Hell To Pay: Hellhound Champions Book Two, page 9
“You’re sure it was the same?” Drew asked.
Sol tapped his nose. “Positive.”
Solomon’s phone buzzed. He glanced Cody’s way and saw his phone in his hand. With a low growl, he turned to Drew. “Get some rest, alpha-mate. It’s going to be a long day.”
“I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep.”
Buzz.
“Just rest. I’ll take care of everyone out here.”
Buzz.
“Do you need to get that?”
Sol smiled and gripped Drew’s shoulder. “I will in a minute. Do you need anything?”
“No. Just Shaq.”
“I know. He’ll be back as soon as he can. I’m going to check on the others. They’re going through the neighborhood again to be on the safe side.”
“Good. And we have an exit plan, right? Just in case? Izzy and Sophie and Cody….”
“I know. If we have to portal them out, we will. Until then, this is the safest place they can be.”
Drew didn’t seem convinced, but he nodded once more. He went around the room, checking in quickly with the others, before going into his and Shaq’s bedroom and closing the door.
Sol went into the kitchen and filled the kettle with water before placing it on the stove. He tugged his phone out while he waited on the water to heat up.
GoldiLad: I’m hanging out with friends tonight.
GoldiLad: But I can’t stop thinking about you.
GoldiLad: I wish you were here, holding me down and making me moan. Is that bad?
Sol’s breath caught. He quickly typed out a reply.
HellBent: I want to hear those moans more than anything.
He heard the answering ding of Cody’s phone in the living room as he got down a mug and stuck a chamomile tea bag inside it. When the water was decently hot, he poured it over the mug and carried it into the living room. Walt and Shelly were in the second guest room. Izzy and Sophie were in the other. Drew was in his and Shaq’s room. Calli, Vice, Teague, Jedrek, and Achim were walking the neighborhood. Cody had taken up a position on Shaq’s couch. He was the only one left in the room.
“I made you some tea,” Sol said quickly. He held the cup out and waited for Cody to accept it.
Cody looked up at him and took the mug. “Thanks, Sol.”
“You’re welcome. You should rest.”
Cody snorted. “Sure. I’ll get right on that. As soon as you tell me what the hell’s going on.”
Cody
Cody had often wondered if working with Shaq and his crew at the bar would lead him into trouble. He’d never associated them with bad guys, even if he did still half-believe they were mob enforcers. Were there good guy enforcers? Cody was pretty sure that wasn’t a thing, and since Shaq and Sol couldn’t be bad guys, he needed to think of something else. Maybe they were some sort of covert special ops unit, kind of like Navy SEALS or Green Berets or something. Holy shit. That had to be it. It totally explained why they disappeared occasionally because they were pulled away for top secret operations, like in jungles or deserts where they got really hot and sweaty and wore tank tops that showed off their biceps, and there were big guns, and a sniper, and a guy who was good at blowing things up. But maybe…yeah, they were probably retired. Maybe after a team tragedy or something, which explained why they were all a little moody and grumpy, especially Shaq, but they stuck together and now they worked super-secret covert missions as like contractors for the government or something. There was probably a secret lair under the bar, most likely accessed through the back room, because they all seemed to disappear through that door a lot. Okay, maybe not. But oh! They could totally open a private security company where they took on cases and….
Cody huffed and swirled the tea Sol had given him around the mug. Sol had been standing there staring at Cody the entire time. He was clearly trying to think of what to say without lying. Which, if he were a covert government operative whose cover had been blown and now they were all in danger, made perfect sense. The only problem was that Cody realized it was the plot of a series of romance novels he’d recently read and would be way too far-fetched to be his actual life. Former Green Berets who owned a security company with a tragic secret past? Cody scoffed under his breath. As if the explanation could be that crazy. Or romantic. But mostly crazy.
“Sol? You planning on standing there staring at me? Or you know, maybe you could tell me what the hell is going on like I asked?”
