by Finn, Emilia
Angelo, the funny, cool, take my place by my brother’s side Angelo helped the sad twin rebuild this. Now he’s going on a road trip with my brother and probably already bought them matching hats or some shit.
“Focus, Jay!”
“Woman, I am.”
“I can hear you mumbling. Pull it together, plant the tracker, get home.”
Using Kane’s blade, I take sick pleasure in slicing the leather bench seat by the seam and sliding the coin-shaped device in. They’ll never know I did this, but I’ll know, and I’ll smile every time I think of it.
Gotcha back, asshole. And soon, I’ll get my brother back, too.
“Jay!”
“Ugh, I’m coming.” Pushing the door open again, I slide out of the slick car and push the locks down. Kneeling in the street, I hold the handle and push the door with my shoulder so it closes fully and the lock stays on.
“Done.”
“Good. Now come home. You’ve already been too long.”
She’s so naggy when I’m on missions.
Rolling my eyes, I cast a glance up and down the street and frown when I find something out of place. Something missing. Looking to my house, then to my next door neighbor’s, I turn and glance back to Kane’s and huff.
“Jay? Jay!” It’s like she can read my mind, or maybe she just expects my impulsive behavior. “Jay Bishop! Turn your ass around and come home now.”
“He forgot to put his trash out, Sugar Plum.” I tiptoe along his driveway and snatch up the overfull can. “I’m just helping my brother out.”
Ha! If Angelo was his real bro, he wouldn’t forget the trash.
“John D. Hamilton! Put that trashcan down. Now!”
“In a moment, babe. I’m bringing it to the street.”
“Jay! Fuck! Jericho. Jericho! Drop the can.”
Inside lights flip on behind me, but I know I have thirty seconds more. Kane will go to his surveillance computer before he comes outside. Jogging with a goofy grin and what I’ll never admit is a girly giggle, I drop the can on the curb and set the lid on straight.
Trash man won’t take it if it’s a mess.
Sophia hollers in my ear about fucking missions up, but I ignore her. Sprinting across the street and up the front stairs, I swing my front door wide and close it again with a silent snick just as Kane’s front lights flood my yard.
“You’re insane!” Soph tosses her bag of chips and shoves her computer aside. In sexy sweatpants and a sports bra only, she rushes forward like she might want to kill me, but I tear my ski mask away and catch her mid-air, mid-attempted murder, and slam her against the wall.
Laughing, our lips clash and my teeth bite until she cries out. She tastes like salt and vinegar and sex. Yes fucking please. No one’s life was in danger tonight, so it makes it easy for me to laugh. “Everyone is alive, Sweet Sophia. Relax.”
“You’re so immature!” She slams her fist into my ribs but extends her neck and allows my teeth to graze anyway. She wants me; she wants to be mad at me. She can do both, because angry sex is always better than regular sex.
Turning with her in my arms as Kane’s lights switch off again, I walk toward the hall and into the bedroom. Her anger turns to giggles, which in turn become a long groan when I tear her pants away and flip her over so I see her bare ass. Kneeling on the bed behind her, I slam my open palm over her creamy skin and push my jean-covered cock against her ass.
The zipper rubs her clit and causes her to cry out, but I lean over her almost naked body and bite her shoulder blade, her shoulder, her neck. She lies with her face in the covers, panting and quivering, and each time I bite, she pushes her ass back against my hips.
“You want me so bad, don’t you, Sophia? You can’t breathe without me.”
“I want you,” she pants. “Please be fast.”
“Tell me you love me, Soph. I know you do.”
As expected, she stiffens and stops breathing altogether. “Uh…” She turns her face and stares through messed hair. “I don’t think now’s a good time to discuss–”
“You do.” I unsnap my jeans and push them down far enough to free my cock. “I know you do. My beautiful ballerina is in love.” Lining my cock up, I slam deep inside and grit my teeth before I explode. Soph reburies her face in the pillows and lets out a muffled scream. “You don’t even have to tell me. Love isn’t words, Soph; it’s feelings; it’s actions.” I slam in until the tip of my cock touches her womb and her breath comes out on a pained gasp, then I slide back out again and grunt at her pleasure-filled whimpers. “Love is racing toward a burning building to save the girl, or running away from bullets and using your body to shield your man. Love is burgers at midnight, milkshakes at three, and holding my hand when I can’t fucking breathe through faulty lungs. Love is dancing for me, Soph, even though you don’t wanna, but you know it makes me happy to see you stand on your toes.”
