Complicated

by M. M. Koenig

  “Ethan, can you get us inside Harrison’s office undetected?” I inquired, my voice hopeful.

  “Yes, but why? Until Monday, I imagine he’ll have people over your every move even more than he has in the last few months,” Ethan pointed out.

  My lips curled into a devious smile as my first real plan came to mind. “I’m sure you’re right, but if we can crack his network, I have a strong suspicion we’ll all be happy that we did.”

  Ethan shook his head but his eyes gave away the pleasure he found in my idea. “Give me a few hours. I’m going to go put out some fires at the office with Sean and Colin.”

  I tensed. “Are you sure it’s safe for you to go?”

  Ethan squeezed my cheekbones and said, “Don’t worry about me. I have a lifetime of experience in playing those two clowns. If I’m good at anything, it’s smoke and mirrors.”

  With each stroke of his fingers, my body started to calm. It was time to accept my fate and start putting together my own set of plans. Clearly, Ethan had a general idea of what he was about to do. I was ready to make the same commitment. He leaned into me before running his nose along mine. His lips pressed against me for a quick kiss. My grin widened as he continued to relax. Ethan released my face and directed us towards Trey and Bri. Trey was more than eager to get the show on the road as he hopped from foot-to-foot while pounding his fists together. Bri was about ready to faint, looking at how pale she had become. In the upcoming days, if there was anything I was absolutely sure about, it was that she wouldn’t be with us. Above any other person, she needed to be as far away from me as possible.

  My mind drifted to how to pull that off without clueing in Trey. My thoughts broke when the doorbell rang. I arched an eyebrow at Ethan. It wasn’t really the time for company, so either he was up to something or there was a hitman at his front door. Trey and Bri watched Ethan, just as curious as me. We followed him to the entryway. As we neared, several voices were very familiar – along with the bickering. The complexion in Bri’s face started to return to normal as she glanced at me with a tiny smile. Ethan gave my side a playful pinch before he opened the door. My body welcomed the warmth spreading through it from the faces in his doorway.

  “It’s about fucking time. I know you’re like the puppet-master to all things, but I’d rather not get a cap in my ass while waiting on you,” Ziggy grumbled.

  Ethan pulled him in for a headlock. They wrestled for a minute before Ziggy straightened up, shot me a wink, and stepped aside to let in Wade, with Kane close behind him. They flashed crooked grins in my direction before slapping a hand on Ethan’s back. Olivia, Tristan, and Dom strutted in with wide smiles and closed the door behind them. Shane and Jackson joined us, clearly curious at what was going on.

  Ethan whistled loudly before he took my hand and said, “Now that the reinforcements are here, let’s go grab some food. The next few days promise to be fast-paced, so we should eat.”

  Wade and Kane gave each other high-fives as they walked down the hallway. Dom, Ziggy, Shane and Jackson exchanged enthusiastic smiles as they headed for the kitchen. Trey grabbed Bri’s hand and dragged her along with them. She rolled her eyes, but snuggled into his side as they followed the others. I motioned for Olivia and Tristan to stop. Ethan caught on and pointed to his bedroom. They exchanged puzzled looks, but walked with us into his bedroom.

  Once we were inside with the door closed, I turned to Olivia and said, “There’s a lot ahead of us with very little time, so I’m going to cut to the chase. I need you to stay here with Bri while everything goes down.” I paused to glance at Ethan and Tristan. They nodded in agreement. Olivia scrunched her eyebrows in demand for more. I sighed and disclosed, “Bri’s pregnant. Trey doesn’t know yet. Her body has probably had more than enough stress put on it at this point. I don’t want her to lose the baby because of my mess. Please, just do this for me.”

  “Yes, of course. I don’t like the idea of being separated from Tristan, but it’s definitely more important that Bri stays out of danger. Are there any other secrets with this group? It seems like everyone has something to hide around here,” Olivia remarked, glaring at Ethan.

  I glared at him too. “Yeah, you’re spot on there. To say we have issues when it comes to being honest with each other is an understatement. I’m sure more than one of us will be taking a step back to reevaluate things after this is all said and done.”

