Page 7 of Kill Shot

Perhaps it came from somewhere deep inside Nico, somewhere that he wasn’t even willing to acknowledge. Or perhaps it came from nothing more than a whim. But he opened his mouth and said words that he could never take back.

“Come now, Sebby,” he teased with a mocking gleam in his eye, “we don’t need to hide from everyone .”

Sebastian froze, slowly turning to look at Nico as if he’d just seen a ghost. He didn’t stammer, but only because he couldn’t seem to find any words at all.

“Adorable,” Caroline murmured. “And I suppose your father wouldn’t approve. What a shame.”

Nico raised an eyebrow, waiting to see how Sebastian would respond. This was insane, it was beyond dangerous to the mission, yet he felt a deep investment in what Sebastian’s next words would be.

It didn’t matter, he tried to tell himself. It was just a bit of entertainment for the evening, and when they left, he would drag Sebastian back to his place.

“R-right, of course,” Sebastian said with a nervous laugh, looking from one to the other. “Not that he has a problem with me liking men, you know. It’s just…” He gestured vaguely at Nico and gave Caroline a shrug.

“Yes, such a bad boy,” Caroline sighed wistfully. “No self-respecting father would want his son to be going around town with a long-haired, tattooed man that must be at least twice his age.”

Nico’s jaw ticked for a second there. “I’m not that old, Abuela ,” he said dryly. He might’ve stressed the last word just a little to remind her who the oldest one in the room actually was.

She clearly did not believe him. Neither, apparently, did Sebastian.

What followed was one of the strangest conversations that Nico had ever been a part of. It didn’t take any time at all for Caroline to begin groaning about the aches in her bones and about how she was sure that there was a storm coming, but the weather people just hadn’t caught wind of it yet.

She went on and on and on, and while the novelty quickly wore off for Nico, he was surprised to see that Sebastian was hanging onto every word, nodding empathetically and appearing to be genuinely engrossed.

Nico watched their exchange with growing fascination, as absorbed as he was confused.

This was what the pampered little scion of the Altamirano family was doing with his days? This was why he risked his life to visit neighborhoods in the depths of poverty?

And most peculiar of all was the way that the two of them went on as if he weren’t even there. Nobody ignored Nico’s presence, not even when he wanted them to. It was such a strange and fascinating sensation that he had to fight back the urge to flee on the spot.

But instead, Nico sat and listened, the wheels of his mind turning as he struggled to find a fault with a terrifying new possibility.

What if he didn’t kidnap the kid?

What if he just let this continue and seduced Sebastian Altamirano to get closer to Pablo?

Now, that was a thought Nico mauled over some more. Sebastian seemed… easy. Impressionable. He could exploit that, and use him as a pawn to get close to his father. After all, that was Nico’s biggest hurdle: drawing Pablo out.

Besides, it would fuck Pablo Altamirano worse than any quick bullet to know his only son was whoring himself out to the enemy. Once he got the boy in his hooks, then he’d break him, make it as painful as possible, and make Pablo watch as his only son fell apart.

Yes, Nico could even keep him as his plaything. He didn’t need to die when all this was over.

And then, when Nico got bored with him, he could get rid of him. It would be as simple as that.

“Goodness, maybe he isn’t as old as he said,” Caroline laughed, snapping Nico’s attention back to the present.

Sebastian was looking at him with a puzzled half-smile, as if he couldn’t quite believe his eyes.

“What?” Nico snapped.

“Nothing,” Sebastian said quickly. “It’s just that you look so different when you smile.”

“I wasn’t smiling,” Nico snorted. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

That got a guffaw out of Caroline, who then rolled her eyes dramatically. “Men!”

“Oh God, look at the time!” Sebastian cried, checking his phone. “We haven’t kept you up too long, have we, Caroline?”

She waved a dismissive hand at him, but the effect was undercut by a rather impressive yawn.

“I’m terribly sorry, we should let you go to bed.” Sebastian rose from the couch, hurrying over to give her a kiss on each cheek, as if she was his own grandmother.

Nico rose as well, sensing that a critical opportunity was at hand.

“Let me just walk you to the door,” Caroline said, but as she tried to get up, Sebastian gently stopped her.

“No need to overexert yourself, ma’am. We can remember our way out of here,” he said kindly.

Nico watched, waiting to see if Caroline was still sly enough to read what was going on. Would she inform Sebastian of the terrible mistake he was about to make, or would she let him go out into the darkness with a man far more dangerous than any petty thug?

She locked eyes with Nico, and unless his mind was playing tricks on him, she gave him the tiniest of smiles, almost as if she was goading him.

You wouldn’t , she was saying.

Oh, but he would.

“Come, let’s go, Sebby,” Nico murmured, and the pair made their way to the front door.

Sebastian waved back to her one last time, then they were outside in the cold darkness once more.

In silence, they made their way down the narrow stairs. But once they were at the bottom, there was nothing left to distract from a much-needed conversation, and nobody around to interrupt.

“You seem awfully comfortable with a stranger you just met,” Nico said, narrowing his eyes. Sebastian only smiled, fixing him with a look that was all mischief and no caution.

“You really don’t have any sense of danger, do you?” Nico asked without thinking, thrown by the white flash of teeth that had no business looking that perfect.

