Double Down (Bad Boy Security Book 3) Read online

  “It’s solid,” Raiden said. “A lot of his bullshit lacks context, and it’s not exactly proof. But it would definitely do some damage.”

  “That’s some of the best intel I’ve ever heard,” Cash said. “You did great, Lawrence.”

  “Better than we did,” Raiden laughed.

  Lawrence’s smile widened. “Thanks!”

  “As far as damaging our insecure executive with it?” Cash asked. “I’m not so sure. These men purchase a media blackout that’s surprisingly powerful. And it would be easy to claim it was a deep fake or a soundalike.”

  “Couldn’t we find a way to prove it was real?” Lawrence asked.

  “They’d just tangle you up in the courts and probably toss you to a judge who was already in their pocket. Even if you got a good result, it would take years and half of your fortune, and it’s more likely you’d end up with a hush order than with vindication.”

  Raiden rubbed his thumb across his stubble. “That doesn’t mean it’s useless, though. Reveal it to the right people, at the right time? It’s a weapon.”

  Lawrence sighed. He’d hoped that the recording would be enough, like they could just email it to the New York Times and watch as Rios was led away in handcuffs the next day. He should have known better, though. He’d grown up in his father’s world, and none of what he heard in that office should have been a surprise.

  “Where does that leave us?” Lawrence asked.

  “It leaves me hungry,” Raiden answered. “What about you two? Ready for some dinner?”

  “The fridge is stocked,” Cash said as he shuffled through a few papers on the desk. “You’re welcome to help yourself. I want to look through these emails again, now that I have more intel from the recording.”

  Raiden rubbed the back of Cash’s head with a soft shove. “You’ll eat,” he said, then pointed at Lawrence, sending a shiver down his spine. “And you.”

  Lawrence definitely didn’t mind. “Do you want any help?”

  “Let me take a look around,” Raiden said. “I’ll let you know if I need some onions chopped.”

  A noisy rip grabbed Lawrence’s attention, and when he turned, Cash was tearing a big piece of paper from a roll, which he spread out on the table. He fumbled around for a sharpie, then started scrawling notes across it like a puzzle.

  “What’s this?” Lawrence asked.

  “Just me, feeling so manic about this new information I no longer have the will to hide my obsessive brain from you.” He sketched out a rough map of the world, then put X’s in a few different places. “It helps me to think, you know?”

  “Totally,” Lawrence said. He leaned over the table, struck by how determined Cash suddenly looked. There was a fire in his pupils, and his forehead was creased in concentration as he glanced between the laptop and the paper, drawing a timeline across the top.

  It was hot. Like, incredibly so. Lawrence just hoped they could all agree to take a break from work long enough to celebrate what he’d accomplished that afternoon.

  He turned toward the kitchen, where Raiden was chopping potatoes on a big wooden board. He was hunched over a little with the short counters, but by the way the knife flew, Lawrence could tell he knew what he was doing. For a minute, he let himself be content with just that, sitting there while they each did their thing. When he’d had his fill of the warm, satisfied feeling it sparked in his gut, he finally rose to his feet and started tidying up the mess that accumulated on all the tables.

  “Oh, you don’t have to do that,” Cash said, his eyes still on the laptop. “Just relax!”

  Lawrence laughed. “I know I don’t have to. But if we’re turning this into our base, I want it tidy. And frankly, you’re both a bit of a mess.”

  Raiden and Cash looked at each other, then laughed. “Fine,” Cash said. “And thank you.”

  Lawrence curtsied, then started gathering a few scattered mugs and dishes from around the spacious studio.

  “You figuring anything out?” Raiden asked from the kitchen area.

  “Kind of,” Cash said. “I’m just trying to decide how trustworthy the source is. At one point, it seemed like Rios suggested your father was planning a war, Lawrence.”

  “I heard that. It must have been an expression,” Lawrence said. “He might pollute the earth and cheat his workers, but I can’t imagine he would be able to pull off something like that.”

  Raiden shot an audible puff of breath out of his nose. “Don’t think there haven’t been wars planned by businessmen before.”

  “That’s true,” Cash said. “But your father doesn’t manage any weapons manufacturers or things of that nature.”

