"I'll get you another," Zed murmured, kissing my temple as he scooped up my mug.
"Me too?" Seph asked, fluttering her lashes.
Zed just snorted and laughed and shook his head, but he did grab an extra mug, nonetheless. "You know you snore, Seph?"
Her mouth dropped open in outrage. "I do not!"
"Do too," he teased. "We could hear you all the way from my room."
I snorted a laugh, and she shot a glare at me.
"Oh really, Zed-man? I wouldn't have thought you could hear anything over the sound of my sister moaning. You know I had to turn my music up just so I could shower in peace this morning?" She cocked her head at us, all fucking attitude, but I was way too full of endorphins to give a fuck.
So instead I just grinned. "Oh, we know."
Lucas came into the kitchen then, looking half asleep with his uniform barely even on his body. His belt was still unbuckled and his shirt hanging open with the Shadow Prep tie slung around his neck. Scrubbing a hand over his sleepy face, he made a beeline straight to me and kissed me breathless before even saying good morning.
"Ahem," Seph fake coughed loudly. "You have an audience, Lucas."
He took his time pulling away from my lips, kissing me softly a couple more times before smirking at Seph. "Audience never bothered me before. Isn't that right, Zeddy Bear?"
Seph screwed up her face in confusion for a second, then gasped dramatically. "Oh my god! Ugh. You guys... Zed, I'm gonna take my coffee to go, thanks. Lucas, hurry up, or we'll be late for school."
Zed obediently poured her a travel mug of coffee, which she took with a quick thanks and sashayed out of the kitchen again, presumably heading to the garage to wait for Lucas to drive them both to school.
Lucas yawned as he buttoned his shirt slowly, then tucked it into his pants before doing up his belt. "Guys, I'm gonna fall asleep on my desk in the middle of algebra, and it'll be all your fault."
Zed gave a wicked laugh. "We'll leave you to sleep next time."
Lucas jerked like he'd been slapped. "Hell no. Best fucking reason to skip sleep ever." Then he swooped back in to kiss me again until I was all but trying to climb him.
"Get to school, Gumdrop," Zed ordered in a rough voice. "We'll sort out the security breach while you're babysitting Persephone."
Lucas gave a pained groan but kissed me again quickly before turning to leave. Zed barked his name again, making him pause in the doorway. Then he rushed back to grab the travel mug of coffee Zed held out for him.
"Thanks, big bro; you're the best." Lucas grinned and took off toward the garage.
Alone again, I turned to face Zed with a wide smile on my face. "You're such a soft touch, Zayden."
Zed snorted a laugh, coming back over to the island where I sat. "He earned it." He slipped a hand into the back of my hair, tilting my head back to kiss me softly. "I love how much you smile these days. It wasn't so long ago I was wondering if I'd ever see this smile again." He dragged his thumb over my lips, and I nipped it playfully with my teeth.
"I could say the same about you," I replied, gazing up at him with way too much dopamine drugging my stupid, girly brain.
He didn't seem to mind, though. He just kissed me again, slowly and carefully, as his strong fingers rubbed the base of my skull where I often carried stress headaches. "Dare," he murmured on a sigh as he ended our kiss, "you know how much I fucking love you? You're my whole damn world."
My heart fluttered, and I couldn't stop the stupid smile curving my lips again. Zed looked like he had something else he wanted to say. Something important. But heavy footsteps in the foyer had him stepping away with a hard exhale.
"Morning, Red," Cass rumbled, slouching into the room still decked out in Zed's bike leathers. He placed a hand on my lower back, leaning down to kiss me, then gave Zed one of those dude nods. "What happened last night? Got your message earlier this morning, Zed."
I shot Zed a grateful smile because I'd been too busy riding dick all damn night to message Cass myself and fill him in with Chase's visit.
"Dare had a late-night visit from our neighbor," Zed explained, keeping it brief.
Cass stiffened, and fury and violence rolled off him in palpable waves. "Fucking what?"
Zed clicked his tongue, heading for the fridge. "You hungry, Grumpy Cat? I've probably got some canned food in here somewhere."
The sound that rumbled from Cass was anything but amusement, and I laid a hand on his arm to try and calm the situation down. Of course, I forgot about the bandage on my hand, and Cass's eyes only widened further when he saw it.
"I'm fine," I assured him in a low, soothing voice. "I promise. He was just being a fucking creep. But it does raise the serious question of how to secure this place against any further intrusions. It was just fucking lucky you weren't here."
"Me?" Cass barked. "Who fucking cares if he saw me? It's you who—"
"I care," I snapped, cutting off his alpha-male, big-dick rant. "So settle the fuck down and help us work out what to do next."
Cass glared at me hard, like he could hardly believe what he was hearing. Then after a moment, his eyes softened and his shoulders sagged. "Fine. What are we working with?" His question was aimed at Zed, but his arm tightened around my waist, pulling me against his side as he stood beside my stool like some kind of personal bodyguard. A conjoined bodyguard.
Zed grinned as he laid out a baking tray with Portobello mushrooms and dressed each one with a dab of butter and a squeeze of crushed garlic. I despised mushrooms like they were made of pure shit, but Cass ate those big, flat bastards like they were made of Wagyu steak.
"I've placed a work request with my security firm this morning," Zed told us as he seasoned the mushrooms then slid them into the preheated oven to roast. "And I'm confident with their help we can get this place impenetrable."
"How can we be sure Chase doesn't have a mole in that company?" Cass rumbled. "He could have preempted this and is waiting for us to hand him all the access codes on a platter."
Zed tossed his tea towel aside and braced his hands on the counter opposite us. "We don't. Not really. But none of us have the knowledge or skill to install high-tech security devices throughout this entire house within the next eight hours, so where does that leave us?"
I drummed my fingertips on the side of my fresh coffee, thinking. "No, we don't. But... Dallas probably has the technical knowledge to do it."
Zed nodded. "I thought of him, but he doesn't have the equipment or the manpower. We're talking about installing motion detector alarms on every window, door, fucking air vent, of this entire house. It's not a one-man job."
"I could get him the equipment," Cass said thoughtfully, "if you have reliable manpower."
Zed gave him an exasperated stare. "How, Cass? You're dead, remember? You can't just call up your buddy for a favor."
Cass lowered one brow. "I have my ways. Do you have the manpower to make it work or not?"
Zed shifted his gaze to me, silently asking if we did. I pondered on it a moment, running through all the options in my brain and discarding each and every one. Agent Hanson's dying advice that someone in my trusted level of Timberwolves was a traitor had been lingering in the back of my mind and was now vetoing all the usual wolves I'd call for a job like this.