Sol made a funny growling noise and sat down beside him on the couch. He left exactly zero space between them. Cody wanted to complain, but he was a little cold and Sol was really warm so he leaned into him and tried not to think about everything. He was still mad. And still convinced that Sol and HellBent were one and the same. Like he hadn’t noticed Sol’s phone buzzing in his pocket, or that he’d conveniently gone into the kitchen before responding. There were way too many coincidences for it to be anything else. He’d seen Sol respond to his message at the bar. The timing fit. Everything fit. But he hadn’t been able to figure out why. And with this newest round of excitement, he couldn’t exactly ask. Well, he could ask, but he wasn’t exactly sure he wanted the answer.
“I can’t tell you,” Sol said.
Damn covert government operatives and their secrecy rules. It might be the plot of a romance novel, but it made sense. And it certainly explained all the muscles. Sol had muscles for days. And he certainly knew how to move. So did Shaq. He’d seen them manhandle guys out of the bar without even breaking a sweat. He’d actually seen Shaq shove a guy who’d gotten too close to Drew, and the guy flew backward like Shaq was Clark Kent in disguise or something. Shaq hadn’t even put any real effort behind it.
And Sol. Cody had seen him pick a guy up by his neck and carry him outside. Just…picked him up by the neck with one hand like it was nothing. So yeah, super strong. Oh, maybe Captain America strong? Super-secret-super-soldier-serum strong? Cody snorted out another laugh and took another drink of his tea.
“What?” Sol asked.
“I can’t tell you,” Cody quipped.
Sol made the little growling noise again. It would be cute if Cody weren’t mad at him. Which he was. For multiple reasons. Cody swirled the tea and decided that if Sol wanted to have multiple personalities and keep the HellBent secret, then he could torment him a little until Sol cracked like a peanut and told him the truth.
“Sol?”
“Yeah?”
Cody leaned against him and adjusted his hold on the mug. “We’re friends, right?”
“No,” Sol said. “We’re family.”
Cody’s breath caught a little. Drew kept telling him that they were family, but it didn’t seem right. He’d not done anything to….
Sol’s hand landed on his knee and gave it a squeeze. “Stop.”
Cody stopped. They were family, in a way. But this thing between them wasn’t familial at all. “Sol?”
“Yeah?”
Cody took a breath. Family or not, he wanted Sol to squirm a little. Payback was hell. “What would you say if I told you I’ve met someone?”
Sol stiffened but squeezed his knee again. “I’d say that I want you to be happy.”
“I want that, too. I…technically we haven’t met yet. But I want to meet him. He gets me, you know?”
Sol sucked in a breath. He seemed to be getting warmer, if that was possible. Cody was probably imagining things. He was tempting fate by messing with Sol like this. His body was probably reacting to that. Or, you know, responding to the fact that Sol was sitting next to him with his hand on his thigh like it was meant to be there and not the most intimate touch they’d ever experienced. But nah, it was probably just him imagining things. Because he wasn’t going to pop a boner because Sol’s big hairy thigh was right there and even if it was covered in jeans at the moment, Cody knew what it looked like and had imagined what it felt like and….
“That’s important,” Sol added softly.
It took Cody a second to find the train of thought he’d lost. Right. Torment Sol. Check. Ignore hand on thigh. Double check. Pretend dick wasn’t hard and wishing that hand would slide up a bit more and…so many checks.
“I think I’m going to see if he wants to meet. You know, in person. Because we have serious chemistry, Sol. And I want to feel the way he makes me feel.” He tried to add a sexy little husk to his voice.
Sol seemed to like it. He gulped. “Good.”
His hand tightened on Cody’s thigh and drifted up a millimeter more. And yes, Cody was measuring by the millimeter. Because reasons. But more importantly, Cody didn’t need any more confirmation. He could feel it in his gut. What he didn’t understand was why Sol didn’t just tell him. “It isn’t weird, me talking about this with you, is it?”
Sol’s hand slipped up on his leg a bit. “You can tell me anything.”
