by Harte, Marie
Gideon watched Ace and Zack flip a few guys onto their backs without much effort. He wasn’t impressed. He’d fought better opponents in underground matches and seen better trainers in back alleys and broken down gyms.
Elijah sighed and leaned back against a Nautilus machine. “Man, this is boring. How much longer do we need to hang out here?” He crossed his arms, looking like a gangster Muscle & Fitness model. Sporting tats up and down his arms, a few prison tats, and a lot of references to the grim reaper, Eli looked like death personified. With his dark hair and darker eyes, he could have passed for a muscled reaper himself.
“You’re not a group kind of guy, are you?”
Eli become even more antsy since they’d fucked the day before. Gideon thought he understood why. More than the physical act of connecting, they’d bonded in a way defying explanation. He could feel the guys now, though he still didn’t know them. Not like the Circe’s Recruits assholes, who smiled and laughed with one another.
“Never had what you’d call friends.” Eli huffed. “Most guys at my back are trying to stab it.”
“With your mouth, it’s no wonder.”
Eli laughed, and the sound was genuine. “Asshole. Hey, I call it like I see it. I didn’t come from much, and I’m not impressed with the legal dickbags and their rules.” He nodded at a squad of agents keeping a wary eye on them. “I could bend those guys into pretzels in no time, all by myself.”
“Wouldn’t it be easier, and more fun, with backup?”
“Maybe. But not necessarily safer. You rely on yourself, you don’t worry about people turning on you.”
“Good point.” Gideon couldn’t fault him for that. And Eli was right. The government men spending the next few days “in training”—most likely to help keep an eye on them—didn’t look too friendly. “Do you have anyone waiting on you at home?”
“Nobody but a bookie wanting what I owe him. I like college games. What can I say?”
“So are you in the hole for a lot?”
“I may not look smart, but I don’t bet more than I can cover. Maybe a grand all said and done. But the guy I bet with is new, and he’s not the patient type.” He shrugged. “Hell. He’s in Queens, and I’m here in Jersey. He’s not gonna be any trouble.” He paused. “Though I might have started some shit with a few guys who mouthed off about my bad luck. Big guys, mob types. A lot of attitude I didn’t appreciate.”
Gideon shook his head, not surprised. “So you have a bookie and the mob after you.”
“Not so much ‘after.’ More like wanting a fight to call things even.” Eli cracked his knuckles. “I’m more than ready to head home and fix them.”
“But it wouldn’t be a fair fight now.” Gideon glanced at Eli’s hands, specifically at the claws that peeked out from his nails.
“Yeah. The guns won’t bother me now.” Eli grinned and flexed his fingers, showing off his claws before retracting them again.
Seeing the guy in, what for Elijah amounted to a pleasant mood, Gideon continued to pry. “No woman waiting on your sorry ass? No mom nagging you to come home for the holidays?”
“Nah. I have a few chicks I spend time with, but no one who sticks. No family, no friends worth a mention.” He shrugged. “You?”
“Nope. The only guys I cared about died a few days ago.” The pain refused to fade, so Gideon kept it balled up inside. He could talk about his friends and not feel it, as if the words meant nothing. “No girlfriend. No bookies. The money for attending the fight would have put me flush for a while. Don’t think Lang’s check will clear now, though.”
Eli snorted. “Lang is such a prick. I heard he really went to town on you. He wasn’t as rough on me. But he stuck it to Carter big time.”
“Yeah?”
Eli nodded. “Not sure why. Probably because Carter might not seem like it, but he’s a huge pain in the ass. Can be a stubborn bastard when he doesn’t want to cooperate. I just killed the guys they sent in to make me dance.”
“How’s that?”
They continued to watch the Circs train the civvies. Pathetic the way they drilled the agents, who could barely defend themselves.
“You felt it yesterday,” Elijah said. “I saw you push it out of your system.” Gideon had sweated out a greenish venom after their time together. “I didn’t mean to dose you. Sorry about that, but you freaked me out with all the…” He flushed. “You know. The sex,” he added in a low voice. “I actually only gave you a little taste.”
