by Selina Woods
“Preying on the civilians without mercy,” I growled. “Too bad we can’t turn this town into a free city.”
“That’s not for us to do, Declan,” Morgan warned me. “In time, it will happen, but not now.”
Dawn was not far away when we reached Jae’s apartment, and I was tired and not in the mood to have Morgan sharing the place with us. He came in, however, as though he belonged there despite the stink eye, I sent him. Returning my glower with a bland expression, he settled onto the couch and yawned. “This sofa is pretty comfortable,” he commented and lay down on it.
Jae giggled as I followed her into the bedroom and closed the door behind us. “We’ll have to be quiet,” she said, undressing.
I hadn’t felt horny until she was naked. My rod sprang to attention, throbbing with need as Jae lay down on the bed. “What if he hears us?” I whispered, undressing more slowly.
“So, what if he does?’ Jae asked, curling her hand around my shaft. “He’s a big boy and should expect us to make love. We’ll just not be noisy.”
“It feels weird,” I said, lying down beside her.
“Don’t be a prude.”
That made me laugh. “A prude, huh?”
“Yeah. Come here.”
Leaning over her, I kissed her, my tongue tangled with hers. I slid my hand over her silky skin, cupping her small, perky boobs, flicking my thumb over her erect nipples. Jae moaned softly, arching her back into my hand, hers planted firmly on either side of my face. My excitement and lust grew with my pounding pulse, my staff throbbing with need.
“That feels so nice,” she murmured, breaking away from my mouth.
“Mmm,” I replied, my lips on her throat, nipping gently, licking her sweet flesh.
Caressing her ribs and belly, I explored further, dipping my fingers into her moist tunnel. “How does that feel?”
“You’re kidding, right?” she gasped as I played with her tiny nubbin, teasing her into full arousal.
Jae squirmed and wriggled, my mouth and hands bringing her to the brink of climax, then backed off. “I’ll kill you,” she snapped, groaning with a crazy need of her own while I continued to pleasure her.
“I want on top,” she suddenly said.
I gazed down into her luminous eyes, controlling my need to be buried to the hilt deep within her. “You do, eh?”
“Yeah. Roll over.”
Obedient, wondering what it would feel like to make love in this position, I lay on my back. Jae straddled my hips, picking up my rod to point it at the entrance to her cave. A long groan escaped from both of us as she impaled herself on my shaft. She was so wet, I glided in easily and stretched her to the max.
“Ohhh, my,” Jae moaned as the helmet of my shaft knocked against her cervix.
She lifted her hips and slid down again, her head thrown back, her eyes closed. I think she had sort of a mini orgasm as her body shuddered, her tight nest constricting even more around my erection. I cupped her boobs in both hands, teasing her nipples with my thumbs. I bucked my hips upward into her as she lifted her own, and soon we developed a nice rhythm.
Up and down, her rich hair cascading down her back, Jae worked her hips even as I plunged upward. “Declan,” she muttered, taking my hands in hers, “ohhh, don’t stop.”
Unfortunately, my orgasm loomed, burning red hot like a fire in my gut. “I can’t—hold on.”
Jae worked her hips faster, moaning softly, her breath hissing between her teeth. The motions only served to make me blast my seed deep into her, my upward thrusts slowing. I knew she hadn’t orgasmed, and I feared I’d disappoint her if I didn’t bring her to complete pleasure. While I was still buried deep inside her, I worked my finger to her nib and stroked it.
“Ahh, ohhh,” she muttered thickly, her hands flat on my chest, my finger teasing her tiny love spot. Her juices flooded my pecker; her body quivered atop mine. I knew when her climax took control, as her breathing quickened in sharp, short gasps. She sucked in one last deep gulp of air and then collapsed on top of me.
Under her rich hair, I kissed her deeply, my hands holding her cheeks. “I am so in love with you, Jae,” I whispered against her lips.
The words were out. I could not recall them. I neared panic, fearing that it was too soon for the Big Three. I knew she cared for me, but did that mean she was in love with me, too? Caring for someone didn’t always equate love, and I half feared she could only think of me as a friend.
