Chapter 22

Scotty crieduntil he was empty. Until he had nothing left. And then he allowed Zander and Vince to carry him from the dungeon slash basement back to their room, where they laid him on the bed and climbed in with him. They didn’t speak, and he had yet to find the words to describe the jumbled mess that was his emotions.

His uncle was dead.

So many times he’d fantasized about it, about killing Don, wishing he could be brave enough to do it but accepting that he wasn’t. Zander had killed him, for Scotty. Because he wanted to protect Scotty. His eyes burned and he rolled into Zander, burying his face in his throat and just clinging to him. Vince was at Scotty’s back, stroking his shoulder, murmuring soothing words that warmed Scotty’s chest.

They were strangers, these two men, and yet in the span of a night that lasted two whole lifetimes, they’d become so much more. He couldn’t find words for the relief in his chest, knowing Don wasn’t around anymore. Knowing he wouldn’t have to see his uncle’s face on TV or hear his voice and be transported back to the worst moments of his life.

Don had been a true monster but he was gone now. Scotty didn’t cry for him, didn’t grieve for him, but he grieved for his mother. For himself. For all the things he’d had to endure under Don.

“He’s gone,” he muttered. A shudder worked its way through his body. “He’s gone.” That was wonderment in his voice, maybe even some disbelief, too, because he’d always figured Don would outlive him. Don was invincible. Don was untouchable. But he wasn’t. He just hadn’t met Zander yet.

“He’s gone,” Vince confirmed in his ear. “He’s gone and you’re here because you’re stronger than what he did to you.”

But Scotty didn’t feel strong. He felt weak and drained and desperate for comfort. He pressed deeper into Zander’s chest and the same hand that had pulled the trigger, ending Don’s life, cupped the back of Scotty’s head, fingers tugging on his hair gently. He tipped his head back, staring into Zander’s eyes.

“Are you okay?” The question vibrated against the palm Scotty had on Zander’s chest.

He nodded at the question. “Yes. I’m okay.” He didn’t ask about Don’s body and how Zander would take care of it to ensure he didn’t get caught—Don had been the mayor after all. Zander obviously wasn’t new to violence or killing and getting away with it. He knew what he was doing and Scotty trusted that and him.

At his back, Vince crowded into him until Scotty was caught between them, held tight by their bodies and drowning in the warmth of their skin. This was his favorite place, he realized. In between them with no chance of getting away unless and until they allowed it.

A smile made his lips twitch and he hummed low in his throat, a sound of appreciation as he returned his forehead to Zander’s chest and closed his eyes. He was tired and he needed a little rest. He had no doubt they would be right there with him when he woke up.

Hushed voices broughtScotty out of his sleep and he inhaled deeply, opening his eyes and blinking up at the ceiling. He lay on his back, but Zander and Vince weren’t in the bed with him. They were over by the door—arguing, he gathered, based on their body language and the stubborn set of Zander’s jaw as Vince jabbed a finger into his chest.

What the hell?

Scotty sat up, rubbing his eye with a fist. “What’s going on?”

They stopped and turned to him. Vince was clearly upset, but Zander was harder to read. “Zander?”

Zander’s jaw ticked but he didn’t speak.

“Tell him,” Vince ordered. “I’m not gonna be the one to do your dirty work.”

As Scotty watched, Zander took a deep breath and let it out. “We will be going our separate ways tomorrow.”

Scotty blinked. What did that— “What does that mean?”

“It’s time to go back to our lives.”

Scotty’s breath hitched.

“We can’t stay here forever.” Zander glanced away, but his gaze came right back to Scotty. “As much as we would like to.”

Vince made a sound, folding his arms and glowering at Zander. Scotty shook his head.

“I don’t—” What the hell happened while he’d been asleep? “I don’t understand.”

“I’m now the head of my uncle’s organization.”

Vince paled. Scotty gaped at Zander.

“What the fuck? That was your plan all along, kill Murray and take over?” Vince unfolded his arms, balling his fists. He was angry, but Scotty mostly saw hurt and heartbreak in his eyes. What was Zander doing?

Why was he doing it?

“That was my plan, yes,” Zander said, answering Vince’s question. “I’m in charge now and I have to go back home to deal with things. I can’t—” For the first time since he’d started speaking, Zander’s face cracked and Scotty saw his pain, the realization that this conversation wasn’t something Zander wanted to be having. “I can’t be connected to you two. It would only put you in danger, and I will never do that.”

Scotty swallowed. “So you’re leaving us?”

Zander crossed the room then, kneeling next to Scotty at the side of the bed, gazing up at him with imploring eyes. “It’s better this way,” he rasped. “Safer, for the both of you.” He glanced at Vince when he said that part.

“No.” Anger had Vince’s voice rising. “It’s safer for you. If you don’t want us, just fucking say that.”

