To Die for... Virtue

TWO

TWO

WHILE STANDING FROZEN, holding up others, gaping at the familiar man, people split from behind her to go around and on their way. She didn’t even think to kick herself out of her shock until he boosted his shoulder off the pole and came over to take the bag from her.

“Good to go?”

His arm curved around her shoulders to draw her away from the bus.

“What…” she stuttered, stumbling along, being led by the man she’d left behind just hours before. “Daire! What are you doing here?”

“You said Miami. Didn’t take much detective work.”

Stopping, she turned to face him, prompting him to stop too. “Why didn’t you go home?”

“I did,” he said, brushing the hair from her face. “Driving in the opposite direction to you wasn’t ever gonna be right. You go, I go.”

“Daire,” she exhaled, her hands relaxing on his torso. “Harry… your men.”

“If they’re gone, they’re gone,” he said. “Me rushing over there won’t change that. I said never again, and I meant it. Whatever we are to each other, whatever our future is or isn’t…” He scooped both hands under her hair to cup her jaw, tipping her face up toward his. “I can’t have you out of my eyeline.”

Speechless, she couldn’t figure out how to show him what his choice meant to her. Olympus was his purpose. Harry the closest thing he had to family. Yet, he’d walked away from both to be by her side.

When she blinked, a loose line of moisture escaped the corner of her eye.

Daire dipped to kiss it away. “You want me to leave, I’ll leave,” he said, trailing his lips to hers. Though he didn’t actually kiss her, the promise was there as his breath merged with hers. “You are my meaning and my reason.”

His curse, but not his salvation.

Sealing her lips, she restrained a yelp of emotion that wanted to escape. Her fingers curled around the edges of his jacket, clinging to him. She could force him to leave. Olympus was supposed to be his primary focus. Distracting him could backfire. Taking him away from his unit could lead to resentment, especially because it was her fault he hadn’t been there at the time of the explosion.

Except he was there, with her, by choice. No one compelled him to be there. He’d been free to go back and deal with the fallout. Liberating him from any guilt or fear of repercussions in the Beast, she’d given him back to the cause that had driven him since he was a child.

While she was still processing, he stepped back and bent to pick up the bag at their feet. She hadn’t even felt him drop it. That was what being so close to him did to her.

“You got the truck?”

“No,” he said. “Got a cab, didn’t know your plan. Figured it was best not to be hindered… or to show potential enemies our ride.”

“Why do you think I brought you here?” she asked, taking his hand to pull him through the people and concrete, seeking somewhere she might find a cab. “We’re not here for a fight.”

“Shame,” he said. “I could use one.”

Her lips curled as she peeked over her shoulder. “Keep that unvented tension for me later. You came all this way, least I can do is be your pressure valve. It’s my absolute favorite thing in the world to be.”

Spotting a line of cabs, she headed for the first one and was about to jump in when Daire gave her arm a sharp tug, hauling her back behind him. Confused, she watched him open the door and gesture for her to get in. That’s what she’d been about to do. Seemed he knew that. Why did he want to open the door?

Once they were both in with the door closed, she slid to the front edge of the seat. “You know a club called Fox Den?” she asked the driver.

“Sure do,” he said and got them underway.

Drawing down the side zip of her skirt, she grabbed her carpet bag and slid to the opposite door to put it on the seat between them.

“What’s in Fox Den?” Daire asked as she searched around inside her bag.

She frowned at the dress she pulled out. “I don’t really know yet.”

Deciding it was fine, she dumped it in her lap then crossed her arms to pull her top up over her head.

“Uh, babe…” Daire said, shifting position, shoving the bag around his back to his previous seat while he landed in the center, twisted to face her, blocking her from the driver. “What are you doing?”

“I need to get changed,” she said, tossing her top into his lap since he’d put her bag out of reach.

Pushing back, she shimmied out of her skirt and gave him that too.

“I’m not a fan of this plan,” he said, planting a hand on the door next to her, doing his best to shield her.

Smiling at him, she sat up, stealing a quick kiss before trying to figure out her dress. “You’re adorable,” she said. “I doubt he cares and even if he does, you think he’d be fool enough to make a move while you’re here?”

