“No! No, it’s not—there’s nothing urgent. It’s…”
Mati’s chest tightened with alarm when her mother’s voice thickened, then choked off entirely.
“Mom.”
“It’s fine. We’re fine. We’re all healthy, and that’s what matters most,” her mother said.
Mati was pretty sure that was code for the arrival of the apocalypse.
“I’m on my way. I’ll be there in a half hour, maybe a little more.”
“No! No, it’s too late for you to come by. You’ll disrupt your father’s supper.”
Mati rolled her eyes. “Fine. If you promise me whatever is wrong won’t get worse between now and then, I’ll come tomorrow morning.”
Her mother sighed. “Okay. Come for coffee after breakfast. Your father will be at the office with the boys.”
Her father was retired. Or he was supposed to be. “The office? Is that why—”
“I have to go. I’ll see you tomorrow, sweetheart.”
“But—”
Her mother hung up. Mati tossed her phone onto the dash and swore.
“What’s going on?” Reese asked.
“I have no idea. Something is bothering my mother, but she won’t tell me what until I have coffee with her tomorrow morning.”
Only now did Mati realize she’d screwed up the plan for the next day and possibly made things harder for all of them.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I should have talked to you both before agreeing to see her. I know you want to get back to the house.”
“No, it’s fine,” Reese said. “We’ll spend the night in town at your place, even if Hodges gives us the all-clear. Everything can wait if your family needs you.”
Mati wasn’t sure her family deserved so much consideration, but she couldn’t ignore that her mother was upset.
“Do you think it’s something with their health?” David asked gently.
“No. I think it has to do with the company.”
“Their produce business?”
“Yes. Viveiros and Sons,” she said grimly. “I’m beginning to wonder if it doesn’t also have to do with whatever had Mikey calling me and stopping by the house.”
Reese frowned and reached for his phone.
“Hold that thought, Reese,” Mati said.
He tried to look innocent. “What?”
“You were about to ask your guys to investigate Viveiros and Son’s finances.”
Reese huffed out a laugh. “I was.”
David frowned at him. “Do you think they have to do with the break in?”
“What? No, no,” Reese said. “Different investigators, actually. I keep a firm on retainer to look into any company I do business with.”
David smirked. “You single-handedly keeping the Canadian private investigation industry afloat?”
“Yes,” Reese said dryly. “I live to serve my community.”
David laughed, and Mati left them to their teasing as she drove into Sydney proper and silently mulled over what little she knew. She was tempted to unleash Reese’s team on her family’s company, but she’d devoted a lot of time and effort to separating herself from the business, and she wasn’t going to dive back in without good reason.
She turned the last corner onto her street and forced thoughts about her family and tomorrow away. Soon she’d be in her own house, with Reese and David squished into her queen-size bed with her.
She parallel parked in front of her building. The bridal shop on the first floor was closed for the evening, but the featured gown was still lit up like some confectioner’s dream.
That was a lot of tulle, she mused as she climbed out of the car and waited for David to scan the street. The wind off the ocean was frigid, ripping right through her layers, but after spending most of the past two days in a stuffy car, she felt rejuvenated. The neighborhood was quiet, just a few people walking toward the restaurants nearby.
Her apartment was above the shop, accessed through a door to one side that led directly to the staircase. She’d rented for the first two years she’d lived here, then had purchased the building when her landlord decided to move south. It had been her first big investment, and her home for years.
“It’s pretty here,” David observed as he looked around. His eyes narrowed on a couple lingering a block up.
“It is,” Reese agreed, standing at his side. “Perhaps tomorrow we’ll take you on a tour. We can go to the harbor and you can bear witness to the world’s largest fiddle.”
David stopped scanning the street to look at Reese. “You’re joking.”
“I am not. It’s not three blocks from here,” Reese promised.
David turned to Mati.
“It’s true,” she said with a shrug.
