by James Tate
I grumbled shit under my breath about possessive deviants who stole their woman's panties, but I quietly loved it. I loved all the stupid, caveman bullshit they pulled on me. Call me damaged, whatever, I had no intention of changing any time soon, so it all just worked.
He was right that no one would notice the state of my dress; between his coat and the fact that we hadn't parked far away, I doubted anyone looked twice. Not that it would have mattered, really.
When we got home, there wasn't even any discussion. Archer followed me straight into my bathroom, stripped me naked, then showed me exactly how dirty we could get while getting clean.
Anna called us all down for dinner—this new thing she was enforcing—and my legs were like jelly as I made my way to the table. When I sat down, I winced at the raw ache between my legs. Archer had taken me at my word in the shower when I begged him to give it to me harder.
"Babe, you okay?" Kody asked as I gingerly pulled my chair into the table. "You look like you're hurting. Did something happen?"
My cheeks heated, and I started to formulate a bullshit answer. But Kody's green eyes were sparking with amusement and a teasing smile played across his lips. Oh yeah, his bedroom was across the hall from mine. He more than likely had heard me screaming as Archer fucked me against the wall of my shower.
Whoops.
Thankfully, Anna came back into the dining room at that moment, carrying a steaming dish of aromatic Thai curry. She placed it down in the middle of the table beside the bowl of fluffy coconut rice she'd already brought out, then planted her hands on her hips.
"Now, this has plenty of good vegetables in it and tastes a thousand times better than the crap you've been ordering from Sawadeka." She gave a nod, like she was agreeing with herself. "You'll see. None of that takeout mess is needed in this house." She bustled back out of the dining room without waiting for any of the boys’ smart remarks, and I grinned.
Since telling us that we were risking our lives by ordering in, Anna had made it her mission to recreate all our favorite takeout meals with her own gourmet spin. I had to agree, her versions really were delicious.
"How was the wedding planning today?" Steele asked as he dished himself up a bowl of food, then filled mine too. "Did you have fun?" His grin was teasing, like he knew how painful it had been for me. Well... until it wasn't.
"All part of the plan," Archer replied. He was sitting beside Kody, opposite me, so there was no avoiding the heated look he gave me. "I particularly enjoyed sampling the cakes."
Yep. I was blushing. Fucker. One of these days, I'd be comfortable enough to discuss my sexploits openly between all three of them. That day was not today, apparently.
Clearing my throat, I took a sip of my wine and searched for a change of subject.
"Do we need to worry about Officer Shane?" I latched onto the first thing—okay, the first non-sexual thing—to pop into my head. "He seemed pretty torn up about Scott's disappearance; I don't think he'll let the matter drop easily."
"Officer Shane won't be a problem, babe," Kody told me with a small smirk, licking his fork.
My brows rose. "Oh? What does that mean?"
"Kate, did you tell the boys that your father and my mother are coming home?" Archer not-so-subtly changed the subject. I let him, only because I trusted them. That, and I had a fair idea that Officer Shane was probably going to learn a harsh lesson about who not to threaten in Shadow Grove.
"They are?" Steele sat back in his chair beside me and dropped a hand to my knee. "For the wedding, I presume?"
"Yep." I cringed. "God forbid Samuel Danvers ever give society something to gossip about. Like they haven't already noticed he's just dropped his company to go on a world cruise with his girlfriend."
"But we're going to kill him, right?" Kody pointed out, like we were discussing what to have for dessert.
All the horrible things my father had done floated through my mind. All the hurtful comments when I was a child, the total lack of affection, the way he’d tried to have me committed on several occasions, the fact that he'd sold me to escape his bad debts. He hadn't cared if I'd wound up in a whorehouse or dead. Why the fuck did he deserve anything better from me?
"Yeah," I replied, my resolve hardening. "Yeah, we are."
Steele squeezed my thigh and gave me a lopsided smile. "Want to do more target practice with me tomorrow? It's always good to work on marksmanship in our world, beautiful."
