“Seriously?” He raised a brow.
“What?” I smirked.
“You got the kid drunk?” He turned his wrist, taking a look at the face of his thick, black watch. “Doesn’t he have a curfew?” When Jedd looked back up at me, he was smiling. It was a smile I realized I hadn’t seen in so long. One I’d missed.
“Shut the fuck up and have a drink.” I pointed to the stool next to Deeks, but Jedd shook his head and turned to scan the bar.
“Can’t. I’m looking for K-Dog.”
“Kenny?” I scanned the bar with him, realizing Kenny was another face I’d missed recently. Everyone had stayed clear of me before I’d woken up from the dark, murky waters of my grief, but I’d never gotten around to telling them I was working toward being better now. It was safe to come out of hiding. I wanted my fucking brothers back.
“Yeah,” Jedd blew out, his eyes searching every chair, sofa, and whore in the place.
“What’s the little piss ant done now?”
“Nothing. He said he wanted to spar with me tonight. He ain’t in the training room where he’s meant to be, though, and I ain’t letting the fucker stand me up.”
I huffed out a laugh just as Rubin drained the last of his fourth beer and dropped the bottle back to the bar. He leaned back, holding onto Deeks’ shoulder as he tried to look up at Jedd’s face. “Kenny? You’re looking for Kenny?”
Jedd glanced down at Rubin through suspicious side eyes. “Yeah, kid, what about it?”
Rubin listed to one side before Slater pushed him upright, causing Rubin to chuckle like a boy who’d just been caught doing everything he shouldn’t be doing. When he leaned forward and rested his arms on the bar, he looked up into my eyes and grinned, showing me all his pearly white teeth.
“Everyone knows where Kenny always is, these days.”
I raised a brow, not speaking or needing to encourage him to go on. A drunk man’s secrets are always standing on the edge of their tongues, waiting to jump free.
“He’s in bed.” Rubin waved a hand in the air flippantly before he flopped forward and dropped his head to the crook of his arm.
“Bed?” Jedd’s nose creased as he looked at me.
“He’s a lazy fucker,” Slater mumbled.
“Leave the boy alone,” Deeks chimed in.
“Shall we?” I asked, eyeing Jedd and Slater.
Their faces lit up with old-school mischief, the kind I hadn’t seen in them for a long time.
“Lead the way, Tucker.” Jedd waved his arm in front of me, gesturing for me to go first. Walking out from the bar, I pushed my finger to my lip and urged them to follow. I was up front, my two main men behind me creating the perfect guards on my shoulder.
Just like old times, I thought.
When we got closer to Kenny’s room, I glanced over my shoulder at both of them, making sure to keep my voice down when I spoke.
“Slate, you get the comforter off him. Jedd, you help me strip him.”
“Roger that.” Jedd’s smile was devilish.
“Slate, cover his mouth so he can’t squeal like a girl. Jedd… you get down the business end.”
“Fuck. Why I always gotta be near the dick?”
“Sucks to be VP.” I slapped him on the shoulder.
“We haven’t done this in years,” Slater whispered, a touch of nostalgia and sadness tainting the edges of his voice. We both turned to look at him, and he stared right back, not sorry for the words he’d set free. “What? We haven’t had fun like this in years. We used to do this shit all the time.”
“Some of us got too big to carry,” I hit back quietly, the corners of my mouth twitching with amusement.
“But not Kenny,” Slater whispered.
“Not Kenny.” I laughed as quietly as I could.
“We taking his naked ass to the bar once we’ve got him?”
“Then straight out into the yard, over to the training room.”
“Fuck, he better not want to fight me naked with his dick swinging about,” Jedd mumbled.
My chest bounced with silent laughter before I leaned forward, reached for the door handle and began to push it down as carefully as I could.
“One…” I looked back one more time before I faced forward again. “Two…”
“Three!” Slater pushed me, sending me flying into the door with a crash, forcing it to fly open and the three of us to stumble into Kenny’s room with not a single fucking ounce of grace about us.