  Lawrence felt his stomach twist. “Rios did mention private military contractors, though. Could my father really start a war?” He pushed his hands through his hair, frustration knocking aside the warm feeling the guys gave him. “I hate that I even have to think something like that.” His thoughts flashed back to Raiden’s dad and Cash’s parents and the role his father played in their deaths. “I’m sorry for all the shitty things he’s done. I really am.”

  Raiden put his knife down, and Cash gently stood from his seat. “You don’t have to apologize for him anymore,” Raiden said.

  “You’ve done nothing wrong,” Cash added. “You’ve only ever tried to make things better.”

  Lawrence wiped at his eyes. “Sorry. You’re the ones who lost your parents. I shouldn’t be upset about this in front of you.”

  Raiden and Cash both crossed closer to him. “It’s reasonable to be upset, sweetheart,” Cash said. “What you heard was upsetting.”

  “And you don’t have to keep quiet just because my dad died,” Raiden added, his comforting hand on Lawrence’s shoulder. “I like talking about him.”

  “Same with my parents,” Cash added. “I’ve never really had someone to share the stories with.”

  “Thanks.” Lawrence laughed softly. “Do you think I’ve earned a drink now?”

  Raiden and Cash both chuckled. “How about we all have a drink,” Cash asked, “but we just leave it at one?” He winked at Lawrence, then playfully poked his side. “I like you clearheaded.”

  “Me, too,” Raiden whispered in his ear.

  Lawrence laughed as the three of them came together in a kind of embrace, the hands trailing each other’s sides. “Okay,” he said. “One drink sounds nice. And maybe you both could tell me a story about your family, too?”

  Raiden and Cash exchanged a surprised look, but each nodded. “Sounds nice,” Raiden said. “I’ll grab drinks!”

  “I know the story,” Cash said quickly. He leaned back on the table, then smiled. “When I was just a little kid, I really wanted to take dance lessons. The problem was, we were out in the country, and there weren’t any studios in an hour’s drive of us. Now, just about any other parents in that town, they would have laughed at a boy who wanted to study ballet. But my mom and dad only ever cared about making me happy. So when I was in the second grade, we suddenly had two new dance teachers in our town.”

  Lawrence laughed, a grin filling his face. “Your family opened a dance studio?”

  Cash laughed, then waved his hand in the air. “That might be a generous way to describe it. But my ma taught herself ballet, and my dad taught himself jazz dance, and they offered lessons twice a week to me and my best friends, three sisters from down the road.”

  “Hold up,” Raiden said, returning to pass a beer to Cash and a glass of wine to Lawrence. “You going to show us a little ballet, twinkle toes?”

  Cash stared Raiden straight in the eye, then stuck his leg straight to the side, grabbed his heel with one hand, and lifted his pointed toe shockingly high, his trousers tugged tight. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten,” he teased.

  Raiden and Lawrence both erupted in laughter. “I doubt he’s going to forget that,” Lawrence said.

  “Or you,” Raiden said, tapping him playfully on the ass as he headed back to the kitchen. “They sound like they were gr
eat parents, Cash.”

  “They were,” Cash said. “Horrible dancers, but great parents. We always figured out a way together.” He laughed, then shook his head softly. “How about you, Raiden?”

  “My story isn’t quite as fun,” he said, then paused in front of the fridge. “Do you all want chicken or black beans for dinner?”

  “Both,” Cash and Lawrence said at once.

  Raiden chuckled. “Got it. Like I was saying, my dad was great, but my mom always had a problem with me being gay, right from when I was a little kid.”

  “That sucks,” Lawrence said.

  “It did,” Raiden said. “But my dad always found a way to let me know I was okay. So the thing was, when I was a kid, I had this big crush on Batman and Robin.”

  “The comic book characters?”

  “No, from that movie.”

  “George Clooney and Chris O’Donnell?” Lawrence laughed, remembering the flick. “That’s the worst Batman!”

  “I was a kid!” Raiden objected, laughing along as he held his hands in the air. “My mom figured out there was something funny going on with my obsession, so she took away the movie poster I had hanging up in my room, this one I found at a garage sale down the road.”

