Santori Reloaded, page 19
part #3 of Santori Series
Kage actually let out a laugh. “Okay, now I know you’re lying.”
I sat up and crossed my arms over my bare chest. “Hey, I can be assertive.”
He removed the journals from the bed and stalked me on his hands and knees. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” What were we talking about? I leaned back as he climbed up over me.
And then I was flat on my back, Kage straddling me with those powerful legs. He pulled my arms up over my head and secured my wrists in one of his hands. The other trailed down my chest and my belly until he reached my cock that was starting to wake up again.
Then he lifted up off of me and positioned himself on his knees between my legs. He slid two fingers into my still-slick hole. “Spread your legs, my little slut.”
And I did. I spread them just as wide as I could, opening up for him. Inviting him in.
But then he snatched his fingers out of me and sat up, moving to his side of the bed and leaving me hanging. “Assertive, my ass,” he said with a cocky smirk. “He was playing you.”
I sat up and pouted. Hard. “Whatever. Even if he was, it didn’t work.”
“It better not have.”
“It didn’t,” I said with a smile. “I told him politely that John Brown is the only man for me.”
“Politely,” he scoffed. “You should have punched him in the face.”
“Ummm… I think you did plenty of that for both of us.” I frowned. “You know, you could have gone a little easier on him. You didn’t have to tenderize his face like a side of beef.”
Kage waved a hand. “He got what was coming to him. Less, in fact. Nine stitches and a mild concussion is nothing.”
My mouth dropped open in shock. “How did you know that?”
Kage shrugged. “I swung by the hospital. I saw you standing there by his bed. It upset me at first, but—”
I threw my arms around him and squeezed. “You do have a heart.”
“Not hardly.” But he squeezed me back hard and sighed into my hair. “But I may have left him some flowers and a note.”
I pulled back, grinning. “What did it say? Did you apologize?”
“Okay, now you’re just being ridiculous. I told him we were even now, and if he ever tried to take what was mine again, I wouldn’t go so easy on him.”
My smile fell away. Then I shrugged. “Well, I guess the flowers were nice.”
“They were dead black roses in a vase that looked like a gravestone.”
“Really?” I screeched.
He pulled me back against him and laughed against my temple. “No, not really. They were white roses with all these little pink girly flowers stuck in there. I’m not a total Neanderthal. And I did apologize. Nothing fancy. Just, I’m sorry.”
We sat there in silence for a moment, and then I leaned back out of his embrace and studied him. “What happened to you, Kage? I’m sensing something— I don’t know. You fought tonight. You beat Anthony to a bloody pulp. You were so cold after the fight. I guess I expected you to attack me and fuck me to within an inch of my life when I got here, but you were so…gentle. I mean you spanked my ass good, and God I loved that, but it wasn’t the same as before. I didn’t sense the same desperation in you. Or the brutality.”
“I woke up this morning so angry,” he said. “Everything was just coming down on me, and then the stuff with Rodriguez, and I was just hell-bent on revenge. But then, after I beat him and he was lying there all bloody and unconscious, it just all melted away. It all melted away, and there was only you. I thought I was destined to be a monster, but when I look at you—”
“When you look at me, what?” I coaxed gently.
He shrugged. “You’re the most important thing in my life, Jamie. I’m—” Tears welled up in his eyes, and he wiped them away. “I’m so afraid of hurting you now. The things we’ve done…the excessive roughness, the…choking.” His voice cracked on the last word. “I could have killed you, baby. One little slip in judgment on my part could have ended everything.”
“Kage,” I breathed. “Oh my God, you’re not going to—”
“I killed Evan. And Peter, he— He didn’t mean to do it, Jamie. He loved Gio so much, and I loved Evan, but—” His eyes darted over to the stack of journals on the floor, and he wiped away a fresh stream of tears, sniffling like a child. “It’s much too easy to kill the thing you love.”
Chapter 21
KAGE
Over the next two weeks, Jamie and I met almost nightly at the Tick Tock, and we rewrote the Bible with a plan to bring Theo down.
