"I will lock you in your fucking room if I have to!" Mark bellowed.
"I'm done hiding!" I yelled back at him. "You can't stop me."
"Watch me." He moved to grab at me.
"Back off, Mark," Thad warned, surprising us both. "Before you say something you regret."
"Stay out of this, old man. You have no hat in this ring."
"No?" Thad arched a brow.
Such a simple word followed by an even simpler expression set Mark off faster than anything I had ever seen. I jumped in his path as he lunged at Thad, and he almost didn't stop from knocking me down. He looked down at me, incredulous.
"I could have hurt you!"
"Maybe then you'd stop and listen to me."
"Are you fucking crazy?"
"According to you all, yes, I am!"
Mark grabbed my shoulders, ready to yank me to him, and growled over my shoulder. "You even try to touch her, and I'll rip your hand off and shove up your ass."
Thad smirked and waved his fingers in a 'come here' motion.
I pushed Mark off of me, stepping back towards Thad. "Knock it off!"
Pausing his argument with Beth, Noah wrapped a hand around my wrist and turned me from Mark, knowing that he would explode any second. "Reggie, there's no way in hell we're using you as bait."
"She doesn't need your permission," Beth rolled her eyes at Noah.
"Did you talk her into this?" He angrily rounded back on Beth.
"Watch your tone," she warned. She had that crazy glint in her eyes we all knew a little too well.
"You think you two can actually stop her?" Out of all of us, Joshua was the only one smiling. He was absolutely dumbfounded at Noah and Mark. He had stayed quiet for most of this fight, watching with his arms crossed, waiting for them to realize they'd already lost.
"Yes!" They yelled at the same time.
"Go ahead and try. And I'll laugh the whole time she's making you regret it."
I peeled Noah's fingers from my wrist. "You can't keep me here. I'm going back to the Brownstone and putting an end to this. You can either come with me or stay the hell out of my way."
"You can't -"
The glare I shot at Mark made him shut his mouth. "I'll be safer if you come with me, but I'll do this alone if I have to."
"You won't be alone, agapi mou. I'll go with you." That was the second time Thad called me that. I'd have to ask what it meant and finally find out what language he spoke. His accent was still a mystery to me.
"You motherfucker."
Noah and Mark both moved toward Thad, equally pissed off and ready for a fight. Thad simply took my hand in his, nodded at Joshua, and started walking toward the stairs.
A shrill, ear-splitting whistle cut through the chaos, all of our hands slapping over our ears as we winced.
Walker removed his fingers from between his lips and crossed his arms. "Now that I have your attention, shut up and sit down."
None of us moved.
He let out a dramatic sigh and sat down at the head of the dining room table. "Regan's idea might work."
"No fucking way."
Walker pointed at Mark. "You can shut the fuck up and let me finish."
Beth laughed until Walker looked at her. "I will gag that pretty mouth if you don't do the same."
She snapped her mouth shut so fast her teeth clicked together.
I was positive she obeyed out of shock, not fright. Now I was dying to ask her if his comment about gagging her or that he called her mouth pretty was what had her turning red.
She looked over at me and mouthed, "Hot."
At this rate, she was collecting just as many men as I had.
I glanced at Thad, still standing next to me, my eyes soaking in his slightly tousled hair, muscled chest, and cut abs. His body was one of the most chiseled I'd ever seen. I'd like to know what he thought of Walker's comments to Beth. He appeared unbothered, as usual. He had to be the most aloof person on the planet. Beth caught me looking at him and pointed to us, then made the 'having sex' hand gesture while wiggling her eyebrows, followed by a thumbs up.
Noah sighed from my other side. "Whatever the two of you are doing, stop it."
Joshua was laughing. He had seen the whole thing.
"What?" Beth was wide-eyed, feigning innocence. "I was just letting my girl know that if she wanted to tap that, I am okay with it."
There was no question what 'that' was when she jabbed a thumb in Thad's direction.
Mark growled.
Thad looked down at me, eyebrows raised and a slight tilt to his lips.
"Jesus Christ." Walker slammed his hands down on the table to recapture our attention. "Do you take anything seriously?"
"I am very serious," Beth nodded. "She should totally climb that tree."
I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Beth, please, stop."
She held up her hands in surrender. "Fine, fine. Continue mansplaining to us why Regan's plan is brilliant and the only smart thing to do."
Walker gritted his teeth when she waved him on.
"As I was saying - "
"If one more person says we use her to draw this psychopath out, I'm going to murder them."
"Calm down, big guy," Walker leaned back in his chair. "We're not really going to give her to him. We just need to make him think it's her."
Mark pulled out a chair, suddenly very interested. "Use a decoy? Who do you have in mind?"
