Mad man necessary evils.., p.8
Mad Man (Necessary Evils Book 5), page 8
“This. This feels so good,” Felix panted against his lips, rubbing his cock against Avi’s.
“I can make it better,” Avi said, flipping them so Felix was on his back.
He reached for the lube he’d stashed in the top drawer in anticipation things would go better than they had last night. He yanked Felix’s shorts off and his out of the way, taking both their cocks in hand, and slicking them up. Then he tossed the bottle away.
“Wrap your legs around me,” he said, voice raw.
Felix’s tongue darted out to lick over his bottom lip, his eyes all pupil. He gave a jerky nod, wrapping those long legs around him, locking his ankles. Avi bracketed his arms on either side of Felix’s head, rolling his hips, groaning as pleasure shocked through him.
Avi had fucked a lot of guys in a lot of different ways, but he’d never actually just rubbed off on somebody, had never stopped to enjoy the eye-rolling bliss that shot along his spine at the feel of Felix’s dick sliding against his.
“Faster,” Felix whispered, his hips rising up to meet each of Avi’s downward thrusts.
Avi buried his face against Felix’s neck, wrapping his arms around him, holding him close. Felix would have let him fuck him, Avi knew that. He could have been working his way in and out of Felix’s tight hole, but, for some reason, this felt more intimate. This was something Avi had never done. Maybe Felix never had either. And he deserved to have all the firsts, and fuck if Avi didn’t want them all to be with him. No, he needed them to be.
Felix was panting in his ear, his nails pressing into Avi’s skin, his hands slipping as their bodies grew sweaty. “Fuck. More,” he ordered. “I’m so close, I just need more.”
Avi did as he was told, working himself against Felix harder, faster, until sparks were flashing behind his lids and Felix’s nails weren’t just digging but dragging along his skin, the pain only driving him closer to another orgasm. He needed Felix to come first.
Almost like he sensed Avi’s need, Felix gasped into his ear, and then there was a sudden wetness between them. “Oh, thank fuck,” Avi muttered, sliding his cock into the mess Felix had made before adding his own contribution with a low moan.
He collapsed on top of Felix, once more burying his face in his neck. There was something weirdly comforting about the way Felix continued to cling to him, so comforting Avi couldn’t stop himself from saying, “You and I…we’re inevitable. Whether you like it or not.”
Felix didn’t answer him, but his arms tightened around him and his breath hitched just the slightest bit.
“We should probably clean up before Aiden gets home,” Felix said, giving Avi a gentle shove.
“Yeah, okay. Wanna take a shower with me?”
“We won’t both fit in that shower,” Felix reminded him. “You can go first.”
Even though Avi was loath to leave him, he forced himself to stand, grimacing at the drying cum clinging to the hair on his belly.
Felix rolled away from him, staring at the wall, and once more, Avi felt untethered. But he didn’t push it. He didn’t have to. He was patient. He would be patient and wait for Felix to realize he wasn’t Avi’s distraction, he was his everything.
Felix was up before Avi cracked his eyes open. Somehow, Avi didn’t think that was an accident. He rose, throwing on jeans and a t-shirt before heading out in search of coffee and Felix. He found both at the small table. Aiden gave him a weird look when he sat down, but Avi didn’t have time to worry about why he was being weird.
“Felix says you ran into a brick wall with the lawyer,” Aiden said when Avi finished doctoring up his coffee to make it tolerable.
Avi nodded, snagging an uneaten piece of bacon from Felix’s plate instead of making a plate for himself. “Yeah, he definitely knows the other two men, and I’m pretty sure he knows who did this to him. But he’s not talking. Whoever it is has him spooked enough that he’d rather go to prison than tell the truth.”
“Maybe they owe money to the wrong people? Drug dealers would explain the drugged theory, no?”
“Except, when they ran a tox screen, nothing showed up,” Aiden said.
