The sun is currently trying to burn my retinas out, and I turn my head into my pillow to escape the pain. My muscles ache as I move but the feeling brings a smile to my face as I remember what happened earlier.

Shit.

My eyes fly open quickly, and I turn my head to look around. I'm alone, and I try to dampen down the emptiness I feel. Niko and Corey were both here when I finally fell asleep last night, even though I had laid awake for hours, my mind churning with the night's events.

Groaning at the tightness in my muscles, I raise myself up and sit on the edge of my bed. I run my hands through my hair, flinching slightly when my fingers catch on some knots. They bring back the memories of Corey tugging on my hair, and Niko holding it as he pounded into me. Last night really was the best night of my life. I’ll be leaving today, and it will be difficult, but it’s for the best. I've found out that Drake is safe, and even though I haven’t seen him with my own eyes, I trust Niko enough to believe him. Yeah, it’s best to leave now because staying longer is just going to cause more problems for everyone. I will forward any information Sam finds for me to Niko so he can keep Corey safe. It means I'm still keeping my word.

I get up from the bed and head to the bathroom, taking my time to shower and dress. I'm in no rush to face the guys but once I’m ready I have no other option. I open the bedroom door, and the smell of bacon hits my nose. I follow the aroma, and it leads me straight to the kitchen where I find both Niko and Corey messing around. Corey is pinned to the fridge by Niko who is kissing his neck and making him giggle. The sight is so beautiful that it takes my breath away. I've always believed that these two are made for each other, but when I glimpse them together, when they think they’re alone, I see just how perfect they are. They are so in love it’s a little sickening, but only because it makes my life seem even emptier. I think that’s why I needed to find Drake so that I could feel less alone, or at least have the illusion of being less alone.

Corey looks across the kitchen and notices me. He doesn’t stop smiling as he stares at me, and he also doesn’t stop Niko from touching him. “Hey.” His voice comes out breathy and full of lust.

Niko looks over his shoulder, and a huge smile covers his face when he sees me. I just stand there like an idiot because I have no idea what to do. Twelve hours ago I was covered in their cum, and now I don’t know how to speak to them. Corey makes it easier when he brushes past Niko and comes to a stop in front of me, giving me a gentle kiss on the lips.

“You slept longer than we thought you would. You must have been tired.” He has a wicked glint in his eyes, and I can’t help but smile at his cheeky comment. Maybe this won’t be as bad as I was imagining. We are all adults here so I'm sure we can just get over what happened and just enjoy the fact that it did.

“I was worn out. I had an energetic night.”

He laughs and walks into the kitchen to grab a plate from the oven. “I made bacon for breakfast, thought we could have it with the bread I made yesterday.”

The scene is surreal, domesticated, and it would freak me out if it didn’t feel so damn good. “Yeah, that sounds good.”

Niko grabs coffee mugs and puts them on the breakfast bar as Corey cuts some bread and piles it on a plate. They both take a seat at the breakfast bar, looking at me as they wait for me to join them. I hesitate for a moment but give myself an internal slap before joining them. We take a few minutes to fill our plates, and I take a sip of the perfect coffee that Niko has made.

“I need to go into town today, got something I need to check out.”

“Didn’t you do that last night?”

Niko turns to look at me with a smirk as he answers Corey. “I started but got distracted from what I was there to do.”

Heat explodes on my cheeks so quickly I can feel sweat beading on the edge of my hairline. Corey’s laughter doesn’t help my situation, and I grab my coffee and take a giant mouthful to try and cover up my embarrassment. “I should leave.” The words come out without permission as soon as I take the mug away from my lips. Both men stop what they are doing and stare at me. Corey looks hurt and confused, whereas Niko looks pissed off.

“No.”

The single word from Niko sounds like he doesn’t expect an argument, and part of me is desperate to agree but I know I’m doing the right thing. “Niko, I need to do this. I shouldn’t be here, we all know that. What happened last night, no matter how mind-blowing it was, shouldn’t have happened. I don’t want to be the guy who ruins what you two have. I was only meant to be here until my ankle felt better.”

I can see Corey going to speak, but I hold up my hand. If he pleads with me, there is a chance that I’ll give in to him. There is a part of me that has this need to keep Corey happy, to give him anything he needs, and for that reason alone I'm doing the right thing by leaving. “Just let me do this.”

“What about your friend? Niko can help.”

“I will keep searching for Terry once I leave but I can’t ask you to keep me for any longer, I'm not even paying my way.”

