Rock and Gringo don’t give them a goddamn inch.
Five and six on their way out.
Two more come in the front opening right between me and Bull. These bastards stomp over the bodies lying at our feet, they couldn’t give two shits.
Bull and I take that second of unsteadiness as they’re running over top of their partners in crime. Bull lands a fist on the side of the guy’s head, dazing him, while I aim for the kidney. They go down, but they’re not out. We grab them in the same chokehold. I want to snap the guys neck. I don’t. We’ve been trained to detain and get information, not to kill. Not immediately.
Seven and eight.
“Why the fuck are you here?” I growl into the douche’s ear I’m squeezing the life out of.
Nothing but gasping and rasping sounds come from his mouth.
Of course he can’t answer me, but I’m so pissed off, I ask the stupid question.
“Who sent you?” Rock must have tightened his hold because his little playmate’s eyes bulge out of his head, his face red and his lips blue, and not a sound comes out of him.
“At ease, soldiers!” comes from the opening of our tent.
The light illuminates once again inside our quarters, the sudden brightness a shock to our eyes.
“Sir, yes sir,” the response comes naturally as we drop our attackers and slowly bring ourselves to attention.
It’s the commander, the one we’ve never seen.
“I knew you’d do well, soldiers,” he states casually, never mind we’ve got eight men on the ground around us. “This was your final test. I’m very pleased with each of you.”
“Thank you, sir,” we reply in unison, still standing at attention.
The bastards tried to get us killed. Joke’s on them.
“This was the final part of your training. Tomorrow you’ll be given leave. When you return, we’ll go over your first assignment. You will be briefed with the details and all necessary information. One thing that I must make absolutely clear.” He pauses as his gaze moves to each of us. “These will not be ordinary assignments. Use your leave wisely. You never know when you’ll receive your next one.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Good. Get cleaned up. We’ve got dinner waiting for you in the mess tent.” He looks over his shoulder. “Get rid of all of this.” There must be someone behind him. Turning his attention back to us, “I’ll see you in the mess hall.” He turns and leaves us.
Well, that was interesting.
“I hope they’ve got some steaks and mashed potatoes,” Bull says.
We all look at him.
He’s breathing heavy, we all are, and he’s tense with his fists balled. Still in attack mode. That doesn’t stop on command.
“Some apple pie would be really good right about now,” I laugh tightly.
The medics have come in and started working on the stab wounds.
“I’m sorry about your hand…and your foot,” Gringo comments roughly, making an awkward attempt at an apology.
Do you apologize to a guy you stabbed who attacked you during a military exercise, is there even a protocol for something like this?
“Yeah, sorry,” Rock adds.
Both men glare at them. “No problem,” one of them grits out tightly.
We wait as the medics and other soldiers get the eight men stable and on their feet. We might be…whatever we are, but we do have manners. It would be kind of rude to walk over them to stuff our faces. When they’re finally gone, we grab some clean clothes from our lockers and head to the showers. Even though we’ve done this every night after our time in the hole, tonight it feels different.
We feel different.
Things are different.
We don’t say anything. I suppose we’re letting what just happened, and what’s about to happen, settle over us. We’ve just closed a door on a part of our lives, on a part of ourselves, and tomorrow is a new beginning.
What we don’t know is if the worst is over, or is yet to come.
CHAPTER 5
Bull
When they said leave, I hadn’t realized the extent of what they were actually talking about.
Paid hotel rooms in Germany, transportation to wherever we want, and a stipend for meals.
This is pretty sweet.
The first thing we did after we checked in was sleep in a comfortable ass bed. Then we found a pub and got those burgers. We stayed there for hours, day slipped into night, the laughter got louder and the voices became slurred, suits turned into jeans and t-shirts, but at our little table against the wall, we still hadn’t decompressed. As glass mugs slammed onto polished bar tops, when an accented voice rose a little too high, our eyes darted toward the sound and our bodies tensed.
We might have left the hole, but the hole hadn’t left us.
Echoes of it were burned into both our psyches and our bodies, and both pulsed with the memories.
I would have paid a prostitute to let me hold her through the night. I craved the humanness of the tender moment, my soul hungered for the intimacy.
Turns out we didn’t have to.
Four pretty young things might have felt sorry for us pathetic bastards and befriended us. After a few rounds of beers, we took them back to the hotel. I was starved for the feminine smell of a woman, the softness of her skin, the lyrical sounds of a woman’s voice after months of screaming and vileness. My cock throbbed to feel her heat, but my soul hungered for her gentleness.
I fucked her. First I buried myself inside her as I stared into her face, then I pulled her on top of me and made her ride me, but I still hadn’t had enough. So I laid her on her stomach, lifted her hips, and took her from behind. She pushed me away after that and fell asleep, the sweet thing was exhausted. That didn’t surprise me, her poor pussy had taken a serious beating from my big dick. It’s both a blessing and a curse. I wrapped my arms around her and held her, sleep evading me, but that was fine. What I was looking at was much better than what awaited me in my dreams. What’s always in my dreams.
In the morning, I wasn’t satisfied but I kissed her goodbye and watched her leave.
