On instinct, his chest bowed with pride. No matter what happened from here, Dev had managed to pull that shit off. He was pretty damned proud of himself. He’d learned to dodge tails a long time ago. An expert at hiding but to do it while living with a highly trained federal agent, with another one across the hall and all the surveillance equipment watching his every move... Well, clearly, the man known as Devilman was a badass motherfucker.
And he’d just signed the death warrant for any future private time.
Whatever. He’d figure it out like he figured it out tonight.
He was straight-up fire. Lit as shit for pulling it off.
He reached for a T-shirt off the towel shelf where he stacked his clothes. The stupid fucking landlord decided more space inside the bedroom was better than more closet room. Who in their right mind would have left a decision like that up to him? He didn’t know shit about appropriate housing…
The bathroom door pushed open. A blast of cool air followed. Cash didn’t immediately enter. Dev tossed the T-shirt back on the shelf and reached for a Henley.
Luckily, he’d stopped by the grocery store on his way home from seeing his girls yesterday. He was starving.
His children. The thing about splitting time with his ex was that he’d grown to really appreciate the time he spent with Abigail and Mae. When away from them, he missed them fiercely.
Competing hates began to bid for his attention. First, even thinking of his ex, Tena, made him want to call that abandoning bitch just to call her a cunt. Second, lying to his mother about everything going down pissed him the hell off. She was a saint for jumping in and helping out. The girls seemed happy in their new home and school. He hated keeping her in the dark, but until he felt it was safe, he had no choice.
That blame rested squarely on Cash’s shoulders. Dev waited until the shirt was over his head before he said, “What? You’ve been on my ass since you woke up.”
“You used Holly as an alibi in a text to Keyes?” Cash bit out.
Goddammit. What else could he have said? Keyes didn’t know about Cash. His buddy had only recently found out Dev was into ass. Holly was the logical excuse.
At least in Dev’s head it had made sense.
Whatever.
“You had all the questions in the world not five minutes ago. Now you don’t say anything?” Cash asked.
“Bacon and eggs.” Dev snapped his fingers then pointed at Cash, patting his belly. “You got tofu scramble, which sounds plain awful. Should I cook enough for Joe?” He circled a finger over his head to include the other agent inside the building, meaning his sister, Shanna.
Dev started past Cash, brushing against his shoulder to leave the bathroom as he continued trying to divert from the topics Cash wanted to discuss.
“I’m starvin’. We didn’t eat dinner because you can’t stay out of my fine ass.” Dev gave a backward swat of the hand, patting Cash’s ass. “Good thing you know how to stretch me—”
Cash gripped Dev’s bicep, stopping him from leaving the bedroom.
Deny, deny, deny…and confuse.
Verbal vomit continued to roll from his lips. “Do you know I had a sex addiction? Self-diagnosed, so it probably isn’t in your paperwork on me. I had to fight it pretty hard, but even in the best of times, I never fucked as many times in a week as you and I fuck. You’re my fantasy guy. Thank you.” Dev leaned in to peck Cash’s frowning lips.
The strong hand holding his bicep tightened. “I want to know how you did it.”
Dev sucked in air through his teeth, making a little squeaky noise, as if he were considering the answer to Cash’s question. Then he shook his head, which seemed a sufficient response.
In theory, Dev trusted Cash. The man who got inside his head, made him think he’d found someone to love and build a normal life with then betrayed him in every possible way.
Maybe trust was too strong a word.
But since then, he had thought of Cash as being on his side. Cash made himself crazy with Dev’s safety. They weren’t moving the case forward in any reasonable way because Cash’s entire focus was to keep Dev living above the ground.
As much as Cash tried to protect him, and thought that hecouldprotect him, Cash couldn’t. Dev only had himself to keep an eye on both their backs. The only way to do that effectively was by creating chaos. Keep everything so fucked up that his old man and the Disciples brothers didn’t have time to question why the fuck Cash was waggling after Dev every place he went.
No matter how Cash played it in his undercover agent brain, his constant presence was a giant red warning flag. The agent was too pretty, too well put together, too wholesome. For now, his old man believed Cash was slumming it with biker trash. He’d said those words fifty times over the last few weeks.
Dev had even caught his old man eyeing Cash’s ass like a Grade A prime cut of beef, which had earned the filthy old man a solid punch to the gut.
The hit had been made on instinct, but the act of continuing the beating resonated in the back of his mind all the time. The stupid motherfucker had fucked all the people in Dev’s life he was going to. His old man better get Cash out of his lusty sights.
