Cash
Cash’s shoulderthrobbed with pain as he pushed open the door to his apartment. After a night recuperating on Raiden’s couch, he was glad to be back home. He just wished he had cleaned the place before he took off for the dinner party, considering he was actually having new guests over for once.
“This whole place yours?” Raiden asked. He and Lawrence followed behind, each gazing around the old woodworking studio.
“The next floor, too,” Cash answered as he crossed to the counter that marked off the kitchen area, then shoved some scattered papers into a pile. “Espresso?”
“Sure!” Lawrence said brightly.
“How about just a cup of coffee?” Raiden asked.
“Three espressos!” Cash answered brightly. “Coming right up.”
He busied himself at the machine but kept an eye on the guys. Raiden was wearing a black tank and a big pair of cargo shorts and the same scuffed black boots as always. He was rough around the edges, and Cash appreciated that it meant he cut the bullshit. Raiden was quick, too, and observant, and he didn’t waste any time finding the maps and papers Cash had pinned to the walls and inspecting them with a furrowed brow.
Lawrence’s attention, on the other hand, went straight to the desktop computers, circuit boards, and random hacker detritus that filled the tables. The trio had stopped by Lawrence’s apartment on the way so he could grab a couple things, and he was sporting a denim romper, an outfit that only Lawrence could pull off so effortlessly. Cash bit his lip when he saw the way the denim hugged Lawrence’s cute rear while he leaned over the table.
Shrugging, he decided to let them at it. He’d already gotten himself deep in this, whatever in the hellthiswas. It was one thing to show his cards back at Raiden’s apartment. But when he’d come out of the shower and seen the two of them together, touching and moaning, his brain had short-circuited. He needed to be right there with them, even if it did break every rule and safety protocol he could imagine.
Anyway, Cash had gotten by for years by thinking on his toes and improvising creative solutions to his problems. When Raiden had insisted they come along as he tried to make sense of the files he stole from Lawrence’s father, it only made sense to acquiesce. Lawrence and Raiden made powerful allies, and sharing the truth of who he was with them was a strange exhilaration, the same way having them in his house felt like a true risk.
The machine gurgled out the last espresso; then Cash gathered the three little cups in his hands. “Find anything interesting?” he asked, meeting them in the middle of the cavernous room.
Raiden took his espresso, then frowned at it. “Thanks, I guess.”
Cash waggled his eyebrows. “I thought it would look cute. You know. Tiny cup. Big hands.”
“Thank you,” Lawrence said as he took his own cup. “How long have you been here, Cash?”
Cash scrunched his mouth as he thought. “Three years? Something like that,” he answered, then gestured to the old couches that had come with the place, pushed near one of the large windows, and they all took seats. “Long enough to be comfortable.” He felt another pang of desire, just looking at the two of them. He was a true switch, as interested in being bossed around as he was in taking charge, but it had been quite a while since a man took control the way Raiden had. It felt electric to kneel at their feet, servicing them both at once, their hard cocks in his hand and his mouth, like he was the conduit between their pleasure.
“Have you been tracking Horizon Zed that whole time?” Raiden asked, snapping Cash back to reality.
“Primarily, yes,” he answered. “I take up the odd job here and there, when I need the funds or the connections. A little high-class cat burglary. The occasional surveillance job or mercenary hacking marathon.” He reached across the glass-topped coffee table, then pulled his laptop closer. “Speaking of which, do you have that hard drive?”
Lawrence fished in his fanny pack, then tossed the hard drive to Cash. He set the files to transfer, then leaned back, satisfied with the payload. “Beautiful,” he said quietly. “Absolutely perfect.”
“What’s the next step?” Lawrence asked. “You go through those files and the files you got from the Senator’s office, and then what? Do you send them to the newspaper or something? Call the FBI?”
Cash sipped the bitter coffee. “You know your father, Lawrence.”
“Oh, right.” Lawrence scratched the back of his head. “He basically owns the newspaper.”
“And a share of the FBI,” Cash added. “If I ever get the right evidence, I’ll try to take the corporation down properly. But for the most part, I just try to stay a step ahead of them. Undermine their moves, warn the people they’re going to hurt, and generally try to be a big, expensive pain in the ass.”
Raiden nodded toward the papers, taped to the brick walls. “That’s what this is all about?”
“Mostly,” Cash answered. “You want me to walk you through it?”
Raiden and Lawrence both looked surprised. “I thought everything was top secret?” Lawrence asked. “Raiden practically had to threaten you with another beating before you agreed to let us come over in the first place.”
Cash put his cup down with a nod. “Safety first, like they always say. But I am quite curious to pick your brain, Lawrence, and I suppose I’m asking for both of you to trust me, aren’t I?” He bounced his leg over his knee, trying to find a delicate way to explain himself. “I know you want to stop whatever it is your father is planning with the senator, Lawrence, but do you understand what that entails? Even if there is no love lost between the two of you, it’s still a lot, to turn on your family.”
Lawrence’s face tightened, and Raiden rested a hand on his shoulder. “I understand,” Lawrence said. “But I’m not the one who is turning on them, not when they already turned on me. The second my father figured out that I wouldn’t play along with his corporate games, I was dead to him. And my mother has been consumed with drinking and abusing her personal assistants for years. I swear, she forgets I exist half the time. They already gave up on me…” He trailed off, then shook his head. “I’m tired of feeling powerless. I’m ready to do something.”
A thrill tickled the back of Cash’s neck. Lawrence was surprising him more and more every day. He turned to Raiden and saw how impressed the other man was by Lawrence’s conviction. The way they touched each other didn’t even make Cash feel jealous; it just felt right.
“No use in waiting around then,” Cash said. “I can walk you through what I have, and we can split up the new files between the three of us.” He rose to his feet, then stopped and winced when a jolt of pain shot down his back. “God damn, Raiden,” he hissed. “I don’t think I’ve taken a beating like that in years.”
