by K. D. Penn
You can trust me. Tell me what I need to do to prove it to you. I’ll do anything. I’ll be your anything. Just tell me what to do, Nixie baby.
Epic’s words ricocheted around in my brain, and quite effectively stirred up even more anger in me, which I hadn’t thought possible.
“This isn’t exactly making me think I can trust you, Epic.” I growled in response to his phantom words. “Or did you think that once I trusted you, I’d be more easy to fool?” My body began to shake. “You better start explaining, dammit!”
“Nixie—baby—please—look at me.”
I flicked my gaze up to meet Epic’s. His eyes met mine head on and without any signs of guilt that I could read. “Fine. Start explaining. Now.”
I’d give him one chance to explain. One.
“I don’t want her. I only want you. I can’t control who comes on to me. I can only control my own actions.”
“That doesn’t explain why the fuck you came in here with her. If—”
“Ain fucking blabbed. She knows why we’re really here. She wants to be a part of the hit.”
The truth of the situation snapped into place. Oh, yeah, I knew her type. I swung both guns to point at the blonde slut’s chest. I heard Epic exhale in relief and I chuckled. “And what—you thought you could fuck your way into control of him? Just like Ain?”
Her blue eyes widened with surprise.
“Answer me!” I hissed.
“I, well—I—”
“Spit it the fuck out!” I had absolutely no patience left. I was beyond sane thoughts at the moment. This stupid blonde slut thought she could seduce my man? The man that—yeah—I loved. I love Epic. Shit. I knew I was falling for him, or that I could fall for him, but it looked like I’d fallen.
“I just want my freedom!” the slut blurted out, the terror in her eyes increasing with every passing moment.
I smiled. “Your freedom, oh, is that all? What’s your name?”
Some of the tension in her body expelled as she released a shaky breath. “Ice. My name is Ice.”
“Well, Ice, today is your lucky day, because I’m about to give you your freedom.” I pulled the triggers on both guns. The soft hiss of the siphons discharging into her chest echoed through the small space. Ice’s eyes widened in shock briefly before they slid shut and her body slumped to the ground.
“Fuck!” Epic swore. “What did you just do?”
A weird sense of calm washed over me. “I thought it was obvious. I just iced Ice.” Epic just stared at me and I wondered if I had effectively iced our budding relationship as well. He had to think I was completely insane. And hell, I kind of did too. I’d just killed someone because she was trying to seduce Epic. I could try to rationalize my motivations away and say she needed to die because she knew too much, but I would only be lying to myself.
“I’m sorry.” Tears stung at the corners of my eyes. “I’m so sorry . . . I just blew all of our plans to high hell. I don’t know . . . I couldn’t . . . I love you. Of course you probably think I’m completely nuts now. And I couldn’t blame you . . . I just . . .”
Epic stepped forward and palmed the back of my neck with his huge hand. “I already knew you were crazy, Nix. Maybe I am too, because—yeah—I fucking love you too.”
My heart sped up as Epic pulled me into him, his lips slanting over mine. His tongue invaded my mouth and I savored the flavor of him that I thought just a second before I might never get to taste again. I was frantic for him.
Epic broke away from me and I whimpered.
“We have to take care of the body.” He ran his hands through his long hair and grimaced. “Shit. Now I know why couples aren’t permitted to work here together.”
“What are we going to do?”
“I got this, baby. Alright? Just go back to work and I’ll take care of everything.”
“Epic, no. It’s my mess. I can’t let you—”
Epic dipped his head to press his lips against mine briefly. “We’re in this together. Now give me those guns.” I numbly handed them to him. He started wiping them clean of prints. “There aren’t any cameras in here. We’re just going to leave her in here. Alright? Now go back to work.”
“So you’re thinking we should just let her body be discovered?”
“Yeah, it’s our best option. Although I’m also thinking we’re going to have to push this heist forward a bit.” Epic stared at the floor, deep in thought. “Yeah, it could just work.”
