“What if I run out of time, what if I don’t redeem you all?” I sobbed.
Tolliver stroked the hair from my sticky face. “Hey, don’t worry about that. You need to concentrate on you. We will figure out the rest.”
“Why aren't you starting you chemo until Monday?” Lux asked. “Wouldn’t it be better to start immediately?”
I guess Eli had told them all the basics already. I couldn't begrudge him that. It wasn’t just my life on the line. If I died, we were all dead.
“I want to go to you fight.”
Lux’s jaw tensed, but he just nodded. “Okay.”
Oz clapped his hands together loudly. “Okay lady and gentlemen. It isn't a pity party unless there's cake and ice cream. Fortunately for you all, I have ice cream cake in my icebox. Val, could you get it out to thaw a little, maybe grab some plates? Ri, can you please grab the fluffy afghan from the end of the bed for Cady. I am putting on Game of Thrones. Season one, episode one, so no spoilers, okay?” He sat down beside me and grabbed the remote of one of his consoles, hitting play on the Blu-ray player.
Eli sat beside me and Tolliver beside him until four of us were jammed on Oz’s couch. Oz grabbed a throw pillow from the floor and placed it on his lap, swinging me around so I was lying across the three of them.
Lux sat in front of the couch, so he could rest his head back against my hip. Ri sat beside him, as did Sam. They were all close enough that if they wanted to, they could reach back a few inches and touch me. I could sense their need for reassurance.
Valery returned with bowls and ice cream. “You need a bigger couch, Oz.” He grabbed a bean bag and pulled it closer. Close enough that when I reached out my fingers, they brushed his cheek.
I felt instantly better surrounded by them. I hadn’t lied to Dr Yeo. I was feeling better since I met them, despite actually getting sicker apparently. Something about them energized me, made me feel as if life was trying to burst from my chest. They healed me, spiritually. I would have to thank them for that. Not now though. That would sound too much like giving up.
Somewhere in the first few episodes, after Sean Bean got his head chopped off, while Oz stroked my hair and Tolliver rubbed my feet, I fell asleep.
I awoke to the sound of Tolliver and Eli arguing.
“There has to be something, Eli. Anything. I don’t care what it costs, or how illegal it is, find a way to save her. Is your medical license really worth more than her life?”
Eli growled. Actually, physically growled. I felt the rumble of it against my body. “Don’t be an asshole. It's not that and you know it. I would give up my license in a minute if it would save her. A heartbeat. But her specialists are the best in their fields. If she died because we rushed her into some back alley surgery that her body wasn’t prepared for, could you live with her death? Her blood would literally be on my hands.”
“She’s going to die anyway. You said as much yourself. She knows it too, if that desperately sad look in her eyes is anything to go by. That look fucking kills me. Tell me what we have to do to fix this?”
“Pray.”
I closed my eyes and forced myself to go back to sleep.
Chapter Eight
I woke the next morning with a renewed sense of purpose. It was time to double my efforts.
I was in Oz's bed, pressed between him and Valery. I was pressed hard into Valery’s back, my cheek smooshed up against his warm muscles. Oz was spooned around me, his hand on my boob.
God, I could get used to this.
I waited for Ace’s inevitable smart ass comment about being the meat in a man sandwich, but nothing came.
Ace?
No answer. I began to panic.
Ace? Are you there?
I’m here, Arcadia.
I let out a relieved sigh. She sounded… wrong. Not snarky, or petulant, or perverted, which were her usual defaults. She sounded subdued. It was wrong on every fundamental level.
Then it hit me. If I died, she would die with me. No getting her body back, no being with Luc ever again. If I died, she would die with me. Would her soul just cease to exist? If I died, would Ace no longer be present in the fabric of the world. The panic set in all over again.
I’m going to try and hold on, Ace. For you. I will redeem the guys, because I have feelings for them that are confusing, and I think it might be what love feels like. But I know I love you. You are with me always. A part of my soul. I will carry a little piece of you always.