Corey gets a strange look on his face, but he doesn’t say anything. His intense stare starts to make me feel uncomfortable, so I turn to face Niko. I’m hoping he’ll understand what I'm telling him but he doesn’t look like he's about to back me up. When he opens his mouth and speaks, he confirms my suspicions.

“You're not leaving, end of story. And before you get any ideas just know that if you try to leave, I will tie you to a fucking chair and hide you in a closet.” He sounds so sincere like he means every single word, and it makes me laugh.

“I think that’s called kidnapping?”

He shrugs his shoulders. “Call it whatever you want,” He gets up from his seat and kisses Corey on the head before turning back to me, stepping close enough that I can see all the colours in his eye swirling together. “But don’t try me, Grant. I will keep you here, one way or another.” He leans in and kisses me, shocking me into silence. He leaves the room as I sit there still mute. Corey gets up quickly, mumbling something about being back soon. I'm left on my own, even more confused than I was a few minutes ago.

I run after Niko as quickly as I can. I need to talk to him before he leaves and he already had a head start. My heart has been racing since talking to Grant but not in the way I thought it would be. Just thinking about what we did last night has had my cock half hard and my blood pumping all morning, but now it’s fear that has me chasing after Niko. He is at the front door by the time I reach him, and I don’t speak, just grab him by the arm and drag him into his office.

“Core?”

I continue to stay silent, and luckily he follows without any argument. When inside his office I close the door and lean back against it. I don’t know how to explain my worries, so I just get them all out in one go. “Grant is lying to us. He told me his friends name was Tommy, but he just called him Terry. Holy crap, Niko, he’s been lying. Do you think that he was sent here by someone to hurt us? Oh god, what if that’s why he's here?”

I hate that Niko might be right and I'm just like he said I was, too trusting and naïve. Niko moves quickly and grips my face tightly with both hands. He leans in close, his voice staying low so only the two of us can hear.

“Do you trust me?”

I nod as much as his hold allows and he must feel my response because he continues to talk.

“He is looking for a friend. I promise that’s the only reason he's here. He may not be telling the whole truth about his friend, but I’m telling you now that he is in no way a threat to you. He's helping me try to find out who’s after you. Baby, he isn’t here now for any other reason than we asked him to stay.”

My breathing is a little more under control now Niko has explained more about Grant. I don’t know why I'm just finding out now what Niko knows, but I trust him when he says Grant isn’t a danger. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“There’s nothing to tell. He has a friend who works in computers, and he's tracing some contact I've had from whoever is after you.”

“Me? I thought they were after us both?”

Niko audibly swallows, and it’s clear I've picked up on something that he didn’t want me to. Seems to be the morning for it. Apparently, he's been keeping a lot more from me other than Grant’s reason for being here.

“Tell me.”

“I've been getting emails, and they talk about hurting you.” His voice is quiet, and the pain in it is evident.

“Like with your sister?”

Niko closes his eyes and drops his forehead to mine, his thumb rubbing over my cheek. “Just like Natalie. Common sense tells me that it’s just coincidence, I mean I killed the guy that took her so I know it can’t be him, but I can’t let it go. If there’s a chance this guy might find you and do the things he's writing about, then I will spend my life looking for him.”

“You keep saying him. Do you have any idea who it is?”

Niko drops his hands and steps back until he’s leaning against the edge of his desk. “I have no fucking clue who it is so I'm purely guessing. I'm not saying women aren’t capable of this shit, but I'd put money on it being a guy. I'm heading into town because Clay has traced a mobile number that might be connected to this fucker. He wants me to check out a file to see if I know who he is.”

“Do you have any guesses on why he's doing this? I don’t know anyone, I was with Blue Diamond for so long, and I was a kid before that. I’ve never hurt anyone.” I can feel panic start to build up inside me. I was the model escort when I worked for Ryden. I did everything I was told to and took any beatings without fighting back. I don’t see how anyone could have a problem with me.

“Truthfully, it’s probably me. I've done a lot of bad shit in my life, Core. I swear I'm sorry if my past gets you hurt.”

He drops his head, and it’s my turn to go to him. I step in close, pausing until he opens his legs wide enough for me to get between them. I wrap my arms around his shoulders and hug him tightly. His arms go around my waist, and we just hold each other.

“Don’t do this. None of this will ever be your fault. Even if it’s someone from your past, that’s on them, not you. I love you. I don’t care if the whole world is after you, I will always be here.”

