Chapter Eight

Harley

Alert, his cat was pacing inside him as he drove the stolen SUV to the house where the bloody battle had happened. Cosmo was in the car behind him with Nomad. They'd figured out what needed to happen and waited until the club had closed before leaving.

The fewer folks that saw them, the better. Harley listened to what his body was telling him, so they were all heading to the house where they'd left the dead bodies. Getting rid of the evidence of what Cosmo and they'd done was a priority, despite how Cosmo had hissed about going home first. It had taken a good five minutes to get him to see Harley wasn't messing around about how much they relied on his instinctual reactions .

Dark streets and little to no traffic made the journey quick. The house loomed out of the shadows of the night. His cat senses scoped out the area as they approached and he slowed the car, paying attention to what he was feeling. He signaled to Nomad and Cosmo, using his indicators that they were okay to approach the house, not for Nomad but for Cosmo, who expressed he didn't like being excluded when they didn't communicate aloud.

Harley had bitten his tongue to keep from offering to change that, whereas Nomad had left the room, once more cursing loudly in Harley's head for waiting for Cosmo to make the next move when it came to the three of them completing their mating.

Harley parked away from the one streetlight. The scent of death was ripe in the air as he exited the SUV. Further down the dark street, another council vehicle sat. Harley sighed at how they'd need to get rid of that, too.

A silence came when Nomad parked and switched off the engine. Harley waited for Cosmo, who wore baggy shorts under the large T-shirt. It didn't detract from what Harley now understood was a lethal weapon the council had used to meet their own needs.

Nomad followed closely behind Cosmo, scanning the area continuously.

"We're alone," Harley murmured.

Cosmo's nod was slow as he eyed the house, then the surrounding area. "We need to cut up the bodies and dump them."

His voice was devoid of any emotion and gave Harley yet more insight into his mate.

"No, we burn the bodies first with a high strength accelerant. Then set fire to the house. Out here, it will allow enough time for the house to burn the interior fully before the fire crew arrives. That will get rid of all blood traces, yours, and ours. "

This wasn't their first rodeo, and they had what they needed in their vehicle.

"That works." Nomad went to collect what they had stashed.

Going to Cosmo, who didn't look as convinced, Harley took hold of an icy hand. "We haven't talked about our past or yours yet, but you can trust us. I get you've been working for the council doing their dirty work for them, as have we." Harley came forward and brushed a kiss over the top of Cosmo's apple scented hair. "Nomad and me, we'll have your back and will never lead you in the wrong direction. Will you trust us to help you and know that we don't see that as weakness?"

It was there in Cosmo's eyes, the surprise that Harley had read his deepest fear. "I… I'm…" he sighed and though he didn't sag physically, Harley felt it happen—nevertheless—mentally. "I'll think ‘bout it."

It was better than nothing, and he projected the same to Nomad, who was watching them, listening. It's a step. He's been alone for so long, I sense it. We've had each other to rely upon, he's had no one.

Let's hope he trusts us before my cat goes rogue and bites him.

You mean you and you won't, mate. I know you've already got feelings for our cutie and doing what he doesn't want isn't anywhere on your agenda.

Fuck off with your all-seeing eyes.

Harley swallowed a chuckle when Cosmo eyed him, a pout appearing on his pretty lips. "You're doing the talky thing again without me. Stop that! I don't like it Daddy."

Tweaking the end of Cosmo's wrinkling nose, Harley set out to assure him that they didn't intentionally mean to leave him out. "Twenty years your Daddies have been communicating this way, it's gonna take a little time to break the habit." He kissed the tip of the nose and held Cosmo's gaze. "When we mate, you'll be able to talk to your Daddies all the time this way." Another kiss to the upturned nose was hard to resist, so Harley didn't. "But we'll do our best to talk aloud until then."

Cosmo got a kind of dreamy look that made him even more impossible to resist, and Harley quickly stepped away from temptation.

"Let's get this done," Harley muttered and strode back into the house, breathing through his mouth to reduce the smell of death.

Nomad

The heat of the fire seared Nomad's skin as he poured yet more accelerant on to the burning bodies. Flames licked at the withered flesh, sending plumes of death scented smoke into the surrounding air. They'd contained the fire to one room to start, removing anything that could spread the fire from the concrete floor and dead body parts.

Cosmo and Harley had created a pile with blood-soaked items in another room, and that would be where they'd start the fire to burn the house to the ground.

Sweat dried against his skin as quick as it formed while flames weaved higher, seeking oxygen. Nomad didn't stop pouring the fluid on the fire until the bones were visibly turning to ash. Only then did he turn and leave to seek his mates. His cat wasn't happy at the smoke filling his nose, and Nomad reminded him it was better than blood and death.

Nomad checked each room he passed through to ensure they'd left nothing that could trace back to them. "You done?"

Harley glanced up from where he was throwing an old carpet onto a large heap in the middle of the living space with Cosmo. Cosmo's arms weren't big, but he had well-formed muscles. "Yup."

Cosmo's grin was as lethal as the light in his eyes. "Are the assholes all turned into crisps?"

A brusque nod widened the smile and sent a shiver of desire through Nomad. He glanced away. Not the fucking time!

"Then let's light this place up!" Harley said gleefully.

