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He bites down on my shoulder and the spark of pain pushes me over the edge. I come untouched with a shout, eyes slamming shut as I clench down hard around him.
His pace slows, lengthens, and then he buries himself to the hilt as he spills with a quiet grunt. He pulls out faster than I’d like, but makes sure that I’m okay before he goes to clean up. And he’s back fast, crawling into the bed with me, peppering more kisses over my shoulders and neck with such affection that my heart squeezes.
“You’re incredible,” he murmurs.
I hum, basking in the afterglow and his praise. “So are you. That was...” Words fail me. Mind-blowing. Incredible. Perfect. None of them do justice to what we just shared.
Max just pulls me closer. But after a minute, I turn around in the bed, pushing him onto his back and putting my head there on his chest, just like I thought about before.
Fuck. It’s just as comfy as it looks.
* * *
I sleep right through, missing dinner and everything, and when I wake up it’s only just starting to get light. And I feel…
Better.
No, not better. Just a little lesslost, maybe, in the vast ocean of doubt that I’ve been swimming around in. Yeah. Maybe that’s it. Maybe I found a lighthouse in Max, someone I can be sure of. Someone whose light I can trust in all this dark uncertainty.
I smile to myself as I look down at him, spread out and snuffling in his sleep in a way that makes me melt for him. I’d like to go for round two this morning, but I need to put my dick away for now.
“Max,” I say, sliding out of bed. “Wake up.”
He grunts, rolling over to open tired eyes, looking at me.
And then he smiles.
I smile back before I can stop myself. Before I can break into a certified grin, I head for the bathroom, calling over my shoulder, “Get up, Pedretti. It’s time to go to work.”
CHAPTER30
MAX
It’s still earlywhen Bricker and I pull up to the rundown house in the Valley where the crew spent so much time planning the ill-fated heist. It was never much to look at in the first place, and now I feel like we’re about to raid an old tomb. Hopefully it has a few secrets waiting to be uncovered.
Bricker’s eyes are stormy as we go up the creaking step to the door. He’s hoping the same thing I am—that somewhere in this ramshackle house is the answer to who betrayed us and got Rook killed. I’m not one for vengeance, usually. The Espositos live by their motto: blood for blood. Me, I think retaliatory killings make little sense. But I also know I’m a rarity in the world we inhabit, that for most of the men and women living in this underbelly life, honor makes demands that they don’t question.
And whenever I think about Rook’s pale face, his glassy eyes…well, I find that vengeful side of me, too.
So in this case, I’m with the Espositos. Blood for blood.
We step through the front door, and the soggy stink of stale beer and cigarettes hits me, along with an underlying smell that I recognize all too well. Death. It was tough bringing Rook back here, and Pony was so rattled that he wasn’t much help, going in and out of the house several times to smoke, wandering around the place, unable to just sit still and wait.
But I pull my eyes away from the table where we laid Rook out, and I head toward the kitchen as Bricker goes through things in the living room.
The kitchen is in the same state of disarray we left it in, and there’s nothing of interest there. But out the back window, in the middle of the overgrown yard, an old oil drum catches my eye. That’s where Van burned the maps and plans before we left, on the day of the heist. Bricker told him to get rid of them, since they weren’t needed anymore.
I go out and stride over, lifting the lid to peer inside. Ashes. Ashes and dirt and—and a glint of something at the bottom. I strip off my jacket and lean into the drum, trying not to breathe in, and come back out covered in claggy soot, with a half-incinerated cell phone as my trophy.
“Bricker!” He comes outside at my call, eyebrows going up when he sees the state of me, then dropping into a frown when he sees what I’m holding up. “Did you tell anyone to dump their phone in here?” I ask as he makes his way over.
He shakes his head. “We burned papers in that drum, but everyone knew electronics had to be turned in to the cleaners for disposal. Think there’s anything left on it?”
“It’s damaged, but I think I can get something off it.” I turn the phone over in my hands, looking for the SIM card slot. “Whoever did this didn’t want us finding it, but they weren’t careful enough. Still…makes me wonder why they didn’t dump it offsite.”
“Can you get into it?” Bricker asks. I meet his gaze and give a little smile.
“Well, with your permission, Capo, yeah. I can give it a try.”