“Shit, Slate, you motherfucking idio—”
I didn’t get to finish. The loud female screech, followed by the sound of bodies scrambling and Kenny cursing under his breath had the three of us standing upright and staring at the sight in front of us.
Kenny.
Naked.
With Sloane.
Also naked.
The two of them very much joined together by sweaty skin and lust-filled eyes.
We were standing in the middle of a live foreplay show, and all any of us could do was let our mouths hang open, and our eyes widen as we waited for Kenny to let go of Sloane’s legs that had been perched on his shoulders while he…
“Jesus fucking Christ!” Kenny shouted. “Motherfuckers! Why are you… what are you…?” He dropped her legs and quickly tried to cover her with his comforter. He was all peachy little hairy ass and tensed shoulders as he scrambled around the bed, trying to move so he could cover himself too.
“Oh my God,” Sloane released on a breath of embarrassment. She pulled the sheet up to her chest and sat upright, pressing her back against the cold wall behind her. Her cheeks flushed like Kenny might have spanked them, too.
Jedd instantly turned around to face the other way, ever the gent.
But with one glance at each other, Slater and I came alive, and it only took a second for our eyes to light up and the rough burst of laughter to be set free. I doubled over, practically wheezing as I dropped one hand to my knee, my other reaching up to hold onto Slater’s shoulder.
“Get the fuck out!” Kenny shouted.
“I’m dying,” Sloane said quietly. “I’m dead. I am so dead.”
Slater and I followed Jedd’s suit, the two of us facing the other way so as not to embarrass Sloane any further, but Kenny was fair game.
I was just about to rip into him when I focused on a blonde figure walking towards me, a scowl on her face and her hair swinging behind her.
“Oh, shit,” I mumbled, all humor dropping from my face as I realized just how serious this shit was about to get. “Ayda.”
Ayda looked between the three of us and over our shoulders where I could only imagine Kenny was trying to drag something on. She tipped her head to the side in question, her frown easing.
“What did I miss?” she asked quietly.
Jedd squeaked as much as Jedd could squeak, given he sounded like Barry White on a light day. He cleared his throat, bowed his head and pressed his lips together. It didn’t take long for Slater to follow him in the exact same way, right down to the way their shoulders bounced with silent laughter.
“Hey, darlin’.” I grinned, my hands hanging by my sides as I curled my fingers into my palms and tried not to laugh. Sutton was going to have a shit fit, and I had no idea which way Ayda was going to go, too. She loved Sloane, in a way. She loved Kenny, too, and even I knew he’d overstepped the mark on this one. “You look fucking beautiful today,” I told her in that voice of mine I knew she loved so much.
Her eyes zeroed in on me, a shrewd gaze making the corner of her mouth twitch as she tried to get a read on the situation. It didn’t help that Slater and Jedd were still lost in silent laughter, or that Kenny could be heard bouncing around on one foot, the chain from his belt rattling as he hissed and cursed to himself. Ayda stepped forward, easing closer to me and stopping dead when, I assumed, she saw Sloane in the bed trying her best to look invisible.
“What the—?” Ayda looked around the room and shook her head again. “You know what? I don’t want to kn
ow. I just don’t remember my hormones being this fucked up at this age.” She looked in the room again. “You don’t have that excuse though, do you, Kenny? You should know better!”
I stepped closer to block her view, pressing one hand to her stomach while my other grabbed her waist. She tried to look around me, but where her head went, mine followed, until she was sighing and staring up at me, resigned.
“Take a breath,” I said softly, unable to stop the subtle smile playing on my lips. I didn’t give a shit whether she cut his balls off in front of us. I just didn’t like seeing her upset, and even if she was amused, I could see the worry in her eyes and the way her brows came together to create two lines that held all her questions and tension. “Let him get rid of his chubby before we throw shit his way.”