Felix took a drink of the black sludge in his cup before saying, “Well, yeah, but most date rape drugs metabolize within twenty-four hours.”
“But date rape drugs knock somebody out. They don’t turn you into a zombie that convinces you to kill and then hand over your wallet,” Avi countered.
Aiden sighed, snagging his cell phone and pushing two buttons, then shoving it into the center of the table. After two rings, Calliope chirped, “Well, my, my, my, Aiden Mulvaney, as I live and breathe. I thought you died.”
“My last name isn’t Mulvaney anymore, Calliope,” Aiden said, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.
“For now,” Calliope muttered under her breath. “What can I help you with?”
“I have Avi and Felix here with me,” Aiden said. “We need your help.”
“Avi and…Felix?” Calliope said, her voice dripping with unasked questions.
“Hey, Calliope,” Avi said.
“Hi, handsome. How’s your Rumspringa? Enjoying your week of freedom?” she asked.
Avi frowned. “My what?”
“Never mind. What can I do for you? I’m up to my perfect ass in alligators, but I always have time for you.”
Calliope was so weird. What did she look like? After seeing her son, Dimitri, he firmly believed she was smoking hot in an older MILFy kind of way. Not that he swung that way, but if he did…
Aiden gave Calliope an abridged version of their case, then asked, “Can you do some research and find out if there’s any kind of drug that causes amnesia, like roofies, but somehow allows people to keep walking and talking but unable to refuse orders?”
“I don’t have to research that,” Calliope said. “There’s only one drug that can do that.”
When Calliope didn’t answer right away, Avi said, “If you’re pausing for dramatic effect, I promise you, our nipples are all rock hard with anticipation.”
Aiden snorted. “My nipples are not, in fact, hard.”
Felix seemed to be fighting laughter as he said, “My nipples plead the fifth.”
“The drug is called Devil’s Breath,” Calliope continued. “It’s well known in places like Columbia where they use it to roll tourists, drugging them to either assault them or take them on what they call the ‘million dollar ride.’”
“The million dollar ride?” Felix repeated, leaning forward.
“Yeah, Devil’s Breath is also known as the zombie drug. In the right doses, it turns victims into walking, talking zombies unable to refuse any request and leaving them with no memory at all of anything they did. In Columbia, they will drug a victim, put them in a car, and take them from ATM to ATM, forcing them to withdraw money and give it to them.”
“Yeah, that sounds like what happened to our victims,” Aiden said.
Avi nodded. “It works with the drug dealer theory.”
“Is Devil’s Breath hard to get in the U.S.?” Felix asked.
“Nope, you can buy it over the counter,” Calliope answered.
This time, it was the three of them who fell silent before Avi finally said, “What?”
“Devil’s Breath is the active ingredient in an anti-motion sickness drug called scopolamine.”
Felix tilted his head, his hair falling into his eyes. “Wait. Like those little patches you put behind your ear so you don’t puke on boats?”
Avi watched Felix push the hair from his face only to look and see Aiden smirking at him. Avi wanted to flick him off. Why was Aiden so smug? Avi might be falling for his brother-in-law, but Aiden had the hots for their dad, so he didn’t have any right to be smug. Still, Avi kept his mouth shut.
Calliope’s chair squeaked like she was spinning in circles. “Yep. Obviously, what they sell in the store isn’t anywhere near a large enough dose to fuck somebody up, but an experienced chemist would know how to make it.”
“You’d think more people would be using this drug if it was that readily available, even if it required skill. I mean, people with a sixth grade education make meth in their basements,” Avi said.
“They also get blown up in their basements,” Felix reminded him.
“Felix is right. The thing about this drug is it’s a very delicate balance. Too much and you run the risk of knocking them out entirely or, worst case scenario, killing them,” Calliope explained.