“Of course I do,” Sebastian protested, huddling in his old sweatshirt for warmth. “But I also happen to have very reliable hunches, and I know that I can trust you. Why else would you have saved me from those boys earlier?”

“Perhaps,” Nico said softly, advancing upon his prey and backing him up against the brick wall, “because I wanted to have you all to myself. Did you ever consider that?”

The whites of Sebastian’s eyes gleamed in the darkness, his chest rising and falling with each breath.

“Only perhaps?” Sebastian shot back, as if a taunt.

It took all of Nico’s considerable self-control to refrain from showing the boy the error of his ways on the spot. He thought he knew what discipline was, but Sebastian might just be the one to test its limits.

“And tell me, Sebby , what exactly was your plan for how this night would end? There are no buses running, and at this hour, Uber ain’t showing up anytime soon.

You stand here long enough and you’re gonna catch the wrong kind of attention.

Another like those thugs might come along, and not the kind you’ll be able to sweet-talk your way out of. ”

Nico had to be careful not to reveal just how much he knew about Sebastian and his circumstances. Fortunately, the boy made it easy by wincing so obviously that a blind man could have read his face.

“Let me guess,” Nico pressed with both his body and his words, “you’re thinking about giving your folks a call and asking them for a ride home. But I’m thinking they would be pretty upset with you being out so late. Am I on the money?”

Sebastian nodded, and unless it was a trick of the light, it looked like his lips were slightly parted, puckered out and glistened when he licked them with a flick of his tongue.

Pendejo .

What a stupid, stupid boy. Too much of that and he would be crossing lines that could never be uncrossed.

“Then…” Nico trailed off, letting countless possibilities hang in the air.

This was the critical part. This was the single most important question that he’d asked anyone in weeks, or even months. Maybe, if he was being honest with himself, it was the most important question of his entire life.

“Why not stay at my place tonight? It’s just across the street. In the morning, you can go back to wherever you came from.”

Sebastian’s throat worked in a swallow, his eyes glazing with… desire? It was almost comical how easily Nico already had him wrapped around his finger. He could have told Sebastian to drop his pants on the spot and turn around, and he was quite sure that he would have done it.

This was good though. It meant his newly devised plot to seduce the boy wouldn’t be much of a challenge, seeing how Sebastian was looking at him, eyes wide like he wanted Nico to fuck the answer right out of him.

Something inside Nico shifted. A low, coiling thrill of a predator waiting for his prey to fall into his trap. Yeah… perhaps that explained why he felt the heat pooling between his legs. It was just the excitement of the hunt.

“But my father would be so angry…” Sebastian trailed off, and for a second there, it looked like Nico was losing him.

In a moment that was as much panic as sheer instinctual desire, Nico struck.

It was an assault with the tongue, the fingers, and every inch of his body. He pinned the boy against the wall, invading his mouth, and overcoming all his defenses.

He wasn’t about to fucking lose the game before it even started. Not with the bastard’s son already within his reach.

Everything was on the line.

Sebastian resisted, but only out of shock. The moment Nico plunged his tongue into his depths, he groaned and relaxed in Nico’s embrace, abandoning his fear as he wrapped his arms around a man a decade and a year older than him. A man that he should know better than to be around.

“Nico,” Sebastian gasped, but it was muffled by their wet, perverse kiss.

Nothing could have aroused Nico more than that helpless sound paired with the way Seb clung to him, trembling and breathing hard.

And his lips. They were too damn soft for a man, too pliant against his own, tasting like inexperience and something fucking dangerous.

Nico groaned, hating that he even noticed any of it. Hating even more how it made his cock throb, stiffening so fast against the seam of his jeans that it was almost painful.

Fuck.

It wasn’t supposed to feel like this.

He considered himself a man of incredible discipline, but this boy was pushing him right up to his limits without even meaning to.

Nico’s irritation faded, replaced by one thing only: lust, pure and simple.

With a growl, he shoved a leg between Sebastian’s thighs, grinding against him, needing the friction to relieve some of the tension in his pants.

“We-we can’t,” Sebastian gasped, pulling away and turning his head to the side. “I… I’ll sleep at your place, but we can’t… uh, I can’t…” he sputtered, swallowing hard. “No sex.”

For a long moment, Nico simply breathed heavily, struggling to regain control of his unleashed desires.

“Very well,” he said at last. “I promise not to lay a finger on you. Tonight.”

Sebastian turned his head back and met his eyes once more, and there was just as much aching desire in that gaze as Nico felt between his own legs.

“This is all Caroline’s fault, you know,” Sebastian muttered. “She had to put the idea in our heads.”

“Oh no, my dear boy. I think the notion was in both of your heads, here…” Nico tapped the boy on the forehead, “…and down here.” He let his finger trail down to Sebastian’s hardness.

“It was in both of your heads since you first laid eyes on me,” Nico purred, wrapping an arm around Sebastian’s shoulders and guiding him across the street to his apartment building.

As arousal faded to a dull roar and clarity returned, Nico realized just how much of a coup this really was. Nothing could ever possibly hurt Pablo as much as what Nico was planning on doing.

The only real issue was going to be avoiding emotional entanglement, but that was scarcely worth worrying about.

After all, when had Nicolas Gutierrez ever cared about fucking someone’s heart up? This wouldn’t be the first time that he did what was necessary for the sake of a mission, and it wouldn’t be the last.