“Nasty stuff.”
Eli grinned. “Yep. The guards who fucked with me in Lang’s lab didn’t fare so well. I’m only sorry Smith never got close enough for a full dose.” Eli paused. “Is it true he flamed your balls?”
Gideon inwardly cringed. “Yes. So I’d appreciate you not mentioning that again.”
“Ouch.” Eli shook his head. “You’re one tough bastard, Gideon.”
“Thanks.”
“Tougher than these pussies,” Eli said in a louder voice.
Gideon groaned. “Isn’t it too early to be starting shit?”
Zack and Ace paused in their training. “Did one of you have something to add?”
Gideon waited. Eli didn’t disappoint. “Yeah, I do.”
He strode toward the agents and schooled them on how to fight dirty. “You guys aren’t at the academy any more. Jesus. Fight like it matters. Think life or death.” Eli turned and kicked Ace’s knee faster than the Circ could react.
When Ace stumbled, his knee clearly dislocated, Zack dove in. The fight commenced in earnest, Circ against Circ.
Gideon watched, assessing, calculating. Zack and Ace worked effectively as a team. Together they seemed unbeatable, but apart, Eli held his own working against Zack’s weaker left side and Ace’s still healing knee. A few civilians tried to bounce in, but one of the Circs quickly bounced them out.
Gideon studied them a while longer, then decided to leave Eli in their capable hands. Pleased to see his man getting the workout he needed, Gideon turned to exit the gym and head back to the house, where he’d left Carter watching over Alex.
“Hey, wait up.” Eli jogged to join him, not a bit out of breath.
“Pussy,” Ace called after him.
“What a dickhead,” Zack agreed.
A few of the other men yelled at him too, but Eli ignored them with the exception of a raised middle finger.
“Why don’t you stay?” Gideon suggested. “You were actually helping them.”
“They don’t want me around. I’d end up breaking somebody’s neck by accident, then we’d have hurt feelings.” They both grinned. Eli kept glancing at Gideon as they walked back to the house.
“Just say what’s on your feeble mind.”
“And you call me an asshole?” Eli chuckled, then grew serious. “So this, ah, bonding thing we did yesterday. Think it’ll stick?”
“Why? Afraid I’ve fucked you so senseless you can no longer think for yourself? Trapped in a Circ cult you’ll never get out of?”
Eli flushed. “No. Just…it feels weird, belonging. I know this is temporary, and like I said, I like flying solo. But it’s kind of a relief knowing it’s not me against everyone else around here. If these guys wanted to, they could kill us all. And that don’t sit right by me.”
Eli thought in terms of survival. Gideon had met plenty of tough guys like him. People so on the edge they lived day by day, no thought of relaxing or letting down their guard.
“You know, these Circs have a sweet setup. You ever think about something more permanent that living fight to fight?”
“Sure, but what would I do? I’m not some fancy college guy. I hate the government and don’t trust the police worth a damn. I’m not good at following orders.”
“When this is over, will you head back to the fighting circuit?”
Eli shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m just trying to get through today.”
“Fair enough.” Gideon had been toying with an idea. It was too soon to follow i
t. Still… “All that talk about Lang and his cronies using us at a test bed for mercenaries. It got me thinking. If they could farm us out, why can’t we? I mean, imagine how much we could make if we hired out our own services? No sense in splitting percentages with anyone but ourselves.”
Eli’s dark eyes gleamed. “You know, that’s not a bad idea. With our new abilities, we’d make badass bodyguards. To do something like that, you only need the right contacts to set you up with people who need and can afford you.”
“Exactly. Because I can’t go back to fighting underground. I don’t mind hurting assholes, but I’d end up killing some guy in a fight by accident. Imagine a claw goes free, or you get too into a fight and end up slicing a guy’s head off. I don’t want that guilt on my plate.
“Doc and Roane said we’re different now. We’ll need physical challenges. And the needs are gonna build. You know what I’m talking about.” Not something he felt comfortable thinking about.
Eli didn’t like it either, because he turned pink and stayed silent.