“Oh my God.” Crying out, she fists the covers and pushes back against me as I continue to assault her body. “Don’t stop, Jay. Please don’t stop.”
“Won’t stop, beautiful.” I grab her hips and use them like handles. Pulling her back at the same time I push forward, we slam together and drag ourselves closer to the edge. “You don’t have to tell me, because I know how you feel. And it’s okay.” I lean forward and bite her shoulder blade. “Because I love the fuck outta you, Sweet Sophia.” Letting go of her hip, I slide my thumb over her asshole, then in. “Come now, Soph. Squeeze my cock dry.”
* * *
Soph and I fell to bed around one with exhausted bodies and giddy smiles, but by three, I’d slept my two hours and felt guilty waking her for more.
So pulling on sweatpants and my beanie as a type of shield for some asinine reason, I closed the bedroom door and made my way to the kitchen to start the coffee.
Three in the morning is a lonely time. It’s deathly quiet, cold, and no one is stirring for hours. But I sit in my chair by the window with my laptop in hand and watch Kane’s dark kitchen. I wait, watch, and I battle an internal war that feels an awful lot like jealousy.
Lights switch on earlier than usual this morning, though it’s not unexpected, since they’re heading out for their road trip. Jess’ sister, the sad twin, is first up, then Jess. Kane moves into the kitchen last, but he’s not sluggish. He’s not sleepy.
He’s just not on full alert anymore like we used to be.
In his mind, he’s free; he’s living the domestic life with his girl, and he has no clue someone in the world is looking for him right now. He has no clue they have his head in their scope, so despite a little noise in the middle of the night, he finds no reason to worry.
Just before the sun comes up, while Jess chugs an energy drink and chases it with a cup of coffee, and Kane follows her around with a goofy grin on his face and trouble in his eyes, the other twin, the one they’re harboring while she heals from being a club whore, makes her way into the yard with her arms loaded with bags.
I glance away from my laptop to instead watch her through the lace curtain as she slowly moves across the lawn toward her shiny classic car. I hold my breath as she approaches the driver’s side, unlocks the door, and pulls it open. She grunts and works on getting the soft top back, then dumps her bags in the backseat and stops to smile at the horizon.
I don’t recall ever seeing her at Abel’s club, but there were a million women there, half of them were blonde, and Abel continued shoveling drugs into my system to make sure I couldn’t focus on much more than my next hit.
Laine Lenaghan stands beside her car and rubs her arms in the early morning chill, but her smile remains.
It’s almost like… freedom.
She’s dropping the shackles that’ve held her hostage for so long.
“Your blonde sure is pretty, huh?”
I swing my head around and smile when Soph walks into the living room dressed in sweatpants and a bra. It’s not a fancy bra, no lace or crystals, but a sports bra with the crisscross bac
k and all the support for the times she likes to dance and jump when she thinks I’m not watching.
She says she doesn’t like to dance, because it’s somehow disrespectful to her sister who will never dance again, but when she has five minutes alone, when the exact right song comes on her playlist and she allows herself the freedom, she lets go of her own shackles and starts floating as though gravity doesn’t govern her the way it does the rest of us.
“Mornin’, Sophia Solomon. You’re up early.”
She walks straight ahead and slides onto the arm of my chair. Smiling, I push my laptop aside and pull her into my lap so she can snuggle in. “Hey.” I press a kiss to the top of her head. “You okay?”
“Mmhm.”
“It’s early. What gives?”
“Knew you’d be up,” she yawns. “Knew Kane was leaving today.”
“So?”
