Silence filled the line and I thought he’d hung up, but after a moment he spoke again. “I’m sorry, Cillian. I fucked up. I was worried about Vail. He’s so naïve to the world.”
“Not naïve.Oblivious.” And damned adorable while he was at it, but I didn’t tell Rowen that. Even though I was headed to Vail’s apartment, concern for the man sat in the pit of my stomach, along with the urge to hurt anyone who’d entered his home. Trouble followed him, apparently. That was fine, I could handle trouble—and torture it. “I’ll let ye know when I’m on my way back.”
I ended the call without waiting for a response. Half an hour later, I was in front of Vail’s building, but it took me another ten minutes to find a place to park. The street was busier than it had been earlier in the afternoon, which made sense.
I keyed in the code and walked the stairs to his apartment. The door was cracked open and I went inside. Chaos wasn’t the right word for what I walked in on. Everything was overturned, from his couches to his bookshelves, and even his TV had been knocked over. Glass littered the floor. Newspapers were strewn across the sitting room and kitchen and down the hallway as I followed it toward the office. It was as though someone wanted to make it appear to be a robbery, but the moment I entered the office, the real target was clear. Notebooks that had been stacked on his desk this morning were gone, and his whiteboard was overturned.
Cursing Rowen in my head, I walked over to the desk and rummaged through the scattered papers. I came up empty for the notebooks. Someone had taken them.
Fury ate at me, and I grabbed my phone, unlocking it. I scrolled down to Oisín’s name and called him. It took him two rings to answer.
“Oisín’s funeral services. You kill ’em, we grill ’em,” he answered, his American accent putting a twang on the words. Immediately he chuckled as though it was the funniest joke in the world.
I rolled my eyes. “I haven’t got the time, Oisín. I need to know if ye had a job today.”
He made a humming sound. “Depends on what type of job we’re talking about.”
I rubbed my forehead again and stared at the whiteboard with the names half rubbed off. It looked to have been done on purpose. “Break in at a university lecturer’s apartment to steal some notebooks?”
Silence filled the line before he snorted. “You insult me. Do you think Sloan would usemyskills to break into an apartment? Anapartment? I am a world-class thief, and I won’t be insulted this way.” He snickered.
My blood boiled. “Just answer the fecking question.” I slammed my hand down on the desk.
Hetskedat me in a way he knew I hated. “Manners.Pleaseanswer the question, Oisín.”
“I’m not using me bloody manners. If ye don’t answer the question, I’ll come there and ring yer bloody neck.”
“If you can catch me,” he said in a bored tone. “But no, I did not break into a college professor’s apartment. If you must know, I’ve been at the Virtue enjoying a lazy day of fucking with the handsome Trick. You should try it sometime, sounds like you need to empty your balls. His cock is—”
I ended the call before he could finish and left the office, heading down the hallway. I closed the front door behind me, slamming it rougher than what was warranted. Anger had me striding down the stairs heavily, my boots pounding each of the steps so loud that an elderly neighbor stuck his head out one of the doors. He opened his mouth to say something, but when I flashed him a snarl and my gun, he retreated back into his apartment.
I left the building and got into my SUV.
The entire trip home was spent seething and thinking about all the ways I wanted to kill someone. I called Aspen to check how things were going, and the short bits he did say indicated we were getting closer to breaking Reed, which was a pity because it hadn’t been long, and I was hoping he would hold out for at least a week. That didn’t mean we couldn’t torture him for that amount of time, though. Sloanhadsaid he wanted us to keep him alive for that long.
When I got home, I took the time to park the SUV in the garage near the other blokes’ cars. Sliding out of the Expedition, I closed my eyes and sucked in a particularly deep breath before I locked the vehicle and headed inside. Fallon was in the sitting room, lying on the couch with a beer. He barely glanced in my direction, and by the looks of it, he was sulking after I’d kicked him out of Vail’s apartment this morning.
“Where are they?” I asked anyway, and he finally turned his attention to me, mouth curled in irritation. His blond hair was tied up in a bun on the back of his head, and he had pure contempt in his blue eyes. He didn’t like me and I didn’t blame him. Not many people did. I’d hardened up since my teenage years, learned to take care of myself. Guys like Fallon had no idea.
I wasn’t used to this attitude from him, though. He did the puppy-dog expression more than the annoyed look, usually.
“Upstairs in Rowen’s room. They were here for a while, but they got handsy with each other, and I told them to take it elsewhere.”
I nodded and went to leave but stopped. Straightening, I didn’t look at him as I said, “Ye did good taking Vail home when he wanted to go.”
He could’ve said something, but I didn’t wait around to find out. I stalked up the stairs to Rowen’s room. Tonight was hot and sweat clung to my back, but sex wasn’t in the forefront of my mind right now, not even when I opened the door to the sight of Vail sitting on the edge of the bed, legs spread and head thrown back in pleasure. Rowen sat between his thighs, bent forward and sucking on Vail’s cock. His fingers curled over Vail’s outer thighs, fingernails leaving indents in his flesh. Rowen wore nothing but gray briefs, while Vail was completely naked, his fair skin alluring under the soft lamplight. The sight was hot, even if it was Rowen between his thighs.
As tempted as I was to sit down and watch—and I wastempted—my priority was the Company. It was the only thing I had.
“Rowen, get up,” I growled out as I entered.
Vail’s cock fell out of Rowen’s mouth as he turned his head toward me, frowning. “What?”
Vail blinked open his eyes and licked his lips. The bruising on his left jaw had grown to deeper shades of purple during the afternoon, but nothing could stop him from looking good enough to eat. I didn’t blame Rowen for getting what he could.
I stormed over to them and grabbed Rowen’s shoulder, shoving him out of the way. He went flying to the floor. Before he could get back to his feet to rampage, I held up my palm at him as I turned to a shocked Vail, who’d straightened and frowned dazedly at me.
“I... what happened?”