As the day wore on, I was with my boys, but that restlessness only got stronger. We were all on edge. We’d been through everything together over the past three months. We’d gone from walking side by side through a living hell to a gluttonous civilization. We’d gotten exactly what we thought we wanted, but it wasn’t what we craved.
As Rock drained his beer, his eyes scanned the crowded room. It was Friday night, we were in a night club that was packed wall to wall, bodies grinding and sex hung heavy in the air. All the pretty young things were out to play. There had been a cloud over us all day and maybe we were trying to drink it away. We hadn’t succeeded.
Rock’s gaze was transfixed on something so I glanced see what it was. An attractive blonde had a fingernail clutched between her teeth, her lips separated, as her hips moved to the thumping bass. Her eyes flicked from Rock, to me, to Gringo, then to Snake. Something stirred low in my groin. Her eyes met mine again and a slow smile lifted her lips. Without thinking, I raised a hand and motioned her over.
“You calling dibs, Bull?” Rock asked as we watched her sashay her pretty little self over to us four big, bad wolves.
“We’ll see about that,” I murmured as I patted my lap offering her a seat.
She settled her sweet round ass on my legs, and my dick roared to life. The club was nice, each table was enclosed in its own alcove with a circular bench on one side of a small round table and a couple of chairs on the other. It was only big enough to hold bar glasses and nothing else, leaving only about a foot between me and Gringo seated on the bench, with Rock and Snake in chairs across from us.
Because of the horseshoe shape, we had complete privacy from the tables and people on either side.
“Do you speak English, little darlin’?” I pressed my mouth against her ear as I stroked her thigh with one hand and wrapped the other around her waist.
>
“Yes,” her lids dipped and she giggled as she wriggled on my lap.
My dick was very happy to have her join us.
“Would you like to party with us?” I asked as I shifted her so her back was pressed against my chest and she was facing forward.
From this position, she wasn’t facing me, but Gringo, Rock, and Snake. She was also sliding off the top of my legs unless she spread hers and wrapped her feet around the back of my calves. Opening her wide.
I slid my palms up her lap, my fingertips grazing the skin along her inner thighs. I felt her legs twitch wider under my palms as her chin dipped.
I’d bet a hundred dollars she was looking at my boys as they watched her. I could see their faces from over her shoulder and they looked every bit the hungry wolves.
Her head nodded once as she answered quietly, “Yes,” in her sing-song voice.
Her hands were on the table in front of her keeping her balanced on my big legs. Rock leaned forward and traced a fingertip along the length of her fingers. “You have such beautiful hands.”
She spread her fingers allowing him better access. “Thank you.”
Snake touched beneath her chin and turned her face to his. “You’re gorgeous. Is your boyfriend here?” He stroked a line across her jaw, down her neck, and along her collarbone.
Gringo traced up her forearm and over the inside crease of her elbow.
I felt her take a sharp intake of breath as she pressed her ass into my lap. I swelled and throbbed beneath her.
“No. No boyfriend,” she panted. Her back arched against me pushing her breasts out.
I slid my hands up over her skirt, pushing it a little bit higher, to skim over her stomach, and finally to rest on her ribcage, my thumbs promising to graze along the curves of her breasts.
“Would you like some beer?” Snake held an untouched beer to her lips.
She watched him as she curved her lips around the rim and let him tilt the glass so she could take a sip. As she drank, her body slipped and the beer splashed down her front. Gringo and Snake placed a hand on each of her thighs to stop her descent, Rock wrapped a hand around her wrist to catch her, and my grip tightened around her to keep her in place.
Her body stilled along with her breathing as the men’s eyes were riveted on her.
Her legs widened under their grip.
Rock was the first to move. “You’re wet,” he reached a hand out and touched the spot on the upper curve of her breast where the beer had spilled.
I could feel her heart pounding out a thump-thump-thump beneath my palms, and how she slightly pressed into his touch.
He saw it too.
As his finger trailed over the top of her soft mound, my thumbs grazed along the sides. Gringo and Snake’s hands slid upward toward the juncture of her thighs. Together.
I could feel her breathing get faster as her chest heaved up and down.
“Let’s dance, you pretty thing,” I asked and placed a kiss on the tender skin just beneath her ear.
She giggled again as I stood her up. When I took her by the hand to lead her to the dance floor, she grabbed Gringo’s hand and brought him with us.
We danced. We moved together for hours, all of us, the four of us and her, Me, Gringo, and her, Rock, Snake, and her. It didn’t matter, we all wove in and out of the movements, one picking up where the other left off. We were in tune with each other, and we brought her into our circle in the bar right there on the dance floor.
Although last night we’d found the tenderness we’d thought we craved separately, tonight we were a unit. Just like we’d been for three months. It felt right.
It was hot in the club and we wanted some air. The five of us pushed through the sweat slicked crowd and out the front door, we each had a slight buzz on from the beer, but none of us were drunk. We moved past the hipsters mingling at the door until we reached the end of the block. I pulled our little dove to me and settled her against me again facing the boys.
