“Good morning!” Vail’s smile lit up the room as he laid a kiss on Fallon’s lips, then mine. “Oh, you two smell really good. Like oranges. Oh, that reminds me.” He spun on Rowen. “I want to change the color of the living room.”
“Not to orange,” Rowen said with a wince. “We already have the orange couch.”
Vail huffed. “We need to do some redecorating around this house. Make it moreus.”
Cillian entered the kitchen, too, and went to the fridge. He pulled out a small bottle of juice that he cracked open and chugged until it was empty. “Ye can leave the decoratin’ until later. We need to go. Now.”
Vail pouted. “Fine. Make sure you eat well.” He directed the comment toward Fallon more than the rest of us, and Fallon nodded with a small smile. “Call me when you’re done. I would like to spend time together.Allof us.”
Desire burned hot in my belly at the thought of the five of us in the bed together, and that would keep me going today. There was something sexy about sharing one man, maybe two, with the others. And yet, Cillian and I still hadn’t talked about his hand on my dick, either. Knowing him, he’d avoid talking about it until his deathbed.
“Sounds delicious, angel.” Rowen cupped Vail’s face and kissed him hard. “Can’t wait.”
Vail’s gaze softened and he chewed on his bottom lip. “Me too.” He tugged on his brown bow tie, which matched the rest of his suit—apparently he had tutoring again today, now that Fallon was out of the hospital. “I need to go. Love you all.” He kissed every one of us, and when he came to Fallon he made sure to hug him, too, while whispering something into his ear.
We got on our winter gear and left at the same time as Vail did, heading out the garage door. Vail left out the front because he always had a ride waiting for him—something Sloan had arranged because Vail kept getting lost when he first started tutoring. Driving wasn’t one of his strengths.
Cillian led us to the Expedition, which he’d pulled to the front of the house last night and left there. A thin layer of snow covered the ground, but nothing that would worry us for the drive. Fallon had grabbed a beanie before we left the house and as we walked, he tucked his hair under it.
“All right, boyo.” Cillian stopped near the SUV and turned to Fallon, mouth pursed. “It’s now or never. Don’t let us down. We got a full day to make him hurt. Do ye think ye can do it?”
“Cillian...,” I warned, low.
He glared. “It’s either this or he leaves the Company, Aspen.”
Fallon touched my arm and straightened, staring at Cillian. His cheeks pinked from the cold air. “I can do this.”
Cillian rolled his eyes, huffing. “Ye better. I won’t fail the boss for ye.”
By the time we got to Mount Pleasure, it was colder than yesterday, and I wished I’d put on more layers. It wouldn’t matter once we were in the house anyway, but it would take a while to heat up because we’d told the boys to turn the heater off and on all night to torment Ilya with the cold.
When we got up to the torture room, Ilya looked exactly how I expected. His skin was tinted blue, and he shivered when we opened and closed the door behind us. His dirty underwear was shoved into his mouth, but he had no blindfold on, so the moment he saw us, he started yelling through the fabric.
“Glad you’re here. I’m freezing.” Tadgh Quinn flashed a wide, gap-toothed smile as he shivered theatrically with his hands stuffed in the pockets of a thin gray cotton jacket. His red hair stuck out from under a matching ski cap that didn’t seem to be doing nearly enough to keep him warm.
Cillian laughed, and excitement had him bounding over to Ilya like a kid on Christmas morning. “Hey, mate.” He poked Ilya’s cheek. “Ye feeling nice and toasty this wee morning?”
“Get out of here, kid.”
Tadgh saluted me and rushed off, not giving me a chance to change my mind. I grunted out a laugh, rested my case of knives on the floor, and leaned against the wall. It was best to let Cillian get the teasing out of his system first. Fallon sidled up beside me and huddled close.
“I can do this today, I promise.” His voice wavered slightly, and I wasn’t sure I believed him.
“Don’t let Cillian pressure you.” I turned my body toward him and noticed Rowen watching us from the other side of the room, a small smile on his mouth. He knew the turmoil more than me and Cillian—he had God, and harming others was a sin. But even though I knew Fallon should be talking to Rowen, I liked that he leaned on me for comfort. “Remember what I told you yesterday. He wasn’t always like this. We all start somewhere.”
“Tell me about your first time?” Fallon asked, eyes wide. Then his mouth curved. “I’ll give you another blowjob tonight as a reward.”
I’d come to realize it was his defense mechanism to flirt to hide his weaknesses, and I understood that well. No Company man could show fear. I glanced back at Cillian, still wrapped up in his own version of emotional torture, telling Ilya everything we were going to do to him. Ilya had no idea his cousin was coming to get him tonight, and that’s how we wanted it. Either way Ilya looked like shit, bruises littering his skin, along with deep gashes. Nothing life-threatening, unfortunately.
“Aspen?”
I sighed. “First time killing a man or hurting him?”
“Hurting.” He swallowed and dug his hands into the pockets of his jacket. Rowen left, probably to turn on the heat now that Tadgh had gone home.
“It was easier than it should’ve been,” I admitted with a grimace. Fallon stared at me with need—for answers instead of sex. It was almost like we were beginning to have real conversations. He wanted me to make him feel better about today; I couldn’t do that. He needed to live with who he was going to become. This was going to happen regularly. “Believe it or not, it was a woman.”
Fallon’s eyes went wide and his face paled.
