I don’t know what happened with Holden today, but I love this open side of him.
Even if he is randomly kissinganotherone of my boyfriends.
Chapter 52
Ryder
“What the hell is wrong with you three?” I finally ask after the tenth time Holden, Les, and Leo looked at each other and started snickering.
Holden’s cheeks bloom with color. “Nothing.”
That makes Les lose it, and she doubles over with laughter; Leo won’t even look me in the eye.
Gage comes in with a handful of bulletproof vests, throwing them on top of all the other gear we’ve been carrying in. He looks at them, then looks at me. “Who broke Les?”
She laughs even harder. “Holden,” she gasps out.
“Out with it,” I demand, looking at Holden. He takes a step back, shaking his head. “Holden,” I warn.
Les draws in a breath, trying to get her laughing under control. “Leave him alone.”
I don’t even look at her; I just continue staring at Holden. That’s when I realize he seems nervous. He shifts his eyes between Les and Leo, then finally looks back at me. I can see him physically steeling his spine. “I kissed Leo.”
Gage grabs his chest dramatically. “You kissed my man?”
The first thing I feel is jealousy, and I swallow it down—no way I’m making him feel bad for going for what he wants.
“After he licked his cum from her pussy,” Leo mutters.
My eyes flash to his. “What?” I croak. I’m no longer jealous of him kissing Leo. I’m jealous as fuck Leo got to taste that.
Holden shrugs, embarrassed. “I wanted to see what it tasted like.”
Gage scrubs a hand down his face. “I didn’t need that visual before this mission.”
“You’re not mad?” Holden asks, looking like he’s about to run the other way.
I step closer to him. “No,Bello,I’m not mad at you.” I look at Leo. “Him, on the other hand.”
“Hey!” Leo says. “I’m an innocent victim.”
“Baby, you’re anything but innocent,” Gage laughs.
“Okay. Okay,” Les says, waving her hands around. “We need to focus.”
We all snap to attention because she’s right. We have pulled off some big things before but never at this magnitude. We’re about to storm a literal fortress filled to the teeth with armed guards. Les has everyone on the payroll ready to roll out, which means we have forty extra armed men with us, but it doesn’t make it any less dangerous.
Once everyone is in the living room, Les steps to the center of the room. “This is a shoot first; ask questions later. Everyone that they wanted out of the house should be out. Theonlyperson who remains safe is Nina.” She passed a picture around earlier so everyone could familiarize themselves with her. “You all have a syringe with a sedative that will keep her out for about two hours. Use it. We don’t need to draw attention to us with her screams.” That’s the part that we all hated. Nina knows it’s happening; she just doesn’t know when. We need the element of surprise, and her fear will sell it. “You all have your assignments. Get going.”
The rest of the guards file out of the room, leaving us in the room with Les, Evander, Mateo, and Micah. “I hate to say it, but if it gets too thick, we have to leave her. I can’t risk you guys for that.” She runs her fingers through her hair. “We get in a situation we don’t think we can get out of; we bail.” We all nod, letting her know we’re on the same page.
We all wore black cargo pants for extra clips, black shirts, and black combat boots, including Holden. He would be monitoring the cameras from the van, talking to us through our communication earpieces. Something we’ve done before, but he usually stays home. He begged Les earlier to let him watch from the van, and she agreed reluctantly.
She slides a bulletproof vest over Leo’s head, helping him strap it on. We ran him through the paces on the shooting range earlier, and he’s a dead shot. He can’t afford to freeze, and sadly that happens sometimes. I can see the strain with him going all over Les and Gage’s faces, but they both agreed he needs to make his own decisions. He just chose to go on this mission when he should be staying home.
I grab a vest and help Holden. Even if he’s in the van, he needs to be protected. I make sure it’s on good before handing him a black hoodie. He slips it over his head. “I’ll be fine,” he says when his head pops through.
“I know,” I say because he has to be. I kiss him once before stepping back and grabbing my own vest.