A small sigh echoed around my head. It sounded defeated despite her next words. And I you. I am not worried, Arcadia. I have faith in very few things in this world. But I have faith that you will do everything possible to save those you love, even to the detriment to yourself. There was a long pause. Now I think you should wake these guys up and have a crazy threesome, because life is short. Actually, get the others in here and make it an orgy. A girl hasn’t lived until she's had at least one orgy. Take it from me.
My face flamed red at the thought. Other parts of me flamed as well. I willed my vagina to calm itself. I had a busy day that didn’t start with me having sex with two guys.
Maybe.
I kissed Valery’s spine, sighing at the way the muscles flexed under my lips as he shifted around to look at me with hooded, sleepy eyes.
“Good morning, beautiful.”
He pressed against my front, and he leaned forward to kiss me softly. It was a testament to my raging lust that I didn't even worry about having morning breath. I kissed him back.
I could feel Oz’s morning wood pressed against my ass, his hand squeezing my breast as he too slowly awoke.
Valery kissed the corner of my mouth. “The Doc has ordered that you do nothing more strenuous than lift a book until you start your chemo. However, I know a very relaxing way to wake up in the morning.” He kissed down my jaw, down to my collarbone, then slid his tongue along the hollow of my throat.
“Just what is going on here?” Oz purred in my ear.
“I hear they call this the French Alarm Clock.” I laughed, even as Valery sucked a nipple into his mouth.
Oz stroked down under my breasts, to my navel.
“Get to it dude. I’ll handle the top half,” Oz Said, rolling me onto my back, pulling my tank top over my head. “Remember, go easy though. No undue strain on her heart.” Then he kissed me. A slow, languid, delicious kiss that promised that pleasure so good my toes would curl.
Valery had reached my hip bones, nipping one with his teeth and then tracing his tongue down the line of my leg. He shifted between my thighs, pushing them gently apart. He peeled my sensible cotton underwear down my legs and threw them over his shoulder. They landed on Oz's lightsaber lamp. Score one for the Sith.
Then he placed his head between my thighs and his breath tickled its way across my core.
Cosmo lied to me. It told me men didn't like giving head. My guys had practically made it the national sport, and damn they were good at it.
He ran his hands down my thighs, placing one leg over his shoulder and putting a large hand under my butt to angle me to his mouth.
Oz broke our kiss and looked down, and so did I. Valery's intense eyes never broke contact with mine as he lowered his mouth to my pussy and swirled his tongue around my clit with expert ease. I sucked in air as my pussy clenched.
Oz chuckled. “Bon appetit, man.”
I felt Valery smile, then he sucked my clit into his mouth. “Oh god.”
“Not today. That's the sin of Gluttony for you, he really knows how to eat,” Oz laughed at his own joke, and then his eyes fell to my breasts. “You have the greatest boobs I’ve ever held.” He slid his hands up to cup my breasts, his thumb coming out to rub over my nipple until it peaked at his attention.
Then he lowered his mouth and bit it, hard. I bucked against him, and he spread one large hand against my hip to hold me still as he lapped at the hurt.
Valery flicked his tongue against my clit again before sliding his mouth down my slit and
thrusting his long cleaver tongue into my aching hole.
He swirled and stroked while Oz did the same on my nipples, and I was a mewling, panting mess of need. Valery moved back to my clit and slid a finger into my pussy, then another, filling me slowly, stroking as if he already knew each and every one of my hot buttons.
“Oh, oh.”
I moaned over and over again. Valery slid out his finger, moving it down the crease to my ass, using my own juices to moisten the ring. I tensed, but Valery looked up, meeting my eyes.
“You will like this, Ma Cherie. I promise.” Then he went back to worshipping my pussy with his tongue, until I was nothing but a throbbing ball of pleasure.
“I'm going to come,” I moaned. They double their efforts, Oz pinching and suckling my nipples as I ground my slit into Valery's face, wanting, needing release.