“Okay, so we have three men, all drugged, all forced to commit murder, probably all forced to empty their bank accounts and send the money to some kind of off-shore account. All these men claim to not know each other, which we think is bullshit, or the victims, which may or may not be true. What the fuck are we looking at here?” Aiden asked. “Drug dealers aren’t going to waste their time with this elaborate bullshit. They’re going to put a bullet in your head and get on with their day.”
“Well, if it takes a chemist to create the drug, then we know our suspect is either well educated or well connected. We know they have beef with all three men. We have to assume they had a score to settle with the murder victims as well,” Felix reasoned.
“You should call Lucas. This is sort of what he does?” Calliope suggested. “But whoever this person is, they’ve probably been planning this for a while. This level of detail screams settling an old score, not some petty grievance. But that’s just my two cents.”
“I know it’s probably useless, Calliope, but can you maybe start trying to find any kind of connection between the victims? All of the victims?” Avi asked. “If you’re right, this could have happened years ago.”
“Okay, I’ll pull backgrounds on everybody and see what I come up with,” Calliope said. “Until then…” There was a beep, and then she was gone.
“So, where does that leave us?” Felix asked.
“Thomas called. He gave me the thumbs up on Lester Collins. You guys wanna help me torture and kill a child murderer tonight? I found the schematics for this medieval torture device a few weeks ago—the kind they used to use during the Spanish inquisition—and I finished it just in time. It was surprisingly easy to make.”
Avi was practically bouncing in his seat as his gaze jerked to Felix. “Can we?” he asked, hoping his look conveyed the level of excitement coursing through him.
“What kind of torture device?” Felix asked, suspicious. “No butt stuff. The clean-up is too messy.”
A smirk spread across Aiden’s face. “No butt stuff, I promise. But I don’t want to ruin the surprise.”
“What do we do until then?” Avi asked.
Aiden got to his feet, raising his arms overhead with a groan as he stretched. “I don’t care what you two do. I’m going fishing. You want to come?”
Avi looked at Felix, who pulled a face and shook his head. “I’d rather watch you do butt stuff to a child predator.”
“I’m going to say that’s a no from us,” Avi said.
“You can go if you want to,” Felix offered. “I have some sketches to work on, anyway.”
“What sketches? For school?” Avi asked.
Aiden had already checked out, grabbing his tackle box from beside the front door and leaving without another word, as if he knew there was no way Avi would leave Felix alone.
Felix frowned at him. “No. For the gala?”
“The gala?” Avi echoed.
“Yeah,” Felix said, like Avi had lost his mind. “The gala that takes place the night we get back? I brought my tablet so I could finish the last outfit and get them to the team by tomorrow night.”
Oh, shit. That’s right. The gala. The gala. The Fashion Institute’s Gala. The one Avi had agreed to sponsor this year for an insane amount of money. Money he’d only spent because he’d known how badly Felix wanted to break into high fashion, and this allowed him to show his designs to the masses.
Felix was under the impression that all the interns were getting a chance to showcase their work but it wasn’t true. This was just for Felix. Everything was always for Felix. He just didn’t know it.
“Will you show me what you’ve been working on?” Avi asked.
Felix scoffed. “Since when do you care about couture?”
“You’re my intern. Shouldn’t I at least get to see what you’ve decided to do for a gala I’m sponsoring?” Avi teased.
“I guess,” Felix said with a heavy sigh.
“Your enthusiasm is overwhelming,” Avi said with a laugh. “Is one of the sketches the outfit you’re planning on wearing?”
Felix shook his head. “No, I made that a few weeks ago. Right after you said Gemini was sponsoring.”
“Can I see it?” Avi asked.
Felix rolled his eyes. “You can see it when I wear it.”
Avi leaned in, grabbing Felix’s hand. “Does that mean you’ll be my date?”
“It means we’ll both be at the same party,” Felix said, but he made no move to tug his hand away. Little victories.
“Okay, fine,” Avi lamented with a sigh. “But I’m not giving up. You will be my date. I’m really good at wearing people down.”
