Once we were in the hallway and away from the office, I let out a long breath, and Conall let slip a semihysterical laugh. “The first time is the hardest. Tense, right?”
“I wanted to see what agreement they came to.”
Conall shoved my shoulder. “Trust me. It’ll be a lot more boring now. They’ll be at it for an hour or more just to agree to go back to ignoring each other until the next time one or the other of them steps on someone else’s toes. Have you ever seen the greenhouse?”
“No, I can’t say I have.”
“Come on.” He tugged on my pinkie finger, and I chuckled as I followed him. We stopped so he could throw on a thick white sweater, and we grabbed coats, and then we were on our way out of the house. I heard feet on the front steps behind us and turned to stare at the group of men trailing at a close distance.
“What are they doing?”
Conall glanced back over his shoulder to where I was looking and laughed. “Oh, Sloan won’t let me out alone.” He shrugged. “It’s less obnoxious when people aren’t getting murdered left right and sideways, but with what’s been going on he’s been more....” He tipped his head back and smirked before he glanced at me from the corner of his eye. “More himself than usual.”
I pondered that answer as we walked around the house to the back yard. The sun was shining and we were having Goldilocks, late-fall weather—sixty degrees on the dot. I was as comfortable outside as I would probably be all year, and it gave me the itch to go running, something I hadn’t done as much of since my father’s death. I hadn’t done a lot of things that normally kept me sane. Thankfully I had a few new ones to add to that list. Four to be precise.
The sky was so blue it could have come from a crayon box, and I focused on that instead of negative thoughts. When we arrived at the greenhouse—a beautiful iron-and-glass building—a man opened the door for us and I followed Conall inside. He chuckled and shot me a glance as he turned to slip the lock on the door. The man behind us tapped at the glass and frowned at him. He pointed at the lock, and Conall shook his head with a wink and urged me away.
“What are you doing?”
“I wanted some peace,” he said, tone casual. “Sloan fucked me out here in front of the men once. It was really good.” He gestured toward the rows of wooden tables. Some were covered with plants that seemed to be waiting to be repotted. Others were free of greenery and had tools scattered around. Along the edges of the greenhouse, closer to the glass walls, sat rows of tiered flowerpots that came up about waist height on me. I got lost staring at the riot of color for a few seconds.
Then what Conall had said filtered through my mind. I slid my gaze along his body and thought about Mr. Killough, nodding as the picture formed in my mind, and that only made him laugh.
“Do you like it when he does that?”
“Mm-hmm.” He knocked his shoulder against mine. “A lot. I’d love to see your men fuck you. Kind of like the reverse of what always happens with me. Our men can look, but Sloan would shoot someone where he stood for touching. Which I love about him.” The gleam in his eyes said he truly did love his man, and I found murder a shocking but touching sentiment, which made me wonder yet again about the changes in myself. “But yours can all touch. Do they ever gangbang you?” He glanced around as if he was worried someone had overheard him asking the question.
Laughing, I nodded. “Once, they did it on purpose. They don’t usually all have me at the same time, but I like it when they do. It’s special. It makes me feel loved, I guess? I don’t know. They’re my guys. I go with the flow.”
“I get that.” He went to a bench and shoved around a potted flower as if it wasn’t in the right spot. “If everyone agreed... I thought I’d better ask you first. Would you let me and Sloan watch, if he’s okay with that?”
After what had just happened in the office my brain was in a tailspin. Of all the things I’d thought he might ask, this wasn’t what I’d expected. “You want to?” I was surprised, but I supposed not much. I loved the idea and a happy thrill raced through my belly. I wanted someone else to see my men fuck me, use me... treat me like I was the center of their world. I was starting to think maybe I didn’t care if it was selfish. I liked the feeling that I had four men to fuck me, more or less whenever I wanted them. “You know, I’d be fine with it, but everyone would have to agree. There’s no way I would make that choice for them. Is that why you brought me out here?” I leaned against the bench.
He glanced up and the sunlight streaming in the glass ceiling caught in his dark blue eyes, making them glow. “Maybe. This is about as alone as I can generally get on the grounds. I’ve been thinking of asking, but didn’t want to bring it up with Sloan if you weren’t comfortable. There was never a good time to ask and it’s personal.”
“I love the smell in here,” I said, taking a deep whiff of the growing things. My brain felt wound tight, like a spring about to snap.
“Me too. Come look at this, it’s a ten-thousand-dollar orchid. I have no idea why Sloan even has it, he barely comes out here. It’s called Gold of Kinabalu, but it’s mostly purple, not gold.” He gestured for me to follow and walked deeper into the greenhouse. The guard behind us continued to tap on the door, louder and more agitated, but Conall ignored him. I was torn but chose to follow his lead.
“Interesting!” I said and chased after him because looking at flowers was a lot less upsetting than thinking about the fact that the man who might have murdered my father had been sitting less than five feet away from me and I couldn’t do a damned thing about it.
Dino Giordano seemed mean enough to carry out his own hits, and the longer I thought about him, the more certain I was that I might’ve seen him before. It was so hard to tell with the classes I taught because I ran into strangers all the time. I sighed as Conall opened the door to a smaller, more humid section of the greenhouse, and I followed after him into the sweet perfume of orchids and ignored everything else.
16
ROWEN
The boss usedhis powers of persuasion to get the Giordanos to back off. It took a bit of negotiation, and by the time we were done I was impatient to get back to Vail. I hated him being without one of us, even though I knew, logically, he was safe with Conall. The boss’s pet was the most-guarded person on his property, and Vail was protected with him, but that didn’t mean I didn’t want to go to him.
By the time it was all said and done, Carmine Giordano had agreed to stay out of New York for a year. In those twelve months we could prepare for any future attack and deal with other issues, like the Miami situation. As payment the Giordanos got two million dollars and half a mil worth of drugs. While it didn’t seem to satisfy Dino, Carmine agreed to it and they left, escorted out of the house and off the boss’s property by at least ten of our soldiers.
We stayed in the office until we received word they were gone, then the boss stood, gesturing for us to follow him. We went through the hallway and out one of the back doors of the home, heading across the large expanse of green grass. His yard went on for miles and had everything the boss could’ve wanted—a massive garage to fit his expensive cars, a pool, and a greenhouse I knew once belonged to his mother.
He led us to the right, in the direction of the simple yet elegant greenhouse. I’d admired it a time or two. Outside was an entourage of guards, and one I knew as Alex was knocking insistently on the door—until he saw the boss. He tensed and bowed his head when we reached him.
“What happened?” Sloan drawled, amusement trickling into his voice.
“Uh, sorry, Boss. The other sir wanted time alone.” He winced and glanced at the door.