His arms tighten around me, and I feel warmth spread through my body. Niko is the most caring man I've ever seen, and when he holds me like this, it’s his heart I can feel front and centre. Niko likes to pretend he's this big scary guy, and to most people he probably is, but to me, he's just the gentle man I fell in love with. Only someone with a beautiful soul would protect me the way he does. He makes sure I want for nothing, and even when it makes him suffer, he will do whatever it takes to keep me happy.

“I love you, Core. Please trust Grant, especially when I'm not here. I don’t trust many people to protect you, but I trust him.”

I nod my head but stay quiet. Niko’s words hold great importance because he honestly hasn’t trusted anyone else to keep me safe. Even when we were running, he said that I couldn’t leave his side. That even if Ryden offered to help me, I had to say no. Trusting Grant is enormous, so I will do what Niko asks of me.

Niko’s mobile pings and I reluctantly step away to let him retrieve it from his pocket. I sit on the desk next to him, keeping my hand on his thigh to maintain some contact with him.

“Just a message from Clay. I told him I would be there in about an hour.” He takes my hand and entwines our fingers. “Are you feeling better?”

“Yeah. I think I panicked because Grant being here is a hundred percent on me, and truthfully I knew nothing about him. I invited him in without really knowing him, and all I had was a feeling he was a nice guy. It’s a lot of pressure.”

Niko laughs, and it makes me smile. “Yeah, it is a lot of pressure, but your gut was right, Core. Grant is trustworthy, and he's now here because I made him stay. I think I was the one who pinned him to the wall last night and the one who threatened to tie him to a chair this morning.”

I let out a groan when he repeats his threat. “Does it make me a bad person that when I picture him all tied up, I get turned on?”

He laughs again, and this time it comes from deep in his belly. “Not in the slightest, you aren’t the only one. Why do you think I needed to leave once I made the threat? Holy shit, can you imagine him with rope around his naked body?” A small growl escapes from deep in Niko’s chest and if I wasn’t turned on before I am now.

I'm about to speak when there’s a knock at the door. Niko squeezes my hand before getting up to answer it. When he opens the door, Grant is standing on the other side looking awkward. I want to go to him and hug him because I don’t like it when he feels uncertain, but he speaks before I have the chance to do anything.

“There’s someone at the door. He says he's Clay. I'm sure it is him, but I made him wait outside just to be certain.”

I’ve never met Clay before so if I had been the one to open the door I would have been in the same boat as Grant. I just don’t know if I would have been cautious enough to make him wait outside.

“How did he take that?”

“He called me a fucking idiot, but then said I did the right thing keeping him outside. He also said if you don’t get your ugly arse outside he is gonna put a knife through all the tyres on your truck.”

Niko laughs long and loud. “Yeah, that’s Clay.” He walks past Grant and heads down the hall. Grant hangs around while I get off the desk and head towards him.

“Are you okay, Core?” A few nights after Niko arrived home, he mentioned that Grant calls me Core. I hadn’t noticed it up until then, and it’s something only Niko ever called me, but I’ll admit that hearing it from Grant makes something in my stomach flutter.

“Yeah. I just needed to speak to Niko about …” I don’t know whether to be honest with Grant or not. Will it make things different between us if he knows that he made a mistake? But then I can’t complain about him keeping secrets if I do the same. “I know you’re lying.”

The colour fades from Grant’s face, and he honestly looks like he's about to throw up. I grab his hand and squeeze it gently, so he knows that we’re okay and that I'm not angry or scared of him.

“Niko explained that you’re looking for your friend even if you haven’t told me the real details. He trusts you, and that’s enough for me. I trust you, Grant.” I thought telling him that would make him feel better, but if anything he looks worse.

“You two, come meet Clay.” Niko’s loud voice carries down the hall and Grant jumps at the sound. It takes a few more seconds to compose himself, the painful look on his face vanishing, and he squeezes my hand as he smiles.

“Come have a look at this guy. You think Niko is big? You haven’t seen anything yet.” His voice is light and happy, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. I hope that whatever he’s feeling doesn’t trouble him for too long. The Grant I have gotten to know has always been easy going, and I want that back.

He pulls me by the hand and leads me out of the office. We head towards the living room where we can hear Niko speaking to someone. When I walk in, I stop short because holy shit. Grant was right when he said that Clay makes Niko look positively small. He’s like a walking mountain, and if I met him anywhere else other than here, I would run a mile.

“Clay, this is my boyfriend, Corey. And you’ve already met Grant.” Grant drops my hand so he can shake hands with Clay and I follow suit. Clay is giving the three of us a strange look like he’s trying to work out what’s going on here.

Same here, Clay. Same here.