“What’s the matt—”
“Shhh.” Mason frowned, his head cocked to the side as if he heard something, but Jesse could only hear his own desperate breaths from what they’d been doing. “My power is off.”
“What?” Jesse exhaled. He glanced around him, assuming it was darker than usual, but not really sure.
Mason spun around, securing Jesse behind him, and yanked something from behind his back in a blur. Jesse heard the hammer of a gun cock a split second before Mason’s deep voice filled the blackness surrounding them. “Who the fuck is in my house?”
“Fast… but not fast enough. Stand down,” said a familiar voice that rumbled through Jesse’s chest. He clutched onto Mason’s arm, unable to keep the panic from his voice especially with Mason pointing a gun.
“That’s him. It’s God. He’s here for me.”
Mason
“Tech, you can turn his lights back on now,” God murmured, and one by one, Mason’s lights came on. First, the one over his stove, then his back porch, and last was the low-watt bulbs suspended over his breakfast bar.
Mason ground his teeth as he gradually lowered his weapon. “Were you guys just gonna keep listening?”
“Yes,” several deep, male voices rang out in unison.
Day was in his kitchen, leaning against his refrigerator drinking one of his beers. God sat at his dining table with his big boots propped on the corner as if he’d been there a while. God’s four enforcers, Ruxs, Green, Tech, and Steele, were in head-to-toe black, all deathly silent and standing in his living room. Motherfucker. Mason had been so wrapped up in Jesse’s sweetness that he hadn’t noticed six highly trained killers in his home.
God brought his legs down and glared directly into Mason’s eyes.
Day grinned around his beer. “No, Jesse, he’s not here for you. We’re here for hot lips.”
A few of the guys covered their grins behind their fists, but Mason ignored them.
God stood and shoved his chair under the table so hard he might have put a dent in it. “Here I was thinking my team had lost the one good piece of leverage I have on my stubborn, tight-lipped informant, only to find out you’ve swooped in like a thief in the night and stolen him.”
Jesse was still squeezing his waist, his body trembling close to his, but his voice was strong when he said, “That’s not true. Ellis didn’t know anything until just recently and—”
“It’s okay, Jesse,” Mason stopped him. He didn’t need him standing up to God, especially not to protect him.
“Awww, Ellis,” Day said with a sappy smile on his face, his bright hazel eyes flashing back and forth between him and Jesse. “Ain’t he precious. Look how he’s defending you.”
Mason knew Day was fucking with him, but he wasn’t taking the bait. Frankly, he was still pissed they were standing in his goddamn home, uninvited. He straightened his spine and secured his weapon back inside his waistband. God was standing directly in front of him, sandwiching Mason between his broad chest and Jesse’s rapidly beating one. “He was running for his life when I found him,” Mason hissed. “I suggest you treat your leverage better if he’s so important.”
Day whistled the old-west standoff theme, and God’s green eyes flashed with anger before it softened a fraction to something else—maybe respect—before it was quickly replaced with rage.
Mason was willing to match it, because he was getting furious himself. “I heard you guys have a big problem with waiting to be invited in.”
God’s thick, dark blond hair fell around them like a blackout curtain. God was using his massive six-foot-four frame as an intimidation tactic, but he was about to learn that shit was useless on him. There was nothing else that could fit between him and God except maybe more hostility.
“That’s because no one fuckin’ invites trouble into their home, Mason… so, I just walk in.”
Mason spoke through clenched teeth. “I was bringing him down to see you tomorrow, God. He’s ready to talk.”
“Good thing it’s already tomorrow,” God sneered, practically standing on top of him. And as if that was his universal phrase for the meeting was over, God’s men left his house, but his husband lingered by his side.
“You got one hour.” Day smirked. “That should be enough time to jerk off to what just happened here and get Jesse down to the precinct.”
Mason flipped Day off, not giving a damn he was making a rude gesture to a senior officer. “I appreciate that, asshole.” Day did that annoying chuckle on his way out the door, and Mason wished he’d had something to throw at the back of his head.
God continued to glower down at Mason, and he held his eye contact, though it was one of the hardest challenges he’d faced in a while. “I’m gonna need you to be fuckin’ sharper than that,” God said gravely. “If I’d been a real threat in your house, you’d be dead and buried in your backyard by now.”
God turned and walked out of his home into the dark, cold night, his black trench and golden hair flowing behind him like something straight out of his fantasies. Mason leaned back against Jesse’s chest and sighed. “Why did I ever have a crush on that guy?”
Jesse slumped and released an anxious chuckle. “I agree. He’s so… he’s so mean.”
Mason turned and rubbed Jesse’s arms. For a moment he seemed to be genuinely afraid that God might do something to them. “Naw, babe. He’s not mean. He’s just really… serious.”
“Okay. If you say so.”
“Come on. We better get down to the station.” Mason grabbed his keys from where they’d fallen on the floor during their sexy scuffle.
“He talks to you like you’re on his team… or a part of it, y’know,” Jesse said as if he was just thinking out loud, but little did he know, that’s exactly how God and Day were beginning to treat him.
Mason’s mind was spinning as he helped Jesse back into his coat when Free’s voice blared through his ear device, “I think God is at your house, Mase!”
Mason hollered in surprise, scaring the shit out Jesse, who stared at him as if he was insane.
“What?” Jesse said, wild-eyed, searching around them.
Mason growled. “Ugh. Nothing.”
“I am serious!” Free said. “I went to dinner, came back, and everyone was in your area. God and Day too.”
“It’s okay, Free. Thanks, man.” Mason explained to Jesse what the hell that was all about on their way to the precinct.
Mason
“You sure you don’t want me to go inside with you, Jess? Or at least I can call for the witness advocate to sit in on your talk with your friend,” Mason asked again. They’d been going back and forth with each other for the last fifteen minutes while sitting in the south parking lot of the precinct, closest to God’s department.
Jesse smiled at him, and Mason exhaled gently. “Why are you smiling, Jess? This is for real.”
“I’m smiling because you called me Jess again.” His tone was so smooth and sexy, Mason had to fight to keep his thoughts from straying to what they didn’t get to finish earlier.