Chapter Thirteen

Ever

I know that there is a very slim chance that Pete’s going to make it for a movie tonight and quite frankly I’m glad. It's easy to see how much being away from Elijah is wearing on him and I would much rather that they talk to each other than we watch a movie, most likely one that we have already watched multiple times.

“Il Mio Cuore,” Cash says as he walks into my room, “do you want some company?”

“Always,” I smile as I tap the bed next to me.

He wastes no time at all in coming over to the bed and settling down, lying so that his head is on my stomach. My fingers instantly start running through his hair, twisting it, and playing with it. I find it oddly calming.

“How did the call go?” I ask him, “Is everyone okay?”

Cash nods, “Yeah, they have had a few complications that mean it’s going to take longer than they expected, but they are all okay.”

“Good,” I reply with a smile, and then say, “poor Pete, he’s really struggling with Elijah being away for so long.”

“I know, but he’s on the phone with him now, and it’s looking like he’ll be able to talk to him fairly regularly for a while, Trick gave it the all clear, although he’s had to text Elijah that because he hung up and called Pete as soon as Trick said the briefing was over.”

I chuckle, “That’s pretty fucking cute.”

“Yeah, it was,” he agrees with a soft smile. “So, what are we watching?” he asks, staring up at me and looking ridiculously cute.

“Just one of my comfort shows,” I reply. “You know, the ones that we watch on repeat.”

His eyes study face closely as he smirks, one of his hands slowly moving up my leg, “So, you won’t mind if you miss some of it then?”

I grin, “Not at all.”

That is all the encouragement he needs as he flips himself over, and nips my leg, making me giggle and tug on his hair to bring him up so I can kiss him. Before he kisses me, he strips off his shirt and quickly kicks off his jeans before he tugs at my oversized sleep shirt, and I pull it off quickly. His eyes leave a heated trail over my now naked skin; the only thing left on is my underwear. His hands follow the trail of his eyes, and my back arches as his fingers brush against my nipples, making them pebble and my clit pulse.

Dropping his head down, he takes my nipple in his mouth, his hands gripping my waist, as my hands dive into his hair, and I let out a moan of pleasure as expertly swirls his tongue around my nipple and sucks. Releasing my nipple with a pop, he kisses up my chest and neck before his lips meet mine in a firm kiss as one of his hands weaves into my hair, and the other gently trails down the valley between my boobs, leaving goosebumps in its wake.

My nails dig into his chest, making him nip my lip in retribution as his fingers move beneath my underwear, finding my clit and applying just the right amount of pressure that makes my hips buck. I feel him smirk against my lips, but as my hand dips beneath the band of his boxers and grips his dick holding it firmly as I move my hand, the smirk on his lips turns into a groan. I would feel smug about it, but his fingers are doing that magical curl thing that he is so fucking good at while the palm of his hand and my bucking hips provide just the right amount of pressure to have my orgasm building quickly. My hand moves quicker on Cash’s dick as I switch the rhythm occasionally, causing him to quietly groan in my ear.

With very little warning, my orgasm crashes through me, and before I’ve even had time to ride out the last of the waves of pleasure, he slams into me; my nails dig into his back, my back arching as I scream in pleasure, his pace demanding another orgasm from me, who am I to deny? My second orgasm doesn’t even build as it hits me with wave after wave of such intense pleasure that I am sure I briefly leave my body at some point.

His movements pick up, and I flip him so I’m on top, his eyes hooded with desire as he watches me grind down on him, as I switch between slow and then moving quicker, his hands grip my hips tightly, before one of them moves to my boob, he massages it, his finger pinching my nipple and rolling it between his fingers, before he switches positions and sits up, one arm going around meand holding me to him tightly, as we continue to move. His face dips to my nipple, and his tongue swirling around it in the most delicious way.

My hands weave into his hair, pulling him away so I can kiss him. Our tongues dance as our hips move in sync, Cash increases the pace, and the pleasure intensifies as he growls his release, slowing his movements as he kisses me slowly.

********

Cash

S troking Runa I watch as Ever get dressed, and ask, “Are you going to check the horses?”

She glances over at me and smiles, “Sorry I didn’t mean to wake you, and how did you know?”

I chuckle, “You didn’t, Runa head-butted me for cuddles, she obviously decided that you got up too soon and thought she would wake me up. I have to say I agree with her.”

Ever grins as she comes back over to the bed and strokes Runa before leaning over and giving me a kiss.

“As much as I’d like to come back to bed, I need to go and check on Tank and do all of that stuff,” she says.

I nod, and tease, “I know, a guy can dream. Go, have fun.”

