Breathless: The Game Series Page 2

  I peered into the club area through the open patio doors and spotted the two bondage kinksters discussing something over by the St. Andrew’s Cross.

  I let them be.

  On my way across the deck, I adjusted the cover on one of the hot tubs and surveyed the seating areas. I’d pulled out all the cushions earlier today, and I didn’t think I needed to stow them away anytime soon. The weather was going to be sunny throughout the weekend. Then I ducked into the patio shed—an extension of the house that’d become a supply closet as well as a kitchenette. From the freezer, I grabbed a cut of meat to defrost for later. Two towels from a closet, and lastly, a cooler of ice for the beer.

  This day was already improving. I was out of the city, somewhat alone with my brother, there was a cure for the brutal heat, and we could discuss our plan for Shay Acton in peace. Now that we had the sign of approval from the other founders.

  The pool area began just off the patio, and River reached the double lounger we usually shared by the time I closed the shed door. Beyond the pool was a massive lawn that slanted downhill to where a forest took over. Said lawn would be the location for our next big event, which got me thinking about Shay. If we did manage to lure him out here to spend some time with us, enough time for us to get into his head and make him realize he couldn’t continue his self-destruction, he would need something to do.

  I caught Riv staring at me with an expectant look.

  “What?” I asked unnecessarily.

  He already knew.

  “Just spit it out,” he said. “You’re gonna change something. I can smell one of your new ideas comin’ a mile away.”

  I chuckled and set the cooler on the side table. “We haven’t gone public with the details for the next Game yet.”

  While most of our events—with much less planning involved—went public on our online platform months in advance, The Games were different. Only the dates had been set. Details were published a couple weeks beforehand. It was the perfect way to build anticipation and keep people guessing.

  “You wanna go with another theme,” River stated flatly.

  I joined him at the foot of the lounger. “It wouldn’t require a lot of work.” I ghosted my hands up his sides and pressed my forehead to his. We were equally damp with sweat, and I hoped it wouldn’t take too long to convince him. The water called to me. “It’s not like it’d be a waste either. We’ll just save the preparations for this event to a later date.”

  He huffed and inched away. “Jesus Christ, Reese.”

  “Is that a yes?” I grinned and gave his shoulder a nip.

  He grunted, cupping my elbow. “Depends on the theme.”

  I hummed and eased back enough to lift a brow at him.

  Come on. It was a given.

  He narrowed his eyes, and I was, as always, struck by how vivid the green in his eyes was, warmed up by flecks of gold and something else reserved for only me.

  “Fine,” he sighed. “We don’t have everything we need for the cage fights, though. I know, I know. I’ll call Joyce—but still. We gotta prepare a lot.”

  “You can swing it. I know you can.” Happy as a pig in shit, I smacked a kiss to his cheek before backing away and hauling my T-shirt over my head.

  “I’m noting that I’m saying we and you’re saying you,” he said.

  “This is really your area of expertise, brother.” I removed my belt, then pushed off my jeans and boxer briefs. “Come on, let’s get in the pool and discuss Shay before I sweat my balls off.”

  I trailed over to the wide stairs and descended into the water that’d heated up plenty since this morning. All right, I winced and cupped my junk briefly, but that discomfort faded within seconds. Then I sank into the bliss and submerged myself completely.

  I’d been waiting all fucking day for this…

  When I resurfaced, Riv was on his way in too, though he kept his boxer briefs on.

  “I don’t think we can actually trick him,” he said pensively. “He won’t be taken for a ride.”

  No, I’d gotten that impression too.

  Of course I’d noticed him before all this. Shay was an incredibly sexy young man, and apparently he loved extreme pain. In theory, that made him our favorite drug. But I’d written him off when I’d learned about his behavior toward Sadists. Or rather, why he might want that pain. And if that was true, he wasn’t a masochist. He was just a lost kid looking for punishment.