“Can we just focus on solving this mystery and torturing a child killer and save the ‘us’ stuff for when we’re back home?” Felix asked, trying to tug his hand free of Avi’s.
“As long as you’re willing to admit there is an us,” Avi countered.
Felix looked startled, like he couldn’t believe he’d walked into Avi’s trap. “What? Yeah, fine. Whatever. Can we go do some work now?”
“Sure,” Avi said, a grin spreading across his face. Felix glowered at him, then turned on his heel to head back to the bedroom. Avi followed behind him, whistling a happy tune.
Checkmate, kitten.
Felix locked himself in the bathroom and wrenched the knob for the shower. Avi was going to think Felix had a weird commitment to cleanliness, but he just needed a minute to breathe. Avi was freaking him out. Why was he pushing this so hard? Why was he suddenly so determined that Felix meant something to him?
Avi made it sound so easy, like they could just be a couple—just existing in the world together—but there was nothing easy about their situation. People hooked up, people dated, but then they broke up and went their separate ways. But there was no separate way with Avi.
If Avi ripped his heart out, he would have to look at him at every family function, at every joint task force meeting. He’d have to trust him to watch his back, even after he’d stabbed him in the heart. Avi would be fine. He was a psychopath. Cold-blooded, lacking empathy, lacking an ability to love. He could just detach whenever he wanted, but Felix couldn’t, and that thought made him feel like he had ice water in his veins.
He pulled out his phone, opening up the group chat.
Felix: Help!
Almost immediately, dots began to flash. Levi answered first.
Levi: Like literally or metaphorically?
Felix snorted. He supposed he could have worded that better.
Felix: I’m not being murdered, if that’s what you’re asking. I’m just going a little crazy here.
Lake: The woods will do that to you.
Nico: It’s true. But not usually after two days. There’s clearly cell phone service, so what’s the problem? Your porn not loading fast enough?
Felix: What? No. It’s Avi.
Porn. Felix couldn’t remember the last time he’d watched porn. He didn’t need porn to get off; thoughts of Avi got him there every time. Sometimes, almost too efficiently.
Arsen: Is he pretending you and he did not do it? The sex?
Felix blew a breath out through his nose. He almost wished Avi would pretend they hadn’t done the sex.
Felix: No, the opposite. Now, all of a sudden, he’s pretending we’re a couple.
Several dots appeared as multiple people began to type at once. The effect was dizzying.
Seven: Why is that a problem? I thought you were all heart-eyes over him?
Cree: Wait, slow down. You had sex with Avi?!? You lost your virginity? Why didn’t anybody tell me?
Felix: You were at work.
Cree: You had sex with Avi while I was at work? What?
Lake: No, on his birthday. He tricked Avi into punching his v card. You were working and then dealing with your own personal shit. We forgot to tell you.
Arsen: Isn’t this what you wanted? You’ve wanted him in your pants since you met, no?
Felix: I have not!
Levi: That’s a fucking lie, bro.
Felix: Ugh, fine. But I wanted him in an untouchable, fantasize about him in the shower way. I wasn’t stupid enough to think I had a shot.
Cree: You tattooed the Mulvaney family crest onto your body. That sounds like more than just a crush.
Felix: I did that for my brother.
Lake: It’s your only tattoo, dude. You could have gotten any one of Jericho’s tattoos, but you chose the Mulvaney snake.
Arsen: They’re right. You are definitely onto him.
Nico: Into him.
Arsen: Into him, yes.
Frustration welled within Felix. Why were his friends all taking Avi’s side? Maybe he had been thinking of Avi when he got the tattoo, but he was never going to admit that out loud. Not ever. Not even to himself. It was too humiliating. Like puppy love, tattooing-a-guy’s-name-on-your-neck levels of embarrassment.
When his phone pinged again, he glanced down to see another message.
Nico: Why are you upset he wants to be your boyfriend? Isn’t that what you wanted?
