We decide to head back to the clubhouse. No one says much on the walk. The morning feels too bright, the kind of light that shows things you want to keep for yourself.
Inside, I grab a towel and hit the shower. The water comes on hard and hot, beating the smell of rain and sex from my skin, and it still isn’t enough to wash her out of my head.
Carrie, lying between us. Her thighs opening, her voice shaking when she said yes. Levi’s mouth on her while JC held her face and made her look. My hands on her hips while she took me deep and squeezed like she knew exactly how to break me. It felt right, like she fit in that space none of us could fill alone.
I brace a forearm against the tile and wrap my palm around my cock. Heat kicks through me. I stroke slow at first, then harder, chasing the memory of her slick and the sound she made when I pushed all the way in. I see the way her belly fluttered, the way her eyes went dark, the way she reached for all of us at once like we were one body.
“Fuck,” I breathe, head tipped back.
Knuckles rap the door. “Blade,” Jace calls, voice tight. “We have a problem.”
I close my hand, grit my teeth, try to finish fast. Another knock, harder. “Now.”
I swear, twist the water off, grab the towel. My cock is still hard and angry when I yank the door open. Jace is there with his shirt half-done and a look that means business. Levi is in the hall behind him, jaw clenched.
“What.”
“The safe,” Jace says. “Money’s missing.”
My dick forgets itself. “Come on.”
He holds my stare. No humor. “Count it.”
We hit the office. The room smells like stale smoke and old bills. I spin the dial, open the door, and stare at the thin stack where a fat one should be.
“Don’t look at me,” I snap, heat flaring hot and wrong under my skin. “Only you two, me, and Jinn have the combination.”
Levi folds his arms. “When did you last see it full?”
“Yesterday afternoon,” I say. “I pulled petty cash for the run to the parts store. It was fine.”
Jace’s mouth is a line. “And you locked it.”
“Of course I locked it.”
Levi looks from me to Jace. “Jinn.”
It hangs there, ugly and obvious. Jace scrubs a hand over his face. “He was in and out all night. He wouldn’t have had time.”
The safe door is still shut when Jace’s phone lights up. He glances at the screen, then at us, and taps accept. He hits speaker and sets it on the desk.
“There’s a problem,” he says, voice low.
Static cracks, then Jinn’s voice fills the room. “Carrie.”
Heat punches through my chest. Levi’s jaw goes hard. Jace’s eyes flick to mine and back to the phone.
“What about her?” Jace says.
“She found me and Marcy,” Jinn says. He sounds annoyed, not worried. “She freaked out. Marcy is losing it too, so I’m stashing her in the next town with my sister. I’m running late.”
The floor seems to tilt.
Levi shifts his weight, every muscle wired. I can feel the choice forming in his head. Go find Carrie or hold the line.
It lands like a slap. I want to punch a wall. I want to find her and put her back between us where she fit like the missing piece we didn’t know we needed.
“The guys will be there soon,” Jinn says. “I need you to handle it.”