  According to River’s brief surveillance and profiling, Shay was sharp and trusted no one. He was fearless because he’d given up on something, on life—or if he lacked direction or purpose. He was highly skilled and trained in martial arts like kung fu, Krav Maga, combat sambo, judo, and tae kwon do, and my brother didn’t hand out compliments for nothing. If someone impressed him, they’d gone far.

  “We could bargain with him,” I said. “He wants something we’re capable of giving.”

  Riv nodded with a dip of his chin and joined me by the shallow end.

  “You’re not convinced,” I stated.

  He squinted and ghosted his palms along the surface of the water. “I don’t think it’ll be enough to bring him out here for several days, no.”

  We needed several days.

  Shay had lost most of his family in a fire. His mother, his father, and his sister. Shay and two younger brothers had survived. That kind of pain didn’t go away, nor would changing his mind be easy or happen quickly. And if he sought out underground cage fighting instead of seeking actual help, there was no way he’d come willingly—unless we struck the right deal.

  “One of us can fight him,” I noted.

  River cocked his head at me, listening.

  “You said he hasn’t lost a single match,” I went on.

  “I said he hasn’t lost a single match fairly. I’ve seen him throw fights—presumably for money.”

  “Semantics,” I replied. “He knows he’s not losing because he can’t handle the fight. I imagine he’s pretty cocky by now—or at least, at ease and confident in his skills.”

  My brother got my line of thinking now. Because all we had to do was show up at one of those fights, pay the buy-in, and challenge him. One of us against him. If he lost, he had to come out here and spend a week with us. Maybe two. We’d get a better sense of him this weekend, I reckoned.

  “It’s up to you to decide which one of us is better suited to take him on,” I finished.

  I hadn’t seen Shay fight yet.

  River glanced away and sucked his teeth, always reluctant to make quick moves. Even more so in this case when his only source of profiling came from an underground club where it’d be weird as fuck if Shay didn’t come off as sharp and guarded. But we didn’t have time to dick around, and I seriously didn’t want to ban the boy.

  When someone was in trouble, we wanted to help, despite what our reputation might indicate.

  “We know what it’s like to lose family,” I pointed out.

  “Yeah, I know.” He raked his teeth over his bottom lip before he blew out a breath. “It’s his guilt we’re fucking with here, Reese. That’s what bothers me. For him to seek out Sadists for punishment means he feels he’s done something to deserve it.”

  Of course. I assumed it had to do with the loss of his family.

  The tragedy had made the papers, which River had dug up in his search. Mother and father asleep on the third floor, along with the youngest child, an eight-year-old girl. Three brothers had been asleep on the second floor. The fire had started in the basement. The eldest brother, Shay, living at home while in college, had woken up first and called 9-1-1. Then he’d yelled for his parents while dragging his brothers outside.

  I hoped to get the rest of the story one day. The parents had died in the fire, and the sister had passed away in the hospital a few days later.

  We had a lot of unanswered questions since River didn’t want to dig too deep, and one of them concerned another parent, namely Shay’s biological father, and whether or not he w
as around to give Shay support. Because the man who’d died in the fire had been multiracial, as were the younger children, so we assumed the mother had been married before.

  I leaned back against the wall, resting my arms along the edge. “Before we can make him realize he probably has nothing to feel guilty about, we have to get him out here where he can’t escape. Where he has to face what we’re telling him.”

  And we had the tools and knowledge to do it.

  River nodded slowly, thinking, and kept his gaze glued to the water as he walked closer to me.

  He’d made his decision. He was just rummaging through his brain for any alternatives before he gave me his answer.

  “All right…” He came to a stand right before me and lifted his gaze to my chest. “He’s a technical fighter like you.”

  Unlike River. If he wanted to defeat someone, he needed to observe his target for a while.

  He read people. I dealt with them.