He’d made the same face when Reese had put his exchanged Canadian cash into his hand. Mati grinned, her cheeks stiff from the cold but her heart warm and happy to have David here.
They quickly unloaded the car. She noted David left his right hand free and considered reminding him he didn’t have a gun. There hadn’t been a way to cross the border with it, not safely or sanely, so he’d left it locked in his safe at home. She could guess he felt naked without it, given the way he kept straightening his coat and shirt at the small of his back.
Mati hurried to her door, eager to get them all inside and warm. She thought they might do take-out from the Thai place around the corner, provided David didn’t mind that they’d have to go pick it up.
She heard footsteps approaching as she dug out her keys. David urged her and Reese closer to the door.
“Mati?”
Her keys slipped from her fingers and clattered to the bricks beneath her feet. She turned toward the street, her heart thumping. “Frankie, what are you doing here?”
David and Reese immediately closed ranks, Reese’s hand on her back and David dropping his bags to step forward.
Frankie’s eyes narrowed on him. “Who are you?”
“I’m David,” he said, holding out a hand toward Frankie.
Frankie ignored him. He glared at Reese’s arm where it disappeared behind her. “What’s going on?”
She followed David’s lead, keeping her tone polite. “Frankie, this is my friend David, and this is Reese, who you may remember me speaking about often,” she said, gesturing.
“Your boss?” he asked, judgment thick in his tone.
She bit back the desire to tell Frankie to fuck off. “Yes. And my friend.” She bent to pick up her keys without taking her eyes off Frankie.
“Do your parents know you’re here?”
She looked him over, stalling when she saw he had a cast on the arm tucked behind his back. In her head, she heard the crunch of bone as the panic room door swung shut. Fuck. She swallowed hard. “Why would you ask if my parents know I’m home?”
“I knew you were away,” Frankie said as if this were an accomplishment.
“And how did you know that?” Reese asked.
Frankie sneered. “I’m friends with her family. They told me she was away on business.”
Mati made a mental note to tell her family, again, not to share details of her life with anyone, and particularly not with Frankie. Not that it would do any good.
“I was away with Reese. Now we’re home and have things we need to do.”
Frankie didn’t appreciate the obvious dismissal, his eyes narrowing. “You fucking them both, Tilly? That would be just like you.”
David stepped forward, but she stopped him with a hand on his arm.
How had she been fooled by this loser? It was humiliating. “Frankie, go home and don’t come back.”
“I can walk down the street if I want,” Frankie said, trying to sound tough and coming off as petulant.
She stepped back and ran into Reese. “Then keep walking and get the fuck off my doorstep.”
Frankie’s cheek ticked, a nasty scowl twisting his lips. “You bitch. Is this why you dumped me? To fuck your rich boss instead? He gonna
give you a raise if you blow him before lunch?”
Reese’s hand curled into a fist against her back. She didn’t dare look at him. Her hands shook with the desire to punch Frankie.
David looked at her, his voice frigid. “What do you want me to do?”
“You fucking him, too?” Frankie sneered, jerking his chin at David. “Figures. You were always a whore, wanting to do all those sick things.”
Mati put a staying hand on David’s chest and pinned a narrow-eyed glare on Frankie, all plans for keeping things civil flying out the fucking window. “I’m not a whore, Frankie—you’re just fucked up. And as far as who I’m sleeping with, what if I am? What are you going to do? Tell my parents? Tell everyone you know? Go the fuck ahead, Frankie. It won’t change the fact that I was a fool to ever date you, and you’re a small-minded, petty, jealous loser who doesn’t know how to take fuck off as an answer and is still sniveling around my front door.”
Frankie’s jaw dropped, his face florid. “You fucking bitch. You can’t—”
David stepped forward and she didn’t stop him this time. “I think Ms. Viveiros was more than clear. It’s time for you to leave.” He glanced back at her and Reese. “Get inside, please.”