Ace must have followed them out, because he yelled, “Hey, loudmouth. We could use some help.”
They turned, and Ace pointed to Eli. “You’re not a bad fighter for an amateur.”
“Amateur?”
Gideon nudged Eli toward the Circ. “Go help the poor bastards. Teach them something they can use. I’ll check on Alex and Carter.” Alex continued to rest, worn down by grief and bursts of anger that left him drained afterward. Carter had stayed back to keep an eye on Alex, without having to be asked.
Of the four of them, Carter seemed the most comfortable with his emotions. A giving kind of guy. Alex also seemed more compassionate than hardass. Not like Gideon or Eli. In a weird way, they balanced one another out.
His inner beast liked the group as a whole. Felt them healthy and strong, able to protect their female. His female.
Gideon frowned and projected the thought, The one I don’t have yet. Hello.
Gideon heard nothing back but an internal grumble about finding one. And yeah, it still freaked him out to have a wild creature inside him.
He returned to the house and found Carter watching some talk show with Alex arguing by his side. Neither one considered the pop star they were watching to be particularly talented, but Carter liked the guy’s looks.
“Seriously?” Alex laughed. “You judge skill based on ass?”
“His ass, hell yeah.” Carter grinned and shoveled a plate of eggs into his mouth. “Can’t sing, but man, he’s poetry in motion.”
It still bemused Gideon that Carter was so open with his sexuality. Even more, that none of his group felt threatened by it. Just because Gideon was comfortable with his sexuality didn’t mean everyone was. Then again, they were Circ. Sexual labels meant little, apparently, compared to being inhuman.
“See?” Carter said. “Look at him flex. Bet he’s a top.”
“Huh?”
“You’re so cute in your ignorance.”
“Fuck off. I know what you mean.”
Carter laughed, and Gideon liked seeing him and Alex at ease with each other. “A top,” Carter continued, ignoring Alex’s protests, “as in, he’s the one doing the fucking. On top. Kind of like Gideon or Eli. But you… You’re more like me. You can give it, but you like taking it more.”
“I do not.”
“Liar.” Carter grinned at the swearing accompanying Alex’s denial. “Please. It’s not a big deal, at least not to me. You like taking it up the ass. Me too.”
“Shut up.” Alex glanced up and saw Gideon standing in the hallway. His face turned beet red. “Oh hell.”
“Hey guys. Top of the morning to you.”
Carter broke into more laughter, and Alex tried to bury himself in the couch.
“Eli’s out training with the Circs and Feds in the gym. I came back to see how you guys were holding up.”
“We’re fine.” Alex grimaced. “My sister died. I’ll deal. You don’t have to treat me like I’m breakable,” he ended in a growl.
“Okay, right.” He shared a look with Carter. Alex would break if not handled correctly. They all felt it. And breaking here, around people they couldn’t blindly trust, wasn’t the place for it. “I was talking with Eli.” He explained his notion of hiring out his services as a type of security.
Carter seemed willing to think about the idea. But Alex wanted no part of it.
“With Katie gone, I have one mission. To kill the bastards responsible. Then I’m gone.”
Gideon gave him a hard look, his beast also sensing Alex’s hurt, a buried scent of grief that lingered. Gideon understood. Alex didn’t want to care anymore. So much easier to be alone, not risking anything.
“If that’s what you want. It’s your call. Just thought I’d put it out there.” He took a sniff. “Hey, are there more eggs?”
After eating the rest of what remained in the refrigerator, and giving half of it to Carter and Alex, he sat with the guys and watched the talk show, not paying attention to it as much as to the guys. His beast found them comforting. He had more in common with Eli than either of these two, yet he liked laughing with them, talking to them about stupid stuff.
There was an ease among them that reminded him of Ollie and Rod. And for once, the thought of his friends didn’t hurt him. He had a feeling the guys would have liked Alex and Carter.
And especially Eli, who returned with blood on his sweatshirt. Not his, but one of the agents he’d accidentally stabbed with a claw. “I didn’t poison him, though I wanted to.”