  “This isn’t a case, Riv,” I murmured. Because I could see his dissatisfaction about the whole thing. When we turned forty last year, we’d retired from the private sector as we’d promised each other. Now this, our community, this kink haven, the house, was our home and source of income. We’d made it out alive, we were pretty set financially and didn’t have to touch our savings, and he was worried we were sliding back and tempting fate. “Hey. Look at me.”

  He glanced up, expression open and hesitant, something he never showed anyone else.

  “This isn’t a case,” I repeated. “We’re helping a member of our community.”

  “With some controversial methods that we haven’t used since we were in the field.”

  I smiled a little. “Controversial methods are what we do best.”

  His mouth twitched, and I grinned before he narrowed his eyes at me.

  “Don’t pretend to be pissy.” I chuckled and leaned forward, resting our foreheads together. “You on board?”

  He sighed. “You know I am.”

  There we go.

  Two

  Shay Acton

  She would’ve turned ten today…

  This day was going to suck.

  I scrubbed my hands over my face. Aunt Mel was preparing breakfast downstairs, judging by the sound of cupboards opening and closing. The TV was on in the room next to mine, which meant my brothers were awake.

  Should I remind them? Or leave them be and think it was an ordinary Friday in the last couple weeks of their summer break.

  At the sound of a knock on the door, I forced myself to sit up. “Yeah?”

  TJ opened the door and poked his head in. “You’re awake.” He flashed a dopey grin. “We’re going out soon, right?”

  “Yeah, of course.” I cleared my throat from sleep and planted my feet on the floor. “I’ll meet you downstairs for breakfast.”

  “Okay, cool.” He closed the door again.

  I released a breath. He probably didn’t remember it was Myah’s birthday. When I was thirteen, I definitely didn’t pay attention to family members’ birthdays. Levi could be the exception. He was only eleven, but he’d remembered the date last year.

  After pulling on a pair of jeans and a tee, I made sure I had all my belongings in my overnight bag. Then I left the guest room and ducked into the bathroom to take a leak and make sure I looked human.

  TJ got to pick our last activity a week ago, so it was Levi’s turn today. We’d probably go to a museum. He was the family’s own little genius, and his most recent obsession revolved around mapping out our family tree. It combined his loves for history, religion, and analyzing data.

  Whenever I came over here to Aunt Mel’s, Levi had something new to share, be it about his paternal grandmother who’d come here from a Japan in shambles, his great-great-grandfather who’d fled slavery in the South, or his grandfather’s mother who had escaped Poland during the war. My mother’s second husband, Terrell, came from a long line of people who knew what running for your life meant. It was why they’d dedicated their lives to serving their communities and accepting as many as possible.

  Terrell’s family had taken in my mom and me with open arms. I’d been a cocky five-year-old with anger issues. Dad—Terrell—had taught me how to channel it, how to express it, and eventually, how to get rid of it through martial arts.

  Now the family was near extinction because I hadn’t been fast enough or screamed loudly enough or…whatever.

  I splashed some cold water on my face, then gripped the edge of the sink and stared at my reflection, barely recognizing the man I’d become. Hardened, apathetic, devoid of warmth.

  “My sweet boy. Did you know your eyes were made of fairy tales?”

  I closed my eyes, seeing my mom before me. Her matching teal eyes and dirty-blond hair.

  What the fuck was even teal? I wouldn’t have known the word existed if my mother hadn’t used it every time she’d put me to bed when I was little. I’d been her happy accident when she was too young, her sweet boy with the fairy-tale eyes, her biggest reason to fight and make something of herself.

  I released a breath and reached for a towel to dry my face. It was Friday, my day with my brothers. We’d go to some museum, we’d eat junk food, and we’d have a good time.

  A glance at my phone told me it was almost nine o’clock. Opening the door, I was met by the smell of bacon. Nine o’clock. So, nine hours. I could put a smile on my face for nine hours. Tonight I’d return to my search. Some chick I’d been talking to online said the party tonight would be packed with Sadists.