I’d told Aaron that Jamie and I had been seeing each other, but I assured him that I wasn’t going to give up his cover. He’d only smiled and informed me that he already knew.
Thank goodness I’d guessed right about him bugging my phone, even though he’d never admitted it outright. This cloak and dagger stuff was getting addictive, and my confidence was rising every day. With Jamie by my side, how could it not?
The plan was to coax Theo into telling me who he was working with by any means necessary. Jamie had read my uncle’s journals and had come to the same conclusion Aaron had. That the way under Theo’s defenses was through his heart. And since he had been so obsessed with Peter, and now apparently me, I was going to have to whore myself out after all.
It was Jamie’s idea to seduce Theo, and while we both agreed that it would be out of the question to actually sleep with him, I was supposed to do everything but.
It turned my stomach.
I met up with Theo several times for target practice out at our abandoned warehouse, and I have to admit I’d gotten addicted to shooting things up with those automatic weapons. Though they weren’t as accurate as my trusty handguns, the feeling of power was incredible as we made swiss cheese of everything around us.
It was almost as exhilarating as fighting.
On one of those days of target practice—the last one, as it turned out—Theo grew some balls and finally made a move on me.
I’d had a Rambo moment, when I’d hefted a rifle in each hand and shredded a whole line of targets. Adrenaline coursed through me like wildfire as I turned back to Theo, grinning and breathless and sweaty as hell. I’d shucked my shirt and was wearing nothing but a pair of black cargo pants, combat boots, and Gio’s hat. I’d taken to wearing it everywhere I went. It was a source of power for me, like his 38 Special, which was now peeking out above the low-slung waistband of my pants.
I knew I looked sexy—all abs and sweat and lethal weapons—and I’d felt Theo’s eyes eating me up.
I placed the guns gently on the tailgate of Theo’s fancy black pickup truck and turned back to him, looking down at my slick torso. “It’s hot out here, huh?”
“As blue blazes,” he said, moving toward me with intent in his eyes. Apparently, he’d reached the tipping point and couldn’t hold back his urges any longer. He reached out and ran a shaky hand over my chest, dipping lower to the hard ripples of my abs. “You’re so fucking sexy,” he breathed. “So much like your uncle, but…different.” He trailed his thumb through one of the deep gutters in my eight-pack and shivered.
Now was the moment of truth. It was time to play this game like I meant it. Time to end it and reclaim my life.
I grabbed Theo’s wrist roughly and pulled his hand away, squeezing his wrist good and hard. Enough to bring pain. And, oh yeah, the spark in his eyes said he liked that a lot.
I leaned in and kissed him, hard and rough, fighting the bile that was rising in my throat.
I can do this. I can do this.
Theo returned my kiss with the hunger of a starved man, and I got the feeling that in his mind it was as if he were finally getting to kiss my uncle and getting the response he wanted in return. Despite the nausea, something in me reveled at his reaction. More power, like double-fisting a couple of machine guns and laying waste to the world.
Theo reached around me and grabbed onto my ass, grinding his hard cock into my abdomen. He snatched me tighter to him with a grunt. “My place,” he said in a commanding voice. “I want you under me now.”
Jesus, this guy thought he was going to top me. He was gagging for it. Trembling with the need to dominate me.
I supposed it would be a powerful aphrodisiac for a guy like him. The kind who got off on bringing powerful men to their knees. I thought of the time he’d run his hands over the bruises his goons had inflicted, and the memory made me shudder.
“Yeah, you want it, too, don’t you?” he growled, obviously mistaking my revulsion for desire.
Instead of pushing him away like I wanted to, I played along. I gave the performance of my life.
“Yes, Mr. Brown,” I said. And then I almost laughed, remembering that’s just exactly what Jamie had said to me so many times during our hot nights at the Tick Tock. Of all the names in the fucking world, how had I managed to choose Theo’s last name.