“Didn’t want you to be alone when he drove away.”
Yeah. I let out a contented sigh. She loves me.
“That’s very wise and peaceful of you, Sophia.”
Snickering, she pulls her feet up so her knees rest against my chest and her hair tickles my nose. “They say my name means wise and peaceful. It’s what I do: I take care of my man.” The deep rumble of a classic Charger starts across town and echoes straight through to my chest. Laine’s head comes up outside, and a smile crosses her face. “Uh oh,” Sophia mumbles. “The guy who stole your brother is coming to steal your girl.”
“Asshole.”
She snickers and rubs circles on the base of my throat. “I’m not sure I ever expected to meet the jealous version of you. It’s endearing in a ridiculously petty and juvenile way.”
“Shut up. You’re juvenile.”
“Uh-huh.” Sitting taller, she searches, then grunts when she finds my half full mug of coffee. Bringing it to her lips, she folds back into my lap and helps herself. “You got anything to eat?”
“I got gummies?”
She sips and thrusts a hand between us, palm up. “I’ll take them. I’m extra hungry, since I only slept a couple hours.”
She accepts the handful I literally dump into her palm, and tossing a bunch into her mouth, she gives a contented sigh and relaxes into my lap. “It’s still kinda dark outside.”
“Sun will be up in twenty minutes, you watch.”
“Mm.” Nodding, she tosses more gummies into her mouth, then chases them with coffee and a sigh. “You scared?”
“Of what?”
She shrugs. “I mean, everything. But I was talking specifically about Kane leaving town right now. You lost him for months, finally got him back, and now he’s just up and driving away. Is it bothering you?”
“I dunno. I can’t decide. I guess it might be a good thing that he’s leaving for a bit, because if anyone’s looking, they’ll be coming here. Him being away can only be a good thing. But if they find him while he’s there, and I’m all the way over here with no way to shield him… he’ll throw himself down for her, which makes her a liability. I don’t like it.”
“You’d throw yourself down for me,” she murmurs. “They might consider me a liability, too.”
I squeeze her tighter. “You’re not.”
“I know I’m not. We’re stronger together; we protect each other. So maybe we shouldn’t underestimate his girl; she went to bat for him that night in Abel’s club. She was ready to run any asshole down to save him.”
I can still feel Jess in my arms, the way she fought me as I ran down the melting stairs, and the fiery pain from Abel’s bullets slamming into my back and piercing my lungs. “She was going to war for him.”
“Right, so if they find trouble where they’re going, I don’t think she’s going to cower and run. She’ll sound the battle horns, then she’ll remove their heads.”
“And we all know, every man deserves a murderous, treasonous, impulsive, and psychotic woman in their lives.”
“Life just wouldn’t be complete without one,” she laughs. Quieting when a fire-engine-red Charger pulls up behind the Buick across the street, Soph sips my coffee and presses a firm hand over my mouth when Angelo climbs out and walks toward Laine.
“Good morning,” Angelo’s voice rumbles through my laptop speakers, confirming my GPS placement is working. He fucking rumbles, just like his annoyingly awesome car.
“Hey.” Tucking her long hair back, Laine fights her giddy smile and does the girly I’m so into you, but I’m gonna pretend I’m not thing. “What’s up with your hair?”
“It’s sexy,” Soph murmurs with a smile. “He cut it short, and it looks good.” She lets the word roll out several syllables too long and sets my blood on fire.
“He looks fuckin’ stupid. Shut your mouth, Sophia Solomon.”
“Don’t hate on me, babe. You already know where my heart lies. Doesn’t mean I can’t like the dude’s new haircut.”
“It means exactly that.” I squeeze her till she gasps. “You’re not allowed to compliment him again.”
Twenty minutes after Angelo arrives, once Kane comes out of the house with Jess, and Eric follows, I catch words here and there about a business Kane is looking to start up.
“Checkmate Security,” Soph repeats just a moment after Eric does. “What do you think about that?”