  Ethan’s face fell as his eyes avoided me. Tristan cocked an eyebrow at the bitterness in my tone. Olivia glimpsed between Ethan and me before pulling me in for a hug and whispered, “Just try to get through the next few days before you make any rash decisions. I promise I’ll take care of Bri. We came because we care about you and Ethan.”

  I stepped away to join the others. They followed behind me without a word. While walking through the hallway, I pinched the bridge of my nose with every hope it would silence the angry voices in my head. For now, I needed Ethan in every way. My heart pounded at a steady pace in agreement with my mind.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Bad Feeling

  We spent the rest of Friday preparing for the showdown tonight. As it turned out, taking a day to actually plan was invaluable. We’d be on separate sides of the city when it all went down, so making sure everyone was on the same page was vital. Bri didn’t want any part in the plan. Trey was more than pleased with. Tristan made it easier to silence her by insisting Olivia stay too, so that the women were out of the line of fire. Olivia acted her part by putting up a fuss with Tristan. Bri pointed out that I was going with everyone, but she didn’t have a leg to stand on, judging by the deranged looks everyone shot her after she said it.

  Like I’d really sit on the sidelines … this is happening because of my fucked-up past.

  Ethan met with Sean and Colin. For the time being, they seemed content with the bullshit he fed them. He explained to me that he told them that he was leading me on to get to that meeting. Given the circumstances, it was really hard for me to not give that notion a little credence. He claimed he had known what they were up to from the beginning, so he went after me to make it that much easier to get their money back. It kept up appearances, and was perfectly logical, so Colin and Sean hadn’t pressed him on it.

  They questioned my involvement with Harrison. Ethan supported their outrage. He was quick to suggest that they should meet with him to keep anyone else from getting to me. Sean and Colin agreed. They set up a meeting at their office and Harrison accepted. Ethan knew why they wanted Harrison on their turf. He became really pale when he said that people on the wrong side of Sean and Colin rarely walk away from the building. After that admission, I had a better idea of what the rooms in the secret passages were used for. My body had defaulted into freak-out mode. My cuticles were about as raw as they possibly could be.

  While Ethan was at the office, I requested that he pull some information on Sean and the entire Fitzpatrick family for me. What I didn’t tell him was that I wanted it for insurance. I managed to find a minute to myself to go over it all in his office. My instincts were right for once. Everything on the USB Jayden had given me was more than enough for my backup plan. For the time being, I chose to keep it to myself. I knew it was going to be very important should something go horribly wrong.

  Ethan was as connected as he promised. He seemed to have ties everywhere. They sprang up left and right as we planned everything out. It turned out that Harrison wasn’t the only one that had moles. A few of Ethan’s clients had been working at Inside Out for a few years. They had been keeping tabs on things, since the magazine was on the climb. It blew my mind that Ethan hadn’t smoked out Harrison with the amount of information he had against him. He reasoned that you waited until the timing was right for that kind of tear-down. It was more than scary for me to wrap my head around how very calculated Ethan was with some things. Ziggy was right when he called him a puppet-master. I suspected there was a very good reason that people never crossed him. When Ethan returned from his
office, he had the passcodes to Harrison’s network and keycards for us to get into Harrison’s building and suite.

  The couples secluded themselves late Friday night while the rest of the guys divided themselves between Ethan’s game room and the living room. We took advantage of what could very well be the last time we were together. Being intimate with Ethan was pretty much the only thing that gave my poor body a break from my torment. It had nested deep inside of me without showing any signs of leaving.

  After Ethan fell asleep, I slipped away to check on Micah. Friday was a rough day for him. They tried to go in to do more surgery, but he flat-lined on the table. I almost fainted when his mom told me. They were able to revive him but weren’t planning on going back in until he was in better shape. Our call was short, since there was no real change in him. Whether I wanted to admit it, Micah’s condition didn’t show a lot of promise for improvement. Every time my thoughts circled to him dying, I practically collapsed from the guilt. Everyone kept telling me that it wasn’t my fault, but I wouldn’t hear it. As far as I was concerned, if Micah died, his blood was on my hands.

