Page 34 of Lucky Boys
“Got it.” My throat felt raw from all the screaming.
“I wanted to have a conversation with you before taking this step, but I think it might be best if I take over for a while. Am I right?”
God, yes please. All I could think about was having to tell Diego what had happened. How the one and only place he’d truly felt safe had been taken from him because I’d been dumb enough to take a job I’d had no business taking.
“Eyes on me, Brooks.” Immediately, my gaze snapped to his, melting a little in his calm gray eyes.
“Good boy.” Fuck, why was I such a sucker for those words? I liked pain as much as the next masochist, but end that with a good boy and I’d be putty in your hands.
Maverick’s hold in my hair lessened, and I immediately missed the bite, though his fingers massaging the sore spot was pretty nice too.
I waited, desperate for any kind of instruction. “First, is it safe to assume that they didn’t find anything identifying or incriminating?”
I shook my head. I might not have thought of taking personal items, but we weren’t complete noobs. They wouldn’t have found anything. “Yeah, D wiped anything he left here. We have everything else with us.”
Maverick gave me a reassuring smile and then surprised the hell out of me by kissing my forehead. “Good. That’s real good. Though, maybe that’s why they went overboard. They couldn’t find anything, so they got angry.”
It made sense. Still, I didn’t understand how this had happened. We’d been watching the Covingtons and everyone associated with them for days. There had been nothing that even remotely hinting at them being involved. Luca had even been keeping an eye on Marshall Fieldburg’s surviving family, as much as he could around the police and media presence, and there had been nothing suspicious. Not to mention Diego’s security. How was it possible we’d missed this completely? They hadn’t even been quiet about it.
“Okay, is there anything you want to see if we can salvage before we leave?”
I shook my head again. There was no point. “I-I can’t go back in there right now.”
Maverick squeezed me again. “That’s fine. We won’t. What do you need, Brooks?”
It surprised me enough that I looked up into his face. “What do you mean?”
“I can see you coming out of your skin,” he told me softly, “but I don’t know you well enough to act without instruction. So what do you need? Do you want to go back to the estate and see Diego?” I immediately vetoed that. I needed to talk to him. I had to be the one, even though I was sure he’d figured it out by now. But I couldn’t . . . not yet. Not while I was like this.
“Okay. Do you need to fight? If you don’t want to go back yet, there’s a gym that we sometimes train at. We can go there. I can even call Skye to meet us if you’re more comfortable with him.”
A fight might help. There was so much fucking anger and aggression just boiling inside me. But I didn’t want to fight Skye or Maverick. Even knowing they’d be able to handle anything Idished out, I never be able to fully let go. Despite what I did for a living and my love of knives, I wasn’t a violent person usually. Fighting was fun, but not something I took super seriously. I’d always figured I’d be capable of killing if it came down to it, but it would be a last resort, something I’dhaveto do, not want. My feelings changed when I thought about getting my hands on the fuckers who’d attacked us; them, I would enjoy hurting.
But they weren’t here, and I needed more. I needed something else. A way to just forget everything.
I took a deep breath and stared right into Maverick’s eyes. “I need to hurt.”
His grin was slow and deadly and sent a shiver right down my spine. “I can help you with that.”
CHAPTER 15
MAVERICK
My mind raced evenas I managed to keep a calm and collected appearance for Brooks. I had to think, and quickly. This was why I was adamant about not sceneing with anyone without having a very lengthy conversation beforehand. Fuck, I didn’t even like casual sex because it was too hard for me to rein in my natural inclinations. And I’d just promised to hurt someone without having even the most basic of conversations. Honestly, I was reeling.
Brooks was different, though, than any random sub from the club. I had to give him that. This unyielding desire deep in my core wouldn’t let me walk away from this or Brooks.
But it meant I had to improvise and think on the fly. Every second I waited, I could see Brooks spiraling more. There was fear there, but I felt pretty confident it was because he worried I’d tell him no more, and not about what we were going to do. No, the need for that was vibrating out of his skin so much it was practically visible.
I glanced at the house, but immediately vetoed that. Brooks had already said he didn’t want to go back in, and he’d never be able to relax in there. I made a mental note to contact Leo to see if he could send a couple people here so they could go in and tryto clean and salvage as much as they could. Brooks and Diego shouldn’t have to deal with that.
But where did that leave us? We were private enough that I could take care of him right here, but it didn’t feel right. We still weren’t sure if we were being watched by whoever had trashed this place. We could leave, but wasting time with a car ride and finding somewhere to go didn’t seem wise. I seriously doubted Brooks could last that long.
That was when I remembered seeing a shed toward the back of the ungroomed property when we’d cleaned up the bodies Wes had dropped here. It was stable, despite being largely abandoned, and I remembered spying a few things that could come in handy.
I grinned at Brooks. “Let’s go.”
He didn’t hesitate. Just nodded and immediately followed me. Which gave me a bigger clue than anything of his headspace. I didn’t think Brooks was capable of following orders without a thousand questions. I walked around the house instead of through it. The lawn was overgrown with a variety of weeds and wildflowers sprouting in between the calf-high grass. I wondered if the boys had ever mowed it or if they’d just let it do whatever it wanted.
