Page 6

Chapter six

Floating Fortress

Gideon

W orry dodged my steps. What problem had arisen in the past hour, for fuck’s sake? I hadn’t a clue. But it had been enough it was necessary I leave Kylie’s bed.

She looked sweetly seductive cuddled beneath the covers, with bliss etched into her features. I rubbed my chest. She had crawled her way beneath my skin. And I feared she had taken up permanent residence.

I took the stairs two at a time with the boat swaying as it cut through waves. Entering the command deck, my team had fully assembled and waited for me. “What’s going on?”

Chase eyed me from his spot at the helm. “Is Kylie all right? Did you two hash it out?”

“I hope like fuck you didn’t interrupt us to ask me this.” I clenched my fists. We’d been on our way to round two. Had he really called me up here for this? Asshat better be prepared to go a few rounds.

Mirth danced in his eyes, and he leaned back in his seat with a know-it-all smirk. “Nope. But I think we’d all like to know if you completely bungled this for us or not.”

Mateo and Axel stopped what they were doing and twisted my way. Three sets of eyes studied me and anxiously awaited my answer. Kylie and I had crossed a major hurdle in our relationship. And the real kicker that knocked me sideways, when I looked into my future, and imagined my future wife and mother of my kids, her image flashed in my mind. I had no clue what it meant or how it could happen when I shared her with three other guys. Nor did I begrudge the time she spent with my friends. But I had also never felt this possessive of the women we shared before Kylie’s advent into our world.

“Kylie and I are fine. It was a simple miscommunication. Nothing more. Tell me what’s going on? And then I will fill you in more on my discussion with Kylie and an interesting fantasy she let slip.” I dangled the carrot because I wanted to move this conversation along, and I wasn’t in the mood to give them a blow-by-blow retelling of our sexual escapade.

“Do tell?” Mateo asked, eagerly leaning forward. Since he and Kylie finally slept together, he had been more at ease.

I snorted. “Not until you fuckers enlighten me on what’s going on and why you pulled me from her bed.”

“You won’t like it, boss,” Mateo replied grimly with a heavy sigh.

Dread slithered into my gut. With Santos and his entire operation, nothing had gone as planned. The guy was slick and always three steps ahead. It infuriated me. Because just when I thought we had him, he would slink away or change his approach and slip through our fingers. He was a fucking chameleon. “What I don’t like is repeating myself. Axel, do you know what the fuck is going on?”

I shot my second in command an arched glare. I trusted Axel to give it to me straight.

“Yeah,” he nodded with a glum expression. “We heard from command. Kylie’s house is gone. Those fuckers burned it to the ground.”

We had seen the flames and smoke. I figured there would be something left given the sheer size of the place.

But the magnitude of destruction they had visited upon our girl rocked me back on my heels. “Shit.” It shouldn’t surprise me. But their viciousness knew no end. And I worried about Kylie’s reaction to the news. Would it destroy her?

I vowed to do whatever she needed. She was a pawn in a madman’s sadistic power games. It was our job to shield her.

“Yep. They’re trying to keep a lid on what happened. They leaked to the press that the owner was away. But that the house burned to the ground before firefighters could reach the home and extinguish the flames.”

“Damn. We wait until tomorrow to tell her.” She didn’t need to know right away. I wanted to give her a night of peace. While it was barely midday, she must be exhausted and would sleep through most of the afternoon.

“You sure that’s a good idea?” Chase eyed me with concern marring his brow.

Lately, I wasn’t sure of anything except my feelings for Kylie. “No, but she’s been through enough in the past twenty-four hours. I don’t want to push her further. And this will only hurt her. Are we agreed?”

They glanced at one another before they nodded in agreement.

“Good. Anything else?”

“Yup. And you’re really not going to like this.” Chase shook his head, his normal arrogance exchanged for concern.

“Just tell me,” I grunted. Tired of playing the guessing game when it came to Kylie’s life.

Mateo chimed in. “We’ve got a boat trailing us. It’s still fifty nautical miles out.”

“So it could be nothing.” But it wasn’t what my gut told me. I’d been doing this long enough now that I trusted my instincts. And everything inside me blared: danger, red alert .

“It could. But it’s following our direct path and maintaining a decent clip. It’s pacing us.”

