Page 4 of Slay Tricksters and Silent Skeletons
Groaning, I grabbed a hand towel from the rack near the sinks and soaked it before leaning against the wall. Tilting my head back, I pressed the towel to my nose, wincing in pain as I did so. I was going to be sporting two black eyes fordaysfor sure. Anurak would be worried, and then Rico would be pissed at mefor worrying his husband. He’d probably force Niran to up my training or something as punishment.
I could think of a lot more different ways Niran could punish me though. Spank me. Fuck me raw and hard, making me come so many times I could barely think straight. Hell, I’d even be down for him withholding my orgasm.
“Getting distracted was stupid, Bento,” Niran drawled as he stepped into the changing rooms.
I jerked upright, my surprised gaze swinging to his. I’d been so lost in my thoughts of all the ways Niran could punish me that I hadn’t even heard him come in. But then again, Niran moved like a true predator. No one ever heard him come near until it was too late. He was a snake—quiet, lethal, and always ready to strike. Usually, people were warned against snakes. But this particular one? I wanted to keep him—venomous fangs and all.
“It was an accident,” I muttered.
Niran sighed and came closer. Reaching up, he removed the towel from my face, then pressed his fingers on either side of my nose. Before I had a chance to ask what he was doing, he quickly snapped my nose back into place. I cursed, tears burning in my eyes for a moment. Didn’t matter how many times I got my nose broken, resetting it never hurt any fucking less.Christ, broken noses were a bitch to deal with.
“Put the towel back to your nose,” Niran ordered. When I did, he leaned in, pressing a hand to the wall beside my head, pinning me in place with his intense, dark eyes. His cheekbones were sharp, and his lashes were long, and this close, I could smell the intoxicating scent of his cologne. Something expensive andwoodsy. It made me want to burrow my face in his neck where I knew his scent would be strongest and just breathe him in.
“Be more careful next time,” he warned. “I don’t like seeing you with injuries.”
Then, just like that—as if he hadn’t just flipped my entire goddamn world on its axis—he turned and walked out, the door shutting behind him with a quiet thud. My cock was hard behind my zipper, and my balls were aching for release. I barely even registered the throbbing in my face or the blood still dripping from my nose.
“I don’t like seeing you with injuries.”
My head thunked back against the wall, and I groaned long and low.
I’d been fucked six ways to Sunday since the moment I laid eyes on Niran and he made me a fucking sandwich. That man could take one look at me and completely unravel me. But those fucking words?
I was coming unglued.
Fuck.
3
Bento
“Your nose looks better today,” Anurak noted when he emerged from his room. When Rico got up for work in the mornings, my job was to sit right outside their room and wait for Anurak to get up for the day. I’d fucked up one time before by letting Anurak wake up without me waiting for him, and it almost got him killed. Rico had been doing an exchange with a man he didn’t fully trust, and when Anurak had stepped outside, multiple guns had immediately been trained on him.
I was fucking lucky I didn’t get a bullet through my own skull for allowing it to happen. I sure as fuck would not be making the same mistake again.
“Thanks.” I let a little smile tilt my lips for him, even if I didn’t feel much like smiling. Niran was avoiding me since that moment in the locker rooms, and it had me in a foul mood. For the past week when I headed to his office for my regular check-in, he wasn’t there and instead left instructions for me to justtext him my update. His avoidance of me was frankly getting on my fucking nerves, but it wasn’t like I could say anything. He was my boss, and if Rico found out there was drama between us—or whatever the fuck this was—he might fire me or put me on leave. And I didn’t want either of those things to happen.
I needed to stay busy, and I needed the stability of belonging here. If he put me on leave, where the fuck was I supposed to go? If he fired me, he might as well put a bullet through my skull. I had money now and Rico had gotten documents for me to make me a United States citizen, however illegal they might be, but I was never meant for civilization. I’d go right back to the streets. Outside of these walls, the streets were all I knew.
We began heading down the hall for the staircase, but Anurak abruptly stopped, swinging around to face me. I arched a brow at him and slid my hands into my pockets, waiting for him to spit out whatever was on his mind.
“Today is Rico’s birthday,” he told me, his voice dropping a little lower, like he was afraid of being overheard. “And he said he’s too busy to go out and do anything to celebrate it.”
“He may not like to celebrate his birthday,” I gently reminded him. As long as I’d worked for Rico, he’d never once mentioned his birthday. Hell, I hadn’t even known when it was. Wasn’t like I really cared to find out either, though.
Anurak sighed. “I think I can make him like it. Will you help me?”
I nodded. “Sure, kid. What do you have in mind?” It was my job to be at his side, after all. And I knew that also entailed being at his beck and call. Wasn’t like I had anything else to do anyway. Since he wouldn’t be spending the day with Rico, that meant Iwouldn’t have any training this morning, nor would I be doing my bullshit check-in with Niran, who more than likely wouldn’t be in his fucking office anyway.
“I want to go buy some things for him.” A light blush stained his cheeks. “I know it’s with his own money, but he always says what’s his is mine, so…”
I chuckled. “I don’t think he’ll care that you bought him things with his own money, Anurak. I think Rico is just going to love that you thought of him at all.” They’d been together for a while now—over a year—but Anurak still got insecure sometimes about his relationship with the big boss. But honestly, there was nothing for him to be insecure about. Rico worshipped the ground Anurak walked on.
I truly believed if Anurak were to ask Rico to step away from this criminal enterprise for good, Rico would in a heartbeat so long as it would make his boy happy.
“We’ll go shopping,” I told him. Pressing my hand to his shoulder, I gently nudged him in the direction of the stairs. “Go let Rico know you’re going shopping. I’ll go get the car ready.”
He skipped off with a beaming smile. I followed behind him down the stairs. When he turned for Rico’s office, I headed for the garage, grabbing the keys for Anurak’s Jeep Rubicon off the wall. He couldn’t drive, but Rico insisted he still have his own vehicle. Anurak tried fighting him on it, but he’d lost. So, when we went out together, I always took his Jeep instead of the SUV I’d been assigned just so the Jeep got to move.
