It was Falcon’s idea to bring her here. Our one place where we go to wind down. Trying to avoid her is what I’ve been attempting, telling myself that the taste of her lips isn’t as intoxicating as I thought. Maybe it’s just in my fucking head. Her fingers tap on the kitchen counter where she sits next to me, her strawberry smell almost suffocating me.

Falcon looks to me then raises one eyebrow before he quickly looks away—to him it’s a game of who can get her first. I’m not fucking playing that game this time. I push my chair back and walk away. D’s standing in the hallway, his cell glued to him as he looks up to me. His eyes look over my shoulder before he slides his cell into his pocket then nods toward the door. I know what that look means. It means it’s time to go.

“Breach,” is all he has to say. It’s as simple as that. We take our business dealings seriously. It’s how we’ve stayed in business for so long, gained the clientele we have. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t be this fucking rich. A governor won’t come to our establishment and lay down thousands of dollars a night if we weren’t discreet. And to keep that in order, there are things we have to do.

Walking out the front door, we don’t say goodbye. D starts driving straight away as I shoot Echo a text telling him where we’re going. He replies with a thumbs up. Echo used to be the main man on these missions. Now we don’t even know what to do with him. We’ve all been doing his job for so long we aren’t even sure what his job is anymore.

“Falcon’s doing it to get under your skin,” D says as we drive away from his house and back to the city. My hand holds the door handle hard, squeezing it until my knuckles go red. “And obviously it’s working.” He sounds amused with himself.

“It’s nothing.”

He slows the car down as the address comes up on his cell phone. “Is that what you’re going to keep telling yourself?” he asks, glancing at me. “I like her, believe it or not. She has spunk, and she isn’t shy. Maybe she’ll bring you out of your shell.”

“She’s an employee.”

He shrugs his shoulders. “Don’t bring it into work, you can do that.”

The car comes to a stop and he opens the glove compartment, pocketing his gun. Getting out, we walk straight to the front door, checking for cameras. Echo would have usually disarmed all cameras on the property. He’s in charge of security but as I said, he’s been lacking lately.

D knocks on the door then steps back. Standing in front of him, the councilman opens the door with a drink in hand. His eyes go wide at the sight of us and his drink drops to the ground, smashing into pieces as he turns, trying to escape. It won’t work. My boots crunch over the glass as I reach him, grabbing him by his shirt and pulling him backward then slamming him into the ground. He grunts then cries out loudly as D steps in, shutting the door behind him. With the blunt end of the gun, D knocks him unconscious as I drag his ass to the nearest chair. I pull him onto it, and then tie his hands and feet to it.

Once he’s tied down, I step away from him to see family photos on his wall but no sign of a family. His wife left him years ago because he liked to fuck other women and he hasn’t seen his kids in over a year. He’s the picture-perfect man covered in lies.

“Falcon wants her,” I state plainly. D turns to me, pulling out a chair and sitting on it as we wait for the councilman to wake up.

“He doesn’t want her the way you want her, that much is obvious. Plus, Falcon. Well, we all know exactly how he is. He wouldn’t know what love is if it smacked him in the face. He’s purely doing it to get a rise out of you. You aren’t easy to rise, so he’s taking great pride in it.”

I shrug my shoulders at him. “Maybe I should let him have her.”

D laughs. “My case in point. This is exactly what pisses him off. He can make everyone jealous or raving mad. The most he makes you do is a slam into the shoulders. So, he tries to do that as often as possible. If you give a bite, he will want the whole sandwich. He’s trying for that sandwich, Creed, are you going to give it to him? Because he will take her, and how would you feel seeing her with his hands all over her?”

My teeth instantly start grinding at his words.

“Exactly, I can see it makes you mad. You’re usually so cavalier, you don’t care what others think. Or even take into consideration how they feel. But I can see she’s breaking through, and you don’t know what to do.”

“I don’t know her.”

The councilman starts to stir in his chair. D stands, removing his gun from his belt and placing it on the table directly in front of the councilman, so when he wakes it will be the first thing he sees.

“Something obviously attracted you to her. How often can you say a woman has made you feel that way?”

“Since when did you become helpful? You hated the idea.”

He cracks his neck then looks down at me. “I’ve had a change of heart.” His smile is evil as the councilman fully awakens. His eyes drop to me then quickly to D who’s standing. D’s hand meets his face hard, and I hear the crack under his fists as I sit there thinking about how I should play this. If Falcon believes I want her, it will just make his pursuit of her stronger, and what if she likes him? That’s not something I want to deal with ever again.

