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Jupiter smiled and kissed him.

Trev briefly considered stabbing Jupiter with the fork, but instead he kissed him back.

“I appreciate you staying for me,” Jupiter said quietly. “I know you could run and never look back, and yet you’re willing to wait for me.”

“Well, yeah.” Trev knew he was blushing, and his heart fluttered as the blush spread down his neck. “You did sort of betray your gangster family and come for me.”

“That I did.” Jupiter smiled.

“And you’re starting to finally get really good at sex. That’s a solid investment of my time. I don’t wanna have to train anyone else.”

“Oh, of course.” Jupiter grinned, kissing Trev’s cheek. “I promise you, we’ll get through this.”

“And go to the beach.”

“The beach? Is that where we’re going now? Which one?”

“I don’t care. As long as there’s sunshine and fucking sand.” Trev kissed Jupiter, letting the plate slide out of his lap as he dug his fingers into his long hair.

Jupiter eagerly pulled Trev closer as they kissed and moved his hand over Trev’s thigh, slipping underneath his dress.

“Are you guys gonna fuck?” Mickey asked, peeking his head in. “Because you know your little friend is sleeping right there. And that’s just weird.”

Trev sighed. “So. To be continued?”

Jupiter nodded. “To be continued.”

Chapter

Seventeen

The days leading up to Friday were miserably dull and unproductive.

Jupiter remained either chained or escorted around the house at all times. While it did make for some fun sex, Trev resented it. It was clearly a show of Cold’s power over them, a leash to trap them both even if the chains were only on Jupiter because Cold knew Trev would not leave without him.

Having feelings for someone while also wanting desperately to escape was very inconvenient.

Juicy was back to his usual self thanks to Queen’s nurses stopping by throughout the day to give him his meds. Despite having said he boarded Barkie, Barkie was now inexplicably with him and needed to go out for his walks. Juicy took him out around the mansion, often barking at the other patrolling dogs as he dragged the sash from a bathrobe behind him.

He didn’t have any interest in returning to Perry City, insisting that he had work to do here. Queen said he needed more time to fully recover before travel anywhere would be an option, and Trev had no choice but to trust her judgment.

He knew there was a chance she was feeding him whatever information Cold wanted her to, but he didn’t want to risk it. Juicy’s outburst the other day had shocked him, and his concern for his friend was yet another intangible chain holding him here.

Yeah, those pesky feelings were really fucking inconvenient.

Trev divided his time between being with Jupiter and getting to know Rowena and Jimmy better. Brick went back home to North Carolina and Jules was set to follow him next week, no doubt waiting for whatever the hell was going to happen on Friday. Brick didn’t seem concerned, but he’d been dating a gangster a lot longer than Trev.

Maybe this kind of crap was normal.

It was Thursday now and Trev had chewed his nails down to nubs, watched Mean Girls at least six more times, and hadn’t been able to sleep.

Cold had ignored him all week.

Which was fine at first, but it soon became maddening as time ticked down to the meeting. All Trev had been able to deduce was that Cold would be meeting the mayor for lunch at some hoity-toity restaurant in downtown Strassen.

Jupiter’s knowledge of the hit was that the assassin would be waiting for Cold inside the restaurant, posing as a member of the waitstaff. They could make their move at any time, which left a huge window for Cold to be attacked.

Trev thought the whole thing was stupid.