  She was also convinced that the best ones there would be the Tenley twins, but I wasn’t so sure. They ran the community in which they’d made it abundantly clear they wanted to talk you half to death before you even laid eyes on a whip.

  * * *

  After spending most of the day in and around Georgetown, TJ, Levi, and I trailed south toward the closest Metro station, where we jumped on the Silver Line. Two trains had recently left, going in the same direction, so we ended up in a car that was practically empty. For now anyway.

  While TJ threw himself down onto a row of seats and dug out his phone, probably to text friends, Levi and I sat down across the aisle.

  He opened his bag from one of the museum gift shops we’d visited today and pulled out the book I’d bought him.

  “Don’t forget to have fun this weekend, buddy.” I draped an arm along the back of the seats and scratched his head.

  “Reading is fun.” He smirked and touched the cover reverently.

  I chuckled.

  “Can we go out to Tysons Corner next weekend?” TJ asked. “I need new clothes before school starts.”

  I’d noticed his jeans had been a little short the other day. “Sounds like a plan,” I replied with a nod. “You need some school supplies too. First thing Friday morning. We don’t wanna be there when people get off work.”

  It felt good to finally have a buffer so I could buy them clothes and whatever else they needed. Once everything from our folks had been liquidated—life insurance, home insurance, property sold in its ruined state, mortgage paid off—there was enough to pay for my brothers’ tuitions throughout high school and maybe, with a bit of luck, their first semester in college.

  Our parents had busted their asses to put me through private school and a good college; the least I could do was make sure TJ and Levi received the same. Well, I had one year left if I wanted to get my master’s.

  At the rate I was raking it in at the fights, I wouldn’t have to put any of that on hold for too much longer. I had few other expenses. I lived rent-free with Weasel, because he was mildly obsessed with me—and he made money off me. Though, to be fair, I would’ve cut way worse deals at the fights without him.

  Either way…a year or two, and then my brothers’ college funds would be taken care of too, and I could return to get my master’s degree.

  Additionally, it felt good not to burden Aunt Mel with any further expenses. She hadn’t hesitated to take us
in, but I was old enough to know she’d made a lot of sacrifices. Our mother’s sister had chosen a life in academia; she’d never settled down and had kids of her own. It went without saying I had a responsibility to make it as easy as I could for her.

  “TJ.” I jerked my chin as the train stopped and a herd of people stepped on.

  He scurried across the aisle and sat down on the other side of Levi.

  Before long, Eastern Market was the next stop, and we were itching to get away from this moving sauna. We squeezed our way to the doors and were the first off as soon as they opened.

  TJ darted for the escalators, and I ushered Levi the same direction. He was already stuck in his book.

  I didn’t plan on lingering at Aunt Mel’s. I’d already dealt with her usual “Hey, you should live here, you know” this morning. As always, I declined. I was just a call away for anything my brothers needed, and I was around more often when they were in school, but I was a grown man, and TJ and Levi were well-behaved boys. I was more useful working out and preparing for the next fight that would bring in money.

  As we exited the Metro station, I pulled out another lollipop and stuck it in my mouth. In my attempt to quit smoking, I’d cut myself off from doing it near my brothers—and Aunt Mel, for that matter, ’cause she was merciless in her rants whenever she smelled smoke on my clothes. So I was buying lollipops in fucking bulk to keep my trap occupied.

  Wasn’t like I had any cock to suck either.

  Instead, I had my pockets full of blue raspberry lollipops.

  “You need a haircut, buddy.” I brushed my hand over Levi’s curly hair.

  He nodded. “Aunt Mel’s taking me before school starts. I want it to look like TJ’s.”

  Certainly easier to take care of; TJ kept his hair cropped short, but personally, I thought they were cute as fuck when they let it grow out a little.

  Everything TJ did these days reminded me of the fact that he was growing up. He’d hit a growth spurt and was nearing my height, he was constantly on his phone talking to friends, he’d already gone on a date…