“What worries me is this was your plan before you knew I was around,” he said as she put her dress on over her head. “And there are people outside too.”

“They’re even less likely to make a move,” she said, raising her hips to straighten out the skirt. “There. All done.”

Twisting to put her back to him, she scooped her hair aside and waited for him to pull her zip up. Once done, she slid back to dip under the arm he had braced on the back of the seat.

“What are you doing now?” he asked, trying to see her as she took makeup from the bag.

“Have to sell the picture,” she said, opening her lit compact to do what she could in the confines of the cab with few supplies.

“You didn’t tell me we had to dress for the occasion.”

“I don’t know what kind of place it is,” she said. “It’s better if you don’t come in anyway.”

He caught her chin to bring her focus to him. “You want me to wait outside?” She said nothing, just blinked at him. “Bambi eyes won’t work for you here. They only remind me how important it is to keep you safe.”

“I’m not doing Bambi eyes, I’m admiring the man I love.”

“That won’t work either,” he said, tipping her head one way while his went the other.

Tess smiled. “You thinking how much prettier I am with makeup on? You could let me finish.”

“I’m thinking I already don’t like whoever you’re going to this effort for.”

“How do you know there’s a someone?”

He let her go, so she returned to her makeup.

“Because the thing I thought you wanted to come for, it turns out you already have. We’re nowhere near the places we came before, so you’re not retracing our steps.”

Putting her makeup away, she squeezed under his arm again because he was still caging her into the corner. If it made him feel better, she wouldn’t complain. Retrieving her comb and her perfume, she sat up to spray her décolletage and noticed his frown when squirting it on her wrist.

“What?”

“Now I have a hard-on,” he said, fixating his grump on the side window.

Poor guy didn’t seem happy about it. Laughing, she leaned in and trailed her fingers from his cheek to his chest. “Then you really should wait outside. I don’t want to get in a cat fight for your affection.”

He didn’t say anything, just turned to slouch against the seat, folding his arms. She combed her hair, and used her fingers to boost the volume, twisting to flip it across his lap before flipping it back.

“Now you’re doing it on purpose,” he said.

“What on purpose?”

“Your little routine meant to drive me nuts.”

Leaning in, she held the comb and perfume in her lap, pouting up close to him. “That little routine looks much more like my mouth open and your c**k in my throat,” she purred.

His jaw relaxed only to clamp shut again as he exhaled. His grump amused her. Maybe it was just because she’d told him he couldn’t come into the club. But she liked to think some part of it was down to them being in company.

Living together in the Beast, driving together, they were spoiled by the time they had alone. Sure, it had only been a few days, but it had been enough to remind them what it was to belong to each other with complete unrestricted access.

“Besides,” she said, pressing her body into his lap as she deliberately stretched further than needed to put everything back in her bag. Staying there strewn across him, she tilted her focus over her shoulder to find his. “We’re platonic, remember?”

The grump dwindled just a little. He laid a hand on her hair, stroking down the length of it and continuing on to her a*s. He s*****d her so hard she sat bolt upright.

The shock written across her face seemed to erase his bad mood.

His smile quickly became a short laugh. “In Miami, you were mine, Little Red.”

No matter where she was on the planet, she was his. Even if she didn’t want to be, even if she fought it, not that she would. She couldn’t remember not being his and never wanted to. Daire might belong to Olympus, but she definitely belonged to him. Though she’d never put it to him like that, he lived with enough guilt and sense of responsibility. Uncomplicated meant not laying anymore pressure onto his already strained shoulders.

Picking up his arm, she wrapped it around herself and nestled against him, closing her eyes as her head rested on his shoulder.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen in this place,” she said, hoping Styx would be there.

Although she hadn’t broken her promise not to tell anyone about him, bringing his brother to his doorstep was really striding deep into a grey area.

“Whatever happens, we’ll deal with it together.”

Her eyes opened. “Even if we can’t be together?”

That wasn’t the first time they’d had the discussion. “We will always know the truth.”