Then Oz sucked my nipple hard into his mouth, pinching the other one, and Valery pressed hard into my clit with his tongue as he forced his finger into my ass. I thought my body was going to fly apart.
Valery moved his finger slightly, the odd new pleasure tipping me over the edge.
I screamed as the waves of pleasure hit me, slamming my thighs on either side of Valery’s head, my hand wrapped tightly in Oz’s hair.
I didn't loosen my hold on either of them until the final pulses of pleasure left me, and I flopped back against the bed.
“Fuck.” Oz was looking down at me, a massive grin on his face. God, he was cute. “High five?” I half-heartedly held up my hand for a slap.
Oz laughed and kissed me. “You are the most beautiful, adorable woman I have ever met, Arcadia Jones.” But he still gave me a high five.
Valery climbed back up my body and I snuggled against him, kissing his chest as his arms came around me.
“Good morning, sweet Arcadia.” He whispered against my hair. I don’t think 'good' was a strong enough word for it.
A long, delicious shower later, I was sitting in Valery’s apartment at his dining table eating a breakfast that he had made me. Sausages, eggs and biscuits. High calorie foods for when the chemo started. Val said he had a weekend to fatten me up a bit. I suggested he build a house made out of candy. Instead he gave me the world's worst smoothie. It was green and tasted like ass crack, but apparently contained high levels of essential vitamins and nutrients I would need in the coming week.
“You should try to enjoy the taste. There will be plenty more healing smoothies to come,” he said as I screwed up my nose. When Valery put a second plate of food in front of me, the other guys walked into Oz’s apartment. Everyone looked exhausted and drawn. They each kissed me before heading to get a plate of food and sitting down.
“So what's the plan for today?” Sam asked. “Hashtag Ninja Robin Hood is trending on twitter you know.”
“I want to drive out to Connecticut. There's a couple there who could use our help, I think.”
“In Connecticut? Okay. Should I wear the ninja suit?” Sam grinned. I was beginning to think he was enjoying playing Santa. The other day he walked to the grocery store dressed in the gear and gave fifty bucks to every panhandler he could find. He’d gone to the projects, and asked the kids down there if they could think of anyone who needed his help. We’d been prepared for the inevitable me, me, me’s but they had been pretty thoughtful in their responses.
Several kids had mentioned a mother whose son had been killed by gun violence, who was barely scraping by for the rest of her kids. One boy mentioned a girl his age, which couldn’t be more than seventeen, who painted graffiti murals in the hallway of the project buildings. Beautiful, inspiring pieces. She got rejected for a scholarship to an art school because the state had pressed charges, insisting that her graffiti was public damage.
Twin boys, who were nineteen, who’d gotten custody of their siblings when their mother had OD’d in some filthy back alley, who put aside their own futures to ensure their siblings could stay together.
That one had made me cry later, after I’d made my way up to their tiny apartment, looked into the faces of the exhausted teens, and everyone with eyes that were too old for their youthful faces.
Tolliver, who listened into our conversations through my hands free earpiece, told me to tell them he was setting up a trust for the family. Enough that the kids, of which there were four aged between 3 and 15, as well as the twins, could go to any college they wanted. Enough for the guys to hire a housekeeper for during the week, to pay for food and power for the next ten years so the boys didn’t have to work so hard and could go to college part time if they wanted to, so they could become whatever they wanted to be. Once they got past their general distrust, like we were trying to buy their siblings, I could see the age drain away from their faces. Relief made their faces younger, their eyes more hopeful. Their fifteen year old sister sobbed.
Tolliver told his lawyers to take care of it all, including the girl who wanted an art scholarship. We talked to the girl, who’d been painting another mural in the dingy lobby of a broken down building, and asked her what college she’d wanted to go to. We spent twenty minutes more talking about her life, about her family who were Bosnian and had come as refugees during the war. She talked about how she was always viewed with suspicion, even in the projects.
By the time we’d finished talking to her, Tolliver had paid for three years of art school at the school of her choice, as well as a trust allowance for the first year.