“You are all American?” she asked as she pulled out a cigarette from her tiny purse as our bodies still swayed together.
She lit it and offered it to me. I took it and sucked in a drag, then passed it off to Snake. He did the same and passed it off, and that’s how it went around our circle.
“Yes, doll baby, these are my brothers,” I answered as I nuzzled her neck.
She laughed at that. I don’t blame, there ain’t a chance in hell anyone would mistake us as kin.
“You are not brothers,” she stretched the word and rolled the r’s.
“Not by blood, but by the grace of God,” I slid my hands around her waist.
“You,” she slid her hand up Rock’s chest as her ass rubbed my erection, “you are his brother?”
Rock caught her hand and held it against his chest. “Yes, I am,” he said in that almost scary way he has. Then he brought her hand to his mouth and kissed each one of her fingertips. One the last one, he nibbled the fleshy pad.
I heard her let out a quiet moan.
She turned to Snake. “You and your white hair, (it’s platinum, and damn the boy couldn’t be happier he was able to get the roots done), are you Bull’s brother?” She reached up and ran a hand through his hair.
He took a step closer, caging our bird tightly between our bodies. She stood transfixed between us. He didn’t touch her, not with his hands. His chest grazed against the points of her breasts. Again I felt her take a deep breath and she shifted ever so slightly, just enough I’m sure sent a jolt of arousal through her body.
He leaned down to whisper in her ear. “I’m his brother. Always.” Before he stepped back, he placed a kiss against her cheek.
Finally, she turned to Gringo. My body moved with her, my chest still pressed against her back.
Gringo’s got this brooding persona about him, it’s intense and could be intimidating. She dipped her chin and lowered her head.
“Go ahead,” I whispered in her ear. “Ask him.” I stared into Gringo’s eyes from behind her. They flashed with mischief and lust.
Slowly she lifted her head so her eyes met his. He made her nervous, and excited, I could feel it in the way her heart pounded against me. They stared at each other as the seconds passed.
“Ask me,” he said quietly, his gaze never flinching.
A long pause passed. Her hand landed on my leg, maybe it was to ground herself, as her other reached for his.
“Are you his brother?”
He stared into her eyes. Then a slow smile lifted the corner of his mouth. I smiled too. He lifted her hand to rest on his heart. He leaned forward so his cheek was pressed against hers.
“I’m his brother.”
The little dove turned her face into his. Their lips brushed. I licked along her neck. Her tongue swept along his lips as her hand slid to my hardness. Gringo’s tongue swirled with hers. She palmed my bulge. I slid a hand under the curve of her breast and flicked the point. Their mouths closed on each other’s as she rubbed me over my pants. I took the peak between thumb and finger and rubbed it. I felt her moan long and deep.
Rock and Snake had stepped closer blocking everyone’s view to what was happening between us.
This, the connection we have is normal. For us.
The world might disagree.
Fuck them.
Gringo broke the kiss. She was breathing heavy as her body leaned against mine.
“We’re all brothers. The four of us,” he whispered against her lips.
We stood in our circle, we were just as connected as we’d been back at the camp.
“Come and have a beer with us at our hotel. It’s just around the corner,” I whispered into her ear as I splayed my big palm wide across her abdomen, pressing her deeper into me.
The cigarette we’d shared had long been forgotten, dropped somewhere while it had been passed.
Rock, Snake, and Gringo each took a step back in unison, the heat from their bodies noticeably gone.
She shivered against
me. “Okay.”
“Good, darlin’, very good,” I murmured as I bent down and placed a kiss at the corner of her mouth.
Gringo smiled devilishly, Snake mumbled something, and Rock just went mmhhmm.
Gringo led the way, I was on one side of her, Rock on the other, Snake taking the rear.
She was surrounded. She was protected.
She was ours.
We walked quietly, her hand in mine holding it tightly. I pulled her to me and put my arm around her shoulder to comfort her and to make her feel secure.
There wasn’t anyone in the lobby of the hotel as we walked through and toward the elevator. No one spoke as the doors slid open and the five of us entered. I stood behind her with my hands on her shoulders, Rock and Snake by her sides, and Gringo in front. I stroked her as their fingers feathered over her sides. She placed both hands on Gringo’s back to steady herself from the onslaught of sensations.
We hadn’t planned this; it was merely unfolding naturally.
When the doors opened, I kept my hold where it was as they each took hold of her hands. Gringo led us to a room, and at this point it didn’t matter whose it was. It was his. He held the door open for us as we entered.
The army did us right. We had luxurious rooms complete with a sitting area, a bed, and an en suite bathroom. I led our little bird to the couch and sat down next to her.
Gringo got each of us a beer.
I held mine up, “Here’s to meeting you tonight, beautiful.”
She giggled again as she touched her drink to mine. “Here, here,” the boys chimed and joined in.
I held the drink to my lips and drank slowly, my eyes fixed on her, hers on me, as Rock, Snake, and Gringo watched us, each of them leaning against the wall. There was no place to sit except the couch and the bed. I think they didn’t want to scare her so they opted to stand rather than getting comfortable on the bed.
Vengeance: The Program Book 4 Page 4