She kisses me once more and then practically skips out of the door, making me chuckle as she runs straight into Rage, who catches her before she hits the floor.

“Careful, Puddin’,” he says affectionately.

“Your fault,” she retorts, and then carries on down the hallway.

Her response makes both of us laugh, and Rage says, “I think Trick is looking for you, he’s got that; I need to bounce ideas off someone look.”

I chuckle, “Yeah, I’m getting up now, I’ll go and find him.”

He nods and then follows Ever downstairs, chuckling when she yells for him to hurry up.

After I have showered and got dressed for the day, I make my way to the kitchen to grab a coffee before I find Trick.

“Hey man,” I greet Riot as I head straight for the coffee machine.

“Hey, I’m not sure what the plan is today, everyone is pretty much doing their own thing since we’ve stalled with the job for a moment.” He tells me.

“Yeah, I’m hoping that we will get at least some of the files today; I want to get started and make a plan.” I reply, and then add, “Do you know where Trick is?”

“He was up early this morning. He came in and made a few coffees and then disappeared again. If I had to guess, I would say he is in his office stewing and worrying,” Riot replies.

With all know how Trick can get when it comes to stalling on a job especially a job as important as ours. Any hiccups or delays mean that the person that we are chasing could get away and it definitely means that they are causing even more damage to people. In this case it means that more shipments of guns, drugs and people are being moved and none of that sits well with us.

While we all feel the same, Trick takes so much of the responsibility on himself, even when, in reality, it’s not on him. It is something that we can’t change and we can’t do anything about. We are doing everything that we can at the moment. Trick knows that, but his mind will be throwing hundreds of different scenarios at him, all of the what-ifs, and that is where I come in. I will listen, and I will give suggestions, and we will go through all of the fears and possibilities, and we’ll talk them through.

It’s what we have always done. I stopped doing it quite so much for a while, unsure how the dynamics would change with Atlas and Rage being back with us on a permanent basis, not that either of them ever showed any interest in taking on a leadership role or even being second like I am, and I didn’t actually consciously step back, it was just a thing that happened unintentionally, and it’s only recently that I’ve realized that’s when I stopped being as involved as I always have been, but I’ve stepped back up and not only do I enjoy helping in this way and being his second I also like how much it’s helping Trick and how quickly we’ve settled back into how we used to be.

I apologized to him for stepping back, but of course, he was having none of it.

“Trick, are you in here, man?” I ask as I push the door open.

“Yeah,” Trick replies absently, from behind his desk, papers spread out in front of him.

As I get closer, I realize that the papers contain all of the information that we currently have on Hunt, his operations, and his associates.

“Looking for anything we’ve missed?” I ask as I take a seat on the other side of his desk. I know that is what he is doing without a shadow of a doubt.

He looks up finally and grimaces, rubbing his hands over his face before he leans back in his chair and asks, “How did you know?”

“It’s what you always do,” I reply and then add, “I know you.”

“You should by now,” Trick retorts.

He falls silent, and I wait, he will talk when he is ready and I am happy just to sit here and wait, it gives me a chance to enjoy my coffee anyway.

“So, what if the file doesn’t have any relevant information in it and we are just back to where we were before. With no information and no idea what our next step is.” He finally asks.

“Okay, a couple of things, first, Luc read about the port before he passed out so we know that there is at least something useful in the file and two we know that Sandy and Drake are involved, we may not know where Sandy is to question her, but we do know that Luc's dad, Drake, is in prison, and if we need to, we have access to him and ways to make him talk.”

Trick tilts his head to the side as he considers what I’m saying and nods, “Both very good points. I'm worried about how involved they are with all of this and the effect that could have on Luc. Especially if we need to go and talk to his father.”

I sigh, “I know, I am too, I think we all are. We know that there is no love lost between Luc and Drake; what happened at the cabin proved that, but I'm not sure how he will handle his mom being involved.”

“Yeah, I think that is what I’m worrying about the most. I know that Luc doesn’t like her, for obvious reasons, and I know that she was as vicious to Luc as Drake was in many circumstances, but he had no idea that she could be this involved with the criminal stuff that his father was into. I know that he has viewed her almost as a victim of Drake’s although she made her own choices, we all did, which is why we didn’t realize that she was as involved,” Trick replies.

“A mistake on our part,” I agree, “Luc isn’t naive and is under no misconception about his mother. He may not have known that she was heavily involved, and maybe she wasn’t when he lived there, but she certainly is now. We will keep an eye on him, but I think he is going to be fine.”