Jae’s lips curved in a smile, and she kissed me. “Good. Cuz I’m in love with you, Declan.”
Rolling over and taking her with me, I covered us both the sheets and blankets. Snuggling against her, feeling her heartbeat against my arm, I nuzzled my face into her sweet-smelling hair. “It’s good to be in love,” I murmured.
“Maybe.” Jae halted and started again, uncertain. “Maybe, when this is all over, and we’re in a free city, we can be mated. Have babies.”
Lifting my head and hand, I brushed her hair away from her bare shoulder and kissed it. “You’d want my kids?”
“Of course, silly.”
“Little bitty runt lions?”
Jae laughed. “As long as they’re all as cute as you are.”
“It might be better if they looked like you.”
If Morgan had heard our bout of lovemaking the night before, he made no comment. When I emerged, fully dressed, from the bedroom, leaving Jae to sleep for a little while longer, I saw him watching out the window. “Trouble?”
“Not yet,” he replied. “I left the apartment long enough to go to the bakery down the street. There are pastries there on the table.”
“Yummy.”
Selecting one, I took it with me to the couch and sat down to eat it. “Could the source of magic really be here in Cheyenne?” I asked, my mouth full of sweet bread and sugar.
“Anything is possible,” Morgan admitted. “It could easily be here as anywhere. But how did Raphael get wind of it? Why does he think it is here?”
“It all goes back to Barry the Blade,” I answered. “Somehow, Barry may have either thought he found it or bragged that he did. And that takes us to the jewels.”
“Tell me again how you killed him?”
I recounted the night Barry kicked in the bar’s door with the intent to rape Jae. I emptied the shotgun into his chest, then Jae and I dumped him in the creek. Morgan listened thoughtfully. “He obviously knew Jae would be alone,” he said. “But if he thought he had the one source of magic, the one thing everyone in the world sought, would he have rape on his mind?”
“You’re asking the wrong lion,” I answered. “The guy was twisted in a very sick way, always enjoyed his work killing people. Anyone like that might say, ‘Oh, look, I can crown myself emperor of the world, and I’m gonna start my rule by raping that girl at the bar.’”
“Yeah, a sick puppy might think that way,” Morgan agreed. “Any ideas on where he got the jewels?”
“I wish, then I’d go grab more of them.”
Morgan chuckled, lifting the curtain to stare out again. “Where ever he got them, that must be where he received the notion he had the source. Now Raphael is look—”
I eyed him sidelong. “Raphael is what?”
“Raphael couldn’t have gotten the idea that Barry had found the magic source,” Morgan said, his tone wondering. “He’d been planning war on another city for a long time. Long enough to collect that cache you saw.”
I gulped my pastry. “That’s right. Could Raphael have found what he thought was the source, then Barry stole it from him?”
“Declan, you need to get rid of those jewels, like now.”
“What the hell?” I demanded. “What do I do, flush them down the john?”
“Yes. Give them to me. I’ll do it.”
“We can turn these into cash or trade them for something,” I protested. “They’re too valuable to flush.”
“They aren’t worth your life, Declan.”
Both of us gawped as Ja
e stood at the bedroom door. “Morgan is right. You don’t dare hang onto them.”
“Can’t we just hide them somewhere?”
Morgan waggled his fingers. “Cough them up, sonny.”
Swearing choice oaths, promising Morgan a very painful death, I dug the small collection of jewels from my pocket. “This is wrong on so many levels,” I groused, handing them to him. “You are gonna pay me back for them.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Morgan took them into the bathroom, and I put my head in my hands upon hearing the toilet flush. I moaned. “A small fortune flushed down the damn toilet.”
Jae selected a pastry from the bag and munched. “Better them than your life going down it.”
“I feel like it just did.”
Morgan emerged from the bathroom. “If Raphael ever has cause to search you, he won’t feel the urgent need to strip your hide one layer at a time.”
