Page 26 of Asphyxia
What did I deserve? I don’t think I even knew what that was anymore…
In my silence, Dean softly pressed his lips to mine, and I felt Marcus’s weight on my back as his arm wrapped around my waist.
“We’ll show you exactly what that is, kitten,” Marcus whispered against my shoulder blade as he dragged his lips across my skin, my legs still trembling.
I held back the whimper that threatened to break from my throat, my heart squeezing like a vice at their words. I never expected this from either of them, yet all I wanted now was to keep Marcus and Dean for myself.
I was lifted up by Marcus to a kneeling position, his arms wrapped tightly around my waist before he fell backward on the bed, and Dean crawled forward, gripping my thighs once he was situated between them.
Marcus gripped my chin between his fingers, turning it towards him and claiming my mouth with his, as Dean slid into me with a single deep thrust before fucking me against Marcus.
I could see myself being sandwiched between these two for as long as they’d let me.
Marcus and Dean were everything, and I finally saw the pieces of myself that I thought I had lost coming back together.
Chapter 14
Dean
Ihadforgottenallabout my Anathema assignment until I found myself wide awake and unable to fall back asleep at two in the morning. Madison was wrapped in my arms, and Marcus was passed out on the other side of her, snoring and nearly falling over the edge of the bed—we will need a bigger one, that’s for sure…
I didn’t want to pull myself away from Madison, the sweet smell of her washing over my senses as I buried my face in the crook of her neck. It was probably not the smartest thing for me to do—to latch on to her so quickly after leaving Amber—but I couldn’t help it.
Madison was pulling me in like a seductive siren calling my name, and I didn’t want to fight it—to resist everything she was. If it were any other woman, I would remind myself that feelings at a time like this were a mistake. But for some reason—one that I couldn’t even begin to explain—I wanted her badly enough to sayfuck itand throw caution tothe wind.
Young hearts were so easy to fall, and mine was no different.
She stirred in my embrace before rolling her body towards Marcus. I took that as my sign to slide out of bed, leaving my best friend and the woman who made me want to break all of the rules, to continue sleeping. I picked up my laptop and phone on my way past the dresser and shut the door quietly behind me as I left the bedroom.
I set myself up in the kitchen to review some of the research I had started on Friday before Marcus dragged me out of the office. I focused my attention on the documents regarding the headrace system that ran underneath the city, connecting the now-abandoned flour mills.
The tunnels were previously used to power the mills before technology took over, making them a prime location for an inconspicuous hideout. While digging through my emails, I found two responses from the Minneapolis PD over the weekend—one of which confirmed my assumptions.
On Friday afternoon, I was informed that suspicious individuals had been spotted lurking around the mills—specifically the Twin Cities A-Mill. I inquired further about the public complaints that had been made, and the subsequent email I received from one of the responding officers was nothing more than a shrug-off. The email stated that the mill wasn’t an immediate priority of the city to investigate as “no harm was involved” and “the public was not at risk.”
Unconvinced by the emails I had received, I picked up my phone and texted Derek, emphasizing the urgency of meeting early in the morning at the Twin Cities A-Mill.
Derek was reluctant to work with me, so I knew I had to leave my messages to him as vague as possible without toning down their importance.
If the Minneapolis PD didn’t want to investigate the mill and tunnels more thoroughly on their end, then I would do it myself—and that meant Derek, having been assigned to this case whether he liked it or not, was obligated to join me.
IborrowedMarcus’newblack Dodge Charger for this early morning mission, not wanting to bother carrying all my riding gear on our Indiana Jones-style expedition.
“Adven—Dean, what the fuck? I didn’t ask for this, this morning!”
I don’t know why I expected any less. Derek was not pleased when he discovered that I was dragging his grumpy ass into the tunnels and immediately attempted to pick a fight with me over it, turning my good mood sour in the blink of an eye.
I didn’t have the patience to listen to his bitching and moaning about howunfairit was and thathe didn’t ask for this. I didn’t ask to be assigned to this case with him either, but I had no control over Conrad’s decisions, and if I was going to be stuck with Derekand his piss-poor attitude this morning, he was going to get the same right back at him. Two could play that game.
Just before heading inside, I tossed Derek a flashlight, assuming that there would be no light or power once we entered the headrace tunnels through the basement.
Before diving in head first, Derek and I scanned the main floor without uttering a word, neither one of us wanting to break the stubborn silence first.This was going to make for a long fucking morning…
As I wandered the main floor, I noticed unsettled dust leading toward the basement entrance, which indicated that we might be on the right track—although it could have been created by a wild animal all the same.
Derek and I descended into the headrace tunnels after spending about twenty minutes searching the mill itself. Not knowing where to start our journey, we just picked a random path and went with it.
We spent most of our exploration still in silence, and during that time, I started doubting my intuition.
