Chapter 74

* Lyon *

“What’s the Scalene triangle up to?”

“Lyon, I have no idea what the hell that means.”

“Look it up. The three little girls, where are they, and what are they doing?” Tommy is another one of my guys from the original crew and the only one I could get ahold of on the island since Hitler’s youth seemed to be up to some shit and had shipped the rest of them off somewhere.

I hadn’t seen it immediately because, one, I’d just left one job and was thrown ass first into another with barely any warning, and two, I don’t fuck with Mengele and her demented shit because it’s like being a mouse in a fucked-up maze designed to make me lose my shit.

But it’ll be the day when Kat’s spawn can get one over on me. As soon as I saw the pattern, I knew something was up, and the little sneak had orchestrated it all perfectly. She knew my hands were tied because as long as she, her mother, or her brothers and sisters were not in any danger, I wouldn’t leave the job to come back there to deal with her shit.

Note, I haven’t even entertained the notion of having my guys do it for me because I know they can’t, and I don’t want to weaken morale among my men by putting them up against a force they can’t beat. Fucking Mengele: I don’t know what the hell Kat was eating when she was lugging that one around in the womb, but she’s built differently.

“Oh, last I saw, they were going to test out their new armor. I think they came up with the right combination of spider and worm silk mix.”

“What the fuck are you now? A fashion designer?” He laughed his ass off because, like all the others, he knew that I only get agitated when dealing with my kid. Everything else, I’m smooth sailing, but I don’t trust shit when it comes to my little darling.

“What do you mean testing it?” Mengele had Mancini that fuck import a whole-ass Korean woman to work on making silk for Mengele. Not just any silk, mind you. She had somehow figured out that silk when woven the correct way, was stronger and offered more protection than Kevlar.

But that wasn’t enough for my kid; oh no, she didn’t want just silkworms, which she has a whole damn colony of on the island that she’d talked her idiot uncles into importing for her, but she’d gone and found poison spiders as well because according to her, their silk was even better.

That poor woman has been working on that armor for a good year or more at this point, and I’m staying out of it. Last I saw, Mengele had brought the whole damn family from Jinju with the help of Mancini and had them breeding worms and spiders and shit to work on her crap.

I’ve stayed out of it because what dafuq, but maybe I should’ve been paying closer attention. “How is she testing the armor?”

“Huh?”

“You said they were testing the armor. How are they doing that?” My eye started to twitch. Fuck me!

“Um, shit, I don’t know, that’s all they said. Besides, your dad is with them, so there is nothing to worry about.”

“Bruh, how long have you known my dad? The pothead lets those little girls run circles around him because he can’t be fucking bothered. Are you kidding me? Go find them, and for the love of fuck be careful.”

I hung up the phone and grinned. “That wasn’t nice.” Nosy-ass Mancini was pretending to be playing with one of his many gadgets but was, in fact, listening in on my conversation like I invited him in. “What’re you talking about?” I put my feet up on the desk and folded my hands behind my head.

We’d landed not too long ago and were in the safe house, making sure everything was in order before making the first move. “You just set your guy up. You know exactly what they’re doing.”

“It’ll serve his ass right if one of Lily’s armor-piercing arrows hits him in the ass. He’s supposed to be keeping an eye on them.”

“You can’t blame him, Colt; you’ve seen how Catalina gets around them. It’s hard for them to see her as anything other than your adorable little girl when she puts on that act of hers. What do you expect them to do? They spend their whole lives protecting women and children, remember?”

“Listen, I’ve been warning you clowns for years; not my fault you never listen, so don’t give me none of that shit. My kid is a con artist. I have a whole damn list hanging in that conference room with shit to look out for when dealing with her ass, but to a man, all of you still fall for her shit. By the way, where did she get those automated men?”

“Don’t look at me like that; it was either them or live targets.”

“Li… do I even want to know?”

