Page 11 of Alive and Kicking
“Yeah, but I can just do it later if you need my help,” I offer as I hop on one leg, trying to stick my foot into the leg hole.
Zane grabs my elbow to steady me and I tug up my pants, standing to look at him with my sports bra clenched against my chest. “Don’t worry about it. I have to stay while the still works, so I’ll just finish up Sloane’s present while I’m out here.”
I look over to the distillery and the jar at the end that’s now got a little bit of liquid collected in the bottom. “If you're sure,” I say slowly.
He grins. “I’ll be fine.”
I stand up on my tiptoes expectantly and he leans down to give me a kiss. “I’ll see you later.” I pull on my bra and hurry out of the shed toward the house.
Lennox
I’m sitting in the kitchen waiting for Viv to show up. She wanted my help looking into the people she is going to promote. I make a pot of coffee while I wait, and as I pour myself a cup when it’s finally finished, Cain stomps into the room. His normally pale complexion is flushed and I eye him closely as he moves over to the coffee maker. Nothing seems too off about him as he goes about making his own cup of coffee.
But he glares down at the front of his pants, and I lean forward to get a better look. The tent pitched in there looks like it’s ready for a weekend long camping trip, and I can’t help but smirk. “Man, I’m super flattered but you’re really not my type.”
His eyes widen as he turns to me. “What? No, that’s not for you! Fucking Zane.”
My brows go up at that. I didn’t know he was into Zane that way. “Is Viv okay with that? She’s pretty possessive.”
“What are you even talking about?” Cain snaps, taking a drink of his still too hot coffee.
“No judgments here. If you and Zane want to fuck it doesn’t affect me. I just don’t want Viv to get hurt.” I raise the hand not holding my coffee as if in surrender.
He chokes on his drink and glares at me. “I’m not fucking Zane! Jesus Nox. I walked in on him and Viv in the studio and almost got stabbed again. The asshole told me to turn around and I thought they were going to get dressed.” He huffs indignantly. “But he just put on a shirt and changed positions. When he told me to turn back around it was to see him balls deep in Viv.”
I groan at that. Why didn’t I put cameras in the studio. Zane and I have an understanding about my cameras and his body. As long as nobody else sees a video with his scars in it, he won’t kill me. It helps that we were on the same shower rotation back in the group home, and I’m the only one who has extensively seen his scars. Well, before Viv anyway.
“So, did you watch?” I ask with a smirk.
Cain scowls at me. “Who would be able to look away from that?”
I tilt my head to the side. “You’re not wrong.”
Cain shakes his head. “Next time you want Viv, you have to go get her yourself.”
The front door opens and closes, and I turn just in time to see Viv walk in wearing only a pair of leggings and a sports bra. My mouth dries as I look her over. I’ve seen her in far less on video, and that damn outfit Cain made her wear was far more revealing, but she looks absolutely edible in this. Well, not like I would actually eat her. Cain is the one with the thing about cannibals.
Viv walks over to me and leans against my side with a smile on her face. I lean in slowly to press a soft kiss against her lips. “I made coffee if you want some.”
Her lips form into a small ‘o.’ “That sounds good.”
She goes to grab it herself, but I wrap my arm around her waist to stop her. “I’ll get it. Why don’t you go grab those filesand we can look into those names you wanted some background on?”
“Sure, thanks!” She practically skips out of the room and through the little door that leads to the staircase straight to her apartment.
I set about making her coffee just how she likes it while Cain glowers at me from the door she just disappeared through. “Do we have any plans the day we get back after our meeting with the mafia?” he suddenly asks me.
I frown, but shake my head as I stir Viv’s coffee. “No. Why?”
Cain smirks. “Just gonna call in something I’m owed.” He doesn’t elaborate, he just walks away, and I hear his steps on the stairs as he heads up a few moments later.
Viv comes back down with the briefcase her dad left with her, and I lead her through the living room and down the hall that leads to my bedroom. Opening the door, I usher her in. She stops a couple steps into the room as she takes everything in. It’s not that impressive. Well, everything but my computer set up that is. My bed is in the center of one wall and there’s no dresser or any other furniture in the room besides my desk.
The master bathroom has a closet built in with drawers, so there wasn’t a need for extra storage in here. Viv turns to look at the mammoth machine set up on my desk. There are three monitors in a row on the desk and two more mounted to the wall above them. The computer is a thing of beauty though, and just by looking at it you can’t tell how truly amazing it is. It’s not flashy. There’s no RBG lights or futuristic looking cooling system. I built the whole thing from scratch with all the best parts on the market, some of them not even available to the public. There were some shady dark web transactions to get a few of the parts available only for various intelligence agencies.
“That’s a whole lot of computer,” Viv says looking it over.
I smirk. “Yeah it is. How much do you know about hacking? I know you hacked into the school to enroll yourself, but what do you actually know?”