  The guys ran around throughout the day on Saturday to get everything lined up. By sunset, we were ready. We heeded Kieran’s warning by arming ourselves. I despised the idea of carrying a loaded weapon, but it didn’t seem very bright to go anywhere without one. It was even more disturbing that Dom was able to procure the arsenal of guns scattered across Ethan’s island. My stomach started to eat itself at the notion of having to actually fire one.

  Ethan startled me when he slid his arms around me. He rested his chin on my shoulder after I stopped jumping from side-to-side from my jittery nerves. We stood in silence as his hands worked to comfort me. He ran them along my arms in soothing patterns until I focused on him. He gave me a swift kiss before shuffling us closer to the island. He picked up a Glock and slipped it into his jeans before sliding on his bomber coat. I chewed on the inside of my mouth as my fingers trailed along the island. Ethan sighed before selecting a handgun for me. He slid it into my pocket with his face tight.

  “It’s just a precaution Mia,” Ethan said quietly.

  I swallowed down the acid trickling up my throat. “I know. It doesn’t mean I like it.”

  He rested his forehead on mine before taking my hands securely into his to stop me from fidgeting with my necklace. If I kept tugging at it, it was likely to snap right off. He squeezed my hands as his lips brushed lightly against mine. I swayed back and wiggled my hands free. I wrapped them snugly around him and rested my head above his heart.

  “You get in, and you get out. When you’re done, meet us at the rendezvous point. Kane will stay here with Bri and Olivia,” Ethan murmured, hugging me like he never wanted to let go.

  I snuggled into him even more as my anxiety hit the roof. “We will. Please try not to get yourself killed tonight. It eases my nerves some that Tristan, Dom and Ziggy will be with you. They should be able to prevent you from doing something completely idiotic.”

  Ethan’s back tensed. I tilted my head to him. His eyes were sketchy. I arched an eyebrow.

  “They won’t be with me. I can’t have them inside when everything goes down or the rest of the plan won’t work.” My chest tightened as I looked away. Ethan tilted my chin to him. “I’ll be fine. And just so you know … I love you,” Ethan said, sweeping in for a deep kiss.

  “I love you too. Please be careful,” I requested breathlessly.

  I was about to dive in for another kiss when Ziggy cleared his throat from the entryway. We turned to face him. His eyes were apologetic as he said, “It’s time to go.”

  We followed Ziggy down the hallway to join the group in the living room. The guys were ready to go and were chattering by the front door. Tristan had Olivia in his arms. She wasn’t crying, but her eyes showed that she was locked in complete terror. Tristan continued to whisper to her until she seemed somewhat calm. I glanced at Trey and Bri. She was sobbing into his shoulder. We couldn’t hear them as they whispered, but it was more than clear that she kept begging him not to go. He clasped her face gently and kissed away her tears. Once she’d calmed down, Trey strode our way with Tristan behind him. Olivia joined Bri as they watched the rest of us file out of the apartment. I glimpsed over my shoulder to see the same hopeless look in their eyes. Sharp pain attacked every facet of me for doing this to them. I was happy I didn’t say goodbye to Bri. It would have tipped me over the edge. The look I had seen in her eyes had practically cut me off at the knees. Ethan squeezed my hand as we brought up the rear.

  The guys piled into two separate elevators, but Ethan steered us into the remaining one to ride down alone. Once we were inside, I tried to separate myself from him, but he towed me into his body. He shuffled us to the middle and pressed my back against the wall. I stared at the intensity in his eyes. His hands flitted along the waistline of my jeans before he ran them up the inside of my T-shirt. My mouth opened, but he silenced me by crashing his lips into mine. I gasped and closed my eyes as his tongue deeply explored my mouth.

  My mind fought for control since it wasn’t really the time or the place, but my body beat it back with bursts of heated desire shooting in every direction. My heart skipped beats and my stomach fluttered at the thought of what this man could to me in a matter of seconds. My hands grasped tightly around his neck as he rammed his body into mine. It reinforced the eagerness he had in my mouth as our tongues tangled. I almost forgot about the grave night ahead of us, but then the elevator came to a halt. Ethan’s teeth grazed my bottom lip before he stepped away. My eyes opened in enough time to catch the deep love behind his.