“Like I would ever be of interest to him anyway.”
Jae eyed me. “Didn’t you say he wants you dead?”
“Well, yeah.”
“Now he’ll just cut your throat.” Morgan went back to leaning against the wall and watching out the window. “No long slow torture to exact information you couldn’t give him anyway.”
“Is that supposed to comfort me?”
His teeth flashed in a grin. “You’ll thank me someday.”
“Not if you stripped my hide one layer at a time.”
“Boys, it’s time to head to the bar. Play nice, or I’ll make you stay home.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, Mommy.”
Chad listened with wide eyes as we informed him of our discovery the night before. “Raphael really means to make war on another town?” he asked, incredulous. “If you’re right, then he must believe the source of magic is here.”
“I don’t believe he would dare the attempt unless he thought he could win,” Morgan answered. “And no way he could win unless he had unlimited power.”
“Morgan flushed my jewels,” I bitched.
“Good. Raphael must think one of them was the true source. We have to kill him and blow that house to kingdom come.”
“Can’t I get any sympathy at all?”
“Yeah,” Chad replied absently. “It’s in the dictionary between shit and syphilis.”
Jae laughed herself hoarse over that one.
“I’m going to work in the back,” I declared, miffed, getting off my stool. “If anyone cares.”
Knowing it was childish and stupid, and that Morgan was right to flush them, I pouted anyway. Unpacking crates, thinking of all the things I wished I could do to that obnoxious, self-righteous prig Morgan, I didn’t pay much attention to the door opening and closing, or the cold wash of air that even blew in to the back.
Only the silence caught my attention.
“I hear you keep a nice bar,” said a voice that had my hackles rising. “I thought to drop by and see for myself.”
“Have a seat,” Chad replied, his tone even, unruffled. “What can I get you?”
“A beer, thanks,” Raphael replied. “It looks like a nice place you have here.”
“Thanks,” Chad answered. “Beer for your guys there?”
“No. They are paid to protect my back, and they can hardly do that while inebriated.”
I put my spine to the wall, frozen, half panicked, wondering if I should slip out the back and run for my life. But Jae was in there with the deadliest creature in Cheyenne, and I would never leave her. Wild thoughts ran though my head, and at the forefront was this question—why would Raphael come here? It certainly wasn’t for the beer.
“You look familiar to me,” Raphael said smoothly. “Where have I seen you before?”
“I was in the crowd, sir, watching, the other day,” Jae replied, her voice quiet.
“Oh, yeah, I remember now. You were standing with that skinny kid. Know him well, do you?”
“No. I mean, we met once or twice, but I can’t remember his name. We just happened to be near each other that morning.”
“Ah. I see. I had heard he frequents here. At The Tiger’s Paw.”
How in the name of hell does he know that?
“You’re looking for that kid?” Chad asked. “I don’t know anything about him, but he slinks in now and then. Never stays long.”
“That’s too bad. If you see him again, I’m offering a big reward for him.”
“How much?” Chad asked, his tone slightly eager.
Are you effing kidding me? Chad would turn me in?
“A lot. Enough to permit you to retire and live easily for the rest of your days.”
“If he comes in again, I’ll hold him for you.” Chad, I am so gonna kill you.
Raphael’s voice sounded pleased. “I would like that very much. I want him in connection with the death of a friend of mine.”
“Oh? I didn’t think that runt was capable of killing anyone.”
Runt? Thanks, Chad. I’ll remember that.
“I found Barry the Blade in the creek,” Raphael said. “My sources tell me the runt had had a run-in with him. Even a kid can kill with a gun.”
“Another beer, sir?”
“Thank you, my dear, I’d like that.”
I heard the sound of the beer pouring into the glass from the tap as Jae drew Raphael another. “There you are.”
“Thank you. You are very pretty.”
Keep your damn paws off my girl. I wanted to rush around the corner and launch myself at Raphael’s throat.
“Thank you,” Jae replied, her voice sounding shy.
