Endeavor eyes watching us while we go in. We’ll check it out, see what the goods are, and then we’ll get the hell out. After that, the agency can decide what to do. I’m hoping there isn't anything radioactive, ‘cause that would surely suck.”
“Radioactive?” Alec curls his lip.
Tage shrugs. “He’s a criminal. I wouldn't put anything past him.”
“Do you think we should rent hazmat suits?” I toss in.
“Nah, as long as it’s contained, we should be fine.”
No one is laughing.
* * *
It’s midnight, and we are standing outside a polished-looking building in the middle of Chicago’s financial district.
“Moment of truth.” Tage pushes me forward. My stomach flip-flops. I’m torn down the middle. I desperately want to know what Gunner locked away, and I desperately don’t.
“Fingerprint scan.” Alec points out a little square with reddish glass next to one of the doors.
Moment of truth. I take a deep breath with each one of them by my side and press my index finger to the glass.
We wait. Nothing.
“Huh?” I try again, but nothing happens.
“Try your thumb,” Tage suggests.
I press my thumb to the glass with little faith, and the door clicks. “Holy shit.”
“We’re in.” Tage yanks open the steel door, and it creaks.
Inside the building is all bright fluorescent lights, creamy floors, ceilings, and walls. “Okay” — Tage reads his phone — “according to Simon, we need to take the elevator to the sixth floor. That’s where the safe deposit box is.”
“Let’s not waste a second, then.” Alec walks, and we follow. The elevators are only a little way down the hall. Again, I have to use my thumbprint to access them. Once inside, we hit the number six.
Holy. Shit. This is really happening.
The elevator ride is smooth, and we arrive to our desired floor in no time. When the door separates, we are met by all white and a wall of frosted glass.
“Whoa.” All three of us step up to a clear door. Inside there are dozens upon dozens of safes. It looks like a lockbox mausoleum.
Tage knocks on the glass lightly. “I think this is bulletproof.”
“I hope so because that’d be mighty tempting for a thief,” Alec observes.
“Let’s get this over with.” I’m antsy all of a sudden. My invisibility high from earlier seems to be wearing off quick.
I press my thumb to the door scan, and like with the elevators and steel door earlier, it clicks. We open it and step inside.
There has to be two-hundred safe deposit boxes set in the walls. All in one little room.
“We n
eed to find number nineteen-ninety-one.” Tage begins reading each box. It takes a minute, but we finally find what we’re looking for.
“Number nineteen-ninety-one,” Alec reads aloud. “Do your thing.”
“Do my thing, right.” Like I’m a fucking magician or something. Taking another deep breath, I press my thumb to the scanner on the face of the box door. It takes an elongated second, but it does, in fact, open.
“Holy-fucking-shit.” Tage’s eyes are big as shiny satellites. It’s like a chapter of the past is finally closing. A journey we could have only taken together.
Alec pulls the shiny silver box out and places it on the white glossy table in the middle of the room. The three of us stand before it, mesmerized as to what can possibly be inside.
Alec flips the clasp and opens the lid. We all stare down inside.
“What in the flying fuck?” Tage barks as he inspects the contents.
Butterflies erupt in my stomach as sweet reminders from my past gaze up at me.
“Hello Kitty.” I grab one of the adorable, plastic bobble heads from the box. “I used to love these.” I shake the toy, and her kitty head dances.
“This is what Gunner hid away? This is what your mother is after? A bunch of kiddy toys?” It’s anticlimactic, to say the least.
I shrug. “The one stinkin’ good memory I have of Gunner is him giving me these. He always had one for me when he and my mom started dating. The best part about them,” I twist the base, and it detaches from the body. “There was always candy inside.”
I hold up the secret tube.
“I don't think that’s candy.” Alec’s jaw nearly unhinges.
“Not at all.” Tage takes the bottom part of the toy from my hand and holds it up to the fluorescent light. The tiny, clear gems in the tube sparkle with colorful prisms.
“Are those . . . diamonds?” They must be, because my lady bits are totally tingling.
“Holy motherfucking shit.” Tage reiterates. “Gunner and his goddamn riddles. Even if someone else opened this box, only you knew the real secret.”
“Gotta have some respect for the evil mastermind. That is sort of genius.” Alec crosses his arms, impressed.
“All those months I worked undercover. I knew about the drugs and the guns, but never this. No one had any idea Gunner was running diamonds, too.”
“My mom did.” I’m so disappointed. So disappointed in the woman who birthed me. Who was supposed to protect me. Raise me. Love me.
“She definitely knew something.” Tage is totally spellbound by the glinty little stones.
“Seven, eight, nine, ten,” Alec counts all the Hello Kitty dolls. “Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. Fifteen dolls all stuffed with diamonds. There has to be close to ten-million dollars here, easy.”
“Ten-million reasons for my mom to come after me.” And there it is. What she wanted the whole time. A new pipeline for her fix.
Tage pulls his phone out of his back pocket as we congregate around the table.
“Andrews.” He turns his back to us. “What? . . . When? . . . How? . . . That is a maximum-security prison.”
My eyes fly to the back of his head.
“What’s your ETA? . . . Okay . . . Okay.” Click. Tage spins. “We need to go. Now.” He morphs into super-spy mode.
“What happened?” I ask, alarmed, as Tage puts all the contents back in the box, closes it up, and slides it back into the wall in record time.
“Very bad shit.” He grabs my arm. Hard — ouch — and yanks me out of the bank.
“What kind of very bad shit?” Alec presses, hot on our heels.
Tage doesn’t respond. He’s too busy using my finger like a hot poker to hit the elevator button, crazier than a madman.