Fuck me. This was exactly what I had been worried about. It’s why we had to be on guard at all times. Because Santos wouldn’t stop until he was six feet under. And I would put that fucker in his grave. “Okay. Here’s the plan. I want you to sail us south for two days. Draw whomever the fuck it is in the opposite direction of our destination and let’s see if they follow. If they do, we’ll strategize a way to take them out. If not, we loop around and head north.”

“We can’t forget to stop in Seattle. It shouldn’t take long to connect with my contact and get the equipment I need,” Mateo reminded me.

If there was computer shit he needed to track down the hacker who breached our defenses, I was all for it. Because when Mateo was in his element, he could take down a country’s infrastructure or grind the world’s financial systems to a halt. That hacker didn’t stand a chance against him. And I was all for him taking down that motherfucker. They were behind Kylie’s injuries, so fuck them. They could rot. “Before we dock in Seattle, we need to ensure we aren’t being followed. The information we need to retrieve at the house in Sitka is too important.”

“Our alternative route will tack extra days to the trip north. We’re looking at the very least an extra four days if the weather holds,” Chase warned.

I shrugged. “We have the supplies we need to survive. I realize we don’t have fresh fruit or veggies or anything like that and for Kylie, that will be roughing it.” It couldn’t be helped. Glad I trusted my gut, and we stocked the yacht over the last week. “After the ship trailing us has been dealt with, if we need to stop before we reach Seattle, so be it. Otherwise, when we stop in Seattle, we’ll make a run and pick up supplies. Might be something Axel and I do with her. We can rent a truck and head to one of those big warehouse stores and grab enough supplies to get us to Alaska, while you meet up with your contact, Mateo. And Chase, I want you staying with the boat and guarding it. We can’t trust anyone with all of that fucker’s mob connections. He likely has eyes in every port from Baja through Seattle and beyond.”

“Maybe I can run ashore once Mateo is back. There’s this great soup dumpling place along the wharf, Tiger Soup Dumplings. I gotta get me some steamed pork and fried chicken dumplings.”

Chase was right. Once we made it into port, we could do what we could to make things better for Kylie. I nodded. “I remember that place. They’re spectacular. Maybe you could grab dinner for all of us. We’ll spend a night in port with soup dumplings and beer. We’ll still have to be on our guard, but it might be nice for Kylie. Especially after what I just discovered.”

“That you are a real boy?” Chase teased with an arrogant smirk.

“If you don’t want to learn about Kylie’s fucking hot as hell fantasy, that’s fine. I’m sure I could fulfill part of it without you idiots.”

My comment drew their attention.

“What does she want?” Axel asked with brows raised. “You can’t keep shit like this to yourself.”

I could and they all knew it.

“Yeah, stop holding out on us and fess up.” Mateo pleaded, and begged on his knees like an idiot.

Chase leaned back in his chair with a wry grin. “This is gonna be good. I can feel it. What’s our girl want us to do?”

I held out for a minute. Better to savor the moment while they peppered me with questions. “She has always fantasized about being in a gang bang where she’s forced into it.”

“Holy fuck! Seriously?” Axel’s shock was comical. His eyes bulged and his mouth dropped open wide enough birds could fly through the opening.

“No way,” Mateo exclaimed.

“Now we’re talking. When can we do this?” Chase asked, rubbing his hands together with a ribald gleam.

“Our priority is ensuring her safety. We can’t take time out for a gang bang when we’re being trailed. Which means the first order of business is losing the tail. Second, we need a detailed list of supplies on hand with a daily tally each morning of where we stand. And I don’t just mean food. We need to monitor our fuel levels. While we have extra stored on board, we need to monitor our levels in correspondence with our proximity to land. I suggest, once we shake the tail, we hug the shoreline on our trip north. That way, if we need to stop, we can.”

“You think the Alaska house might be the best location for us to enact her fantasy?” Chase asked with a pensive expression.

“Possibly. Until then, we always need two of us thinking with the right heads. We all want her. We all can take time with her. But until we reach a secure location, we need to stick to individual turns.”

“We should make a schedule,” Mateo said. “Establish deck rotations and time with Kylie.”

“I agree. And since all you ladies have been with her since we boarded the vessel, I’ll take tonight,” Axel stated with finality.

I knew better than to fight him on it. Axel was obsessed with her. We saw how much he cared about her. Even if he hadn’t admitted his feelings, it was plain as day. The guy was head over boots for our Kylie.

“You can take tonight. She’s resting now. One of us will have to figure out a meal for dinner. Axel, if you’d keep watch for now, I’ll work on the schedule. Chase, get this ship on a southwest course. And Mateo, inform command about the ship on our tail. Maybe they can take care of it if it’s one of Santos’s vessels.”