And just like that, the rest of us were forgotten.
Watching the two of them work was fascinating. Mark had completely taken over the conversation, pulling in some of the guys still meandering around Thad's living room. He grabbed a placemat and started scribbling on it with a marker that one of them had thrown to him. Walker pointed, nodded, shook his head, took the marker from him, and scribbled his own stuff down. Mark's brow creased as he studied whatever he'd suggested.
As interesting as it was to watch them do whatever it was they were doing, I had no patience to stand around and wait for them. It wasn't that complicated. Take me back to the Brownstone, let me actually leave the house - with an escort, obviously - and Stephen was bound to make an appearance. Like I had told them before, he seemed to show up whenever I did something that upset him. Easy peasy. They could sit down there, coming up with complicated plans with decoys and kindergarten renderings on Thad's expensive placemats. I was going to actually act.
I just needed to find some keys.
Rummaging through one of the bedside tables, the only thing I found was a bottle of lube, a box of extra large condoms - congratulations, Thad - and a huge dildo that made me simultaneously wet and wince.
"Heathen," I whispered, grinning.
It wasn't so weird for me to find a matching set of anal plugs in his downstairs guest bathroom, I guess.
The other bedside table was a bust. No keys or sex toys.
Joshua's scent surrounded me as I flipped back the comforter and sheets, hoping foolishly that the keys might be in the bed somewhere. I closed my eyes, fighting the urge to lay down and burrow into the covers, enveloping myself in his smell. How nice it would be to disappear into bed, preferably with all three of my guys, and cuddle and sleep and fuck and sleep some more. I hugged a pillow close.
"Am I interrupting?"
Thad strode in, finally wearing a shirt. It may have been worse, though. With a pair of very worn jeans and a dark blue, muscle-hugging t-shirt, and after what I had just found in the drawer, it was difficult to keep my eyes on his face.
"Joshua is already outside waiting for you with the car running."
"You're helping me leave."
It was a statement, not a question. We needed to be clear about what was happening.
"Beth is distracting Noah and Mark."
They were going to kill us all.
"I'm only trying to go back to the Brownstone."
"Back to a place that Stephen undoubtedly has under surveillance of some kind."
"Are you going to try and talk me out of it?"
"No." He studied me for a few seconds, his dark eyes searching my face. "You think this is how you can protect them all."
"Yes."
"You love them all so much that you'd put yourself in such danger to keep them safe?"
"I can't lose anyone else, Thad."
He took the pillow from me. I hadn't noticed I was still clinging to it. "What will we do if we lose you?"
"We?"
Thad plunged a hand into his almost black hair, dropping his eyes to the floor. His bicep tightened with the movement. I remembered his strong arms around me when I passed out in them after Stephen's attack.
"In case I haven't been obvious enough, I don't want to see you hurt." He jerked his chin to my throat. "Seeing that happen to you has kept me up at night. It shouldn't have happened."
From the moment he swept into Noah's office last week, Thad has been protective of me in his distant way, and I began to wonder how much of his nonchalance was actually real or if he used it to camouflage what he was really thinking and feeling.
He had no problems with Mark changing up the security at the gallery opening. When he saw Noah spanking me in his office, his first thought was to make sure I was okay. He had been simmering with anger just under the surface when he showed me that video. It had been him that tried to save me from Stephen in the hallway. Thad had been the one to put himself between me and the knife.
Thad gave up his apartment to me.
He had bought all of them new cars so they couldn't be traced.
It was his house we had invaded.
It was me he watched in all his cameras.
Instead of it creeping me out, it excited me.
He walked towards me, and his hands settled onto my waist to push me backward until my back hit the nearest wall, and his large body caged me in. I gasped when he leaned in close, his lips barely touching me and his breath tickling right below my ear. Thad stayed there, so close yet not making contact, breathing me in.
"Thad, what are you doing?"
His lips were so soft as he grazed them over my skin, whispering, "I am feral for you, Regan. I want you bound and gagged for my use. I want to spank and whip you and watch your beautiful skin turn red. I want to tie you down, tease you, and edge you for hours until you're crying. Crying for me. Crying my name and screaming it. I want those perfect breasts wrapped in rope and swollen with your nipples clamped so when you're bouncing on my cock I can pull the chain, freeing them when you come so you can experience the most brutal mix of pain and pleasure."
Thad drew his head back to stare into my eyes. "I'm not a nice man. I want to hurt you. I get off on the pain. You would submit so nicely to me I know it. I dream of it. Yet, I will never have you."
He leaned back in, and his tongue licked over my pulse point. I stiffened.
He sucked on my skin. Then his teeth clamped down. Hard.