I looked around at the three of them, a rush of fizzy affection filling me up inside. They had my back one hundred percent, but they weren't going to stick me in a glass box. Killing my father was personal, and none of them would rob me of that moment just because I wasn't as skilled as they were. Instead, they'd just do their best to train me.
That, right there. That was true companionship and respect.
"You guys are kind of amazing, you know that?" I murmured, taking a mouthful of my food to cover the emotion that was threatening to spill out of me at any second.
Steele squeezed my knee again, silently telling me he thought the same. Archer just shrugged, like that was a known fact.
Kody snorted a laugh. "Well, I mean, I know I am," he said with a grin. "But my shoulders are getting a bit sore carrying these two deadweights."
Archer cuffed him around the head, and Kody just laughed harder.
It was nice, though. Having dinner with the three of them every night was making the whole relationship bond sink in deeper. We were a team, a family. I loved it.
"Anyone up for the new Keanu Reeves movie?" Steele asked as we packed away the empty dishes at the end of the meal. "It's supposed to be on par with John Wick."
Archer scoffed. "Bullshit."
Steele just shrugged. "Don't know until we watch it, do we?"
"Sounds good to me," I offered. "But only if there's ice cream involved."
"To eat? Or to rub all over your body?" Archer whispered in my ear as we headed into the den.
I smacked him in the abs with the back of my hand, which probably hurt me more than him, and declined to respond. Prick.
In retaliation, I curled up in Kody's lap on the armchair so Archer couldn't get handsy on the couch. He knew it too, giving me a narrow-eyed glare as he sat down. I smirked back and flipped him off.
Who said romance was dead?
Steele returned from the kitchen with four bowls of ice cream and handed them out before flicking on the movie he'd mentioned. I snuggled into Kody's warmth, eating my ice cream slowly as the movie began.
He finished his quickly, then spent more time watching me lick my spoon than watching the movie. It was distracting and amusing all at the same time. It didn't help that we had the lights off, so it was all too easy for his hands to shift from my waist to my breast.
"Stop it," I whispered at him, fighting a smile.
"Stop what?" He kissed the exposed skin of my neck.
"Stop staring at me while I eat." I gave him a pointed look. "It's weird."
Kody's grin just spread wide. "Stop licking that spoon like how I want you to lick my dick, and I'll stop watching."
"Both of you stop it," Archer snapped. "I feel fucking creepy watching Keanu Reeves while my dick is hard."
"Agreed," Steele added.
Kody just grinned and playfully kissed my neck, right over one of the dark marks Archer had left littered across my skin, which made me shudder.
"Quit it," Archer growled when I squirmed in Kody's lap.
I exchanged an amused look with Kody, but we were both smart enough to know when Archer was no longer kidding around. My lady-bits were already hurting enough; I definitely didn't need to be spanked on top of that.
Or did I...
Archer caught my eye in the glow from the TV, and I shifted in Kody's lap. Nope, no, I really didn't. Maybe tomorrow, but definitely not tonight.
We watched the movie in silence for a while, but Kody couldn't seem to sit still if his life depended on it. He didn't even seem to notice what he w
as doing as his fingers traced patterns over my skin or his lips brushed gentle kisses over my neck. It was almost like he was just letting his subconscious take the reins for a bit.
The fact that his subconscious just wanted to touch me constantly? Total bonus in my book.
"Babe," he whispered in my ear somewhere around the climax of the movie, where the hero was shooting people left, right, and center while acting totally impervious to bullets himself.
"Hmm?" I turned slightly to give him my attention and found myself just an inch from his face.
His lips twitched in a playful smile. "Can I sleep in your bed tonight?"
I groaned and bit my lip. "Just sleep? I'm sore as hell."
Kody's eyes were wicked, and he pecked a kiss on my lips. "You love the pain." Damn him, he was so right. I smothered a laugh by tucking my face into his neck. "I'll be gentle."
"Bullshit," I whispered with a snicker. He didn't deny it, but his hand found the gap between my T-shirt and sweats, and he stroked the skin there.
