“Goddamn, you’re a brat.”
“Abracadabra, baby.” Cas flashed Jonah a shameless grin. “I think I know what we can do, though, and it’ll be realistic as shit. My friend Briar is a makeup artist. She did all the special effects forHouse of Death—did you see it? Oh, my God, it was so gory. Jonah, we should watch it soon. Or maybe later, if we don’t die. Anyway, she could definitely make it look completely realistic. Sadie, you could slash my throat. Is that something you’d do?”
“With pleasure,” Sadie purred.
“Maybe you could dial back the enthusiasm a little?”
Jonah listened to the two of them spar back and forth, a smile ghosting over his lips. What family he had was a haphazard collection, and he’d tried while Cas was gone to pretend he wasn’t the missing piece. It was only now he could see what an exercise in futility it had been and how very much he’d meant the words he’d said to Cas earlier; he couldn’t lose him again.
“I don’t know about bringing someone else in,” he interrupted. “How do you know she’s trustworthy?”
“She is,” Cas insisted. “I’ve known her forever. She wouldn’t sell us out.”
Jonah pressed his lips together then looked at Sadie, who hitched one shoulder. “Let me think about it.” He pulled the burner phone out of his pocket as it started buzzing.
“Is it him?” Sadie arched a brow as she dropped down next to Cas. Cas swatted her hands when she reached for his laptop.
“Yep.”
“Good.”
* * *
On Wednesday morning, Briar, Cas, and Sadie went to the warehouse while Jonah headed to Brooklyn to wait for a man named Blick, who was scheduled to depart on an eleven a.m. flight to Coral Gables. Blick made it as far as his car before Jonah put a knife in his back, opened his suitcase, scattered his clothing around, and took his wallet. Jonah ran through the garage, making sure the cameras tracked him with the ski mask on before he entered the stairwell, took it all the way down, and walked out onto the sidewalk in different clothing, which he changed again in an alley two blocks away.
After he confirmed the kill with Pritka and collected the cash, he returned to the apartment in Queens, cleaned it up, and packed his bags.
Jonah lay in the bed that night, head angled to stare out at the city lights, listening to the shower run as Cas washed all the junk off that Briar had put on him. He’d been right that she was good. Better than good. After Madigan had smuggled Cas into the apartment—in case it was still being watched—they’d watched the clip Sadie had sent via secure email together, and Jonah had almost had to turn away.
He couldn’t get the images out of his head of Cas bleeding out on the warehouse’s cement flooring. They flickered behind his eyelids like premonitions.
“Jonah.” Cas’s voice came as soft as the sheets he slid between. When he straddled Jonah, Jonah’s hands automatically went to his hips. Cas curled over and brushed his mouth over his, then rubbed the furrow between his brows. “Don’t think so hard.”
“Sure you can’t do all the surveillance from the other apartment?”
“Mm.” Cas rubbed the tip of his nose along Jonah’s jaw. “Red has the better set up. Everything I need. I think maybe he’d want me to use it. Is that dumb to think?”
“Nah. I think he’d want you to, too. He thought you were the Second Coming.”
“He was smart.” Cas nipped the side of Jonah’s neck.
“Takes some of us a little longer.” Jonah quirked a smile and ran a hand over Cas’s thigh, chasing the sleek slope down to his kneecap and then back up. “I still don’t like it, though.”
“Stu will be there. It’ll be fine.”
“A two-legged dog could outrun him,” Jonah grumbled.
“Yeah, but I’ll be able to see anything coming.”
Cas reached behind and stroked Jonah’s cock to hardness, then rose and slid it inside himself without warning. Jonah gasped as the sudden heat enveloped him and radiated up his spine in a shockwave of pleasure.
Cas grinned and rolled his hips. “I took a little extra time in the shower.”
“So you did.Fuck.” Jonah gritted his teeth as Cas sank lower and clenched.
Cas moved slowly on top of him, arching into Jonah’s roaming hands, sucking the tips of his fingers in his mouth when they were close enough and thrusting into the fist Jonah wrapped around him.
After the last tremor of their orgasms waned and Cas started to slide off him, Jonah held him in place. Cas folded his arms on top of Jonah’s chest and studied him as Jonah let his fingertips drift up and down Cas’s spine.