Cries snap me out of my thoughts as I stand up, walking to the kitchen while D wipes his hand on a cloth. Grabbing the closest sharpest knife, I walk back over to him.

The councilman is now begging for his life.

“It was an accident, it slipped. I didn’t mean to. I swear.” He knows exactly why we’re here, there’s no use denying it. We don’t visit our clients unless they break the contract, then we visit them and they all know precisely why. His eyes keep on dropping from me to D, but D’s now back on his cell as I walk toward him. Dropping the knife down his front, I slice his buttons open from top to bottom, and as I go, the knife drags beautifully over his peachy skin, making the red crimson come to life. His perfect white shirt now stained with a beautiful red flow. His cries go unheard until I’ve reached the very last button.

“Please, please—I won’t say a word again.” His eyes plead with me, but it doesn’t work. Dragging the knife back up through the same incision, making it even deeper so the blood rushes out faster, his screams pick up.

“It won’t happen again?” D asks, looking up as I pause the knife on his chest.

He nods, fast tears streaking down his face. “I swear, please believe me.”

D looks to me then nods. The councilman starts screaming again.

“You’ll be punished, and you will pay us for your dishonesty. If you so happen to mention our club again, next time you’ll meet the end of Creed’s bullet. Do you understand?”

He nods fast, trying to look between us. D nods his head one more time as I smile at the man. He doesn’t smile back, his eyes are deathly afraid. He should be. With one hand, I pinch his hairy nipple, with the other I slice it straight off.

D stands to untie him as I wipe the handle of the knife, carefully making sure my fingerprints aren’t on it, and place it in his sink. The guy falls to the floor crying. D drops a card to the floor with the bank details to pay us. He doesn’t have the energy to reply as we leave.

The music is loud and the shouts from Falcon are drunk and the cheers are even louder. Stepping around the corner, I see Falcon with a line of shots at the counter. Elicea is egging him on, counting as he shoots each one. Echo’s sitting there, amused as he watches Falcon be a dick. This is how we unwind, our downtime, it’s where we aren’t at work and we don’t bring anything here. D’s house is far enough away we don’t have to worry. He has two, this one for us and the other none of us are allowed to go to.

Falcon slams his last shot down on the counter then looks up at us holding a bottle in his hand. D slaps me on the back as he makes his way over to them. The other girls D invited are gone. He does that for the guys, not so much for himself. I’ve never seen him with a woman even though I know he never lacks pussy. He just prefers to keep that part of his life private.

“You think you can outdrink me?” D says, taking the bottle from Falcon and lining up his own shots.

“Of course I can, I am the master of fuckery.” Echo spits his drink out, laughing as Elicea looks back to me. It’s just us now, usually, no women are left. D sent them all home. Her eyes land on me as she watches me. She doesn’t turn away—she just stares. Not even paying attention to what Falcon’s saying to her. I like that. Pushing myself off the wall, I walk to her and stand directly behind her. She doesn’t move or look back, she stays glued as I breathe her in, careful not to touch her just yet. D slides her over a shot, not worrying about Echo as he has his beer in hand. D cheers her, then they both slam it back.

“You’re gonna dance with me, and no is not an option,” Falcon says, pouring another round of shots. She doesn’t agree, but I have a feeling she’s smiling at him because his eyes flick back to me before he pushes another round. She turns just slightly, looking up to me with the shot in her hand.

“Do you want one?”

Her lips are right there.

Right fucking there.

I want to bite them and lose myself in her lips while my fingers touch her hips, digging in to mark her. Taking the shot from her, I drink it back, all the guys’ eyes on me. Not that I don’t drink, I just don’t do it as often as they would like. She stays looking up at me as I place the shot glass down. She smiles, and I lean forward, my lips whispering on hers. Just the slightest touch because I can’t help myself and I have to fucking taste her. She’s still in surprise but opens her mouth. My tongue darts quickly out, licking her bottom lip to make sure I can fucking taste her before I pull back. She’s breathing heavily, and I just realize I did that in front of all my fucking mates.

Echo whistles loudly as D smirks, before he starts pouring another drink, while Falcon just stares.

“I feel like I need to fuck! Fuck hard,” Echo says standing, his hand reaching for his cock. “You two just turned me on. Go and fuck, would you?”

Elicea freezes as I keep my hands on her. My fingers digging into her hips as she releases a breath. She relaxes when he walks away to get another beer, then Falcon starts handing out shots again.