Page 38 of Pretty Ruthless Monsters: Complete Series

More hands get dealt as the sun goes down, and I drink more whiskey, not giving a shit about moderation tonight. I’m tired and a little fucked up, and the whiskey takes the edge off. Being here, surrounded by my people and the familiar noise of the clubhouse definitely helps too.

It almost feels like old times, before all of this shit threw everything into chaos.

As it gets later, more people start showing up. First in a trickle, but then in larger groups. I lift my hand to greet the crew members who call out to me, feeling my head swim and my body burn with the booze in my system.

I’m definitely fairly drunk, but feeling so much better than I was before. I’m not really thinking about anything now.

Not the alliance. Not the attacks. Not Quinn .

My head is just floating, a warm haze over everything.

Someone turns on music, and it starts blaring through the speakers. The bass thumps loud and hard, and I can feel it rattling around in my skull and vibrating through my bones.

I nod along idly to the beat as one last hand is played, and then the game breaks up as the guys get distracted by other things.

Namely, more drinks and the food that just arrived.

I’m considering joining them, but as I rise from my chair, I feel a hand on my arm and look down to see who wants my attention now.

It’s Zoey.

She looks good, relaxed. Her hair is pulled back into a low ponytail, and she’s dressed down in jeans and a t-shirt, but it looks good on her. Everything always looks good on her.

She smiles at me, and it lights up her face. “I’m glad you came tonight,” she says. “I wasn’t expecting to see you.”

“No?”

“Not really. I know you, Nico, and Killian have been busy with this new alliance and everything—and I get why that’s important, don’t get me wrong. But people have missed you around here.”

I nod. “Yeah, I got that impression when I showed up. I miss this place too. Definitely.”

Zoey smiles even wider, her green eyes shining. Maybe it’s the whiskey or my mood, but I feel like I could get lost in her eyes when they look like this. Bright and open, the way things used to be between us.

“How’s it all going, anyway?” she asks, slipping her ponytail over one shoulder. “I know some people were surprised that Nico doubled down on the alliance after that mess a few days ago.”

“They thought he was going to call it off?”

She shrugs. “Some people thought maybe it was more trouble than it’s worth.”

I glance around the room, wondering if any of those people are here now, or if they’re all off on toilet duty. “Well, then they don’t know Nico very well. Once he gets his teeth into something, he doesn’t let it go.”

She laughs, nodding. “That’s what I keep saying. He’s not going to let something like a little brawl make him give up when he’s got a good idea. At least… as long as it’s still a good idea?”

It seems like she’s asking me genuinely, and I don’t even know what to tell her. Nico seems to think so, and from an unbiased perspective, I can see why. He’s told us all we stand to gain from this, all the reasons why we have to see it through.

But when I think about what I want…

Nope. Not going down that path.

I focus on Zoey instead. She’s still touching my arm, and the warmth of her hand bleeds through my clothes. It feels good, mingling with the pleasant burn from the whiskey.

“It’s still a good idea,” I finally tell her.

“Good.” She makes a face, her delicate nose wrinkling. “Everything else aside, it would be nice to not have to worry about some faceless threat trying to take us down. Handling our business has never been safe , exactly, but it was safer than this.”

“Yeah, we want to go back to that,” I tell her. “I’ve been working my ass off, trying to hunt down any clues about who’s been targeting us. It’s… slow going, but I’m putting some pieces together.”

“Whoever it is, they’ve got balls.”

“Fucking tell me about it. We don’t know much about them at all. Only that they’re trouble. I’ve been making lists of anyone in surrounding gangs who might have decided they want to expand their territory by taking ours, but I can’t go around making accusations.”

“I’ve been thinking about it a bit…” Zoey hesitates, like she’s not sure if I want to hear her opinion.

“Yeah?” I prompt.

“It’s just… it seems weird for someone to suddenly be interested in us and Enigma.

Why didn’t they strike when Enigma was weaker, you know?

After Quinn’s dad died. They could have taken over Enigma territory before moving into ours.

Instead, they’re going for two groups at once, which has to be harder.

It makes me think they don’t understand the whole power structure of Detroit very well. ”

I nod, turning that over in my head. When I’m less drunk, it’ll be easier to process. “Yeah, there’s maybe something to that. I’ll have to see what Nico thinks.”

She smiles, clearly pleased at being taken seriously. “Hopefully you’ll get a breakthrough soon. I know you’ve been working really hard.”

I shrug. “That’s my job. And the sooner we find out who’s behind all this and take them out, the sooner shit can get back to normal.”

“Normal would be good. Like I said, we miss seeing you around here. It would be nice to have more of your attention.” She flushes. “For the gang to have it, I mean.”

Her eyes linger on my face, and she steps a bit closer.

The song that was on ends, switching to another one. It’s one of those songs with a deep, sensuous beat, blaring through the speakers and thrumming through the floor.

“Fuck, I love this song.” Zoey sways her hips to the music, her eyes falling half closed. Then she looks up at me through her lashes. “Dance with me?”

I hesitate, but rather than waiting for me to answer, she just grabs my arm and tugs me toward the middle of the room where a makeshift dance floor has sprung up.

“Zoey, you know I don’t do this shit,” I grumble, pulling halfheartedly out of her hold.

She gives me a sad look, pouting a little. “Come on, Atlas. Please? For old time’s sake?”