Gideon liked the fact his team had control over their abilities that gave them an edge. His team? The beast seeping into his thoughts again.
He cleared his throat. “So Alex, anything useful you picked up since being here?” He glanced at Alex’s psychic-sensitive hands.
“Everything they’ve told us is true, so far. The Circs and Doc are on the up-and-up. They’re good, these guys. And they’re mated, settled.” Alex paused. “They have kids here, as you guys already guessed. Roane’s got a son, Zack and Ace a boy and a girl. All toddlers. So watch the rough stuff. They’re super protective about their children.
“I got the impression there have been a few attempts to kidnap the little ones. Research, leverage. Whatever the case, the Circs here ended things. They don’t play when it comes to family.”
Eli had a strange, almost wistful, look on his face, but when he saw Gideon watching him, he sneered. “Ha. Family. Freaks no one else wants, you mean.”
“Nice talk, Eli.” Carter sighed. “He’s just jealous, jonesing for a female of his own.
“Yeah, about that.” Alex frowned. “We left a ton of innocent women behind in that lab. The Circs never gave me a good answer about the psychics Lang was experimenting on.” He turned to Gideon. “Have they said anything to you about it?”
Before Gideon could answer, the scent of intruders flared. Circs not his own, a rival pack. The others sensed the same and stood.
Someone knocked. Polite Circs, Gideon thought with a grin. “Come in.”
Roane and Hale entered. “Gideon.” Roane nodded. “We need you and Alex to come to the main house. Doc needs to talk to you.”
“What about us?” Eli asked, still carrying a huge chip of fuck you on his shoulder.
Roane glared at him. “You’re more than welcome back in the gym. Derrick’s looking for someone to spar with. McKinley too.”
Carter perked up. “I’ll come along.”
“Perv,” Eli said under his breath.
Gideon didn’t like the thought of his guys near McKinley, and Hale didn’t look too pleased either. But amusement won out over caution. Carter had a crush on the mated McKinley. A male mated to the Circ right in front of him.
“Go easy on McKinley, Carter,” he said to needle Hale. “Not too much grinding on the guy or he might dump Hale for your fine ass.”
“It is fine, isn’t it? Thanks, Gideon.” Carter beamed and prodded a grumbling Eli out the door.
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Hale scowled. “Not funny.”
Roane chuckled. “I don’t know, Hale. I think it’s pretty funny anyone other than you likes the prick.”
“Roane.”
“Kidding. He’s family. Trust me, I know.” Roane turned to Gideon, and his smile faded. “Watch your step in the house. My mate wants a look at you.”
Gideon hadn’t been lying when he’d told the Circs that the females he’d seen didn’t spark his interest. He still loved the idea of sex with a woman, but his proclivities lately bordered on protecting his men. My Circs. His beast reinforced the notion. Sex with them eased him, and it felt right.
Like family.
So weird.
He and Alex followed the Circs to the main house. A place they’d been forbidden to go until now. As he walked, he spotted something dark and fast coming his way. Mewling cautioned him to stop and wait.
The cat that tried to climb his leg didn’t make it past his knee before hissing and scurrying away. But the tiny Circ that followed continued to climb.
“Oh hell. Jacob,” Roane barked. “Get down.”
A blond woman came flying out of the house shouting at her son.
Gideon simply picked the kid up the back of his shirt and stared. He had his father’s features but must have had his mother’s eyes, because Roane’s weren’t green. The tiny little guy roared and tried to scratch him with baby claws. His skin had a hardened texture to it, a lot like his father when in his altered form.
“I’m not going to hurt him,” he hurried to reassure Roane.
“You do and I’ll kill you,” the blond spat, rushing to grab her son.
But the scamp dodged her and latched onto Gideon’s arm. Before Gideon could pry him off, Jacob crawled onto his chest, dug in his claws, and hung there.
“Rawr,” he grumbled and scratched his claws down Gideon’s chest.
Alex chuckled. “Aw. I think he likes you, Gideon.”
“Mine,” the little boy declared and sucked his thumb while still clinging to Gideon.