Page 17 of Bones

For security purposes, we never added in windows to the walls which leaves the front double glass doors as the only inlet for natural lighting. The outside still looks weathered, but there’s only so much you can do to protect corrugated metal from the harsh weather of the desert. Inside, though, the walls are over a foot thick, fully insulated and armor plated. Then we put up pale wood panels that keeps the place feeling light and open. `

Every single one of us Knights of Hades had had enough of dark, dreary places to last us the rest of our incredibly long lifetimes.

We’re in the front half of the restored warehouse, with the back half only accessed by a metal door. That’s where Reaper’s private office is as well as access to our armory and gear stock, our garage, and the stairs to Reaper’s loft upstairs.

Stubs glances at me from the side of his eye before looking back at the bank of monitors in front of us. “You’ve been on edge lately.”

I groan. “Not you, too. I’m fucking fine.”

“Seriously, when was the last time you got laid? Didn’t you have that hot biker bunny more than ready to suck your dick last weekend at the bar?”

Chainz isn’t wrong. Last weekend, the club rode out to another town on business and wrapped up the night at the local dive bar. The local girls were more than happy for fresh faces and I know exactly what chick he’s talking about. Big, blown out hair, plump cherry red lips, flannel button down tied in a knot under her big rack with shorts tiny enough her ass was practically hanging out, all finished off with a pair of cowboy boots.

I never bothered with her name, most of us don’t when it’s just a one night thing. She was draped all over me, her tits practically in my face. And what did I do? Not a gods damned thing. It was like my cock was dead. It’s not like I didn’t try. But when I buried my face in her neck, thinking that if I tasted her I might be able to get my head on straight, guilt contorted in my chest and I couldn’t do it. It felt like I was committing a betrayal.

Betrayal of a woman who is so off-limits it isn’t even funny. In fact, it’s fucking misery after I tasted her lips for the first time.

My cock twitches to life just at the thought of Sloan. Because of course it fucking does.

When she asked so sweetly for a single kiss, I couldn’t hold back anymore. I had to kiss her more than I had to breathe. The taste of her lips? Instantly addictive.

That kiss was everything. My tattered, fucked up soul didn’t deserve to be in the same room as her let alone kiss her. Reaper had made it clear I was to keep it professional between us. So, instead of dragging her into the helicopter with me and taking her sweet gasps into my mouth as I made her body mine, I ended the kiss. I left, and have avoided her since.

“Unlike you, I don’t need to fuck every chick who sits on my lap,” I bite out at Chainz, who laughs.

“They don’t need to sit on my lap for me to fuck them.”

“Who is Chainz fucking?” Blaze asks as he and Brute walk in from the back garage.

“Who am I not, brother?” Chainz offers Blaze a smirk and his fist. Blaze then Brute bump their fists against his and Blaze takesa seat at the table next to him. “With Cinder and you off the hunt, someone has to make sure the ladies aren’t left disappointed.”

“Better not let them see your cock, then,” Brute quips as he heads towards the open kitchen area. He opens the cabinets and closes them. “How the fuck are we out of coffee? Stubs?”

“Ain’t my job to grocery shop,” Stubs grumbles before shooting me a grin as he takes a drink of his own coffee.

“We need to look at hiring someone, for real,” Brute complains after grabbing a soda from the fridge. “Swear if it wasn’t for the girls who hang at the clubhouse, we’d never have food.”

“Or clean clothes,” Chainz agrees. “Fucking hate laundry.”

Which is why so many of the guys live at the clubhouse despite them all having their own apartments in the same building as me. In fact, Reaper and Stubs are the only ones of us who don’t sleep at the clubhouse outside of town. At least Reaper put his foot down-heh-when it came to letting Reaper live at the HQ. If the prez would let him, Stubs would never sleep. He’d stay plugged into the computers, devouring information like a black hole.

The front door opens, all of us swinging our heads around towards it. Reaper walks in first, his normal cool expression on his face. The man oozes confidence and power. I’ve lost count of how many battles I’ve followed him into and he got us out of each one alive. Even the ones where we shouldn’t have survived.

I brace myself, but it’s futile. My full attention zeros in on Sloan the moment she slips through the opening between the tinted glass doors. Cinder’s scarred hand grips the edge of the door above her. My blood spikes at how close she is to the other male.

“So that’s the way of it,” Stubs states dryly, low enough that only us demons nearby can hear.

I shoot him a glare, but he’s still peering at the monitor displaying grainy black and white security footage. “The fuck you mean?”

Blaze huffs a laugh and my head snaps towards him. He’s got a damned arrogant look on his face, and even Chainz looks amused. “You were growling, brother. Don’t like how close ya girl was to Cinder, eh?”

“She’s not my girl,” I argue. “I’m the last thing she needs and Reaper made it clear she was off-limits for me.”

“Huh,” Chainz says, sitting up to lean over the table, resting his forearms on the top. He inclines his head towards the trio walking towards us and pitches his voice low. “So, then you won’t care if I take her for a ride? Maybe let her ride me--“

My chair crashes to the floor, the wireless keyboard flung towards the computer desk, as I launch myself across the distance between him and me. I grip him by the neck, lowering my macabre face close to his, the shadows of my powers beginning to swirl around my legs as the need to beat the shit out of him has me snarling. The bones I’ve stashed throughout the building and the ones I’ve sewn carefully into my vest begin to rattle. Chainz, the motherfucker, keeps my stare, the damn smirk never leaving his face.

“There a problem, soldiers?” An arctic chill fills the air at Reaper’s icy words.

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