by J Bree
We voted Jackson and Viola in, unanimous though Illi is still a little pissy about it.
The Crow is still out.
“Thanks for letting us crash here kid,” Illi says, flinging his arm around my shoulders and squeezing me in a weird side hug.
I shrug. “Anytime.”
Ash rolls out of my bed and stalks past us, stealing my cup of coffee on the way through. “She says anytime but what she really means is upgrade your security so we never have to do this again. Being jammed in here all together like this has given me hives.”
I roll my eyes at him. Jammed in? There’s three times the amount of space in one of these rooms as what our group home had and we shared with eleven other kids.
Fucking rich kids.
Odie smiles at Ash like he’s her best friend, and my heart does this weird little clench over it. Everything that is happening is bringing us closer together as a family, so as long as we survive it, it’s all worth it. I will tell myself that every damn day until this war is over.
Illi grunts at him, throwing an arm around Odie’s shoulders and tucking her firmly into his side. “Alright, you grumpy asshole, we’ll get out of your hair before your blue balls fucking kill you. Horny teenage boys; I don’t know how you fucking keep up with them, kid.”
I will not blush. I’m a killer, dammit. “It’s not so bad. One of them is usually a grumpy dick and tantruming so it makes it a little easier on the… scheduling.”
Illi roars with laughter, fucking quakes with it, and whispers loudly into Odie’s ear, “Three guesses which one is the grumpy dick, baby girl.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
After Illi’s stabbing we decide to stay at Hannaford for spring break where the Crow’s men will be walking the grounds and watching the security cameras around the clock.
I spend the time pouring over the plans I’ve drawn up of the Jackal’s fortress, talking Avery through the best ways in and out, provided he hasn’t taken a fucking jackhammer to the walls in an effort to keep me out. Now that Illi has had to slow down his protection of us until his guts are less… perforated, the death toll in the Bay is only getting worse.
Avery stays true to her word and stops speaking to Atticus, leaving all of the planning and liaising to me. I quickly decide that I owe that girl another blood diamond because within days I’m ready to smash my phone and never replace the fucking thing.
I also grit my teeth the second I see Atticus’ phone number because it’s always him calling.
“You can’t induct another member of the Twelve. That’s not how the institution works,” he snaps, and I seriously consider stabbing my fork into my own eyeballs to get out of this conversation. Ash steals my coffee, the dick, and slips his hand onto my thigh, his fingers stroking and petting.
“Yeah, I know. I’m not inducting him, he just joined the family. It means he’s one of us.”
Atticus huffs down the line at me and I start to count in French to stay calm. “He’s just gotten a Wolf insignia tattoo. Viola got one too. They both wear your mark now and that’s not how things are done, Wolf.”
Well, fuck. “I didn’t ask him to do that. If you have a problem with it, talk to him. Just know, if you start shit with Jackson, we side with him.”
He hangs up on me. Grumpy fuck.
Ash squeezes my thigh. “We should go take a shower.”
Harley huffs and rolls his eyes from where he’s sitting at the other end of the table. “Avery will stab you for trying.”
I glance over my shoulder to where Avery is doing yoga in front of the TV. It’s been a part of her detox and she’s trying to focus on her dance more, to find her joy or some shit. I dunno, I just want her to be happy so I’m all about it.
“Good thing you’re going to stay here and keep her nice and distracted for us.”
Harley quirks an eyebrow. “And why the fuck would I do that?”
Ash smirks at him as his fingers drifts up until they’re stroking me through my shorts. I flush and Harley’s eyes flare.
“You keep Avery busy and I’ll sleep in here with her tonight so you can have our room to yourself. I’ll even talk Morrison into sleeping here as well, I’ll suffer through some bullshit movie for you.”
His fingers are fucking sinful. Without meaning to, my hips start to rock against them but I catch myself and snap my legs shut, glancing back at Avery who hasn’t noticed, thank fuck.
Harley stares at me for a second longer, then he stands to stalk into the kitchen for beer and snacks. “Fine. But you better get Morrison on board.”