Trick nods, “Yeah okay. Ever will be keeping a close eye on him as well, she won’t miss a thing and if she does pick up on Luc struggling, she will let us know if we need to know about it.”

I smile, “Yes, she will. I know we are hoping that we won’t have to, but since there is a chance that we may have to talk to Drake, I think it might be a good idea to get the ball rolling and put the request in to talk to him. It takes a long time for the request to go through, and if we decide we need to talk to him, then we won’t want to wait. We will want to talk to him immediately. If we put the request in and we don’t need it, then it will cause a lot less trouble just to cancel it than it would to try and get an appointment to see him at the last minute.”

Trick’s eyebrows draw together, but he nods, “Yes, that’s a good idea.”

I pull out my phone and start to fill in the formal request, it doesn’t take me very long to get it all filled out and sent to Mr R so that he can do the things that he needs to do to get the ball rolling.

“Done,” I tell him, “I’ll let you know as soon as I hear anything.”

“Thanks, man. I’m getting a bit fed up with all the waiting around, Hunt has been our most extended ongoing case, and I’m ready to take him out of the picture, either in one of our securest prisons or, ideally, in the fucking ground, where we have a guarantee that he can’t pull any strings, and escape. Trick practically growls.

“I know what you mean, I'm hoping that we end up taking him out. He's too well connected and has too many ways that he can get himself out of situations. He has proven that many times. There is a reason that he hasn’t been caught by the usual authorities, and why we were brought in, they couldn’t touch him, and we have struggled. He is either been one step ahead of us the entire time, or he has dodged attempts to take him in.”

“I’ll be glad when this one is over. I am always glad when we get a dangerous fucker off the chessboard, but this time, I’m going to be even more relieved. I think it is because this one has been more personal for the first time in a long time. With Ever’s mom being involved, the connection with Blake and Liam, which means Atlas and Alaric, and Luc’s parents’ involvement, we need him gone. It makes me feel like we are vulnerable, and I don’t like that.”

My voice has an edge to it as I reply, “Neither do I. I'm glad I'm not the only one that has been feeling that way. I much prefer the jobs that have nothing to do with us. Even the ones that occasionally happen where we run into someone that Atlas and Rage know, or rather knew, because of Liam’s businesses and their involvement with it before and after we disbanded it.”

“Me too,” I reply. “This one is far too personal. It's too close, which means there is a bigger chance for things to go wrong. I like minimizing us being in danger, as much as is possible in our line of work anyway, and this goes against my instincts.”

The rest of my thoughts trail off as my phone dings the tone, which means I have an email, and I pick it back up to see who has emailed me.

“Everything okay?” Trick asks, probably reading my expression.

“Yeah, it’s from Mr R, I just didn’t expect him to get back to me so quickly.” I reply, and then, as soon as I see the contents of the email, I add, “He has finally sent the files. He also said that he will get the request put in to see Drake. He’s also asked if we want to hand this case off to someone else since it has become very personal.”

Trick sighs, “I don’t even think there is any point in asking the others. I know what they are going to say, and none of them are going to want to give up this case, it has become incredibly personal but then again, it was always personal it’s just got more so, and because it's personal, none of us are going to want to let it go to another team.”

I shake my head, “I know Luc, Ever, and Atlas, and if we did give it up and something happened to the other team, then they’d blame themselves, hell we all would.”

“So, we’re agreed then?” Trick asks.

“Just in case they surprise us, let me ask in the group chat. They all know that we are in here, so it shouldn’t come as much of a shock to ask them,” I reply.

We both know what they’ll all say, but we’re family and a team, and that means that even though we know what they are going to say, we still ask them; not only is it the respectful thing to do, but also people change all the time and reactions change to situations as well. A good example is Jensen allowing Zemi and the guys to go after his mom and sisters’ killer, there was a time when we all would have said that he would never allow that, and he would be the one to chase the fucker down and end him.

So that is why it is important that we ask, and we make sure that everyone is definitely on the same page.

Trick nods, “Good idea, I don’t want to risk making the decision for them and it being the wrong one.”

I quickly type out the message and press send, almost immediately, I get responses, most of them being along the lines of, 'it is entirely up to Luc, Ever, and Atlas and whatever they are comfortable with .'

I had a feeling that the others would respond that way, and I’m also unsurprised that the three in question reply that they want to end Hunt, and that we have put far too much time and energy into this to back out now.

“They’re all in,” I tell Trick unnecessarily since he is in the chat and has been reading all of the replies himself, a smile on his face.

“Our family is pretty fucking amazing, aren’t they?” he smiles.

I nod, “Yeah, they are. We got damn lucky, man.”