“Not really, one day, it was her older brothers, the twins, and the next, it was whatever criminals we caught. Count your lucky stars that I was able to talk her into going with this instead.”

“Your wife, the FBI agent, does she know that you and my daughter be planning massacres and shit?” He didn’t have anything else to say; he just gave me a smirk as he tapped away at his little screen while I went back to thinking. Mengele didn’t get rid of almost every man on the island to practice her armor-piercing shit; she’s definitely up to something, but what.

***

* Elena *

“So, what made you do it?”

“Do what?” I pretended not to know what he was talking about as he pulled out and rolled off of me to my side. I was sweaty and panting for my next breath, but I had never felt this good in my life. I don’t know what it is, but for the first time, I felt free and without inhibitions; all barriers were down between us, and it had made the sex freaking phenomenal.

I guess it was the same for him because even now, he couldn’t keep his hands off me, and we’d already done it twice. He trailed his finger along my collarbone as he propped his head on his hand to look down at me. “The picture, what made you post it?”

“No real reason. I just thought it was time, is all.”

I rolled and threw my leg over his hip, and he wrapped his arm around me, bringing me closer to his warmth. I felt giddy and alive and so in love. There was a smile in my heart that only he could put there, and I knew what it truly felt like to be with one’s other half.

I’d always known or rather suspected that Ryder and I were soul mates, even before Char mentioned it. There was just something, some otherworldly feeling that could not be put into words, but I always sensed it. Only last time, there was always a blockage of some kind that was missing now.

I felt open and whole, as if some integral part of me had been healed, and there were no longer any dark clouds blocking out the sunlight of my life. I felt the kind of happiness that directors try so hard to portray through their camera lens but always fail because true happiness is not an act.

That feeling convinced me, more than anything else ever could, that this time was going to be sweeter, better, with no pitfalls or hiccups. This time, nothing and no one could tear us apart. I felt it in myself and saw it in his eyes that we were finally one in every sense of the word.

Looking back at those times when I thought I was losing my mind and that my life was fractured, it was hard to believe that there would be a day like today. How could I have known then, when I was so broken and alone, that we would find our way back to each other and be stronger and better than before?

I wouldn’t wish that hell on anyone, but to be honest, if I knew it would get me back here to where I wanted to be, I’d do it all again, theoretically, of course. I’m not about to put myself through that mess again because it would mean being apart from him, and that was something I couldn’t even bear the thought of.

“I love that smile.” He kissed my nose as I rocked against his thigh. We’d made love twice already, once as soon as he walked through the door and then again right after. The hunger and need for each other were too much to hold off for even a second.

But now I wanted him again as if I hadn’t been filled with him twice before. There was something wild and untamed beating away inside me and concentrated between my thighs, which he seemed to understand without me saying because the smile on his face changed, and the light in his eyes became more pronounced as he studied me before turning me onto my back and slipping inside me again.

There are no words to describe what it feels like to be filled to completion by the lover of your heart. No expression can ever convey the feelings of joy and deep bone jarring pleasure I felt as he filled my tightness with his length.

“Stay there, don’t move.” The words were shaky, and heat filled on my tongue as I shivered and clamped down around his cock. I held him captive with my body and eyes as he looked down at me, holding still as I’d asked. “I just want to feel you like this for a moment.”

Since we’d burned off the lust in the first two rounds of passionate lovemaking, I wanted to take my time now and enjoy the feel of him inside me, of us being one, and he played along. I felt him throb and twitch inside me as my body released its juices around his girth, and when he gritted his teeth and fought to stay still, giving me what I wanted, I took pity on him.

No words were spoken as I reached up and cupped his face bringing his lips to mine, and then started to move my hips, telling him without words that it was okay to move now. I cried out when he went deep, and he started to pull back, no doubt thinking that he’d hurt me. “Don’t you dare.”