My cry of surprise and pain was loud. Working my hands up between us, I intended to shove him away. He bit me! Of all things that I thought would happen today, getting my neck sucked on by Thad wasn't it.
As I pushed at Thad, Mark burst into the room. My wide eyes met his, and he lunged forward, grabbing onto Thad and hauling him away from me. Mark swung around and threw him into the opposite wall. Thad knocked into the bedside table, disrupting the lamp and sending it crashing to the floor.
"Mark, don't."
It was pointless to try to get his attention. He was lost in his rage at finding Thad with his mouth on me. Understandable, yet I didn't think it warranted the absolute bloodbath this was about to turn into.
Thad had righted himself and stood ready to take on Mark, hands up in front of him in a fighter's stance. Thad might be totally ripped, but he was still smaller than Mark, and no matter what level of fighter he was, it wasn't going to be enough when Mark was this pissed.
Mark wasted no time and rushed him. Thad weaved away, getting in two quick punches to Mark's ribs. He was so fast that he moved in a blur around Mark. His cocky smirk widened when he swung a right hook into Mark's face. Mark's head jerked a little to the side, and he spit blood on the floor, wiping his bleeding lip with the back of his hand.
"Nice," he nodded, then shook out his fists. "But I'm still going to kill you for touching her."
Just as fast as Thad, Mark's hand shot out and grabbed Thad by the throat. He wasn't choking him. Instead, he held him in place while he slammed his fist into Thad's face. The sound was sickening. Mark punched him twice more before letting him go with a shove.
Thad's eye was already swelling shut, and blood dripped from his mouth. He spit it out and he opened his mouth to make some kind of stupid remark, I could tell, so I grabbed at Mark's arms, trying to get him to back off.
"Mark, that's enough. Your point has been made."
He glared at me over his shoulder. "The more you defend him, the worse you make it."
"I'm not defending him! He fucking bit me." My hand slipped away from my neck where I had been covering up the mark I knew Thad had left on me. "But that doesn't mean you have to beat him to death."
"Yes, it does."
Mark turned back around and drove his fist into Thad's stomach and then threw another punch into his temple. Thad fell to one knee, hands clutching his midsection.
"Stop! Please!"
Mark didn't listen, and I was no match for him. Three more punches, and Thad was flat on his back, face a bleeding mess. I had to stop myself from going to him to see if he was okay. Mark would surely kill him if I showed Thad any amount of concern or caring. Even if his actions with me had been over the line, I couldn't help being worried about him.
Noah ran into the room, saving me from my dilemma. He quickly took in the scene - Mark still towering over Thad bleeding on the floor - me looking horrified at what was happening - Thad starting to laugh like an absolute maniac. Then he narrowed in on my neck.
"What the fuck is that?" It took him two long strides to get to me, his fingers closely tightly on my chin to force my head to the side. "Is that a hickey?"
"Yes," Mark seethed. "Your boy here has absolutely no self-control."
"Take her downstairs, Mark. Joshua is waiting for her outside."
I began protesting as Mark grabbed my elbow to drag me from the room. "Noah, what are you going to do?"
"Get her out of here, Mark." Noah had walked over to Thad, shoving his shirt sleeves up past his elbows and glaring down at the man at his feet.
"Thad, what the hell were you thinking?" I heard Noah sigh at him and then the unmistakable sound of Thad grunting in pain.
"I can't believe you!" I smacked Mark's bicep, trying to squirm from his grip. Even digging my heels into the floor wasn't slowing him down. Short of going completely limp, I wasn't going to be able to keep him from dragging me all the way downstairs.
"I warned him. He didn't listen."
"So you have to act like a total barbarian? I could have just kicked him in the balls to get the point across."
He spun and had me pressed against the wall in one quick move, his chest heaving and eyes wild. "I'm sick of entitled men thinking they can touch what is mine."
His lips grazed over Thad's bruise. "The only men that get to mark your beautiful skin are us, do you understand? Stephen is going to die for what he's done. Thad will, too, if he touches you again."
Much to my surprise, Mark licked my skin, soothing the slight sting that was still there, and I started to relax into him. I should have known better. His mouth soon closed over the same spot, and he gathered my skin between his teeth. My eyes shot open when I realized what he was doing.
"Don't you -" I was cut off when he clamped down with his teeth. Only this time, instead of being shocked, I found the sensation to be incredibly erotic. He sucked and bit me like a wild animal trying to tame its captured prey, and my body turned molten.
Footsteps approached. Mark let me go and stomped downstairs without looking back.
Noah took one look at my neck and huffed a laugh. "I guess that's one way to fix it."
I sagged back into the wall. "He made it so much worse, didn't he?"