Without sparing Frankie another look, she shoved her door open and pulled Reese inside, nudging him up the stairs to make room for David, who was picking up the bags off the sidewalk while staring Frankie down.
Frankie sized David up, then flounced down the sidewalk. Guess he wasn’t as stupid as he looked after all.
As soon as David was through the door, she threw the deadbolt and let out the breath she had been holding. “Well, that sucked. I’m sorry I lost my temper.”
David frowned. “I would have punched his lights out if I’d been in your position. I was tempted to do it anyway.”
“I was trying to follow your example and make nice,” Mati explained as she unlocked the door at the top of the steps.
David nodded approvingly at the sturdy locks and solid wood door as she threw it open.
She flipped the switch to power the strings of fairy lights wound around her iron curtain rods and the frame above her iron four-poster bed.
Her apartment was one big, open space, her bed on a dais in one corner, her kitchen a long counter under the back windows and an island that held her oven and stove and sat three on the opposite side. Her steel stove hood gleamed in the twinkling lights.
Reese and David looked around curiously.
“I love the changes you’ve made,” Reese commented. He’d come with her when she’d had the building inspected before buying it, but hadn’t been back since. He poked his head into the bathroom, his laughter echoing. “You said you would put in a big tub, and I see you have.”
She wished she could enjoy giving them a tour, and appreciate the few minutes to shake off what had happened downstairs, but it needed to be addressed.
“Did you notice his arm was broken?” she asked.
Reese popped out of the bathroom, his smile gone. “I did. And it’s the right arm.”
She pulled off her coat and hung it on a peg by the door. “You think he’s the one whose arm was slammed in the door?”
“I think we need to consider it,” David said.
“Does that mean the Chaz thing was a coincidence?” Reese asked.
“Maybe. I think we have to look into that, too. Do they know each other?”
“No,” Mati said. “I don’t think so. Different ages, schools, churches, careers…”
Reese nodded. “I agree. It’s unlikely, though Sydney isn’t a large city.”
David sighed. “We’ve gone from zero working theories to two. I guess this is better than none.”
“Working might be generous. There are still a lot of holes in both,” Reese pointed out.
“Yeah, there are,” David said. “I’m going to call Chance and update him.”
“I’ll call Hodges and do the same,” Reese said. “I’ll make sure he’s seen a picture of Frankie, in case he has any ideas.”
“And I’ll order us some dinner,” Mati offered with a grim smile.
This wasn’t the homecoming she’d been hoping for.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Reese paced Mati’s apartment and told himself not to check the clock or his phone.
He checked. Again.
Fifteen minutes. The Thai place was a five-minute walk, and they’d been gone fifteen minutes.
He considered texting them but reminded himself that he was being ridiculous and he wouldn’t want to be a distraction. Frankie was out there, somewhere, and David and Mati should be keeping an eye out for him, not looking at their phones.
If they did see Frankie, Reese would probably have to bail one of them out of jail. Gladly. Hell, he’d kiss whoever socked that asshole right in the face.
He’d called Mati a whore.
Reese wanted to run him over with every fucking car he owned.
He made another turn around the apartment, collapsing on the bed when he reached the far corner. He stared up at the metal frame suspended high above the mattress, noticing how the fairy lights cast interesting shadows on the ceiling. The gauzy white curtains gave the bed a romantic air, softening the black iron. He rolled his weight back and forth a few times to see how solid the whole thing was—purely for science—and accidentally kicked over the small set of drawers Mati used as a bedside table.
Reese jumped off the bed, pleased to see the lamp hadn’t broken. He quickly scooped it and the dresser off the floor, dumping out two drawers in the process.
He choked back a hysterical laugh at the collection of objects scattered around his feet. He’d been considering ways to cheer Mati up, and the sturdy harness and veritable rainbow of dicks in a variety of sizes might be just the thing.