"So, can I?"
"You know you can," I murmured back, tipping my head back to meet his eyes. "You don't need permission."
His eyes brightened. "I'll remember that."
"Pretty sure we need a fucking schedule or something," Steele grumbled from the sofa, clearly having overheard us. "This first-in, first-served bullshit is making me all paranoid and desperate."
"What's new there, bro?" Archer teased, and Steele retaliated by whacking him in the face with a pillow.
Kody took the opportunity of their distraction to kiss me properly. His mouth moved against mine, and his tongue traced the seam of my lips, demanding entry.
A small moan escaped my throat as his tongue explored my mouth and his hands kneaded the flesh of my waist. If I wasn't careful, our movie night was going to have a whole different rating.
Thunder crashed outside, and I startled, breaking away from Kody's kiss. It hadn't even been raining earlier, but with a thunder crack that loud, it was bound to start soon.
My pulse raced, my love of storms burning through me as I looked to the windows. Sure enough, a second later the clouds opened up and the steady, white-noise sound of rain filled the house. One of the most calming sounds in the world.
"You guys wanna watch another movie?" Steele asked as the credits rolled on the one we'd been watching.
"Nah," I said, settling back into Kody's embrace with a happy sigh. "Let's just chill and listen to the storm."
"You and Archer are cut from the same damn cloth, babe," Kody told me with a laugh. "I've never met anyone who loves rain as much as he does."
Archer and I shared a grin through the darkness. How strangely appropriate for us, then.
The credits finished rolling, and the TV went dark. Now, the only light in the room came from flashes of lightning flickering across the sky outside the windows. It was romantic as hell.
"I'm going to grab drinks," Archer announced. "If we're all hanging out in the dark, we can at least get a bit drunk."
That... sounded equally fantastic and dangerous. We'd call it a team bonding moment.
I tipped my face back to the windows and watched the beautiful flashes of light across the dark clouds. Then the next flash of lightning lit up something I wasn't even remotely expecting.
With a startled gasp, I sat bolt upright, staring at the place I'd just seen a silhouette of a man. Or that's what I thought I'd seen.
"What is it?" Steele asked, instantly going on alert. "What did you see?"
"Someone's out there," I told him, my voice hushed with fear. "Someone was standing outside the window."
I stared at the spot where I'd seen the figure, but no more lightning came for way too long. When another flash lit up the yard, the figure was gone.
Had I just imagined it? Maybe the stress was finally cracking me.
"Let's check it out," Kody said, shifting me off his lap to stand. "Arch! We need a perimeter sweep!"
Archer came bolting back into the room but didn't ask any questions. None of them turned the lights on, which I filed away under things they were scary smart about. Turning the lights on inside would only cripple our night vision and illuminate us to anyone peeping from outside. The den had privacy glass like the rest of the house, but even privacy glass could be seen through when someone was close enough.
The boys operated with efficiency. Archer and Kody grabbed guns from hiding places around the den and split up to check outside. Steele stayed behind, pulling two more handguns from under the TV unit and passing one to me.
"It might be nothing," I told him in a quiet voice. "I might have imagined it."
"I doubt it," he replied with a grimace. "Just stick with me. I'm calling the security team to sweep the boundary and check for any breaches."
We moved through to the kitchen, where there were considerably fewer windows, and Steele called Sampson. Flashes of light outside the window made me flinch, but it only took me a second to realize they were flashlights. Probably Archer and Kody.
"Don't worry, Hellcat," Steele murmured, wrapping his arm around me and placing his gun down on the counter. "We've got you. We won't let these sick fucks hurt you again, okay?"
I snorted a bitter laugh. "Me? I'm worried about you guys. My stalker doesn't want to kill me, not yet. But he definitely wants you three out of the picture."
"And he's doing a shitty job of it," Steele replied, his tone firm, "He's underestimated us, gorgeous. All of us. We will catch him sooner or later, and then he'll pay for every single thought he's ever had about you."