  “Dad to the rescue?” Cash asked.

  “For about three years, they went back and forth. My mom would take something away, and my dad would find a way to get it back to me. Eventually, he built me a private fort in the woods where I could keep all my Batman and Robin crap.”

  “How could your mom object to that?” Lawrence asked. “Aren’t superheroes and forts the most totally normal straight boy things you could be into?”

  Raiden flipped on the stove, which whooshed with fire. “Trust me. My shrine to hot Batman and Robin? There was nothing straight about that.”

  They all laughed together, and Lawrence relaxed as he turned his attention back to tidying the space. “Thanks for the stories,” he said.

  “Anytime,” Raiden answered, then gestured with a nod of his head. “Now come on. I wasn’t kidding about chopping the onions.”

  Raiden

  Raiden leaned back in the creaking chair, a deep and pleasant sense of satisfaction washing over him as he watched Cash and Lawrence clean their plates. The stew he’d thrown together had been rich and spicy, and he chuckled at how much of it Lawrence managed to pack down. He’d even gotten to let it simmer a long while for the flavors to strengthen, since Cash and Lawrence had lost themselves quickly in their work.

  He didn’t normally put that much effort into cooking. By himself, he was a takeout and microwave guy, although he didn’t mind putting a little more effort in when his friends were eating with him. But poking around Cash’s kitchen, he’d gotten inspired, and their sloppy grins were ample reward.

  He adjusted his pants. Maybe he was even more pleased than he realized.

  His phone started buzzing, and when he glanced down, he saw that Declan was calling. Cursing under his breath, Raiden remembered that he was supposed to file the weekly report a few days earlier. It had slipped his mind with everything else going on, although he wasn’t sure how to explain any of that to Declan.

  “Be right back,” he mumbled, and the chair scraped along the wood floor as he pushed back. “I need to take this.” He hurried toward the far corner of the old studio, then turned his back to the guys. “Declan, what’s up?”

  “You got a report for me, Raiden?” he asked, cutting straight to business.

  “Nice to hear from you, too, Declan.”

  “You want small talk? Do your job, Raiden.” He sighed. “How are you?” he added with a grumble.

  Raiden cast his eyes to Lawrence and Cash, who were cleaning up the dishes together. “Pretty damn good,” he said. “Sorry about the report. It slipped my mind. I promise I’ll have it in tomorrow.”

  “You know there’s more on my mind than that, especially now that you’re missing deadlines. Have you and Lawrence been heading back to his apartment together after the club nights?”

  Raiden snorted as Lawrence poked Cash in the side, and the two of them laughed together. “I can answer honestly, Declan. Lawrence and I have not been heading to his apartment after club nights.”

  “Don’t sass me,” he barked “You’re worse than Gray. You know what I’m trying to ask. How much time have you spent alone with Lawrence, Raiden?”

  Raiden thought about it. “I haven’t spent any time alone with Lawrence,” he answered carefully.

  There was a pause, during which Declan apparently decided to believe him. “And there haven’t been any new incidents while you’re out at the dance clubs?”

  “Nope,” Raiden answered again. “The clubs have been quiet.”

  “All right then,” Declan answered with a satisfied grunt. “I’m just making sure, Raiden.”

  “I understand, Declan. Thanks for checking in.”

  “And don’t forget to send that report tomorrow.”

  “Right, thanks.”

  Raiden hung up, then let out a long, slow breath. He had a feeling that whole conversation might bite him in the ass later, but in that moment, he didn’t really care. After another head-spinning day, he really only had one thing in mind as he crossed back over to the kitchen, where the guys were loading the last dishes into the soapy sink.

  Raiden placed his hand on Lawrence’s cheek, pulling him closer until their eyes caught. His skin was soft and kissed by something gold, and his lips glistened as Raiden stared at him. “Sweetheart,” he whispered. The name was so fitting. No wonder he and Cash had both called him that.

  “And you,” he said with a grin as he turned to Cash. “Come here.”

  The three of them crashed together in a kiss. They became their own miniature world of lips and hands and soft moans. Lawrence nibbled on Raiden’s lip, and Cash’s hand squeezed up his hard shaft. Raiden tasted them both at the same time, and when Cash’s lips found his neck, he grabbed their asses hard and pulled them close.