  I shook my head while trying to catch my breath. I wanted to hunch to my knees to get control over my body again. At the moment, it was dead set on pulling the emergency alarm so I could have my way with Ethan. I remained upright and continued to will my body into a functional state that didn’t revolve around sex.

  Bastard. If I ever figure out how he does this to me, I swear I’m writing it down. It’s beyond annoying that he has this part of me figured out when I don’t even understand it.

  Ethan smirked. “It’s the only way to calm you down.”

  “Calm me down … you fired me up. Luckily, what we’re about to do is more than enough to cool me off,” I retorted as we walked out of the elevator.

  His smirk vanished and he gripped my hand. We strode towards his parking spot where his BMW had been replaced with two black Lexus LX570s. My boys, along with Wade and Jayden, had loaded into one. Trey was in the driver’s seat with the passenger one empty. He directed us over to it and escorted me in as Trey started the truck. Before he shut the door, Ethan rested a hand on my cheek before glancing around the rest of the vehicle with a hard look in his eyes.

  “Don’t let Mia out of your sight. If anything happens to her, I’ll beat each one of you bloody without a lick of remorse,” Ethan warned. I opened my mouth to tell him to knock it off, but he pinched it shut. “I mean it. I won’t stop for any reason, and they need to know that.”

  “She’s safe with us,” Wade and Jayden assured from the far back.

  They were our tech force for tonight, so I didn’t doubt they were syncing up their laptops. The crap they were murmuring to each other didn’t make a shred of sense. I glanced in the rearview mirror to see the seriousness on their faces as they continued to pore over a variety of different codes while talking in a lingo all their own.

  “We won’t let anything happen to her,” Jackson echoed from behind me.

  Shane was next to him with his fists tightened together. He gave Ethan a tight nod before looking out his window. My eyes drifted back to Jackson. Out of everyone in the car, his expression was the most difficult to read. His eyes told me that he was eager to get it over with, but there was something else I couldn’t quite place. I shrugged it off. I had more than enough to deal with than to try and analyze what he might be thinking. I didn’t need to look at Trey to know he was anxious to get a move on. His
riled huffs were in time with the hand he kept running through his hair. My heart dropped at having to involve him. I’d never forgive myself if I screwed up his life on top of Micah’s.

  I bit down on Ethan’s finger so he’d step away. His mouth slipped into his naughty grin. “Plenty of time for that later, love. I plan to continue what I started in the elevator,” Ethan promised with a wink.

  The guys started to chuckle as I blushed fiercely. He had to toss that out there. In this company, it was an invitation to be picked on. I narrowed my eyes for him to get the hell out of the way. His hands lingered through the open window before they dived down to grab mine. He brought them to his lips where he kissed my ring lightly. He gripped the side of the truck and prepared to let us go. His face became torn and he took a deep breath.

  “Please don’t do anything stupid tonight,” Ethan requested as he backed away.

  With my breaths in spurts, I gazed at him and whispered, “Ditto.”

  I looked at Trey and signaled for him to drive off. I settled my feet on the dash as we made the short jaunt towards the heart of downtown. I almost wished for a Xanax to ease my nerves. They were like a game of Plinko as they bounced all over the place. Trey released his death grip from the steering wheel and flicked on the radio. It was more than welcome to drown out Wade and Jayden. It was no surprise that my boys and I remained completely silent and avoided looking at each other. We knew one another well enough to know that we were carrying a shitload of worry for what we were about to do. If we messed up, their futures were over, and that was without factoring in the element of danger.

  Without any further time to dwell, Trey parked in front of the skyscraper housing Harrison’s office. Shane and Jackson hurried out of the truck, but Jayden and Wade remained in deep discussion in the back. Trey turned around to face them, unmistakably annoyed. “If you nerds are about ready, I’d like to get this over with,” he said, tossing the keys towards Wade.