When the elevator doors finally open, we are met by the barrel of a gun and three very unwelcome faces.
“That kind of bad shit.” Tage curses.
I almost can’t believe what I’m seeing. A tattooed goon, my mother, and Gunner, all together, all playing nice. What the fuck is happening here?
“Hi, sweetheart.” My mom steps out of the elevator first. I barely recognize her. She actually looks good. Fresh-faced, nice clothes, neat hair. I’m at a loss for words for the woman standing before me. The woman I share no traits with except DNA.
Gunner and the goon with the gun follow her.
“In,” Gunner orders.
Oh, fuck.
Tage never lets go of my arm as we’re marched back into the bank. When the glass door clicks closed, my throat constricts. This is so bad. So. Fucking. Bad.
“You were a total let-down,” my mother disses Alec.
“Why? ‘Cause I didn’t crumble to pieces when you threatened me?”
“Yes. I totally read you wrong. I never thought my daughter would be more important to you than your career.”
“You’ve never been the best judge of character,” I mouth off. “Case in point,” I refer to Gunner and his goon.
“I missed you, too, sweetheart,” she sneers.
“I didn’t miss you. At all. And I have never been your sweetheart.”
“I never coddled you. You always resented me.” The brown-haired bitch is right, I have always resented her. But not because she didn’t coddle me. Because she never wanted me.
“Total bullshit. You never cared. That’s what I resented.”
“Enough,” Gunner grumbles. “Open it already. We need to get out of here.”
“I’m not opening shit.” I clench my fists.
“Oh, no?” Gunner nods, and the guy with the gun points it at Alec’s head. I visibly tremble. “We make this simple or hard, pretty. Open the safe, no one gets hurt. Fight me, he goes first, then him.” He looks at Tage. “Then you.”
“What did you say about cutting off your fingers?” my mother asks condescendingly. “We can totally do that.”
“You’re full of shit.” Tage pulls me closer. “None of us are walking out of here alive once you get what you want.”
“I guess that’s a gamble you are going to have to take, groundhog.”
“Gamble on your words? No, thanks,” Tage hisses.
“How come you didn’t just die the first time?” Gunner groans.
“You’re a shitty shot?” Tage offers superciliously.
“Let’s see.” Gunner pulls out a gun from the back of his waistband and points it right at Tage.
I don’t know what suddenly comes over me, a moment of insanity, maybe? A suicidal mindset perhaps— death-or-glory, do-or-die?
“No!” I scream, pushing Gunner’s arm away. It goes off, and instantly all hell breaks loose.
Tage dives at Gunner, wrestling him to the floor. Gunner’s hit man points and shoots, and then Alec is in front of me. Then, he’s not. He’s on the ground. Bleeding.
“Alec!” I screech one octave lower than a dog can hear. Everyone in the room grinds to a halt.
“Alec!” I try to reach for him, but I’m grabbed. “Alec,” I fight, “Alec . . .” I’m having déjà vu.
“Save him!” I scream as they tear me away. “You have to save him!” I flail in the stranger’s arms in a fit of panic, reaching for the window.
Gunner drags me out of the room with a gun to my head. Tage looks like he wants to bolt after us but is stuck to the floor.
“Move, and she’s fucking dead.”
The glass door swings closed, and the elevator doors ding open. The last vision I see is Tage frozen, and Alec bleeding out on the floor.
Alec . . .
The elevator ride is hazy. I’m in shock, back in the hands of the two people I hate the most. How did this happen?
“Did the two of you have it all planned?” I ask, removed. “To ruin my life again?”
“We just wanted what was ours.” My mother’s answer is foul. It’s like she can barely stand to converse with me.
“How did you break out of jail?” I look up at Gunner through blurry eyes.
“Lots of money, the right cont
acts, and a stellar escape plan. The only thing I didn’t bank on was your boyfriend still being in the picture. All my intel told me he was history. And then you fucking showed up with him. How did you know?”
“Tage was never out of the picture. He’s just a master at disguising himself.” I’m smug. I’m about to lose everything, might as well try and hold on to my attitude. “I remembered you two fighting about a key. We researched. It wasn’t hard. You’re not that smart.”
“Aren’t I?” The ugly, faded tattoos on his neck dance as he looks down at me. “I have you. You’re the only one who can open that box. My fingerprint may work on the door and elevator, but that box and those contents belong solely to you.”
We walk down the light hallways to the steel door we entered through as Gunner verbally vomits. I don’t care about a thing he’s saying. I don’t care about what he’s going to do to me or what he fucking wants. All I care about is Alec.
Please God, let him live. Let him be okay.
“And there are a lot of people I owe. I need those diamonds. This isn’t over.”
We bust through the door and are met by cop cars, flashing lights, and a dozen automatic weapons. My heart nearly gives out from the surprise.
“Put your weapon on the ground and back away from the hostage,” someone yells, but the four of us are deer in headlights.
Gunner snakes his arm around my neck and chokes me, pressing the barrel of his gun to my temple.
“I’ll kill her, I swear.” He walks down the sidewalk with my mother and his goon safely behind him.
“Gunner, let the girl go. There’s no way out,” the same deep, rumbly voice continues to address him.
Gunner laughs. The sound is as evil as a demon. “There’s always a way out.”
The seconds pound away like a gong as imminent death surrounds me. One wrong move. One wrong decision, and I am dead.
“Gunner,” the man warns as he keeps walking. I silently pray, not for myself, but for Alec and Tage. For Lara and Luke. For all the people I love. I pray a silent thank you for the brief happiness I was allowed to have. For the friends I was blessed with. I pray for their lives and their joy. It’s all I can give. My prayers are all I’ve ever really had.