I decided it couldn’t be a bad thing. It helped me get into character, pretending I was Jamie.
“I like the sound of that,” Theo said. “But I like sir better. Now get in the truck.”
“Yes, sir,” I said with what I thought was just the right amount of sass.
We climbed in, and I picked my T-shirt up off of the seat and moved to put it on.
“Leave it off,” he said, wetting his lips and shooting me a look that made my skin crawl. “And take that fucking hat off. I don’t like it.”
What was it about this guy? Dominant was one thing. Hell, I was dominant. But this was something altogether different. Even all of the things I knew about Theo weren’t enough to warrant this level of revulsion.
There was something about him that screamed at me to run. Something so dark in his eyes it transcended human. I’d thought my uncle was the devil, but Theo Brown made him look like a choir boy.
I thought of the horrible joke he’d made that day over lunch. The one about slitting my throat and watching my blood run out as he fucked me.
Yeah, Theo was evil all right. Even Gio had known it. The subtext had been there in the pages of the journals, even if my uncle had been too blind naive to see it.
Your little friend has a problem.
I had every suspicion that Gio had spent his final days gearing up to clean house. And that if he’d lived, Theo wouldn’t have.
But then Gio hadn’t been a saint, either. He’d betrayed my uncle, and he’d paid the ultimate price. Part of me wished he had lived, and the two of them could have worked it out. If these last months with Jamie had taught me anything, it was that infidelity wasn’t such a big deal in the larger scheme of things. It killed me to think that Jamie might have fucked Anthony Rodriguez, or even had feelings for him, but a life without love would be so much worse. Jamie and I were strong. We could get through anything. I wish Gio had gotten the chance to make amends, but instead, Peter had been forced to live with that betrayal for the rest of his life. He’d never had the chance for any closure, and I truly believed that was what finally drove him over the edge. Made him kill.
As I was lost in my thoughts, Theo drove too fast to his apartment. It was a wonder we didn’t get pulled over, but we made it into town without incident. He whipped into his parking space and hustled me out of the truck.
I followed him into the luxury building, self-conscious about cruising through the lobby with no shirt on, but Theo was unconcerned, and no one gave me more than a glance. We stepped onto the elevator and rode to the third floor, my T-shirt and hat clutched tightly in my hand.
There was a note of envy in his voice when he said, “It’s not the penthouse, but it’ll do.”
“It’s nice,” I said. “Very sophisticated.”
He led me inside the apartment, which reminded me a lot of Santori’s. Meticulously decorated with lean lines. Everything in its place.
Theo didn’t bother with niceties. No offered drink, no have a seat. He was singular in purpose, and that purpose was getting me to the bedroom and out of my pants. I’d never seen anyone so aggressively eager. It was as if, now that he had his target in sight, he had no self-control.
That was a good thing. Making him lose control.
“Get in there and get on the bed,” he said. “Naked.”
“Yes, sir.” I did as he commanded, playing the part of the submissive alpha that seemed to get him going.
I stripped everything off, including my gun, and placed it all on a chair near the bed. I thought of Jamie’s wet mouth around my cock and his warm brown eyes as he looked up at me from where he knelt before me. Jamie on his knees.
Yes. I started to get hard.
Theo removed his own clothes, revealing a lanky body with a smattering of light chest hair. His cock was long and stiff, and I was struck again by the unbelievable fact that he planned to use that thing on me. To shove it inside me.
I had to think fast. Couldn’t let it come to that.
I placed my phone gently on one of the tables beside Theo’s bed, knowing that Aaron and his partner would be recording whatever was said—or done—in this room. The goal was to get Theo to tell me the name of the people or organization who were planning on buying the guns from us. Then it would be all over but the crying.
The thought strengthened my resolve.
“Do you have a condom?” I asked.
Theo came up behind me where I stood by the bed. He ran a hand down over my hip. “No need for condoms with you. I know you get tested.”
“But—” I started to protest.
“I’m not about to use a condom with you, Kage. I’ve waited too many years to feel every inch of my flesh against yours.”