“I think he’s looking for a way to hunt people, but now he’ll do it without going to jail, and he’ll convince people to pay him for it.” Smiling, I accept the gummy worm Soph slides between my lips. “I actually kinda like it. It’s a genius solution, and safer for him than what we were doing.”
“Have you thought about what you’re gonna say when this is all over? When you get to speak to him again?”
And now my smile is gone. “I haven’t.”
Secretly, I’ve wondered if that moment will ever truly come. There’s no real reason why it shouldn’t, but still, I don’t plan that far ahead. I’ll never escape the fact that I’m supposed to be dead. Maybe the universe wants me to stay dead. “I’m not sure what that day will look like; will it be a happy reunion? Sad? Will he shoot me? Will he be mad? Will I be mad?” He’s already replaced me.
“He won’t be mad,” Soph whispers. “He’s mourning you. He’ll be so happy to have you back.”
“Doesn’t look like he’s in mourning to me.” I nod toward the crowd and swallow my bitterness when Kane and Jess climb into the back of the shiny Buick, laughing, joking, elated at life, then Angelo slides into the front with Laine. “They look like a pretty solid unit to me.”
“The girls are twins, Jay. Of course they’re going to bring the guys closer. But that doesn’t mean you’ve been pushed out.”
Soph sits in my lap for at least an hour after the group leaves and Eric heads back inside the house. She pushes her hand into the back of my beanie and soothingly scratches my hair, and only when she can’t handle living on gummies any longer, when she needs real protein or risks dying of hunger, she leaves me alone while I listen to the laughter coming through the GPS feed inside the Buick. They joke; they flirt, and for the first time in my life, I become a fly on the wall while I meet this new version of Kane. He was always my protector, our serious brother, the one with the weight of the world on his shoulders. But now he’s free, happy; he’s taking on some of my characteristics with his stupid jokes.
But eventually, he makes me want to weep when he speaks of me, the baby brother he thinks he failed, and his voice breaks when my name passes his lips.
Walking back into the living room with heaped plates of bacon, eggs, and toast, Soph drops a tender kiss on the back of my head and blows hot air against my scalp. “I told you he misses you. Nobody could know and love you, and not feel like their heart was ripped from their chests when they lose you. He smiles because his girlfriend makes him happy, but he mourns his brother. I smile because you make me happy, but it doesn’t mean I forget Ellie. I haven’t forgotten her for a single second. You’re loved, Jay. So stop breaking your own heart.”
16
A Week
Jay
A week.
They’re gone for a whole week, and it goes by insanely fast, but at the same time, painfully slow. On the first day, after eight hours of eavesdropping on the friends as they drove, Soph sat by her computer with a steely focus and searched for our man.
Her research has come to a halt since leaving the Benson building – her main computer was destroyed and left behind, her paper files destroyed, her momentum broken. But according to her, the important stuff was saved digitally and is still available.
Right now, time is a problem because our enemy is searching just as eagerly as we are. The difference is, Kane’s not hiding anymore. They must know where he is by now, which means they’re planning the hit. They’re a billion steps closer to him than we are to them, and that pisses me the fuck off.
“CAB,” Soph sits in front of her computer and murmurs repeatedly, as though that helps her concentrate. “CAB, CAB, CAB. Who are you, motherfucker? I’m coming for you.”
On the third day, with tears in her eyes and shaking hands, Soph went into mourning because she found another player just like Abel and Trenton. That should be good news for us, but finding him meant finding the load of girls he was exchanging in that very moment. “It’s too far away,” she choked past quivering lips. Pushing her lunch aside, she ran a trembling hand through her messy hair and shook her head. “We can’t get there in time. We can’t save them.”
Soph made an anonymous phone call and reported that drop to the local police, and yet, the six p.m. news showed her faces that she’ll never forget.
We couldn’t get there in time. We couldn’t save them.
By the fifth day, I was ready to tear our house apart because planting a GPS tracker in their car was a good plan and all… until I realized too late that they would be parking at the hotel and leaving it there for their whole vacation. The town they’re staying in is small, and the girls yammered about suntanning and chilling out the whole time.