No matter what, he accepted her, and whatever she needed. Daire accused her of tormenting him with her routine getting ready for the club. But the guy was no saint when it came to tormenting her heart.

The cab pulled to a halt. As she ducked down to try seeing where they were, Daire took money from his jacket to pay the driver. In the shadow of the cab, she hadn’t really paid much attention, but something drew her eye downward to a g*n in a holster on his waistband under his jacket.

Before she could say anything, Daire grabbed her hand and guided her out of the cab onto the sidewalk. They didn’t get far. She tugged his hand to get his attention.

Moving in close, she slipped her hand into his jacket to lay it on the g*n grip while searching his eyes. “Why do you need that?” she whispered. “How did you even get it?”

He brushed the hair caught on her gloss away with his thumb. “I have it because you have me walking into an unknown.”

“You’re not walking in anywhere carrying that,” she said, recalling her conversations with Styx in London.

The men might consider each other kin. That didn’t mean they wouldn’t act against each other in anger. If there was a g*n in the mix, Daire could act too quickly. Before he thought through what he really wanted to do. She wasn’t ignorant of his ability to kill. That wasn’t her problem. Styx believed Daire had the right to take him down for the way things had happened before the Exodus.

She didn’t want Daire to kill his brother. Not only because she liked him, but because he’d regret it in the long run.

“Just…” she said, letting go of his hand to step away. “Stay out here. I’ll be back.”

Leaving him there without giving him a chance to object, she went into the building, toward the pulse of music. Though there were people in the booths and the coat check place, no one stopped her as she strode on to the internal double doors up ahead.

Going inside, she only took a quick second to glance at the clubbers and the lights. Music was the dominating force. Everyone came for the music, for the heat, for the freedom.

Everyone except her.

Following Styx’s instructions, she went over the bridge walkway to a seating area filled with tables and booths. The bar was right where he’d said it would be. Between the end of that bar and the empty booth opposite was a curtain with the word “private” above it in stark, glowing white letters. That was her goal.

Everything was as Styx described. The curtain suggested whoever was back there didn’t want an audience. Having come so far, a piece of fabric wasn’t going to deter her. Confidence got her through the front door, so she let it carry her onward.

Without looking in the direction of the bar, to give the bartender no chance of stopping her, she pushed the curtain aside and stepped around it.

The increased illumination took her by surprise. It wasn’t bright, but certainly was lighter back there than it had been in the club. Blinking to adjust her eyes, she found herself under the scrutiny of four men seated around a card table at the far side of the room, next to an opening in the wall that led to a darker… something.

Couches and other tables around the cobbled-together room didn’t look like any of the club she’d seen so far.

The men just waited, watching her, so she broke the silence. “I’m a friend of Patch’s.”

That did something. The four of them looked at each other.

The one who appeared oldest spoke. “He didn’t tell us he was expecting anyone,” he drawled.

A test. It had to be. She was grateful to her mouth for asking questions. “Maybe because whoever you spoke to wasn’t Patch, because Patch is no he.”

Again, they glanced at each other before returning to their assessment of her.

“What you need Patch for?” the older guy asked. “Patch only works with the best.”

“I’m sure,” Tess said. “I’m a friend of Patch’s, I didn’t say I needed Patch.”

“Wrong season,” the older guy said. He wasn’t old, old, and definitely appeared keen. He’d be handy in a fight. He had that quick, shrewd look about him. “You’re looking for a hand-up, you’ve gotta come in winter and bat those pretty eyes at Dam.”

The guys around the table seemed to enjoy that comment. She didn’t get it or know who Dam was. How to respond? Styx hadn’t told her to mention him and, as far as she knew, that meant his condition of secrecy was still in place.

Before she came up with anything, a voice came from the shadowy opening near the men’s table.

“Done playing with her yet?” the male voice rose. She perked up in anticipation, waiting for him to reveal himself. When Styx came into the light, she relaxed. “Took your time, Lady. Deal was for you to come alone.”

She frowned, unsure how he’d known. “I did… didn’t I?”

Styx wasn’t looking at her, he was looking past her to someone she hadn’t heard join them. “Hello, brother.”