“I’m on it.” Mateo swiveled in his seat. His fingers flew over the keyboard.

Axel said, “You know, there are some modifications we could make to the yacht. We need to organize the supplies better. Now that we’re on the move, we need weapons stations throughout the ship. We don’t want to get caught with our pants down and asses hanging out without the means to defend ourselves quickly.”

Weapons stations? That wasn’t a half bad idea. “I see your point. What do you have in mind?”

Axel took a seat and grabbed a pen and paper. He sketched a rough drawing of the ship. He was the weapons expert. There was no better person to make this place a floating fortress than him.

“Part of the problem with this craft is there are far too many entry points, and it makes defense problematic. To ensure we have supplies readily available should we get boarded, I think we should create weapons stations. Here. Here. Here. And here. On every level.” He pointed at the locations.

“But what about the enemy confiscating our guns and ammo to use against us?” The last thing I wanted was to make it easy for Santos’s goons to take us out and leave Kylie unprotected.

“It’s a risk I admit, but to leave them stored below deck is an even bigger one. I will make them as hidden as possible so only we know their locations. There’s no doubt it could backfire. But the problem is, what happens if we have a sneak attack? We don’t know how many vessels Santos owns. We have guesstimates but nothing concrete. And that creates unforeseen challenges. We took out one helicopter. But a guy like Luka Santos won’t rest on his laurels. He likely has multiple. And we can’t assume we’re safe, because the moment we do, that’s when he’ll attack just like we saw at the house.”

“What kind of artillery do you want to store at those locations? We have a lot of firepower down below.” If he planned on bringing out the big guns, I’d have to veto that.

“For safety, I say we stick with rifles and handguns on every level. Then on the top deck near the stern, I want to put up the fifty cal. We can keep it covered. I have just the thing we can use.”

“You’ll have to take it back down before we reach the port in Seattle and anywhere else we need to make port.”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “Piece of cake. But this way, we’ll be ready for the next attack.”

I studied the points he wanted to make weapons stations. He wasn’t wrong. We needed to be on point and prepared. After what happened at the mansion, I wasn’t willing to let anything slide. “Okay, I say do it. I’m sure Kylie won’t mind.”

“And you guys talked about more than that she wants a gang bang?”

Axel was like a dog going after a bone. Crossing my arms, I sighed and nodded. “Yeah, she was worried I didn’t want her anymore. And she’s concerned that we’re going to make her choose between us.”

“What did you tell her?”

“That we’re all in. That she belongs to us. And we have no intentions of making her pick one of us.”

“That’s good.” Some of the tension left his shoulders.

“But I also mentioned that if she ever decides she only wants one of us, that the rest of us would back off and respect her wishes.”

“Why the fuck would you tell her that?” he shouted with a frown.

“Because it’s the right thing to do.”

“And what about what the rest of us wants?” Axel seethed crumpling the paper in his hands.

“What do you want?” But I knew. It was painted all over his face.

“Her. For as long as she’ll have me.”

While we had shared women before, we hadn’t been interested in anything long term. We couldn’t with our jobs. But Kylie was different on every level. “You love her, don’t you?”

“Yes.” Axel didn’t hesitate with his response.

“And you’re worried she won’t choose you?” My heart fucking squeezed because I didn’t want to give her up either. Nor did I know where it would leave us if she picked only one of us.

“As opposed to you or Mateo or Chase? Yes. I can’t lose her.”

“Then we make sure that you don’t.” Because for someone like Axel, he didn’t fall lightly. When he did, he was all in. It’s why the chick, whose name I couldn’t remember, nearly destroyed him when she walked away years ago.

And I would ensure, should Kylie waver on being shared, that I gently pushed her toward Axel. Losing her would hurt like hell because I had deep feelings for her too. But I also knew that losing her would crush Axel to the point he might never recover. In all the years I had known him, I had never seen him like this with a woman. He was my brother from another mother, and I would ensure he got to keep her.

“Good. I’ll get started on the weapons stations.” Axel left the command deck without a backward glance.

Fuck. What a day.

We had entered uncharted waters. Our priorities had shifted from using Kylie as the means to take Santos down to protecting her from the very man we needed to capture.

I’d feel better once the yacht turned into a fortress. Because Santos was on the hunt and would never stop until he achieved his aims.