It was the first time Cody believed it. There was actual honesty in Sol’s voice, a tremble of something else too. Hope, fear, and maybe a smidge of anxiety. But why would Sol be worried about him? Did he actually think Cody would reject him? And yeah, he probably did. Which… made things more complicated. He needed to get to the bottom of this, because this circling around him while they were in danger and living some sort of double life as Hellbent and Goldilad wasn’t doing him any favors. Before he could spit out that he knew and demand an explanation, Sol’s fingers tightened for a second on his thigh, and his head turned toward the door. He glared at it before relaxing.
“What is it?” Cody asked.
Sol was being so weird. Weirder than normal, anyway, and that was saying something.
“I heard something outside. It’s fine, though. Nothing to worry about.”
“You heard something?” Cody asked. He hadn’t heard a thing. He added another tic mark in the Captain America super-serum column. It was beginning to pull ahead of his mob theory. Plus, he’d like to see Sol in uniform.
The front door opened, and Calli stepped inside. Cody hadn’t even known she was there. “Hey, Cal.”
She nodded at him, acknowledging his greeting, but immediately turned her attention to Sol. “We’re clear.”
Sol was totally the second-in-command. Shaq was team leader. Or captain? What was the head honcho of a group of former military commandos called anyway? He couldn’t help but laugh over the idea of Sol being called Sarge. It would be kind of adorable. Sergeant Sol. And for some reason a little sexy, especially when he imagined Sol bossing him around in sexy ways. Probably in a very tight camo tank top that showed off his biceps.
“Cody?”
Cody looked up and found Sol scowling over at him. “What?”
“You’re being weird.”
“I’m being weird? I’m being weird?”
Sol’s scowl deepened. “That’s what I said.”
“Yeah, well, you have the day I’ve had and tell me you wouldn’t be acting weird, too, Sarge. But reactions to weird were probably trained out of you in boot camp, right?”
“What?”
Calli made a strange coughing snort and pulled Cody’s attention. “I’m right, right?”
She held up her hands and backed away. “I’m going to go walk through the neighborhood again.”
“Yeah, you’re totally the team assassin, Calli. Sneaky, fierce. Silent but deadly. Um, but not like a fart. Shit. Did I say that? What’s in this tea?”
“Chamomile,” Sol answered.
“I think you broke him,” Calli said.
Cody scoffed. “I didn’t break him.”
“I wasn’t talking to you,” Calli said.
“Jerk.”
Calli grinned.
Cody was pretty sure she had fangs, even if he couldn’t actually see them.
Fangs.
Maybe…could vampires be a possibility? They did prefer working at night, and Cody had read a lot of books where the vampires ran bars because it gave them easy access to dinner— as in him. He was their dinner. Maybe he’d been feeding a…what was a group of vampires called? He couldn’t remember, but he’d probably been an easy meal for them for years, and that was why they always wanted to feed him because they needed to keep his iron up. He turned to Sol and he was pretty sure the horror in his mind showed on his face. Sol wrapped an arm around him and pulled him in for a hug.
Cody hid his neck, just in case.
“Totally broke him,” Calli repeated.
“I’m gonna break you,” Cody snapped.
He totally couldn’t break her. Hell, he couldn’t even make her break a sweat.
Calli cackled. It was evil. They were totally vampires. It made sense. Super strong. They were a clan! That was the word. A clan of vampires who fed on their unsuspecting bar staff until eventually he’d become one of them. They had to keep the secret, though, because vampires being real was totally a secret. They were creatures of the night. Except they totally weren’t because they were out and about during the day. He’d seen them. But that’s how they kept the secret. Vampires didn’t actually have to stay out of the sunlight. It was an urban legend that helped them maintain their super-secret status.
“That makes so much sense.”
“What does?” Walt asked.
He’d appeared in the room like a vampire and Cody totally hadn’t even noticed. Vampire stealth. Another tic mark in the vampire column.
Cody pretended he hadn’t yelped when Walt spoke and pulled away from Sol.
“Show me your teeth,” Cody demanded.
Walt turned around and walked back down the hall. The bedroom door shut a second later.
“What’s wrong with you?” Sol asked.
“So many things I can’t begin to list them. For starters, vampires.”
Sol stiffened, and Calli gasped.
“I knew it.”