I should say no. I really fucking should.

This shit is a slippery slope, and I’ve been putting distance between me and Zoey for a reason.

But at the same time, I’m still riding the warm buzz from being drunk, and I’m still all fucked up in the head about Quinn.

I have a thought of how she’d look on the dance floor, using all of that strength and grace to twist and grind her body to the song that’s currently playing, her teal hair flashing in the light.

I don’t want to think about that though. I don’t want to think about her.

I came here to stop thinking about her, and dancing with Zoey is as good a way as any to get Quinn out of my goddamned head.

“Yeah, okay,” I mutter, giving in.

Zoey grins and grabs me again, leading me into the crowd of people who are dancing already.

She takes my hands in hers and puts them on her waist, letting me feel as she moves her hips to the beat of the song. Her arms go around my neck after a while, and I find the rhythm of her body, moving with her.

It’s easy, in a way. To follow her lead, to let the song guide us, getting more and more into it. Zoey moves effortlessly, tossing her dark blonde hair back, grinding her hips. She turns in my arms after a while and starts working herself against me, undulating her hips sensually.

It feels good to have a woman in my arms. Zoey is familiar, and it’s easy. She’s uncomplicated in a way that I need right now.

When she turns back around to face me, her green eyes have darkened a little, and I pull her back in, moving with her as the song goes on.

Time passes in a blur of lights and sounds and the feel of her body against mine.

I know where to put my hands from memory, and we move together as one song plays, then another, and another.

As a new track begins to play, Zoey draws back a little, her cheeks flushed from the exertion as she gazes up at me. Her tongue darts out to sweep over her bottom lip, and then she goes up onto her tiptoes and leans in to kiss me.

Her mouth is just as familiar as the rest of her. Soft, plush, tempting. Part of me wants to end this before it goes too far, but another part of me doesn’t want to admit just why that is. I don’t want to think about what I can’t have, so I focus on what’s right in front of me instead.

I kiss Zoey back, one hand going to the small of her back to keep her in place. I’m drunk enough that it feels like the room is spinning around us a bit, and I focus on the way her mouth feels on mine.

It could be five seconds or five minutes later when we finally separate, and Zoey’s emerald eyes burn with desire. She takes my hand again, tugging me away from the dance floor, and I don’t resist.

She leads me away from the din of the crowd, into a different room off the main part of the clubhouse. It’s dimly lit, one of the little side rooms that we use for private talks or when someone needs time to cool off.

I can’t remember if this is the first time we’ve been alone in this room before, but probably not.

Zoey definitely moves like she knows what she’s doing and what she wants. She pushes me down into a chair and stands over me for a second, just looking. I can feel her gaze, hot and weighty, and I lick my lips as she watches.

Then she grins, moving to crawl onto my lap, straddling me with her legs spread wide.

“You have no idea, do you?” she breathes, leaning in. I can smell her scent, like sweet vanilla, filling my senses.

But that’s not right. It should be jasmine and honey.

“No idea about what?” I ask, and it comes out low and a little slurred.

She grins, running her fingers through my hair. “How much I’ve missed this. I think about you all the time, Atlas. How good you were to me. How good we were together.”

I open my mouth, although I’m not even sure what I want to say. It doesn’t matter anyway, because Zoey leans in and kisses me again, tightening her grip on my hair.

Her mouth is blazing hot, just as sweet as her scent, and she makes a soft, needy noise when I kiss her back. She slides her hands down to rest against my chest, and I can feel it when she grinds down on me a bit, making my cock stir in my pants.

Her tongue presses into my mouth, and I let it, parting my lips and letting my own tongue dance and twine with hers. She tastes good, familiar, and there’s a low groan of pleasure that I realize is coming from me.

Zoey smiles against my lips and then bites down lightly on the bottom one, making me hiss in a breath. Her hands snake down to my crotch, and she starts going for my belt to undo it.

Her fingers graze my cock through the fabric of my pants, and something about that startles me out of the daze I’ve been in since we started dancing. I catch her wrist before she can take my belt off, stopping her in her tracks.

“What?” She blinks, looking startled.

I shake my head, still not sure what to say to her. My head is still spinning from the whiskey, and my body is humming from being drunk and turned on—but I’m not so drunk that I don’t remember there was a reason we stopped doing this before.

“Atlas.” Zoey drops her voice, staring up at me with her big eyes. “Please. I want you so much. Can’t you see that? Can’t you see how badly I want you back? How desperately I need you to fuck me? I missed your cock, baby. No one has a cock like you do.”

She purrs that last bit, pressing in closer so that I can feel her tits against my chest.

“Just once,” she whispers. “Just tonight. Please, baby. I’ve been going crazy without you.”

She leans up to kiss me again. But before her lips touch mine, the door opens, letting light from the outside room come flooding in.

My gaze shoots up to see who’s interrupted us, and it’s like a bucket of cold water has been dumped over me as I recognize the figure silhouetted in the doorway.

Quinn .

She stands frozen like a statue for a second, shock reflecting on her shadowed face. Then her expression morphs into something else. Something that looks more like disappointment—or hurt.

She blinks and then whirls around, letting the door slam shut as she leaves.

“Fuck,” I curse, lifting Zoey off my lap.

She yelps as I deposit her roughly on her feet so I can stand. “Atlas, what?—”

I don’t hear the rest of what she says, because I’m already out the door.