That was all the go-ahead he needed to start up a pounding thrust that rocked both our bodies and slammed me into the mattress beneath me just as the headboard banged into the wall. Even the squeaking of the bed was sexy and helped to inflame my lust as I tried to keep up with his untamed passion.

“Ryder!”

“I’m right here.” He must’ve sensed the fear in me because he set out to soothe. For a second there, things were so intense that I’d been afraid that it was too much. There was so much feeling, so much emotion that I almost suffocated, but it was gone now, that feeling of drowning, and I didn’t care that he was too hard or too rough; I wanted it.

I did my best to keep up with him taking him in deep as I scored his back with my nails and breathed out his name as his lips covered mine, taking the sound into him. I remembered how he liked me to squeeze down around him as he moved in and out of me, and I did it now, feeling myself getting close once again.

My hips took over as if they had a mind of their own, and I became wild, throwing my head back and screaming out my orgasm as liquid heat rushed through me and leaked around his cock.

He lost control, we both did, and when he bit into my neck, I didn’t try to stop him. “Mark me!” I gave him the permission that he didn’t ask for, but I knew what saying those words would do to him.

Always before, I’d been careful not to let him leave his mark on me. I had an image to uphold and was owned by the studios and the fans, and everyone else that had a say in my life, so I always had to walk on eggshells so as not to step on any toes.

This time around, I didn’t care; I’ll never care again about anyone else’s wants or feelings when it comes to our relationship but my own. His and mine. I’ll always put us first this time around; come what may.

***

* Ryder *

Per Lyon’s instructions, I hadn’t told her about Janie and that she was on her way here, and I was glad I hadn’t. I didn’t want anything to mar the joy I saw in her eyes when she looked at me. Unlike before, I found the time after just as fulfilling as our lovemaking.

There was no guilt and feelings of inadequacy making me rush from the bed to get away from her knowing eyes; in fact, I felt closer to her than I ever have, and it was beautiful. I’m not sure about second chances and how many people ever really get them in life, but I’ll be forever thankful for this chance.

There was nothing holding me back now, no hidden secrets waiting to jump out and destroy what we had because I’d shared it all with her already. If I’d known how understanding she would’ve been about my shortcomings, I would’ve spilled my guts a long time ago and spared us both the hell of the last five years.

If I’d known this feeling that was better than any chemical high existed just by being in her presence, then I would’ve moved mountains to hold onto her back then. I shook off my thoughts, not willing to let even them interfere with this moment of bliss.

We hadn’t really talked about the future, but now that she’d gone public, I see no reason not to. I’m pretty sure we’re on the same page, but just to be sure, “I want to marry you as soon as possible. I know I have to talk to your mom and Sydney and ask their forgiveness for the way things happened in the past, but I should warn you now that even if they don’t approve, I won’t let that stop me. Not this time.”

“I agree, but we’re not having a rushed wedding. We’re going to have the wedding of the century. It’s going to cost you millions.” I think that was a shot at my rushed courthouse wedding to Janie, but I didn’t push to find out.

“We will have whatever wedding you want. Just don’t take too long to plan it.”

“These things take time; what’s your rush?”

“I don’t want you to change your mind,” I said it jokingly, but I was partly serious. A part of me was still terrified that she’d come to her senses and go running as fast and as far away from me as she could.

“I won’t change my mind, not unless you lose yours again, at which point a wedding will be the least of your worries.”

“Is that a threat?” I kissed her cute little nose and grinned, feeling like the man I’d always wanted to be with her.

“You bet your ass. Now feed me; I’m starved.”

She rolled away and got out of bed while I watched her. “There’s this nice little place I found here in the city that serves the best burgers. I feel like a big fat juicy burger dripping in ketchup and mayo.”

Her eating habits aside, her words caught me off guard. “You want to go out in public?” Why that should make my heart race is anyone’s guess.

“Why not? The cat’s already out of the bag.” I jumped off the bed and followed her, laughing into the shower. I don’t know what got into her, but I’m here for it.