Ash drags me into the bathroom with him and I follow him like a lost fucking puppy. He strips me off, biting his lip at the tiny scraps of lace covering me, a set he’d given me for Christmas that I haven’t worn for him yet. I fucking preen under his gaze.
He tears his own clothes off without a care and I drop to my knees the second his pants hit the floor. I lick my way up his dick, slowly sucking on the head and looking up at Ash in a way I know sends him insane, and he doesn’t disappoint.
“You look so fucking good down there, Mounty.” He groans, fisting his hand in my hair to hold me still so he can fuck my mouth. It’s taken me a minute to work up to this but now I can swallow around his dick like it’s my favorite fucking treat at the drop of a hat.
You’d think this was degrading, him using me like this, but the adoration in his eyes as he watches me is the best compliment and, when he pulls out to tug me to my feet, his kiss is intoxicating, his own type of worship that’s so different to the other two but just as fucking complete.
The bathroom door opens and Blaise stomps in, looking grumpy and tired. I glance over at him and Ash runs a hand down my spine, cupping my ass possessively.
“You getting in or not?” he grunts at Blaise, flicking open the shower door and lifting me in. I get my hand around his dick and slowly pump, hating that he’s stopped me from making him come. I’m sure he has other plans but fuck it, I’m pouting.
Blaise watches us both as he strips off, his eyes flaring as Ash positions me exactly how he wants me, tugging at my body and slapping my ass once I arch my back for him.
He slides in and I could die, it feels that good. My skin heats as Blaise’s eyes stay fixed on me, watching my body move as Ash’s hips start to grind against my ass, like he doesn’t really want to pull away. I moan, low and throaty, as he gets his phone out and takes a photo. I should snap at him, be fucking pissed off he’s leaving evidence someone like the Coyote could easily find, but right now I think I’d let him do anything just so long as he keeps watching me.
He hops up on the bathroom counter and fists his own dick, pumping it and groaning. Oh sweet merciful lord, I could die.
The bathroom door bangs loudly on the wall as Harley stomps in, dragging Blaise off of the sink and shoving him out of the room, nakedness be damned.
“What the fuck—”
“You know what, dickhead. Go walk Avery to ballet.”
Then Harley throws a pile of clothes at him and slams the door, ignoring the vicious curses my rock god throws at him and the equally enraged snarling from Avery.
Ash scoffs against the skin of my neck, his hips still pumping into me, so full I can’t fucking breathe. I didn’t think it was possible to feel more than what I am with Ash buried inside me, but when he pushes me forward, bending me so my hands are braced against the glass and he can hold my hips to move faster, I watch Harley slowly strip off and the fierce need in his eyes sets my body alight until I’m coming, squeezing like a vice on Ash’s fucking huge cock.
Ash grunts like he’s dying, and says, “Get the fuck in here before she makes me blow too fast. I want to watch her take us both.”
I shiver all over, the aftershocks of the orgasm rippling through me are nothing compared to the excitement of having them both at once.
Harley’s eyes track the shiver, the goosebumps, the gushing between my legs and around Ash’s cock, and the fire in his eyes only burns hott
er. He steps into the shower and grips the back of my neck with one big hand to pull my face up to meet his kiss. Ash releases his death-grip on my hips and pulls out, while I whimper pathetically at the loss of his perfect cock.
“Shh, babe, we’ll fix it. We’ll give you what you need,” Harley breathes in between his long and lingering kisses, deep and consuming.
He turns me around, shifting and lifting and tugging, until I’m held between them both, Ash plunging back into my pussy while Harley is lining up to take my ass. I let my head drop back onto Harley’s shoulder, the way it always does, and I stare into Ash’s eyes as Harley pushes in. The last thing I see before my eyes roll back into my head is the smug look on his face as they both take me apart. Pushing and pulling, groping and squeezing, the rough strokes of their hands all over me, a girl can only handle so much before I die.