We just deposited twenty grand into the bank account of the woman whose son died by gang violence. She wasn’t a kid who we could start on the right path. She was an adult with the ability to make her own decisions. She would use it how she would.
It had been a busy day, and I'd been exhausted when I got home. But word had spread about the ninja who helped the downtrodden, and now he was practically an urban legend.
I finally saw changes in Sam and Tolliver, ones that told me I had set them on the right path. Sam had been genuine when he was interacting with those kids, so far from his former life as elite male model, boosting them up, telling them they could be anything. He’d changed. It wasn’t a big change. I wouldn't be able to pull out before and after photos, but something had shifted in his heart. Tolliver was harder to read, but I could tell. It was the small things. He started suggesting causes to give his money too. He talked about setting up charities and trust funds and chairing them himself. We already had a list that Oz had compiled of worthy recipients, and they came from wide and varying backgrounds. The young, the old, families and singles. But each one had an obstacle that couldn't be overcome without the necessary evil of money.
Oz had tracked them all down through less than legal means, hacking insurance databases, college mainframes, and social media. We couldn't help everyone, so it became a bit of a lottery of the neediest.
Tolliver had been adamant about setting up some kind of Robin Hood fund for people who get rejected for life saving medical treatment. Eli would spread the word through the other doctors he knew. He’d also donated quite a sizeable chunk of money to both the heart foundation and for cancer research.
Apparently, there was no end to Tolliver's money. But at least it was funding something worthy now. He’d spent days in meetings with his lawyers, redirecting the vast majority of the profits from his business ventures into different accounts to be spent on his charitable endeavours with Sam. I didn’t think they’d been redeemed yet, I wasn’t naive enough to think you could wipe a lifetime of bad deeds in a week, but they were on the right path. They would go on without me.
Now, sitting around the breakfast table with them, I was suddenly incredibly grateful that I could experience this small moment with them.
I looked between the two of them, and then the rest of the guys around the table. If there was ever a time to give yourself to emotion with abandon, it was now. I loved them. Whether part of that love had been preordained or not was irrelevant. I felt what I felt.
“I love you guys. You know that right?”
I gave him a small smile. “Got it. Okay, enough morbidness, we've got some cows to tip,” I gave the room my best smile.
“Seriously?” Tolliver raised his eyebrows.
“No, not really! Who actually does that?”
Oz raised his hand. “But only once. And it was a dare. I honestly was petrified the whole time.”
I gave him my most ‘I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed’ face, but it was hard to hide my
smirk.
Valery packed us a picnic, and left for work with a very hot kiss that made Ri wolf whistle. Not to be outdone, Ri kissed me until I forgot how to breathe.
Eli held my face and kissed me lightly on the nose. “Take it easy, nothing too strenuous.” He gave me a stern look, and then gave the same look to Sam and Tolliver.
“Dicks to yourselves,” Lux growled as he kissed me gently on the lips and left.
That just left Tolliver, Sam and Oz. I walked over to Oz and leaned against his chest. He wrapped his arms around my back and pressed me tight into his chest. This was my favorite place in the whole wide world.
“Are you coming to Hartford?” I asked him.
“I'm scared of cows.”
“You just said you tipped one,” I said, poking him in the ribs.
“Yeah, but I didn't quite make it and it was pissed. I nearly got stomped into the ground. I'll just stay here in civilization, maybe do some more research.” He kissed the top of my head and left.
Both the guys got changed into their disguises. Tolliver wore thick rimmed glasses and a fedora. He looked like a spy trying to act casual in a cheesy sixties film. Although, to pay him his due, no one ever recognized him, but he did look a little like Clark Kent with bad taste in hats. Not exactly subtle.
We took the Range Rover, though Tolliver had to be talked out of taking the Jag for one last spin. There just wasn’t enough room in it for the three of us. It was essentially a penis with wheels.
Tolliver drove, still the control freak, and Sam sat in the back with me. He made sure I was strapped in, before strapping himself in.
The Redeemable: Part Two Page 6