The cold violence running through Steele's voice made me shiver, but it also warmed my heart. This man would watch the world burn for me. They all would.
"No one out there," Kody called out. He stomped into the kitchen a moment later, soaking wet as he placed his flashlight and gun down on the counter. His T-shirt was plastered to his muscles and his bare feet covered in mud.
"I found footprints," Archer announced, joining us from a different doorway. He, too, was soaked through and looking all kinds of pissed off. "Here." He handed his phone over to us. On it was a picture he'd taken of boot prints in mud. "Took a photo before the rain washed it away. That was right outside the window where Kate thought she saw someone."
"Smart thinking." Steele zoomed in on the picture. "Men's size eleven."
"The team is sweeping the grounds now," Kody informed us. "I saw Sampson out there. This rain will wash evidence away crazy fast, though."
Archer swept a hand through his wet hair, sending droplets flying. "Now that he's been spotted, no doubt he's taken off. We need to sort out the security situation sooner rather than later."
"Agreed," Steele said.
My stomach twisted all up in knots. "We really think someone on security is involved? I thought they were supposed to be iron-clad."
"It's the only logical explanation," Kody replied, looking grim. "No one is totally trustworthy. No one outside this room, anyway."
"I hope it's not," Archer murmured. "Sampson is an old family friend and went through Phillip's program."
Steele grunted a noise. "So did Hank."
He had a point.
"James is on his way," Kody told us as he read a message on his phone.
I frowned in confusion. "James the groundskeeper? Do we think it could be him?"
Kody shook his head. "No, James is helping us look into the backgrounds of all our security guys. They were all thoroughly vetted prior to being hired—they're all either ex-military or ex-police—but sometimes records get buried or altered. We suspect one of them slipped through the cracks where he shouldn't have. Whoever he is, that might be how the stalker is gaining access where he shouldn't."
"Trouble is," Steele added, his arm still tight around me, "There's been no consistency with which guards are on for each incident. It seems improbable that more than one of them is involved too."
I shook my head, still not following. "But James is a groundskeeper. How is h
e—"
My question cut off when the loud wail of our alarm system screamed through the house. I clapped my hands to my ears, giving Archer a panicked look. He jerked a nod, gave Kody and Steele a hand signal, then took off with his gun in hand. Kody went the other way, popping open a panel near the pantry to reveal an alarm control screen. The number four key was flashing red, and Kody quickly keyed our passcode in to stop the noise.
"Zone four!" he called out in a loud voice, presumably to Archer, who'd gone to investigate.
Kody raced after him while barking commands into his phone to Sampson. Steele and I followed somewhat slower. Steele's hand on my wrist told me what he didn't need to say.
Stay behind me, Hellcat.
He'd get no arguments from me. Three of the four of us were qualified to deal with situations like home invasions and violent assaults, and I wasn't one of them. Yet.
Steele and I had only just reached the top of the stairs when Archer called out, "Zone four, clear!" His voice was a harsh bark, like he was barely holding his grip on his temper.
Kody called out to confirm he'd cleared the other upstairs zones—presumably our bedrooms, as there wasn't much else in this wing of the house—and Steele headed for my bedroom.
Oh fuck.
"Seriously?" I hissed, "Zone four is my room?"
He didn't need to answer me. When we walked into the room, I saw for myself that it was definitely the source of the alarm. My window had been totally smashed, and the desk chair was missing. No prizes for guessing where I'd find that.
"Oh come on," I groaned at the box sitting in the middle of my bed.
"It gets better," Kody announced from the doorway. His face was grim, and he jerked his head at us to follow him.
Sure enough, his room across the hall had been visited by my friendly neighborhood stalker as well. His bed had been slashed up, and a massive hunting knife left stabbed into his pillow.
Same thing in Archer's room. And in Steele's, except here he'd also taken the extra time to tear up the stack of handwritten sheet music and scatter it all around like confetti.
Kody's phone beeped and he answered the call on speakerphone with a scowl. "Tell me good news, Sampson."