Ash’s hand slides back up over my chest to my throat to tug my lips back to his. “Come around my cock for me, I want to watch you go over the edge with both of us inside you.”
My breathing stutters to a stop even before his fingers tighten, and Harley’s hand slides down over my hip to my clit, licking and sucking at my neck as he strokes and I’m a squirming mess between them. I can feel myself dripping around Ash as I come, shouting out so loud I pray Blaise and Avery have left for her dance class already. Ash grunts as he comes with me, his hips pumping as he strokes out his orgasm inside me. Harley groans slowly under his breath as Ash pulls out, dropping my legs down and bending me over until I’m back to where I started; braced against the glass door as he fucks me from behind. His fingers tighten on my hips when he lets out his own shout, coming so hard it joins Ash’s mess dripping down my legs.
I take a second to remember how the fuck to breathe.
Harley washes me off, his fingers gentle but firm, and my legs shake so much I have to hold his shoulders to stay upright. When his fingers slide over my raw and deliciously abused pussy I jerk away and he scoffs at me.
“You’re a fucking skittish thing.”
I’d poke him or something if he wasn’t holding me up. “Sorry, my brain is leaking out of my ears right now. Stop looking so freaking smug!’
He laughs at me. “I’m allowed to be smug for making you come so hard, babe. Come on, let’s get you into bed before Morrison gets back and throws his fucking tantrum.”
I stay in my room for the night because I have breakfast plans with Avery in the morning and don’t want to deal with pissy boys if she marches into their room at seven to get my ass up. Harley keeps his dibs on being with me for the night, leaving the other two snarking at each other as they go back over to their room, neither of them wanting to take the couch for the night.
Harley and I eat leftover pizza in bed with a movie playing on Harley’s beat-up laptop because finally having access to his inheritance hasn’t changed him one freaking bit.
When I mention this to him he quirks an eyebrow at me. “I dunno, I’m looking up what it’s going to cost to put my ‘Stang back together and I think I’m going to fucking pay it. It’ll triple the cost of the thing but… I think it’s worth it.”
I nod and put my coffee back on my side table, leaning back into his chest. “I think it’s worth it, too. It’ll still be less than what Avery spends on hair care for the year.”
His chuckle is a rumble under my cheek and I let my focus slide back to the laptop. The movie is an old action flick, something I’ve never seen before but Harley knows all of the words and pokes me when something important is about to happen to make sure I’m watching. It's cute but I can barely keep my eyes open, being here, warm and safe and wrapped up in his arms, it’s my happy place.
The door unlocks and Avery stomps through it like the devil in on her ass. “Lips, there’s another box. Lips, it’s—I can’t! I’m sorry!”
I jump up and off of the bed, Harley cursing up a storm behind me as he scrambles up. “It’s okay. I’ll get it. Go to the bathroom, or the boy’s room! I’ll sort it out.”
She clamps a hand over her mouth. “This one is different, Lips. I could smell it.”
Ah fuck. “Bathroom, Aves. I promise you, I’ll sort it out and have the smell gone before you’re out of the shower.”
Blaise stalks in after her, the box in his hands but held as far away from his body as possible. “It fucking reeks! This one isn’t fresh. I need to go burn my clothes and sit in a fucking bleach bath.”
I grimace as the smell finally hits me and, yep, this one has been dead for a few days. Fuck, depending on how much the skin has slipped we might not even be able to tell who the fuck it is. That adds a whole new layer of headache to this fucking situation! I’ll have to call the Crow and see if we can run the DNA through the police and FBI databases. Fuck, I’m also going to have to call the Boar and tell him he fucking sucks at sorting this shit out!
While I’m planning and raging in my head Blaise moves towards the coffee table to set the box down and out of his hands.
“Wait! I’ll get some plastic sheeting from Lips’ kit, don’t put it down until I do,” Harley snaps, and I wait until it’s all set up before I go over. Blaise tears out of the room and back over to his room, I’m assuming to burn everything he owns, and I snap on gloves before I slice through the packaging tape holding the box together. Ah, fuck. It’s leaking. Greeeeeat, dead head juice all over the fucking room to clean up. Avery’s going to have a freaking aneurysm.