“What?” I asked nervously, shifting from foot to foot.
Epic’s eyes blazed with excitement. “We’re going to do it tonight. We’ll use her death as a distraction. It won’t be as clean and pretty as we had wanted, but it’ll have to do.”
I bit my lower lip. “I’m sorry. I screwed up everything with my jealousy.”
“No, Ain did when he started blabbing our secrets as soon as his dick found solace in Ice’s mouth. Ain is the one to blame here, not you.” Epic grinned at me. “Trust me, okay, Nixie baby?”
“Yeah. Okay.” My fingers itched to run through his hair and pull him to me. I wanted him inside me so much it almost hurt. It didn’t matter about the dead stripper on the floor. Nothing else mattered except for me and Epic.
“Don’t look at me like that, baby,” Epic said. “I don’t think I’ll be able to stop myself from fucking you right here if you don’t stop.”
“You’re just as insane as I am.” I stepped toward him and pushed my body into the length of his. Epic’s erection pushed against my stomach through his pants.
“I don’t think I can deny that.” His hands slid down to cup my ass before he gently pushed me away from him. “We can’t get caught in here. You need to get back to work and I’m going to find Ain.”
“What do you want me to do about the rest? The heist and everything?”
“We’re going to have to wing it, Nixie baby. You okay with that?”
“You know I am. I’ll do anything for you.” I glanced down at Ice’s motionless body. Hell, I’d already killed someone for him. What was left?
Epic’s gaze followed mine. “Yeah, I know. And I’ll do anything for you, baby. You know that, right?”
I nodded once and ran my thumb over Epic’s heart key nestled between my breasts. How could I have doubted him, even for a moment when I wore something so important to him around my neck?
“I’m sorry.” I couldn’t help but apologize again. I should have trusted him. What the hell had I been thinking? Well, really, that had been the problem—I hadn’t been thinking.
“I don’t want to hear you apologize again. I love you. Besides, doing the heist this way will probably be more fun.” He grinned, but the humor didn’t reach his eyes. “I need you dancing as close to the DJ as possible. I’m going to bust in . . . and . . . just follow my lead.”
I couldn’t help but laugh as I turned and left him to go back to my job. Again, I couldn’t help but wonder if Epic was the best or worst thing to ever happen to me.
CHAPTER 19
Epic
As soon as Nix left, I crumbled to the floor. Hard dick or not, I was rattled. She killed Ice, just like that, with no pause for thought. She pulled the trigger. Boom. Ice was dead. I’d soothed her the best I could. The whole time stress pounded against my temples and my erection pressed through my pants. My mind fogged into insanity and horniness. She’s making me crazy. Even now I balanced on the edge of madness as Ice’s corpse lay a few feet from me. My nose itched for quake. My fingers shook in terror.
How do I get us both out of this? Is there a way, or are we both already fucked? Any prehistoric robot could sniff a dead body out if the police were called. I’d heard that Trinity’s security force owned high-tech androids. The planet’s crime rate was the lowest in the galaxy. Even if I tried to hide the body, they’d discover the perpetrators.
Shade picked up on the fourth ring. I almost cried with joy. “Epic, everything okay?”
“No.” I opened my eyes and gazed down at Ice’s body. “In fact, things couldn’t be worse.”
I explained everything to Shade, from the moment Ice stepped to me until Nix left the closet. The whole time Shade cursed.
“Just get out of there, man,” Shade said when I was done. “Grab Nix and head home. We all got to leave the planet tonight. Forget about the hit.”
“Where in the darkness are we going to go?” I beat my hand against the door. “It was always about this hit. This was supposed to be the last one. Mimi would have money for college. The kids would be in better schools—”
“You stay there and you both will be dead or in jail. For murder, they’ll put you on Saturn in the mines for life. You’ll never see us again.”
