It’s almost like being at home, sitting around the table with them, having a meal together, but there’s something different about it. Maybe the fact that I know we’re not in the city. That there aren’t cars going up and down the road every five minutes. Just peace and quiet and the sounds of nature.
“It’s nice up here,” I comment, feeling relaxed for the first time in a while. “I haven’t been out of the city in a long time.”
“We’ll take you on a real vacation,” Ash tells me. “When all this is over.”
I blink because that’s such a strange concept to me. The idea of having time, not grinding for some goal that needs to happen. Going on a vacation, just because I can, not because it ties in to a mission or a grudge or because I need to lie low for a while. But the idea of getting away with these four men and not having to constantly have my guard up sounds nice. It sounds like a good way to celebrate getting through this mess.
“You’d better,” I tell Ash, grinning at him from across the table.
Aside from the fact that one of us is always glued to the scope, waiting for our mark to appear, the next two days almost do feel like a vacation.
We’re away from home, away from the city and all the stuff that goes on there. The guys don’t have to go into the club, and even though we’re here to further the plan to take Julian out, I’m not thinking about him as much as I would be knowing he’s right there in the same city.
It’s a nice little break, and we manage to have a good time, even though we’re here on a mission. We kill time by cooking and eating together, and each of the guys take turns making breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, showing off their skills.
Ash is a natural in the kitchen, and he turns it into almost like a show, flipping spatulas and knives and bottles of olive oil as he shows off his dexterity and cooking ability.
Knox is mostly the breakfast guy, and he turns out plates and plates of bacon, eggs, and toast, cooked perfectly every time. Priest and Gage are less fancy and more utilitarian. Their meals are filling and tasty, but it’s clear they just think of food as something to eat before getting back to work.
It’s interesting to get to see them like this, more relaxed almost than they usually are, even with the mission looming over all of our heads. It’s like seeing a different side of them, learning more about them that I didn’t know before.
Ash teases me about being a disaster in the kitchen, and I shrug and say I can do a few things. Eggs. Salads. Big pots of pasta with cheese on the top. Hannah was the one who handled making food in our house when our dad was gone.
Thinking about her puts a pang in my chest, but it’s not the jagged ache that it used to be, so maybe that’s a sign of healing. Who knows?
Aside from cooking, we also play a lot of strip poker. Priest is the best at it, surprising no one. His poker face is legendary, and it’s impossible to call his bluffs. He manages to get Ash down to his socks more than once, and we all laugh at the sight of him sitting there with his cards covering his dick.
“You know,” he complains. “I thought we were going to use this as a chance to get River naked.”
Priest just shrugs, but his facial expression doesn’t change. “There’s still time for that. But you were being cocky about your skills earlier. You should stick to the magic tricks.”
We laugh at that too, and Ash pouts, even though it’s clear he’s more amused than hurt. It’s just a good time, and on more than one occasion us being naked in the living room of the cabin turns into us fucking in the living room of the cabin.
I ride Knox’s cock right there while the others keep playing, or suck Priest off under the table since he wins more times than not.
Ash teaches me magic tricks and sleight of hand, and by the time the two days are almost up, I can manage to make a coin appear and disappear behind Knox’s ear without even dropping it.
We’re all waiting, but it’s the best way to pass the time.
But then the two days we allotted are up, and there’s still no sign of the drug runner.
All that good humor and relaxed feeling goes right out the window because it’s hard not to freak out or think we made a terrible miscalculation somewhere. The atmosphere in the cabin gets tense, and we stay glued to the scope, sometimes in pairs, one of us looking through the scope while the other paces, trying to squint down at the highway.
I try not to let my mind spiral into all the ways this could have gone wrong and we could have fucked up, but it gets harder and harder to distract myself the longer it takes for something to happen.
On the evening of the third day, I sit in the living room with Ash. We have a deck of cards between us, and I’m practicing a trick I’ve been working on. To be honest, I’ve been practicing it over and over again because it helps me to have something to focus on other than the waiting.
I do the trick, a little bit slower than Ash would have done it, but it goes off without a hitch, and Ash grins at me. “You’re getting good,” he says, and I grin back, pleased at the praise.
Ash takes the cards and goes to shuffle them so he can show off another trick, when we’re interrupted by Priest’s voice.
“I have a visual,” he calls. “It’s go time.”
My heart lurches in my chest at that. This is it. Finally.
“Gear up,” Gage says, coming into the cabin from where he’d been out front with Priest. “It’s time to go.”
23
Knox
We leave the cabin together, and I head immediately for the new car we picked up on the way here. The other Kings head toward the car we left home in, but River veers toward me, clearly planning to ride in the new car with me.
“I can handle it on my own,” I tell her. “This isn’t exactly the safe ride.”
“I know,” she says back, and determination flares in her eyes. “But I’m going with you. There’s no fucking way I wouldn’t.”
She’s got an expression on her face like she’s daring me to argue with her, and I glance over her head at the others, standing by the other car. They’ve got a spectrum of looks on their faces, varying between frustration and awe, and it makes me laugh under my breath.
I think I know better than all of them that we couldn’t really stop River if we tried. She’s always been a fucking force of nature, barreling into our lives like a hurricane and forcing us to keep up with her.
It makes my heart beat faster. My blood is already humming for action, and this kicks it up a notch, adding to the adrenaline surging through me.
I haul River in for a kiss, smashing my mouth into hers and devouring her for a second. It’s all we’ve got to spare, but it’ll have to be enough. When I pull back, the monster’s smile is on my face.
“I knew from the first minute I met you that you were as crazy as I am,” I tell her. “I fucking like that.”
She grins, and her dark blue eyes are bright with a wildness that calls to me in the best way.
River gets into the passenger side of the new car, and the others get in their car, and that’s that. We don’t have time to argue about who’s going where, so it’s decided.