The head is way too far gone to tell who it is. The bloating and the blood pooling makes it impossible to even guess an ethnicity. Long dark hair though, and it was once curled, so I’m going to assume it’s a woman for now. I reach in to move it in the box a little, just sort of shifting it for clues. I don’t want to lift it up in case the slipping skin… well, slips right the hell off.
That’s when I see the tattoo.
The fucking tattoo.
Fuck.
Holy fuck.
“Okay, we have a serious fucking problem. Avery, call Atticus and get him here now. 911, state of emergency, whatever it takes. Harley, call Illi and get him here too. We need the security surveillance and we’re officially on fucking lockdown,” I ramble, hoping I have all of our bases covered but holy fuck, this is a whole new level of bad.
“Who is it, Mounty?” Harley says, and I turn to see them both watching me. Avery is hovering in the bathroom doorjamb, but she and Harley both have their phones to their ears. Their eyes are glued to me, my face must be all sorts of fucked up.
“It’s the fucking Lynx.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
The entire school goes into lockdown.
Everyone is told that there’s been a bomb threat and Luca takes up watch at our front door. I invite him in, there’s no point in him sitting out there, but he shakes his head, all of his usual charm and smiles wiped clean.
Illi arrives, looking far more alive than the last time I saw him, thank fuck. He’s moving better, and the grins and cheeky jokes are back. He talks shit with Harley and Blaise as they start strapping their weapons to their body.
Ash leans against the bathroom door, already armed to the freakin hilt, and tries to talk Avery down from the ledge. She’s so freaked out by the smell and… fluids, she’s already had two showers. Her skin must be scrubbed raw by now, if she climbs in again she’s going to be shredded to pieces.
“You can swap rooms. You can have our room, and we’ll all stay over there until we’re sure this mess is dealt with.” His voice is coaxing and her answering snort makes it through loud and clear.
“So my choices are rotting brain matter or slipping in Morrison’s DNA matter? Fuck this, I’m dropping out!”
I slip my knife into the pocket of my ripped jeans and pull one of Avery’s cashmere cardigans over the soft v neck shirt I’ve permanently borrowed from Ash. I like that Harley’s necklace sits between my boobs and only the chain can be seen when I’m wearing this shirt. It feels like our own little secret, something between the four of us, like my cr
eed tattoo.
I lean against the door with Ash. “Aves, I’m going to deal with this and then I’m going to spend the rest of the night bleaching the entire room. You can stay over in the guy’s room until I’m done, Blaise will change all of the sheets. You and Ash can do a total renovation if you want. How about you get rid of all of their china and start again. That usually cheers you up.”
There’s a pause and then she says, “I am getting sick of the blue. I was thinking about a deep, forest green. Not olive.”
I pull a face because I have no fucking clue of what she’s rambling about. “Of course not, fuck olive. Do you think you can leave the bathroom now?”
She retches. “Not until the head is gone. And the smell, too.”
I sigh and turn to Ash who’s glaring at the box. Guilt pools in my stomach and I lean against him, my forehead pressing into his chest, and I mumble. “I’m sorry. My shit is haunting us again.”
He scoffs at me. “Your shit is just messing with our shit. She’s like this because of Joey and Senior, and technically your shit has dealt with one of those issues already. I don’t want her going down to the meeting with us while she’s rattled. She works well under pressure but not rotting-head-in-her-space pressure.”
I sigh again and he lets me lean on him for another minute.
Fuck, to think just a few hours ago I was being held up in that shower by him and Harley having the time of my fucking life, and now the real world has come back to slap me in the damn face again.
“Stop thinking about it. If Avery finds out we’ll have to burn the entire school down for her and start again. Huxerly is a shit hole, I don’t want to graduate there,” he murmurs, and my head jerks up to meet his eyes.
He traces his finger over my cheeks. “Pretty fucking obvious with this blush what you’re thinking about, Mounty.”