“Good,” he breathes. “I like people knowing you’re mine.”
Something about that possessive comment makes me shudder.
“You’re mine too, Gage.”
“Absofuckinglutely, Baby,” he agrees, kissing the side of my neck.
Holden shuffles up beside Ryder with his head down. Ryder leans down and says something, causing Holden to hold his head higher. Ryder slings an arm around his shoulders, pulling him closer to him and Les.
“Isn’t this cozy?” Dmitri comments, looking at all of us when Dex leans beside Gage and me.
Alexey looks at the seriousness on Alessa’s face and runs everyone else off, leaving just us. “What’s going on,Moya sokrovishche?”
“I told you to stop calling me that,” Alessa warns. “Your dad took a shot at me after the gala.”
“You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?” Ryder adds.
The shock on both their faces lets me know they didn’t know. “That was you? We heard someone’s limo got shot up, but no one said whose.” Alexey says.
“It was mine,” Alessa growls, getting pissed off all over again. “He almost took out one ofmyguys.”
“Motherfucker,” Dmitri explodes.
“We’re going through with our plan for your mom,” Alessa says, ignoring his outburst. “And it goes down tomorrow night.”
“No. We can’t ask you to do that,” Alexey says. “We’ll find another way.”
“This gives her a clear shot at the guards and your dad,” Dex points out. “Les will make sure your mother gets out safely.”
Dmitri waves that away. “We aren’t worried about that. We know Alessa will, or we wouldn’t have asked her.” He looks at Alessa. “Are you sure?”
She nods. “I am. If you have anyone in that house you want out, you better figure out a way because everyone fucking dies.”
“You guys need to make a big show of not being home,” Ryder says. “You fuckers will be his first suspects.”
“We got that covered,” Alexey says and then sighs. “Tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow night, we get her out,” Alessa says. “And your dad has to die.”
“We understand,” Dmitri says.
We lapse into silence, everyone lost in their thoughts, watching all the action around us. I can’t get over how they put all this together right under the cop’s nose, but as they told me last time, they couldn’t bust it up anyway. Too afraid of who’s just casually standing around.
Gage pulls me close, running his nose up and down my neck, which he loves to do.
“Look at these fucking queers,” some drunk says and then obnoxiously laughs, walking by our group with his buddies.
Holden turns before anyone can react, nailing the guy right in the nose with a mean jab, sending him sprawling on his back. Blood spurts out everywhere. “You broke my fucking nose!”
“Who are you calling a queer?” he growls out. “That’s not very fucking nice.”
All of us are in stunned silence thatHoldenis the first one to react. Quiet, respectful hacker Holden. Gage is the first to shake off the shock and starts howling like a wolf. “That’s my fucking boy!”
Holden turns his eyes to us, and I realize he’s just as shocked as us. I don’t think Holden has ever hit anyone out of anger in his life.
Alessa gives Holden a look that makes him blush, then walks forward, laying the toe of her boot on the guy’s balls. She pulls a knife from the sheath on the back of her leathers, twirling it between her fingers. She adds pressure to her foot, squashing his balls and leaning forward. “Who are you talking to?”
Something in the look on her face makes his eyes widen comically behind his hand, holding his nose. “I... I…I didn’t mean anything by it.”
