Raiden
Raiden jumped to the side,then thrust a right jab forward, his fist whooshing through the air. He stepped back, throwing his arms up in a block, then forward again with another jab, taking care to model the proper form. “Got that?” he asked, his breath heavy.
Lawrence nodded, then repeated the motion, jumping back and forth and throwing his skinny arms around. They were in Cash’s apartment the next afternoon, and they had pushed some of the tables aside to clear a space for the self-defense lesson. While Raiden filled Lawrence in on basics, Cash sat at his desk, hunched over a computer and typing furiously.
While Lawrence bobbed from side to the side, the tiny pink pair of running shorts he wore bounced up and down, drawing Raiden’s eyes straight to his thighs, lean and muscular from all the dancing. He grunted and shook his head, and when he looked up, he caught Cash, tapping his finger against his full, pink lip, lost in thought.
Damn. It was hard enough to resist Lawrence alone. Now that he’d seen Cash on his knees, Raiden’s resolve was rapidly weakening. He almost liked the guy, in fact. Sure, Cash still annoyed the living hell out of him, but Raiden understood where he was coming from.
Anyway, it just felt good to be with him and Lawrence at the same time. They were pretty damn different from his friends back in Albany, but there was something familiar about their energy, too, and after the hookup, Raiden had finally stopped worrying that he was too much for Lawrence. They’d all been beaten down and tossed aside in their lives, after all, and Raiden had started to believe Lawrence and Cash could understand him, if he gave them a real chance.
Plus, they were fucking hot as hell. Raiden’s heart might have been yearning for more, but his cock had been happily leading the charge forward for a while.
Lawrence finished the round, then grabbed his water bottle and squirted a spray into the back of his mouth. His cheeks were flushed, and his curls were pushed back with a sweatband, making his face shine. “How was that?” he asked.
“Very good,” Raiden said. “Your form is excellent.”
Lawrence stretched a hand over his head, then wiggled his hips. “All the dancing,” he said, “among other things.”
“Good for your endurance, too,” Raiden said, letting his voice roll to draw out some implication. “And I know you can last a long time.” Lawrence’s eyes popped wider, and Raiden chuckled, glad to finally catch the guy off guard.
“Are you two done playing grabass?” Cash hollered over his shoulder.
“Someone jealous?” Lawrence teased.
“He probably just wants me to teach him another lesson. Is that it, Cash?”
“If you think threats like that are going to make me shut up, you’re deeply mistaken.”
Raiden chuckled. “Noted.”
“Lawrence?” Cash asked. “Did you say that your father went to Panama twice a year?”
“Yes, that’s right,” Lawrence said. He and Raiden crossed over to where Cash was working. “Pretty much every six months. Why?”
“I hacked into Senator Dooley’s assistant’s calendar. She’s using her own name as her password—it was the easiest job. It looks here like the Senator goes to Panama next week. But you said your father went there a month ago, is that right?”
“Right,” Lawrence said. He leaned against Raiden, pressing his warm weight against his muscles, and Raiden sucked in a sharp breath from the pleasure of it.
“The trip was planned at the last minute. And when I looked at the congressional schedule, I saw that they’re taking Friday off for an extended working weekend, as requested by Dooley. It’s pretty remarkable for them to cancel a session like that, so something big must be coming up.”
“Fishy,” Raiden said. He stretched his arm around Lawrence’s shoulder without really thinking about it, and Cash smiled slyly at them. “Do you think they’re making moves?”
Cash started typing, his fingers flying across the keyboard as they talked. “It looks that way to me.”
“My father is always making moves,” Lawrence said as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and started tapping at it.
“What do we know about this resort?” Raiden asked Cash. He’d robbed his fair share of mansions with Gray and Horatio, but he’d never tackled a resort, and especially not one in another country. “Can you hack your way in there or something and figure out what’s up?”
Cash shrugged. “If I had a few months, maybe. But I don’t remember the last time I saw a network as secure as this one. It’s not surprising. People all over the world keep dirty money in some of those Panama banks.”
“What’s the play, then? Fake jobs on the resort catering staff? Robbing their houses while they’re out of the country to dig up dirt?”
Frowning at the computer, Cash shook his head. “I’m not sure… Fuck! This looks big, too. Horizon is moving billions around this month, and one of their CEOs just retired, so they’ll be looking to promote one of their top executives.” He put his head in his hands, cursing under his breath. “Think, Cash. Think!” he muttered.
Lawrence held his phone in the air. “Maybe I have an idea?”
“Oh yeah?” Cash asked.
