“Shut up and let me take care of you… Truce.. I know we aren’t fighting, but let’s drop the hard ass routine while we’re inhere… Please.”
He must see something in my gaze because he doesn’t protest any further. Once we’re both naked, I lead us into the shower until we’re both standing under the spray. Taking the shampoo that he uses, I put some in my hand and carefully wash his hair. He doesn’t have much of it, but still I massage his scalp slowly until he sinks into my touch.
“That feels really good.” He mumbles as his eyes shut and his hands come up and gently grasp my wrists. He isn’t trying to stop me, he’s just touching.
I can’t help but smile to myself at this vulnerable, quiet, and complacent version of him. Jake is usually fighting me tooth and nail on every single thing that comes out of my mouth. He’s not doing that this evening. No, right now he needs to be reassured that I’m not going anywhere. That today was nothing other than the ramblings of a psychopath while I need to take care of him to assure myself he’s still here and we’re going to be fine.
So I gently rinse his hair and wash his body in silence. We don’t need the conversations. We just need each other. Once I’m finished making sure he’s all clean, I quickly shower myself and turn off the water. Taking a big fluffy towel, I dry him off and wrap it around his hips before taking one for myself and repeating the process.
Leading him to the bed, he doesn’t wait for my cue before he climbs in and moves to his side. Moving in behind him, I wrap my arms around him securely and silently hold him. I’m not sure how long we stay like that before he finally talks.
“Thank you. I love you.” He whispers.
“Don’t thank me for loving you, Chaos. We get tonight, then tomorrow we go back to our normal.” I press my lipsto the back of his neck as I feel his body relax completely as sleep takes him.
I stay awake a little longer though, going through the plan in my head. This is going to be harder on him because he isn’t used to this. He’s a bar owner, not a fucking under boss. This is just another day in the office for me, but I need to be really careful with his involvement. It could change him and our relationship completely if he witnesses too much.
* * *
The next morning my lips press to his temple before straightening up and walking out of our room. I’ve lined pillows down the length of his back so he feels like I’m still there. It’s way too early for his sleepy ass to wake up for a few more hours, anyway. I’ll be back by then.
The drive to the old abandoned office building is dark and silent. I let myself get lost in my thoughts about what I’ve been through, how amazing my brothers have been during this, and Jake. I want to marry that man. That sounds insane even to myself. We hated each other just a couple of short months ago. A lot has changed since then, though, and now I’ll do anything to hyphenate my last name with his.
Making sure to cut the headlights a block before my destination, I pull into the driveway of a single family home. Parking behind the detached garage, I leave my truck out of sight and quietly slink through the yard and various parking lots separating the house and the building that I need to get to. When I reach the building, I see a figure standing just inside the door. Nodding at my older brother, we silently make our way up the stairs to the third story.
We don’t speak until we’re secure in our location and I have my rifle in place. We’re laying on our bellies, shoulder to shoulder when Rowan finally speaks. His voice carries on barely a breath of air, but I hear him loud and clear.
“Are you sure? I can do it.” He’s been trying to get me to let him do this since last night.
“I’ve got it.” I murmur back. “It should be any second now.”
The tip of the barrel sits in a perfectly cut out hole. In the dark like this, it’s invisible. Hell, even in the light it’s barely there. Pressing my shoulder against the butt of the weapon while looking through the scope, I sit still and wait. Making sure to keep my breath slow and even. It isn’t but a few minutes later when my target exits the front of the old, worn down theater and lights up a cigarette.
Mikhail has a bullet through his forehead before he can even pocket the lighter. We have everything packed up and are making our way out of the building in the next forty seconds. A minute and a half later, we’re pulling away from the old abandoned house and I’m driving to the estate. That motherfucker will never jerk off over someone’s unconscious body again. I hope he’s burning in Hell’s seventh circle right now.
“You good?” Rowan asks cautiously from the passenger seat.
“Better than… Fuck that guy. One down, two to go.” His hand comes to my shoulder and gently squeezes it before letting me go.
I fight back the need to jolt away from his touch. I can’t help it, and I doubt that it’ll ever change. As much as I’d love to be more affectionate with my brothers, that’s never really been me, even before Natasha got her hands on me.
Our plan is simple; we’re going to let the sting of losing him sink in for a few days, then we’ll take out the others one by one. Once it’s just her left, we’ll take her out too. I’ll let Jakob do those honors if he so chooses. As for the others? They belong to me.
I drop Rowan off at his house with the promise to be back later in the morning for family breakfast. As soon as he shuts the door to the estate and I know without a shadow of a doubt that he’s safe inside, I make my way home.
Home?
Well, I mean Jakob’s house. I still live on the estate. Kind of. I spend the rest of the drive trying to figure out when it changed from his home to ours in my head. The only thing I really figure out is that home isn’t really the building, it’s him and wherever he is. Pulling into the driveway, I move as quietly as I can into the house, making sure to lock up behind me.
When I said it was morning earlier, I meant it in the most basic sense of the word. Itismorning, technically. I mean, two A.M. is considered the morning. So when I shed my all black attire and slide back into bed with Jakob, he’s still asleep, just like I knew he would be. He instinctively snuggles back into my hold as I wrap my body around his.
I drift off while thinking about how anyone who stands in our way will end up just like that asshole tonight. We will strike them all down without batting an eye, and I know that with every fiber of my being.
27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Jakob