Collecting the contents of the drawers, he tucked them away, knowing without question that Mati had an organizational system for all this and he was getting it wrong. He’d tell her what he’d done as soon as she got home, but in the meantime, he figured it was better to clean up than have to explain why he was standing there with a dick in each hand.
He’d just snapped the second drawer shut when he heard a key in the lock. By the time they got the door open, he was there, drawing them into the apartment and kissing them both.
“Miss us?” Mati teased.
“Yes,” Reese admitted with a helpless shrug.
It wasn’t quite the whole truth, but it was close enough.
They ate at Mati’s dining table, their legs tangled together. They each had ordered one item, but now they shared, feeding each other from their own forks. It was ridiculous and inefficient and perfect. Reese hardly said a word while he watched Mati and David flirt, letting his mind wander back to the drawers beside Mati’s bed.
He didn’t confess what had happened until they were cleaning up and David had excused himself to the bathroom for a quick shower and to change for bed. By then, Reese had dreamed up something of a plan. One that might convince Mati there wasn’t anything she could do, or ask for, or want, that would make David or Reese think less of her, and that would hopefully make David’s trip all the more memorable.
“I’m sorry, but I was lying on your bed and I overturned your nightstand,” Reese said as they stood at the sink. He explained what happened. “You’ve got quite a collection there.”
Mati laughed. “Did you see anything you like?”
“God, yes,” Reese muttered, cheeks flaming hot. “And I have an idea for tonight…”
Mati arched her eyebrows, clearly intrigued.
David was still drying his hair when he stepped out of the bathroom ten minutes later. He stopped short when he found the room dark, except for the fairy lights, and Reese and Mati sitting on the edge of her bed, naked, waiting for him.
David dragged his eyes over them. Reese’s erection grew and he made no move to hide it.
“I feel overdressed,” David said, gesturing at this pajama bottoms.
“Allow me help,” Mati said, going to David’s side. In two quick moves, she tossed the towel back through the bathroom door and dropped his pants to the floor.
He wasn’t wearing anything underneath.
Reese would never get used to looking at the two of them, to dragging his eyes down over their lovely bodies, their skin bare and smooth. There wasn’t an ounce of shame, embarrassment, or modesty in either of them. Nor should there have been.
Reese stood. Some little voice in his head still screeched at him to cover himself, but he drew his confidence from theirs. From the long, appreciative looks they ran over his body, lingering on the many, many marks the two of them had left behind.
They came to him. David cupped Reese’s head in his hand for a long, drugging kiss while Mati’s hands fluttered around his ribs, his hips, finally curling around his cock.
It would be easy to let things go on like this, but tonight he had a plan to spoil the person who was always, always spoiling them.
He broke off the kiss and smiled at David.
“Get on the bed. In the middle. And lie on your back.”
Mati’s hands froze, and she watched David to see what he would do.
“Okay,” he said at last, little smile hovering.
As far as Reese could tell, David didn’t have an expression in his repertoire that couldn’t be filed under Dead Sexy. But maybe that was less about David’s face and more about Reese’s heart.
David stretched out on the bed, his hands loose on the sheets by his hips. His cock was half hard, lying across his hip.
Reese crawled onto the bed, nudged David’s knees apart, and knelt between them. He ran his hands up David’s thick thighs. “Anything you don’t want me to do?”
“I’ll be damned if I can think of anything right now,” David admitted. “I promise I’ll tell you if that changes.”
“Good,” Reese murmured. He ducked down and licked the length of David’s cock, enjoying the sound punched out of David’s chest and Mati’s husky laughter. He ran his tongue along the thickening shaft and swirled it around the tip, wetting the soft skin and sucking it into his mouth.
When he’d done this before, David had already been hard and leaking, but now Reese tasted nothing but Mati’s soap. Determined to gather at least a hint of David’s bitter taste, Reese sucked harder, curling his hand around the base of the shaft and sinking down until his lips touched the side of his fingers.
Breaking Out Page 27