Too many years. He must have been thinking of Peter, as if we were interchangeable in his mind.
“I don’t know if I can do that,” I said. “I don’t—I don’t trust you yet.” I turned to face him, standing far too close. “What is this between us, Theo? Is this just a fuck to you? Are you really going to let me work with you, be partners with you? Do you…respect me?”
“Of course. I would never bring you to my home if I didn’t have plans for you.”
Have plans for you. That didn’t sound ominous at all.
“I want to do it. To let you do it.” I traced along his hip bone with the tip of one finger. “I just need something more from you. A gesture of good faith.”
I was about to get heavy-handed, and I knew it, but I was running out of time. If I didn’t want to bend over and take Theo’s dick, I had to hurry up and get the information out of him.
I was beginning to think Jamie and I hadn’t worked this plan out quite well enough.
“What do you want?” Theo asked suspiciously.
Great. He was shutting down.
“I don’t know. I haven’t given it much thought. Maybe you could come up with something.” I dropped to my knees and stared up at him, channeling every bit of Jamie I could. If there was anything that could get a man to break, it was that soulful submission in his eyes as he looked up, ready to take my cock in his mouth.
Theo groaned and ran his hand around the back of my head. He applied pressure there, trying to force me toward him. “God, you’re perfect,” he said. “I want to see you choke on it. I want to see tears streaming down that gorgeous face. I want you to beg for mercy.”
“Who are we selling the guns to, Theo? That’s the one thing you haven’t trusted me with. Your dignity for mine, remember? You trust me enough to tell me everything, and I’ll trust you enough to let you do whatever you want to me.”
I’d worded it that way because I knew sex wasn’t his ultimate goal. He wanted to use me, to break me down for his pleasure, and to hurt me. Probably worse than I’d ever hurt anyone in my life. He communicated that need in every word and every look he cast my way.
“Is that all you want to know?” he asked, surprised. “You’ll find that out soon enough. You and I are meeting with them to make the exchange in five days.”
I couldn’t let it get that far. If the meeting occurred, Aaron would have a lot more to worry about. There would probably be a shootout. Hell, with that many guns, there would be an all-out war. And besides, if I refused to let Theo have his way with me today, he might not trust me in five days. I might be cut out. Or worse.
I licked my lips, the tip of my tongue nearly touching the head of his cock. “But you want to fuck me today, not in five days. Tell me now, and we’ll be even.”
“We’ll be even?” he asked. “And I can do whatever I want to you?”
I swallowed hard. “Yes, sir. And I’ll be yours. Your protégé.”
He shrugged. “It’s a militant group out of DC. The Woke Brotherhood. Silly fucking name, I know, but what do I care? I just supply the guns.”
“Why do they need so many guns?” I asked. I knew I should stop. I had the name already, and that was all Aaron had asked for. My job was done, and I needed to figure out how to extract myself and get the hell out of this place. But my curiosity got the best of me.
“They want to kill everybody who doesn’t agree with them. They have this idea that the Illuminati has taken over the government, and they’ve formed an army. How crazy is that? They want to attack the U.S. government with U.S. military guns.”
“And you’re on board with that?” I asked incredulously. “What if they succeed?”
Theo smiled. “Then I’m on their side.”
“And if they don’t?”
He laughed. “Then I’m not. I’m just a businessman, Pete.” He stopped talking abruptly, and his face turned pink. “Jesus, that just slipped out. You remind me so much of him.” He shook his head violently, then glared down at me. “Enough talking. You got what you wanted, and now it’s time to give me what I want.”
He grabbed the back of my head, twisting his fingers painfully into my hair, and I reacted. I drew back and punched him squarely in the balls, feeling the soft flesh give under my knuckles.
Theo let go of my hair and staggered back, his mouth hanging open in disbelief. And then his knees buckled, and he hit the floor. I wasted no time letting him recover. I got to my feet and attacked, punching him in the face over and over until his cheekbone gave way with an audible crunch.