I rubbed my hands against my face. The music outside the door maintained a faint thump that boomed at the same fast rhythm of my heart. Not many options existed—run, jail, or death. Could Nix and I get away with the murder? I doubted it. Someone had to see Ice and me go in. It wouldn’t have been a big deal if Ice was alive, but now that she was dead, if someone investigated it, then people’s memories would be jogged. Even worse, someone had to spot Nix burst into the closet with two guns. Being that she’d come in full of rage, I didn’t think she’d had the forethought to sneak in. She’d been pissed.
“Epic?”
“I’m thinking.” I paced in the closet.
“There’s nothing to think about.”
“We don’t have the money to run. We put most of it on the house and schools for three months. We got enough for two weeks maybe on a cheap planet, which means back to earth.”
Shade cursed again and then said, “Nix shot her. Let Nix take the blame. Tell Ain and—”
“No! Don’t even say anything like that again.”
“But—”
“I’m serious. I brought her in with us, promising we’d watch her back. I’m not going to just let her get caught to save my ass.”
“You mean to save all of our asses.”
“Shade, forget it.” I paused for a minute. “Fuck it. I might as well just say it. I love her, man.”
“Are you fucking serious? You just met her.”
“That being said, if Nix goes down, I go down with her.”
Silence passed on the line. I hated to do this to him and hoped he understood that it wasn’t the case of Nix over our family, but that Nix was part of the family now, even though she was a trigger-happy psycho. She was still all mine, and I loved every part of her, even the parts that scared the shit out of me and would possibly give me nightmares next week.
“What do you want me to do?” Shade broke the silence.
“Grab Toy and as many guns as you can—”
“What the fuck, Epic?”
“We’re robbing Dynamics tonight. Nix and I. I need you and Toy to pick us up. We’re on the bottom level now. There is no way we’ll be able to get up to the roof without being killed. Get to the back exit on ground level—”
“This is crazy. I have no idea where the back exit is.”
“Ain will tell me. Trust me.” I glanced at my watch. He had to be working right now. “Just head here with Toy and as many guns as you can get. Be here in no less than fifteen minutes.”
“Fuck!”
“We’ll run out. You shoot anyone chasing us. We jump in the car and you speed off.”
“This is your grand plan?”
“For now it is.” I hung up and dialed Ain’s number. He answered after the first ring.
“Epic, my man,” Ain said. “Are you finding everything okay downstairs?”
“No.” I snatched an old dancer’s outfit off a hanger and covered Ice’s face. “I need you to meet me on the bottom level. You know where that abandoned closet is in the far back?”
“Of course. Most of the managers do our thing in there with some of the nicer girls.” He laughed.
“Ice is here.”
“Y-yeah,” Ain stuttered. He had to know I realized he messed up.
“Come on down. As you’ve probably guessed, the plan has changed. I’ll need your help with the new one.”
“Gotcha.”
I figured he would have taken longer, but he was more scared than I thought. It took him less than two minutes to arrive. He entered and shut the door. I snatched the costume off Ice’s face. He screamed. I slapped him. My palm stung, but I bet his face hurt more.
He held the side of his face and pointed. “S-she’s dead.”
“And you basically killed her.” I pulled out Nix’s gun and rammed it in his mouth. “You told her about the hit man. Not a good idea. She thought she could suck me off and have me doing anything she wanted. What she never figured on, is me having a psychotic girlfriend who doesn’t do well with females touching me.”
Ain mumbled something incoherent with the gun in his mouth. Sweat trickled down his face. I slid the gun out of his mouth. His bottom lip quivered. “The black-haired girl killed Ice?”
“You’re a smart one, aren’t you? Is there an exit on this level?”
“Yeah. It’s a secret.”
“Now’s the time to reveal it. We know you’re not good with secrets, don’t we?”
“I-it’s next to this closet, but on the left further in the corner. You have to press the wall. A light comes on. It takes a thumb print to unlock.”
“Your thumb work?”