  “Fuck,” Raiden groaned. “You two are damn sexy.”

  “And you,” Lawrence whispered, kissing at his neck.

  After all the cheap hookups and one-night stands a man could ever want, Raiden thought of himself as sexually experienced. He did whatever the fuck he wanted to do in life, and that extended to the bedroom. But years of fucking and sucking and doing every damn thing his cock desired had somehow failed to prepare him for Lawrence and Cash and all that he now wanted to do with the two of them.

  It was a damn long list, and Raiden fully intended to stick around as long as he could to make it happen. Things were just so good with those two, like he’d finally found someone who could handle him, just the way he was.

  Or maybe it was just that Raiden had enough inside of him to give to two people. It was hard to say, except that holding Lawrence and Cash felt right in a way he’d never known before.

  For the rest of the night, the three of them barely left each other’s arms. Raiden had some epic marathons of fucking before, and he always felt kind of proud of his stamina, but Lawrence and Cash pushed him to a whole new level. Once they got started in the kitchen, it was like they couldn’t stop. Cash and Lawrence ended up on their knees, slathering Raiden’s balls with their tongues in a way that made his cock turn to solid, twitching steel, his veins pulsing and thick. And after he shot sticky jets over their faces, they both demanded more.

  So Raiden made them each come. He threw Cash over the back of the old couch and spread his legs, and Lawrence gripped the base of Raiden’s fat cock while he drove it into Cash’s hole, harder and harder and harder. Sweat poured down Raiden’s chest, and the pressure from Lawrence’s fist thudded with pleasure against Raiden’s balls. Once Cash finally shot his load, the two of them turned their attention to Lawrence and licked and nibbled and stroked him to completion, his body pressed between them.

  Cash had made a few gestures, like he might return to his desk, but then Lawrence had thrown himself over some papers, lifted
his legs, and stroked his middle finger in a slow circle around his hole. Raiden laughed, so glad he’d found men who were as crass as he was at times, and he jerked himself slowly while he watched Cash rim Lawrence right there.

  Finally, at around three in the morning, the men found themselves upstairs in Cash’s bed. There was another half-eaten bowl of stew on the small wooden table, fetched earlier to replenish their energy, and a couple glasses of water, not quite empty. Cash and Raiden had just come together, foreheads pressed, jerking each other off with Lawrence lying between them, and they all gathered their breath in the quiet night.

  Raiden looked around at the big empty space. Cash had explained to him how he scammed the studio, and Raiden was impressed. The guy seemed to have some serious hacker skills, that was obvious. But much more than that, he appreciated Cash’s style. He kept his eye on the real bad guys and didn’t seem to take advantage of innocent people. It was rare to find men who saw things the way Raiden saw them, but when he recognized it, he always felt a tight connection.

  Slapping his hand to his forehead, Raiden grunted to himself.

  Fuck, he actually liked Cash.

  “Can I take a pic?” Lawrence asked, pulling out his phone and then shooting a mischievous smile at the guys.

  Raiden pulled his hand from his forehead down to his mouth. Okay, his feelings for the guys might even be stronger than that, if he were being honest with himself.

  In fact, he might be in pretty far over his head, he realized.

  “Sure, take a pic,” Cash said. He perked up on an elbow, then ran his hand through his hair. “Just don’t go posting it on your Insta or making it your Grindr profile.”

  Raiden tightened his brow. “Do you have Grindr?”

  Lawrence rolled his eyes. “Do you think I don’t have Grindr?”

  He shook his head quickly, not wanting to think about it. It was too good a night to worry about shit like that. Instead, he smiled, then pulled himself behind Cash to pose for a picture. “Sure, go ahead, sweetheart.”

  “It would make a storm if I did post this on my Insta,” Lawrence laughed. He found a position with the two guys, then started flashing selfies. “I’d get a million likes.” He pursed his lips, then flipped his head to a different angle. “But this is just for my personal memories. You should see my friends, though! They’re social media famous.” He suddenly dropped the phone, then sat straight up.