For Jae, shyness had flown out the window a while ago. Silence fell in the bar for a short while, then I heard Raphael speak again. “Uh, what’s with the tattoo? Is that a lightning bolt?”
Morgan chuckled. “Yeah. I thought it was a cool thing. You know.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” Raphael answered slowly. “It is rather cool. I should get one.”
“Yeah? I bet any tattoo parlor can do it for you. You have the right kind of face for it, if you don’t mind me saying.”
“No, I don’t mind.”
Another silence fell. “You’re a big lion, if you don’t mind me saying,” Raphael commented. “You should come work for me. I pay pretty well.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah, I do. Come see me. Anybody can tell you the way.”
“Hey, thanks. I’ll do that.”
“Good. You run a nice place here.”
I heard a stool scrape against the wood, Raphael’s boots on the floor. “I’ll have to come back.”
“Tell your friends,” Chad added with a laugh.
Raphael’s voice came from closer to the door, the tramp of feet following him. “I’ll do that. You all have a good night.”
“You, too,” Morgan called after him.
The door opened on yet another blast of arctic air, then closed behind the last footfall. I didn’t dare emerge from hiding in case he came back, nor did Jae, Chad or Morgan come to the back room. Other customers came in, chatting, laughing, smoking cigarettes as I fought to figure out how in the hell Raphael could connect me to Barry without also considering Jae.
“Jae, go get more whiskey from the back.”
“Okay.”
Jae entered the back room and immediately flung her arms around my neck. “How does he know?” she whispered. “No one saw us.”
“I know.” My hands held her close. “If someone saw us, he’d be after you, too. He’s not. He may be guessing, or he may simply be after me because he can.”
“Declan, every goon in Cheyenne will be on the hunt for you now.” Jae stared wildly into my eyes.
“I’ll be careful. Now get the whiskey before someone gets suspicious.”
Chapter Ten
Being careful when every goon in town was after my hide just didn’t cut it.
“Why in the hell is he after you?” Morgan demanded after the bar closed and the customers all headed home. “Pardo
n me for speaking frankly, but you are not gang-lord-hunting material.”
“If I knew, I’d tell you,” I snapped. “I haven’t done anything except not pay my dues and smart off to his enforcers.”
“That would hardly put you on Raphael’s radar,” Chad commented. “You sure you haven’t done anything else?”
“I killed Barry, numbskull,” I shouted. “But there’s no way he could know that without also knowing Jae was involved. He’s not interested in her.”
Morgan scratched under his chin, his cold eyes on me. “Could you have left something on his body that would implicate just you but not Jae?” he asked. “Not scent; the snow and time would have taken care of that.”
My jaw dropped, and I glanced at Jae. “I don’t think so. Like what?”
“Anything that you were known to have, and was left on Barry. Think, Declan.”
Anguished, pacing, I tried to think, to remember. “I don’t have anything. I had just met Jae; we were hanging out; he came in to rape her; I killed him. I didn’t leave anything. I had nothing to leave.”
“Maybe Raphael is just reaching,” Chad said. “Declan here is wanted, so Raphael has to pin the blame for Barry on someone. It’s blind luck he chose Barry’s real killer.”
Morgan nodded slowly, but his expression remained unconvinced. “But our boy here is now hunted by every gangster in this city. There’s a huge reward on his head. Any citizen will turn him in.”
“What?” I stared at Morgan. “Are you kidding me?”
“No, Declan, I’m not. Any common grocer on the street will spot you and tell Raphael to claim the reward. Your hide will decorate Raphael’s wall within days.”
Slumping onto a stool, I put my arms on the bar and rested my face in them. “Why me?”
“You’re an excellent scapegoat, boy. A nobody from the street that no one would miss.”
I lifted my face to scowl. “Thanks. You warm my heart.”
“Morgan, stop talking to him like that,” Jae screeched. “You’re sworn to protect him.”
“And I will. I’m trying to figure out how.”
“Then we ramp up our efforts to get out of here,” Chad said briskly. “We find a safe haven for Declan, then kill the guards on the road and go.”