“Yes, but what are you going to do with me? We’re family, man.” Water glazed over his eyes. Tears spilled out the corners. “I never had a way with ladies like you and Shade. I got to be the only guy who works in a strip club that almost never gets laid. When Ice approached me, I got a bit excited. Please don’t kill me, Epic. Our mothers were sisters.”
“Calm down. I kept the point of the gun targeted at his forehead. “Answer me this. Who all knows that I’m your cousin?”
“Almost all the owners and Ted. He trained you.”
“The guy at the rooftop entrance?”
“Yeah.”
“Are the owners here tonight?”
“No. They all left, took a ship to the World Series.” Ain’s attention centered on the gun. “They got box seats. Why are you asking man?”
“Because you’re going to be my hostage.” I kicked the door open and wrapped my arm around his neck, towing him out the door. “Stay close to me and keep your damn mouth shut.”
He shrieked as I pulled him along.
“Party is over!” I shot a bullet into the floor. The music ceased. Everyone screamed. People jumped up and got ready to rush out. My fingers trembled. I hoped no one saw in the red light. “Stay where you are! My boys are coming down the stairs and anybody in their way is getting blasted with siphons.”
A woman on the right screeched in horror. Increasing my speed, I dragged Ain, in a headlock closer to the DJ I needed to make sure I had a good view of the entrance. Guards and bouncers would be here soon. Movement came from the side. A fat guy with his dick sticking out of his open pants jumped up.
“Sit down and pull your money out!” I pointed my gun at him.
“Drop your gun.” A male’s voice sounded behind me and then a shot blasted. I turned around to see the man collapse to the ground. Nix stood behind him with a tiny gun in her hands.
How many guns did she bring into this place and when did she do it?
“I’ve got your back, baby.” She winked.
“I’m lucky you’re with me instead of against me.”
“Very true.”
“Pull out your money!” she roared and held a plastic trash bag. “We don’t discriminate. All planets’ currencies are welcome.”
I laughed at her taking Toy’s line. “Don’t try anything special, guys or ladies. Let’s keep this simple and quick. That way no one dies tonight and you can all go back to being teased by these lovely women. By the way, the ladies don’t have to contribute, just the men.”
“Fuck that!” Nix shook her head. “I don’t discriminate. Everyone drops their money in the bag tonight. That means ladies, androids, men, and whatever else is in here.”
I’ve created a monster or was she one already?
Either way it didn’t matter. She was mine and I was hers. People piled in disks, cubes, flash drives with bank account info, and anything else Nix deemed was worthy of the bag. She traveled around the room in seconds. One guy she shot in the calf for taking too long. That guaranteed the rest of the people were ready for her when she arrived.
The entrance door opened. Without waiting to see who it was, I shot at the center. The siphon burned into Ted’s chest. He cried out in pain and slumped down to the floor. I shot the guy behind him. “Nix, that’s enough. Head to the back near the closet.”
“We only got half!”
“Get your pretty ass in the back!” I shot another guy and began dragging Ain back with me. Four more men appeared at the entrance. We were fucked. I could feel our deaths in my heart and taste them on my tongue. The chances of us making it out of the club dropped to low. Toy and Shade being outside of the club right now was most likely impossible. That meant we’d have to run through the city—an area we were unfamiliar with.
“Drop the gun.” One of the guards shot me in the arm. I gritted my teeth. Blood spilled and scented the air. Ain screamed. Crying out in rage, Nix blasted siphons his way. They left her gun in rapid motion. Smoke rose from the tip. Two guys dropped. Blood sprayed. Dancers fled the area, bumping into the rest of the guards.
“Come on, Nix!” I raced to the back and glanced over my shoulder to make sure she was following. She flipped off her heels and sped my way. I didn’t move until she was in front of me. She clutched the bag to her chest. I shot a few siphons behind me, not even targeting anyone. I just wanted to cause hysteria in the crowd and I did. People jumped up and ran in all directions, pushing each other out of the way, knocking into the poor DJ, and trampling over the guards at the entrance.