Page 129 of Cold-Blooded Creatures

42

ZION

“Just go.” Sadira reached into the backseat for her bag. “We’ll see what we can do with the microchips, but it will take a few days at the minimum. My guess is more like a week to get everything ready and going. Not counting the time to run the tests to check if they function properly. So go do, I don’t know, them?”

“Already did before we left,” I shared, helping Ryder unload the five plastic crates full of tech we’d brought from Damia’s compound from the trunk. “But thanks for the idea. Want to join our show?”

“Not in your bedroom.” She adjusted the strap of her patched-up duffel bag. “Or your underground. But if you’re proposing for your trio to go on stage at Vice, I’m sure Jayla would be ecstatic. And it would make for an interesting evening.”

Ryder lifted two white crates stacked on top of each other. “Spoken as if you haven’t been up there yourself.”

“One time, Ryder. It was one time.” Sadira propped a box on her hip, and her long ebony braids swayed from the motion. “And like a year ago.”

“A year is a long time. I could lend you my chains again. You seemed to enjoy them quite a bit,” I said as I collected the few electronic pieces that had fallen out of their confines and dropped them back in the crates Ryder was carrying.

“Nowthatwas an interesting evening.” Ryder grinned. “Never suspected you’d be into restraints so much.”

“Not as much as you are into watching,” she pointed out and crossed the street, vanishing at the entrance to hers and Ryder’s workshop.

I crouched to pick up the last boxes waiting on the sidewalk, but Ryder shook his head, his tight brown curls bouncing around his shoulders. “Don’t worry about them. Like she said, go.” He jerked his chin toward our central building and followed in Sadira’s footsteps.

Darkness had fallen, but no lights shone in Kali’s or Gedeon’s windows on the upper floor. A chill raced up my spine, originating from the idea of a similar thing befalling them as Damia’s daughter, and I hurried up the stairwell to our rooms. We’d dealt with the soldier successfully, but if we had a traitor hiding inside our teams in plain sight, we were fucked.

The stairwell door slammed behind me as I entered the hallway, and a tall figure peeked out of Kali’s bedroom. Had she been waiting for me?

Kali stomped over to me, yelling, “Where is all my stuff? I came back to my room, and this was all that I could find.”

A white t-shirt I’d left in her closet loosely hugged her curves, her long legs on display, and my mouth watered.

“It’s all in my room,” I admitted, leading us deeper into the hallway.

She dug her heels into the ground. “Why?”

I shrugged. “Because that’s where you live now.”

“I’m not living in your bedroom. Or wearing your clothes.” She picked at the t-shirt, her nipples poking through the cotton fabric.

“You don’t have to.” I gripped the neckline and ripped it halfway to her stomach. The sound of her gasp was better than any screams I’d lure out in my underground. “You can stay naked.” I leaned in to lick, suck, and taste her exposed breasts.

“You changed.”

Our heads snapped to Gedeon standing ten feet away from us, his expression as icy as his tone.

“No, I didn’t,” she objected. “You told me not to change my underwear, but nothing about not wearing them at all.”

Her underwear? “Why didn’t you say you wanted to play?” I reached between her thighs, finding her deliciously bare, and raised the thin material covering her to admire her fully. “I know so many ways to get under his skin. For starters, chaining him up.”

Gedeon’s jaw ticked.

Taking control from him would be so freaking fun.

“You deserve a lesson. One that will remind you to follow my orders.” He closed the distance between us, pulled Kali into my bedroom despite her loud protests, threw her on my bed, and pinned her in place with a knee on her back.

All while I salivated like an idiot.

“What are you doing?” She squirmed, slipping in the sheets as she tried to push off.

Gedeon wrenched his black belt out of his fitted jeans and tied her hands behind her back. “Ensuring you learn.” He hoisted her up and bent her over the footboard, the carved metal digging under her hips. “Give me your belt and go sit on the bed.”