“Goddamn it!” The curse exploded from Zander as he jumped to his feet and got in Vince’s face. “Think for a fucking second.” He poked his own temple. “I will be the one in charge, the man you’ll be coming after. I’m the one all the crooked cops and agents you’re so friendly with will be taking orders from. The minute I return home, we’re enemies. How the fuck is that supposed to work?” he roared. “How do we make it work?”

Vince didn’t speak.

Scotty held his breath, heart thudding.

“Any suggestions?” Zander demanded. “Tell me, because I have none. And I haven’t even fucking told you about the men inside my organization who were loyal to my uncle. They’re waiting for me, waiting to challenge me, to kill me. What would they do if they knew about you and Scotty, Vince?” His words shook as he cupped Vince’s jaw. “What would all the enemies I acquired literally overnight, by virtue of simply ascending the throne, do to you and Scotty to get at me?”

Tears rolled down Scotty’s cheeks and he swore he heard his heart being ripped in two. Because Zander was right. Scotty understood the decision even as everything inside him raged against it. “I will always protect you.” Those were Zander’s words when they were down in the basement with Don before Zander killed him. But now he knew that proclamation was bigger than the moment.

This was what Zander had truly meant. He would protect them by abandoning them. Breaking their hearts to keep them safe. Vince looked as if he was torn between raging at Zander and throwing himself into his arms. He did neither. He just stood there with Zander’s hand on his face, lips trembling. He didn’t refute what Zander just said because Vince was also from that world, so he knew those fears and concerns were valid.

The decision was the right one.

And Scotty hated it.

“What do you want us to do?”

At Scotty’s question, Zander’s body tensed for a beat before he relaxed. He released Vince and turned to Scotty. “Vince will return to his life and you will go back to yours. I?—”

“No,” Vince interjected. “Scotty is coming with me.” His expression was soft and open when he met Scotty’s gaze. “If you want to.”

There was nothing about his old life that made Scotty want to return to it. He couldn’t have the two men he wanted. But he could have one and that was more than he’d ever hoped for. He wanted Vince. If Vince wanted him then… “Yes.” He licked his lips. “I’m coming with you.”

Zander’s calm facade crumbled at those words and he barked a curse as he buried his face in his hands.

“Zander?” Scotty scrambled off the bed, going to him and laying a hand on his back. “Zander.”

“I didn’t…” When Zander lifted his head, his eyes were sad. “I didn’t think it would hurt this much.” He glanced between Vince and Scotty. “I know you don’t like this. I fucking hate it, but I would rather die than have you hurt. And I would rather you two be out there safe and hating me than to know I was selfish and did something that led to you getting hurt or worse.”

“We don’t hate you.” Vince closed the distance between them, stroking Zander’s ticking jaw. “I don’t hate you.”

Zander’s throat seemed to convulse. “I want you. Don’t you ever fucking doubt that,” he said fiercely. “I want you in my life and if I could, I would. But I want you to be safe. I need you alive.” He visibly shook.

Scotty wrapped both arms around him. Vince did too. Zander clung to them, his breaths loud and harsh as he battled his emotions.

“It’s the right decision,” Scotty murmured. “I wish it wasn’t, but it is.” Maybe the full gravity of this moment would hit him harder later. Maybe the calm inside him was simply a delayed reaction. It didn’t matter.

If these were their last few moments together then they might as well make it count. He released Zander and stepped back, pulling his t-shirt up and off and tossing it to the ground.

The two men stared at him.

“You should get undressed,” Scotty told them. “Nobody’s leaving until everybody gets fucked.”

Between one blinkand the next, Scotty found himself on his back on the bed, two naked men surrounding him. He writhed, moaning, as Zander kissed his neck, licking him. Vince’s fingers were buried in Scotty’s hair, a hand stroking his chest. It was something special, being the center of their attention.

All their focus was on him and he loved it.

He grasped Zander’s head as he made his way down Scotty’s body, alternating between kisses and licks. Every swipe of his tongue left wet fire behind and Scotty burned. His eyes were too heavy to keep open, so he slammed them shut.

Heavy breathing and moans punctuated the silence. Seemed as if they’d said everything that needed saying for the moment. Scotty was good with that. He wanted to feel them, wanted to tattoo everything about the three of them together onto his memories.

Stretched out next to Scotty, Vince kissed him, tongue sliding into his mouth, probing, as Zander nuzzled Scotty’s stomach, spreading his thighs wider.

Breath washed over the sensitive flesh of his inner thigh and Scotty quivered. His body flashed from hot to cold and back and all he wanted was more of it. More hands on him. They tore him apart, these two men, and he welcomed it. Loved it.

Zander nosed the length of Scotty’s dick and Scotty grabbed fistfuls of the sheet, arching, crying out into Vince’s mouth. Vince pulled back and Scotty lifted trembling lashes. Vince peered down at him with stark arousal in his eyes, cupping his cheek.

“Please.” Honestly, Scotty didn’t know what he was asking for. This just felt like the time to do it. To beg.

Vince dipped his head, kissing him again, this one even more urgent, as Zander took him into his mouth.

