Page 22 of Marked
Gage nods and walks to set to glass in the narrow sink. “You want Caine and Horan too?”
“Yeah. Get the fuckers in gear. We leave in ten.” I stalk down the hall to the training room and the showers on the other side.
Stepping from my leathers, I climb under the hot spray and wash the floating feeling away. The soap trails over my body in tantalizing lines, adding to the ache in my fucking groin. It’s what Lilah’s hair would feel like ghosting over my skin, those full lips trailing down, down ...
I groan and wrap my hand around my rock-hard length. Pumping fast, my head falls back and my lungs burn as I come in hot lines. I press my hand to the wall. My breath saws in and out; pulse fucking going wild as my legs quiver and the water flows over me, washing my release away with the stench of alcohol and sweat.
Too bad it’s like an empty snack and Lilah’s the full meal.
Chapter 12
Ruin
Tanner and Gage walk through the doors of Carnage a little ahead of me. My gut knots over and over at the peeling wallpaper, stained windows, and dust covering every surface.
How did Lilah work here again?
Gage glances back at me. “The schematics Tanner found has a secondary entrance into a sub-level basement.”
“Sure.” I peer around at the empty tables and chairs. “Where?”
Tanner walks over to the short hall off the kitchen, glowing green monitor in his hand. “Somewhere around here.” There is nothing there but a section of mildewed stone.
Caine huffs. “I believe the Captain wanted something...a bit moreconcrete.” He laughs at his own joke.
T glares at him. “You want to work the tech and I’ll flap my gums?”
The demon just smiles, showcasing straight white teeth in his vessel’s mouth.
“This, Caine, is why your ass is always on sentry duty,” I remind him.
His hellfire eyes roll. “Alas ... Benched for my witty repertoire.”
Gage motions him to silence. “Shut up, both of you, or I’ll bench you on clean-up. Together.”
Shifter and demon fall into a begrudging quiet. For like a fucking millisecond.
“And that’s all you could get out of her? That she has no idea where her guardian keeps his dark and ugly books on drugs, sex, and money?” T quips. “The great Ruin Wade? Stumped by a girl?”
I flip him off and Gage chuckles darkly.
“Leave him alone, Tanner. You and Caine are normally the ones that think with what’s between your legs. The Captain isn’t used to it.”
Every single fucking one of them can smell the shift in my scent. The fucking lust that follows me around in a cloud of sweat and rock-dick sex.
My lips peel back from my fangs. “You’re all fucking benched if you don’t shut the fuck up.” I push past them. The narrow wood corridor is pitch-black and musty. A derelict kitchen sports grimy appliances and grease-stained counters off to one side. Another partially closed door holds a pantry with disheveled boxes, crates, and empty rat traps. With every step, the building grows more depressing.
Not that that should be possible.
“Not much to look at, is it?” Tanner asks softly beside me.
I can only nod. It’s a rare occasion when the shifter doesn’t have a smart-ass comment or jab about a situation.
We flow through the rooms, marking all of them as clear before heading upstairs. The main VIP room is chaos of overturned chairs and broken glass from the patrons trying to flee the night before.
“Captain.” Gage motions me over to the dais.
A stage room sits just behind the tattered black velvet curtains. Old vanities, lined in half-used cosmetics and empty bottles of beer, take up the main area. Racks of clothes, most more see-through than not, wait near the wall of boarded up windows that once overlooked the street below.