Glancing up at me, a small amount of the tension left her shoulders, but the concern was still there. “Where’s the fun in that?”
With a huff of laughter, I bowed my head and stepped to the side, letting her have the full view of the show behind us. I copied the pose of my two brothers until the three of us were standing in a line, our heads dipped, hands clasped together in front of us, and our faces creased with amusement.
There was a long moment of silence. I heard Ayda drag in a breath to speak and release it again three times before she leaned in closer to me, her voice a whisper. “Am I seeing this right? It’s not just Kenny’s eyebrows that are shaved in a stupid formation?”
I leaned in, too, keeping my head down and speaking through a small gap in my mouth. “He has a thing for razor blades and straight lines. Think he likes the feel of the regrowth.”
Ayda’s laughter came quickly, her hand covering her mouth as she tried to rein it in for Kenny and Sloane’s sake, but it was too late. Thoroughly amused, she rested her hand on my chest and shook her head. “He’s all yours.” Still chortling, she glanced around my shoulder to the bed. “Sloane, honey, why don’t you come with me and let the boys play?”
“I ain’t playing with shit in that room,” Slater mumbled.
“We could play pin the dick on the donkey,” Jedd offered.
“Motherfuckers, I swear, if you don’t…” Kenny’s anger was cut off by a low throaty growl followed by the harsh sound of his zip being tugged up… and then… a wince. A very painful, manly wince. His yelp of surprise seemed to make everyone look around at once, and even though Sloane was resting with her head in her hands looking distressed, the only thing any of us saw was Kenny turning purple, bending over as the end of his dick got caught in the one place every man never wants their dick to get caught.
Nobody said anything until Slater leaned in closer and whispered in my ear, “If this is a dream, I never want to wake up. I’m so happy right now.”
And just like that, the rest of us burst into laughter, pushing and shoving each other out of the doorway to escape the hysteria of it all, leaving Kenny rolling on the floor.
The moment we were out of the room, Ayda reached back inside and pulled the door closed behind us, her cheeks flushed with her laughter, her hand on her side. “I think we should leave them to deal with… that.”
“Get me the whiskey. I need to wash my eyes out,” Jedd said on a laugh.
I was wheezing, lost in the camaraderie with my brothers and fiancée. For just a few seconds, I let that feeling wrap itself around me before I held my hand out for Ayda and waited for her to entwine her fingers with mine.
“Hey, you,” I said, still snickering as Jedd and Slater began to walk back to the bar, one of them howling to alert the others they were back… with news.
Ayda wrapped her other hand around my arm and leaned into me playfully. “Hey yourself.”
“Good to see you home safe.”
Ayda made a small face, and the smile faded a little. Nothing significant, but it was there. “One of the boys was changing the oil in my truck for me. I hope you don’t mind that I borrowed a car. The school called. They wanted me to come in.”
“Uh oh. How much trouble’s Tate in now?”
She sighed. “Academic probation and suspension from the team for three games, which means homecoming next year. I’ve taken his keys from him for two weeks.”
My eyes creased together, feeling the sting for the boy, but he was his own fool, and I wasn’t going to argue with Ayda. I hated that she’d had this responsibility put on her shoulders so young. She deserved a lighter life. More freedom. Less hassle. I didn’t continue down that train of thought for long. I knew where that would lead if I did, so I gave her fingers a squeeze, looked up at my brothers at the bar and sighed softly.
“This place is turning into damn teenage daycare.”
“Hey, it was a daycare long before we got here,” she mused playfully. “Tate was caught fucking Libby in the gym showers. It’s not the end of the world, and I’m sure he’s neither the first or the last to do it. I’m just pissed that his attitude these days is making him fuck up at school. I asked Libby not to go there after the drama she caused last week. I’ve warned him he’s on his last strike, and she’s next on my list.” She rubbed her cheek on my shoulder and looked at the bar. “Is Rubin drunk?”