Out of the building two minutes later, after making sure the place was burning, Nomad headed to the SUV parked further down the street. Moments later, he had it running; he opened the window once he stopped where Cosmo and Harley stood watching the house blaze. "We'll each need to take a car. Follow me, I know a place to drop these off."

Neither man argued and Cosmo got into their car, while Harley slipped into the SUV Nomad had arrived in.

Nomad watched in his rearview mirror as the flames reached the roof, heading off, a wide grin of satisfaction spreading over his face.

Where we off too?

I thought you told cutie you wouldn't talk to me like this? His grin, all amusement at Harley's sudden conflict. There's a junkyard twenty miles from here. We'll leave them there. I'm sure they won't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Silence followed, and Nomad laughed all the way to thejunkyard when it came with a dose of frustration at Harley resisting breaking his promise. God, he loved his mate.

Cosmo

His new Daddies were stalling, and that was setting off all kinds of red flags with him. They were talking in their minds again, too, excluding him. He could tell by the way Daddy Nomad's expression shifted from time to time, like he was trying not to laugh at something Cosmo wasn't privy to. Were they making fun of him? Had he been too quick to give into the way their scents played havoc with his mind and body? He'd jumped to call them Daddy and start thinking of them that way, but something about it all screamed that he was being hasty.

They'd said they worked for the council, too. Maybe after seeing the way he'd dispatched of the last group sent to kill him, they'd decided to try a softer approach and lure him to his own demise. He shuddered to think of what could have happened when he'd curled soft and pliant between them. One of them could have smothered him in his sleep and he'd have had little chance of stopping them, especially with how much bigger than him they were.

Thinking about that hurt, though. A stabbing pain ripped through his chest at the very idea that he shouldn't trust them, and all he wanted now was to curl tight beneath his nest of blankets and stay there until he'd sorted the whole mess out. Only… they were right about his house not being the safest place for him. The council knew where he lived and could easily send others back once they realized Cosmo wasn't dead.

Which meant he'd have to abandon it, regardless of whether or not he could trust his mates to keep him safe, and right now, he was too torn to make that decision.

The moment the vehicle stopped, he shoved the door open and bolted out, rushing to his house before either of them could stop him. The sharp click that followed him shoving open the door hadn't fully registered when strong arms locked around him and yanked him backwards out of the way of the fireball that burst through the opening.

For a moment, he could only lay stunned on the lawn beneath Nomad, his mate panting on top of him and crushing him, making it difficult for him to get a full breath. By the time he could, the entryway was in flames and all he could see were little fires burning on almost every surface. His special room was fireproof, though. If he could just get around to the back, climb in through the window.

Shoving at Nomad didn't loosen his hold, but it got him to shift his weight enough that Cosmo could breathe better.

"Whatever you're thinking, stop. You are not going in there!" Nomad's tone was absolute and almost hard.

An order that part of him could easily listen to while the other half railed against it.

Fury filled him at the thought of losing everything and he rolled beneath him, tucking his knees into his chest when Nomad mistakenly let up, thinking he couldn't breathe. It was all the room he needed to flip his mate off him and send Nomad crashing into the side of the house, hopefully just stunning him enough that Cosmo could do what he needed to.

"You don't tell me what to do!" Cosmo cried as he raced around the back of the house where the flames weren't that bad. He kicked out the window on his way in, sliding into the glass, slicing himself up. The smoke here hadn't gotten thick yet, not that he couldn't reach his room blind if needed. He had to retrieve his weapons and the small box that held secrets and the mementoes of the family he'd lost.

His fingers reached on instinct to gather things and shove them into the bag, his weapons mostly small and easily transported. The box was too. By the time he'd finished, the heat in the room had grown to the point where sweat was sticking his clothing to him. He took one last look around to insure he hadn't missed anything, spotting one of his favorite throwing star sets sitting out of place, on the bench where he'd laid them to clean and sharpen them. He grabbed them, too.

The doorway was fully ablaze by the time he turned back around. It was only then that he realized his biggest mistake. The fire couldn't burn in here, but with the door open, he was letting in a monstrous amount of smoke, and it was beginning to leave his vision and thoughts spotty and incomplete.

He should close the door.

He reached for it, scalding his fingers. Hissing, he yanked them away, pulled off his t-shirt and went to try again, only to feel someone grab his wrist and yank him through the flames. For the second time, he got held against a firm chest as his arms were pinned and they carried him bodily back towards the window and manhandled through it, despite how much he squirmed. His bulky backpack rocking on his back made wiggling that much more difficult.

Harley sounded furious, despite the roar of the flames drowning out whatever words he was hurling at Cosmo.

Cosmo hit the grass outside with a hard thud and barely got out of the way of Harley's boots as he came leaping out the window, too. His clothes inflamed; the big man hit the ground rolling to put them out.

Glaring at the fire that licked out the window after him, all Cosmo could do was stare into the flames and watch his entire world burn down on the other side of that hole. Realization hit like a slow immersion in ice water. It was just him and his weapons again. His carefully created escape was gone. Every stuffy, every onesie, every little binky and carefully gathered toy and treat was melting, taking with it the safety he'd been able to feel at being soft and vulnerable in the haven he'd made for himself.

Despite the glass in his legs and the heat against his face, he stayed still, trembling until the tears came and he tucked his knees to his chest, pressed his face against them, and sobbed.