“Unngh.” Scotty bucked into Zander, hips moving without conscious thought to seek out more of that hot, wet mouth. Zander held him steady with both hands clamped down on his hips as Scotty tried to force his way deeper into his mouth. God.

Vince broke their kiss, kneeling at Scotty’s side, and Scotty reached for him, touching a shaking palm to his belly, then sliding lower to the hard cock that flexed at his touch, the tip wet.

“Fuck!” Vince threw his head back, shoving himself into Scotty’s grip, fucking his fist.

Scotty kept stroking him, bringing his knees up when Zander’s hold on him relaxed. Heels dug into the mattress, he fucked into Zander’s mouth, muscles straining, body begging for release.

As if he heard Scotty’s thoughts, Zander pressed a slick finger to Scotty’s hole.

All of Scotty’s movements froze, his senses focused on that finger digging into him. It felt so good he could sob. He spread his legs, lifting his ass up off the bed, struggling to ride that finger. Then Zander added another one.

“Oh God!” Scotty’s grip around Vince’s dripping dick tightened and the marshal hissed. Scotty closed his eyes as he rolled his hips, fucking himself on Zander’s thick fingers. They tunneled into him, stretching, bringing brief discomfort that disappeared the more Zander fingered him, the more he flicked his tongue over Scotty’s cock head.

Scotty’s hand dropped away from Vince’s dick and his toes curled, fire sparking at the base of his spine. “I’m—Oh fuck, I’m gonna?—”

Zander pulled away so fast, Scotty snapped his eyes open to find the mechanic kneeling between his legs, pushing at Scotty’s entrance. Scotty reached for Vince again, grabbing the limb closest to him—his thigh—as Zander breached him.

Scotty’s eyes rolled back in his head, Zander’s low curse reaching him as if through a tunnel. It was something spectacular, having Zander inside him. The pain and discomfort from his invasion didn’t matter, especially since they melted away with each thrust. Zander sank deeper and deeper and by the time he bottomed out, Scotty was on fire, Zander was panting, and Vince was holding Scotty’s hand, murmuring encouraging shit he couldn’t decipher.

Zander felt huge inside him, and with every shallow thrust, he dragged against Scotty’s sensitive inner muscles, drawing a high-pitched whimper out of Scotty every time.

“Open for me,” Zander gritted out. He circled his hips, hitting places that had spots dancing in Scotty’s vision. “Fuck, you’re so tight. That’s it.” He pulled back and then pressed in, slow and deep. “Fuck, that’s it. You’re taking me so good.”

Scotty’s eyes welled with tears. Something about those words, about the way Zander said them, hit him in the middle of his chest.

“You’re perfect,” Zander rasped, voice shaking as his hips sped up. “So fucking perfect.”

The reverence in his voice made Scotty feel precious. He opened his mouth to speak, but then Vince’s hand reached between them and circled Scotty’s dick, jerking him in time to Zander’s thrusts. All Scotty could do was cry out, a hand on Vince’s hip to steady himself, to brace as Zander fucked him hard and deep and Vince pulled on his cock until he lost all his senses. Until something snapped inside him.

Then he was coming, sobbing.

He heard Zander swear, then he tore himself away from Scotty’s clenching ass. Vince’s touch disappeared just before another cock was breaching his entrance. Scotty lifted his lashes to find Vince between his thighs, nails digging into Scotty’s hips as he pounded into him.

Zander’s head was bent between them, his?—

“Fuck!” Scotty screamed when Zander’s lips closed around his cock head, swallowing his cum. He grabbed Zander’s head, bucking viciously as Vince fucked him.

Scotty felt stretched, owned, cherished even. They wore him out, those two men, as they gave him more than he could’ve ever imagined. Every touch, every kiss, every soothing whisper.

They fucked him, wrung him dry until it became too much. “I can’t—Please. Please.”

Only then did Zander release him, lifting his head. Vince pulled out of him, too, and then they were kneeling on either side of Scotty’s head, their shafts in hand, stroking, jerking themselves. He reached for them, taking their cocks in each hand, muscles protesting as he helped them jerk off. He struggled to sit up a bit, to lean forward and take first Zander and then Vince into his mouth.

Scotty’s ears rang with the sounds they made—sounds of pleasure. Pleasure he gave. He stroked and sucked until his jaw hurt, until his everything was sore, and then as if his men had choreographed it, they pushed him back onto the pillows, holding his shoulders down as they stroked their cocks furiously.

Cum spurted onto his face, neck, and chest. Eyes closed, he opened his mouth, their cream spilling onto his tongue, hitting his nose and forehead. His body jerked, another orgasm tearing his body apart until he was boneless.

Vince and Zander collapsed against him.

Mouths, hands. They tore at Scotty as the other two licked him, teeth tugging on his bottom lip, tongue swiping down his throat and gliding over his collarbone. He was barely lucid, half dead from all the pleasure, but he clung to them as they cleaned up the mess they’d made of him, a wobbly smile on his face.