Pushing my bottom lip out, I nodded slowly, eventually rubbing my lips together before blowing out another breath. “Yep. Pretty much wasted. About that…”
Ayda looked up at me and waited.
“I need to talk to you about a lot of things, actually.” When I looked down into her eyes, I found myself wanting to be closer to them, to her, away from the madness for a minute or two. “You want to grab a bottle and come to bed with me? A lot happened while you were gone.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
AYDA
The bar had been filled with laughter and good spirits. The whole mood seemed to have shifted while Tate and I had been gone, and it felt good to walk into that atmosphere after the shit show I’d just left at the school. Rubin had been at the bar with Deeks, drunk but mellow and smiling, his face lighting up when Tate had followed me in. Deeks, reading my expression easily, had just pointed me in the direction of Drew with a wink. Seeing the three men pissing themselves laughing as I’d headed toward them had pretty much swept my lousy mood out of the door completely. I loved seeing the guys that relaxed with one another.
As much as the relationship with Kenny and Sloane worried me, I also knew it was none of my business. I was slowly learning that I needed to pick my battles around here, and the hole Kenny was digging for himself wasn’t my concern. He knew who Sloane’s father was. He also knew how old she was and was probably more than aware of what could come about if Howard Sutton ever found out what they were doing. That was their risk to take. I’d spoken to Kenny about my concerns when I’d found them making out in one of the repo cars in the lot. He said he knew what he was doing, and I had to leave it at that. It wasn’t like Sloane and Tate hadn’t been doing the same thing when they were dating… though I often allowed myself to forget that.
Grabbing Drew by the hand, I led him away from the bar. Hand in hand, we headed to our room where I already had a bottle stowed. There was no need for us to go to get distracted. Not that we wouldn’t be distracted by one another. When it came to being alone with Drew, I wasn’t known for my self-control.
“Whiskey or bourbon?” I asked once we were safely within the confines of our room.
He stepped forward and face-planted on top of the bed, his muscular body bouncing when he did. His face was turned my way, one half of it scrunched up while the other somehow managed to look at me lovingly. Like I was enough without the liquor.
“Whiskey,” he mumbled against the comforter.
I nodded in agreement and went to the desk in the corner, grabbing two glasses and a fresh bottle. I dropped it all on the nightstand and eased myself onto his body, my chest blanketing him, my cheek pressed against the patch on his back.
“Did you miss me today?” I asked, smiling against the leather.
“Not really.”
I grabbed
some flesh on his hip and pinched. “Liar.”
His groan was muffled against the bed, but he didn’t move an inch. “I may have missed you a little… once I noticed you were gone.”
“Pussy,” I said into his back, glad he couldn’t see my teasing smile.
“That’s me.” Drew blew out a stream of air, another tired moan rumbling in the back of his throat. “Pussy-whipped and damn proud of that. Especially when that pussy who owns me lays on me and keeps me warm, giving me the good stuff, darlin’.”
“Well,” I mumbled, wriggling up his body, so my mouth was close to his ear. “If you’d fallen backward, I would have been happy to put some overtime in.” I wriggled my hips against him and chuckled quietly. “Missed opportunity.”
“I’ll take what’s mine when I’m ready. Whether you’re ready or not.”
Rolling my body carefully, I landed on my back next to him on the mattress and turned my head to face him, my smile still firmly in place. He’d squished his handsome face against the bed, but his eyes were still open.
“Maybe you should do some of that talkin’ so you can get to the takin’.” I thickened my accent and tipped my imaginary hat.
His lazy smile rose, and he lifted his hand, pushing it up my body until it slid over my chest, up my neck and rested on my cheek. Drew paused for a moment, just holding me as he seemed to study every fleck on my skin. His thumb eventually found my mouth, and he dragged it down slowly, resting it on my turned-out bottom lip. “Why you gotta be so beautiful?” he whispered, his soft voice shining with honesty. “Let’s talk about that.”
WITHOUT SHAME: Babylon MC Book 4 Page 20