Before Cody could demand an explanation, the front door opened and Shaq walked in. He looked pissed. Extremely pissed, but then he looked at Calli and Sol and his expression changed to one of confusion.
“What happened?” Shaq asked.
Cody was pretty sure he saw little flecks of red in Shaq’s eyes. Totally vampires.
“Cody thinks we’re vampires,” Calli said with what could only be described as a giggle. Assassin vampires didn’t giggle, though. Probably not, anyway. But then again, vampire assassins could do whatever the hell they wanted so he shouldn’t discount the possibility over a giggle.
Shaq turned his glare to Cody. “We’re not vampires.”
“Uh-huh. You have to say that. It fits, Shaq.”
“It doesn’t fit. Why do you think it fits?”
He seemed horrified by the suggestion, but Cody was convinced he was right.
Cody held up his fingers and began ticking them off. “Super strong. Very secretive. Owns a bar. Totally try to feed me all the time to keep my iron levels up.”
Calli began to laugh so hard she walked outside.
Shaq glared after her until the door shut. Then he turned to Cody.
“Do you really think I would allow a vampire to feed on you without your consent?”
Cody lowered his hand, his tic marks suddenly making less sense. “No.”
Shaq was kind of crazy about consent issues and considering how important they’d become in the world now that people had their heads out of their asses, Cody appreciated it about his boss even more. Shaq hadn’t jumped on board the politically correct train. He’d always been that way.
“Super soldiers, it is then.”
Shaq huffed and his scowl deepened, but then the bedroom door opened and Drew came out. Shaq forgot about Cody the moment his gaze landed on his boyfriend. They were so fricking adorable it made him want to puke.
“Ugh,” Cody grumbled.
“What?” Sol asked.
He waved his hand in Shaq and Drew’s general direction.
“We’re not vampires,” Sol said.
“Yeah, I get it. Vampires aren’t real. I just…I’m freaked out about what’s going on, and I know you guys are into something dangerous, and I don’t want to think about the fact that there’s a very real possibility that you guys aren’t the good guys because mob enforcers make a lot more sense, but mob enforcers are bad guys, Sol, and I don’t want you to be bad guys.”
“We’re not mob enforcers.”
Cody looked up at Sol and searched his gaze. “Promise?”
“I don’t lie to you.”
“I know. But that only leaves my former special ops team theory, and that one was the most far-fetched.”
“More than vampires?”
Cody shrugged and tucked himself under Sol’s arm. He was so damn cold. It was probably shock. It had been a helluva night.
“What’s wrong?” Sol asked.
“Cold.”
“Drink your tea.”
Cody dutifully took another slurp. Sol moved around beside him and before Cody knew it, he had Sol’s leather jacket draped over his lap. It was super warm from Sol’s body heat. Cody tucked it around him a little tighter.
“Thanks, Sol.”
“You’re welcome. You hungry?”
“No.”
It didn’t seem to be the answer Sol wanted.
“Why are you always trying to feed me if you aren’t trying to fatten me up or keep my iron levels up or whatever?”
Sol glared at him. He used to think it was scary when Sol looked at him like that. Cody wondered when it had stopped being scary.
“Because you need to eat.”
“So do you.”
Sol opened his mouth to argue but closed it again. “I do eat,” he grumbled.
“So do I.”
Sol huffed and looked away. Cody finished his tea and put the mug on the coffee table. He tried to fight the yawn struggling to escape, but he couldn’t.
“You need to sleep,” Sol said.
“I’ll be fine.”
Sol grumbled again.
“I want to know what’s going on, Sol.”
“We’ll tell you when we can. But for now, you’re safe. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Cody looked up at him again. “I know.”
It seemed to be the right answer. And he even meant it. Sol and Shaq and the rest of them wouldn’t let anything happen to him. They were family. A family of emotionally damaged soldiers who’d seen the evils of war and lost people they loved which left them emotionally stunted and probably with PTSD but they had hearts of gold even if they were cranky and grumpy. Also, the serum probably had some side effects they hadn’t been aware of when they’d agreed to be experimented on. There were always side effects.
